It is work work that one delights in that is the surest guarantor of happiness. But even here it is a work that has to be earned by labor in one's earlier years. One should labor so hard in youth that everything one does subsequently is easy by comparison.
People like us are afraid to leave ball. What else is there to do? When baseball has been your whole life you can't think about a future without it so you hang on as long as you can.
