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<\/p>\nPHILADELPHIA \u2014 To play in Major League Baseball is already an elite club. If you took every big leaguer ever and put them in any MLB stadium \u2014 sorry, Sacramento! \u2014 they wouldn\u2019t even fill it to capacity. Being an All-Star is extra elite, the kind of stuff millions of kids dream about, including the big leaguers who this week played in the Midsummer Classic at Citizens Bank Park.<\/p>\n
But what if their career paths had gone differently?<\/p>\n
The Athletic asked more than a dozen All-Stars what they thought they would be doing if they weren\u2019t playing professional baseball. The answers offered a look into the players\u2019 personalities, interests and backstories. (And, hey, with a work stoppage likely this offseason, it\u2019s never a bad idea to think about those potential resumes.)<\/p>\n
Bryan Baker, Tampa Bay Rays: \u201cI was studying to go to pharmacy school and be a pharmacist; that was my plan if this didn\u2019t work out. The path is so different for me now \u2014 at this point, it might be psychology-based if I were to stop playing. Like, maybe a shrink. I was always super interested in school; my mom is a teacher, so I always had someone looking over my shoulder making sure I got good grades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Louis Varland, Toronto Blue Jays: \u201cA competitive fisherman, (Major League Fishing) Bass Pros Tour, you know? A tournament fisher. I\u2019m not that good, but I do like to fish. I don\u2019t have time to actually do the tournaments (right now), but maybe one day.\u201d<\/p>\n
What tool would the All-Star Game players take from each other?<\/p>\n
Jayne Orenstein, Rebecca Tauber and more<\/p>\n
Logan Webb, San Francisco Giants: \u201cI always wanted to be a firefighter. I was going to Cal Poly \u2014 actually, one of my classes was going to be fire science. I had some close friends growing up that their dads were firefighters. I thought it was really cool. I wanted to do something that was meaningful, and I thought something like that would be.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jacob Latz, Texas Rangers: \u201cI\u2019d like to start a restaurant or some type of health-related company, because I had health issues \u2014 gut issues \u2014 growing up, so I\u2019m very into food and nutrition. I\u2019d like to start a coffee and brunch spot and grow it and go from there. And if that business didn\u2019t work out, maybe go back to school and do nutrition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chase Burns, Cincinnati Reds: \u201cEither a video game streamer or in the Navy. I like playing video games a lot and try to bring some other players on there. My parents were both in the Navy. I was actually born in Naples, (Italy). They met on the ship, so that was always the backup plan.\u201d<\/p>\n
CJ Abrams, Washington Nationals: \u201cA trader, like stocks and stuff. (Would he wear a suit every day?) No, I\u2019d do it at home from my computer. Like a day trader.\u201d<\/p>\n
James Wood, Washington Nationals: \u201cA security guard. Maybe basketball (Wood\u2019s father played professionally overseas), but a security guard would be good. I feel like I could put on like 50 to 60 pounds. And I feel like I\u2019d be pretty qualified.\u201d<\/p>\n
Abrams, upon hearing about his 6-foot-6, 234-pound teammate\u2019s answer: \u201cSecurity guard? That surprises me. I think he can be a security guard just like that, right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster Griffin, Washington Nationals: \u201cI\u2019d like to just be a dad, a stay-at-home dad.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Athletic: \u201cWhat would your wife be doing then?\u201d<\/p>\n
Foster: \u201cShe\u2019d figure it out. (Laughs) Is that a bad answer? My dad was teaching professional in golf; he would give lessons. So I\u2019d somehow like to stay in golf or sports as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n Kyle Schwarber talks with Drake Baldwin before the All-Star Game. (Emilee Chinn \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies: \u201cI would probably be coaching baseball somewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drake Baldwin, Atlanta Braves: \u201cHopefully be playing hockey. (Baldwin was a standout forward growing up.) Those are my two sports. I started college as a construction management major, so those were kind of my loves. If sports didn\u2019t work, I would probably be doing something on the business side (of construction).\u201d<\/p>\n
Byron Buxton, Minnesota Twins: \u201cI would probably be a truck driver. I understand that very well. My dad was a truck driver. My dad did it for 15-20 years, so that\u2019s literally what I thought I was going to do. Stay in a small town, not much to do. Some paper mills. A lot of my friends went back there.<\/p>\n
\u201cOr a physical therapist. I actually paid attention in school, so when we did anatomy, I knew the body a little bit. So that would seem kind of a good fit, physical therapist.\u201d<\/p>\n
Riley O\u2019Brien, St. Louis Cardinals: I was a business major in college. I like the business side of things. I\u2019m not sure (where) that would have led.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Sale, Atlanta Braves: \u201cI was so screwed (if baseball didn\u2019t work out). I put all my eggs in one basket, and I don\u2019t know if this is good advice or bad advice, but I had a coach tell me one time, \u2018If you have a Plan B, you are probably going to do it. So stick to Plan A and go for it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHILADELPHIA \u2014 To play in Major League Baseball is already an elite club. If you took every big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":768363,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65],"tags":[2111,2319,2326,363,480,2329,99,1794,1231,974,2330,364,2331],"class_list":["post-768362","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mlb","tag-atlanta-braves","tag-cincinnati-reds","tag-minnesota-twins","tag-mlb","tag-philadelphia-phillies","tag-san-francisco-giants","tag-sports","tag-sports-business","tag-st-louis-cardinals","tag-tampa-bay-rays","tag-texas-rangers","tag-toronto-blue-jays","tag-washington-nationals"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768362","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=768362"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/768362\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=768362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=768362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=768362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}