Are you still keeping your New Year’s resolutions or have you given up already? Haha, I hope everyone had a really wonderful and memorable New Year’s celebration. My wife and I celebrated with friends and family. We ate, played ping-pong, played Wii, and of course watched the ball drop.
I only have one New Year’s resolution this year and as a matter of fact, mine is the same every year. All I can really hope and strive for is to deepen and grow in my relationship with God. To me, that is the most important relationship in my life and should always be the priority no matter what other things are going on around me. It’s certainly not always that simple. It’s easy to be distracted by other things, especially when my life has been as blessed as it is. But I try to avoid only approaching God during the hard times, but every day--whether my life is great or I am facing some difficulties.
Just a few days after New Year’s, I journeyed across the United States by car from Florida to Arizona by myself. My wife stayed in Florida a little longer to spend more time with her family and friends. I have always loved to drive and it was especially nice because I stopped and spent some time with friends along the way.
I’m back in Arizona now and ready to continue my rehab and prepare for spring training. Everything is progressing well and I am even allowed to start participating in baseball activities. Not too long now and the season will be upon us. I will be ready.
Thanks, as always for your time in reading this, as well as your thoughts and prayers.
God Bless,
Matt
Christmas
12/21/2009 4:00 PM - Matt
Merry Christmas Everyone!
I hope and pray this Christmas season is a great one for all of you. I was able to come home for about2 1/2 weeks and so far it has been a really nice time catching up with friends and family here in Florida. As always, it’s been very busy and stressful at times, but mostly really great.
Besides everything that goes along with the holidays, I graduated this past weekend from the University of Florida. My family and I went up to Gainesville, so I could walk and take the pictures and all that stuff. I have to admit that at first, I was doing it just for my mom because I knew it was important to her. But now I am glad I wore the cap and gown, walked across that stage, and took all of those pictures because had I not done that, I’m not sure that the significance of getting my degree would have been so obvious without participating in those traditional festivities. The highlight of the day was having dinner with my family and friends. I had invited my academic advisor, strength and conditioning coach, athletic trainer, and sports information director to a nice dinner. These are the people who were incremental in helping me get to where I am today. During my four years at UF, they are the ones who pushed me, supported me, challenged me and believe in me. It meant a lot to have them all there on the day I graduated from UF.
I encourage everyone to really enjoy these few days leading up to Christmas and the few days afterwards. Soak it in and don’t get lost in the hustle and bustle, stress, and traffic. Enjoy your families and friends and remember that it is more blessed to give than to receive.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all of you.
Thanksgiving
12/04/2009 2:18 PM - Matt
Thanksgiving Week
12/4/09
Hey Everyone!
I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving with your families- crushing food and watching football. Thanksgiving is probably my favorite holiday because it isn’t about anything but spending time with family and friends and eating good food. It’s not about gifts and parties and it’s just not so busy like Christmas is.
My wife and I, being in Arizona, didn’t want to make the long trip back to Florida for just a few short days. So although we did miss our families, we drove to California and spent Thanksgiving with some close friends of ours. The food was good, the weather was beautiful and it was totally relaxing.
Earlier that week I went to Vail, CO for a check-up. Both my doctors were extremely happy with my progress and think I should be ready for spring training. That was definitely good news, but the best news came when they told me I didn’t need to use my crutches anymore! Haha. I am so relieved to be rid of those things. I am still in a boot, but I even get to take that off for a few hours a day. I will start baseball activities in January and am really excited to get going again.
Well I hope you all have a great weekend. Make sure you cheer on my Florida Gators in the SEC Championship!
God Bless,
Matt
No Such Thing as an Off-Season
11/20/2009 1:15 PM - Matt
November 19, 2009
Hi Everyone,
I know it’s been a long time since I last blogged and updated my website. The last five months have been pretty busy for me.
The last time I blogged, I had just been sent back down to triple A. There were definitely some moments of frustration during that time, but all I could do was keep working hard, getting better, and hopefully prove that I deserved to be in the big leagues. My opportunity finally came again in mid-August and I can’t tell you what a difference it made the second time around. I just felt way more comfortable overall in every aspect of the game: at the plate and in the field. I really enjoyed my time up there and know I learned a lot more about the game and myself as a player.
Since June I had been playing with a lot of hip pain and it really escalated towards the end of the season. I knew I was going to have surgery during the offseason. What I didn’t know was that during the last game of the season, I would tear a ligament in my foot ALSO requiring surgery. On October 13, I underwent surgery on both my hip and foot in the same day. The surgery took place in Vail, CO where two of the best surgeons reside. Needless to say, I didn’t get to enjoy Vail very much. After the surgeries, I endured the greatest pain I had ever been in. I do not wish surgery on anyone after going through what I went through. I began rehab the very next morning and haven’t stopped since.
