Mark Cuban has worked with athletes for decades, and he’s shown that he has a soft spot for the rollercoaster journey that many of them face.
The billionaire owner of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks quote tweeted former MLB first-round pick Travis Snider, who shared the story of the first time he was ever traded.
“Read this if you are into sports,” Cuban said in a tweet. “Being a professional athlete is never easy.”
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Snider, who retired from professional baseball in 2022 but had not played in the major league since 2015, posted his tweet hours ahead of the MLB trade deadline which was on Tuesday, August 1 at 6 p.m. Eastern Time.
Snider was drafted in 2006 by the Toronto Blue Jays and played six years with the organization before being traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2012. He said that he learned he was being traded in the middle of a game in Seattle -- just an hour away from his home of Kirkland, Washington -- in front of friends and family.
“I gave 6 hard fought years to the organization, and at the time it felt like they quit on me,” Snider said.
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Other than the whirlwind of emotions from changing teams and needing to play a game for a new squad the next day, Snider also explained how hard it was to “let go of all the baggage” from his Blue Jays tenure.
“I had never lived up to the first round draft pick and #1 prospect hype,” Snider said. “My identity had been consumed by the ‘hype’. 100s of articles had been written about my potential, and somewhere along the way I started to read them and believe them. And when they started to really question my abilities, I started to question them too.”
Snider concluded his story by pointing at the many players who were traded during the August 1 trade deadline. He also said many high school and college athletes might be feeling it too. He offered his help as he knows many are going through the same rollercoaster of emotions as he once did.
“It’s these experiences that will make you stronger in the end,” Snider said.
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