Every time I sit down and write these, I reminisce about how fast time passes. I can remember sitting in my living room by myself, with nothing but my thoughts and the silence of the air to keep me company. Now here I am, writing this recap on the day before NYE, in the same position. Thankfully, I successfully made another revolution around the sun, and 2024 was very good to me. I think that since last year was my first writing one of these, I'll start this one off by going back to last year's.
Write more blogs! I definitely lacked in this one. I'll make it up this year, I swear! I'll also make it up by making this yearly recap much more detailed and a worthwhile read!
Be more kind. I want to say I improved on this, but if you say "I want to say", how much did you actually improve? Something as broad as "being more kind" is also very vague and hard to register. I meant for general kindness and being less rude, but interpretations such as giving more gifts to others could fall under that umbrella. Definitely a tough subject in regards to how gray it is, but I'm going to say I win this one.
Learn R. I absolutely without a doubt hit this one on the head. I dove headfirst into the world of R and got absolutely sucked into the rabbit hole. I would say that I used R more than I did all other programming languages combined. I fell in love with the plethora of visualization options and everything else that R has to offer, but there's still a ton left to learn. I would consider myself "proficient", maybe a little more.
Get in the air! Failed! I just simply don't have enough time in my life right now to get back into flight school. Finishing up my senior year at university, playing a college sport, more and more things caught up to me and this got put on the backburner.
Land an internship. Also failed, but I got the experience of a lifetime down in Florida over the summer. We can talk about that later.
2024
The year of 2024 was very good to me. Lots of new friends, a new relationship, and everything important in-between. As much as appreciate the person reading this, I can't delve too deep into personal details, but I'll hit some key highlights:
Florida! For those who don't know, baseball has been an integral part of my life, both on and off the field. As a college athlete, the game has shaped me in countless ways - teaching me resilience, adaptability, teamwork, and the value of hard work. It's more than just a sport; it's been my full-time job, my passion, and a foundation for my personal growth.
This past summer, I took a leap of faith and ventured down to Florida to play in a collegiate summer league. The main college baseball season runs from February to May, but summer leagues extend from June through August, offering players like me the chance to keep working on our skills in different environments. For nearly two months, I immersed myself in the world of baseball, playing under the heat of the Florida sun.
It was an unforgettable experience. Living with my grandparents, I was in paradise: playing baseball during the day, making new friends, and spending my free time at the beach. The routine was definitely a lot, but man was it a blast. Every day was a test, and not only on the diamond - being away from teammates and familiar faces pushed me to step out of my comfort zone and forge new friendships.
Through this experience, I realized how much I love the game, not just for the competition but for the doors it opens and the connections it can spark. Sports have this amazing ability to connect people from all over, and I've never felt that more than I did during the summer.
Analytics. On the different front, 2024 was a big year for my career development. As a student-athlete at Mount St. Joseph U niversity, I saw an opportunity to merge my love for baseball with my growing interest in data and analytics. Our program was rooted in traditional methods - pitchers threw toward home plate, hitters tried to make contact, and that was about it. There was no system for tracking performance, no data to guide improvement, and no deeper understanding of the game beyond the surface.
With the guidance of our pitching coach, I set out to change that. I spearheaded the creation of an analytics team for our baseball program, laying the foundation for a data-driven approach that's already starting to pay dividends. From charting bullpens to analyzing hitter metrics, we began introducing modern strategies to improve player development and in-game decision-making.
While not everyone immediately saw the value of this shift, I've learned that progress takes time - and patience. The moments that matter most to me are when players come up to me and say, "Hey, that really helped" or "You know, what you said makes sense." Knowing that my work can make even a small difference in someone's performance or understanding of the game makes all the effort worthwhile.
This project also deepened my technical skills. I spent countless hours working with tools like R (that I taught myself!) to create visualizations and analyze data. I'm proud of how far I've come, but I also know there's so much more to learn. This journey has solidified my desire to pursue a career in sports analytics, combining my passion for baseball with my love for problem-solving and data.
2025
As for 2025, there is so much ahead. As I graduate in May, a new life awaits me. The working class, moving out of my college house (and the college mindset mentally), and so, so many more opportunities. I've begun to get my feet wet here and there with applying for jobs and interviewing for positions, but I have a feeling that all of that will figure itself out (funny story, it did less than a week after I wrote that). It might not be perfect, but it will work. Until then, I've set apart another set of goals that I'd like to accomplish during this year -
Win our Conference. When I walked into Mount St. Joseph, our baseball program was, honestly, a mess. We had gone 12-28 the year before I was there, and then went 15-24 my freshman year. From that point on, me and some of my closer teammates from our class sought to build up a program, which we have. We took a 15-24, 9th place team my freshman year, and built them up to a 21-21, 4th place team my junior year. Now, all that's left is putting all the pieces together to become that 1st place team. From our 4th place team in 2024, we are returning a majority of our starters, Only losing 2 of our starting pitchers and 2 of our position players. With high standards, a devoted work-ethic, and a little luck, our goal is now set on winning our conference.
Start Flight School. One of my goals from last year was to finally get in the air after beginning flight lessons, but I never got around to getting it finished. Unfortunately, I think that I'll have to restart my courses due to the amount of time off, but once again, I want to get this started again. I believe that once my cleats are hung up, I'll have enough time to get around to this, and I want to make this a priority in my life.
2024 was seriously one of the best years of my life. I continue to say it, but it's true. From all the new and exciting adventures and friends I took on to the new developments within my career, 2024 was extremely memorable, and shows promise for the following years. Here's to 2025!