MARION (WSIL) -- Kyle Davis was an all-star for the Southern Illinois Miners in 2019. Davis hit .280in 2019 and led the team in doubles (25), homeruns (15), RBI (62) and runs scored (56) and he was entering his third season with the team.
There is no time table as to when baseball will return but Davis is staying ready.
"Live reps are the best reps," Davis said. "I have access to the machine at the facility I work out at so that's nice. So we'll set that up to see some velocity to get your timing down but nothing copares to a real arm, it's so hard to get your timing down on a machine."
While Davis is waiting for that call to come play, he's currently working for lululemon. They give him the flexibility so when baseball resumes, Kyle can make his way to the Miners.
So what does he miss the most?
"Getting in the box and beating that guy on the mound."
Davis also misses the interaction with the fans, especially kids. He realizes there might be an eight year old kid watching him for the first time.
"I was once that kid, so it's cool to put myself back in the shoes of the guy, for example we play the Freedom all the time and I played at the Freedom's field when I was 13, I went to Freedom games, I thought it was the coolest thing ever to stand over the dugout and look in and just see guys that looked so much bigger to me and I got to get a bat one game and I held on to it forever."
And he has advices to those young players with big league dreams.
"Never take it for granted, you never know when your last game is going to be. Getting to this age a lot of my freinds are getting released, I've been through getting released, it's not fun, it hurts because you know how much time and effort you put into it. If I could tell that eight year old or twelve year old kid, I would tell him take every chance you can, don't make excuses you don't want to do something that could potentially help you reach your goal, and take every day like your last because any day could be and that day you hang up your cleats up it's one of the saddest days of your life."