The team allowed me to go home for two weeks following the surgery before returning to Goodyear, AZ to rehab. Those two weeks at home were really nice and I am going to miss being there this offseason. But I want to do whatever it takes to be 100% by the beginning of spring training. I am working hard and praying for a full and speedy recovery.
I have to admit, I am itching to play again. Watching the play-offs wasn’t even very much fun for me because I wanted to be the one playing so badly. As soon as the season ended, I missed playing the game. I guess that’s a good thing because I will be raring to go by spring training and hopefully earn my spot on the big league roster.
Well, I think that covers the last few months. Thanks again for taking this interest in my life. As always, e-mail me any questions or prayer requests. Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
God Bless,
Matt
The Call Up!
06/19/2009 10:09 AM - Matt
Trip up to the Big Leagues
Hello everyone. I hope all is well. I am terribly sorry for not doing a blog sooner but the last month happened so fast.
The call up:
Our Columbus Clippers team was in Durham North Carolina playing the Bulls. I had been having a couple of bad games so that week so I was pretty sure that they wouldn’t call me up right now because I was not doing so well. The game before I got called up our Manager asked me to play first base which I thought was a little out of the ordinary considering I had been playing left or right field for the majority of the season. I had to borrow one of my teammates glove because I just left my first base glove stashed away back in Columbus at our locker room. I played the game with no errors thankfully. Ha-ha.
After the game I did my normal routine which was of course to eat. Then I got into the cold tub to ice down to make sure I take care of my body because 140 some odd games can take a toll on you. Apparently one of our coaches told me to wait around the locker room for awhile but I must not have heard him and I walked back to our hotel. Well by the time I got back I had about three messages asking where I was and that the manager need to see me. I went back to the stadium and walked in to the manager’s office and he told me the news that I had been waiting my whole life to hear.
“You are getting called up to the Major Leagues. Get your stuff packed because you are leaving in the morning.”
I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock because I had been praying and working so hard for this my whole life. The first thing I did when I walked out of there was just to thank God for how amazing he is because we don’t deserve anything. God blesses us with things and he surely blessed me. I couldn’t praise him enough.
After I settled down I called my wife, who was in Florida and supposed to be going to a wedding on Saturday, but I told her she had to change her plans because I was going up to the Big Leagues and wanted her there with me. I called my mom and dad and the first thing I did was thank them for always being there for me. They sacrificed so much in their lives to help me succeed and be the best that I could be. My parents have always been there for me and I cannot thank them enough for that. My wife helped get everyone tickets to come up and see my first start in the big leagues.
I met the team in Detroit which is very ironic because that was the first place that I had ever watched a Major League Baseball game. My aunt and uncle who lived in Michigan when I was growing up would take me to the old Tigers stadium, and it was pretty cool to go back there.
I got my first start against Justin Verlander and went 0-4. It happens. Then we went to Toronto where I got my first big league hit which was a home run. Again I just thought how awesome God is that He would allow for something like that to happen to me. I continued to play here and there for about the next three weeks and did not do as well as I hoped for, but I realized that God had a plan for my life. I learned a lot up there that is going to help me become a much better baseball player in the end.
I can’t remember what game it was when they sent me down but they basically called me into the office and said that I was going to go back down to the minors so you can get some more at bats as well as begin to play some more games at first base. It was painful to know that I had to go back down but I have no control over that and I was thankful for the opportunity that I was given with the Indians. All I can continue to do is trust in Jesus my Lord and Savior who guides my way. Like the Bible says, “Consider it all joy when hardships come your way because through that it will test your perseverance.”
Again everyone I can’t thank you enough for checking out the website. I know that there are other things in your life that you can be doing. I will continue to pray for all of the readers and remember that Jesus died on the cross for us so that we can be free from our sins.
Matt LaPorta
The Season Has Started
04/24/2009 2:09 PM - Matt
Blog entry April 24, 2009
Hey everyone thank you again for checking out my site here is a little inside to what have been happening since the season started.
We get to play games that really matter. The start of the season has been good thus far. We moved to Columbus, but weren’t there long as we started our season on a nine game road trip to Louisville, Indianapolis, and Toledo. I flew my mom out for the road trip because she has a lot of family in the Louisville and Indianapolis area, so the whole trip was like a big family reunion. At the Indianapolis games I had to leave 24 tickets, so all of my family could come to the game. Haha. I wasn’t kidding when I said family reunion. As good as it was to see the family, I was ready to get back “home” to Columbus, settle in to our condo, and play some home games at our new stadium.
The new stadium, Huntington Park, is pretty incredible. The people that help make this stadium really put a lot of thought, time, sweat and energy. The clubhouse has TV’s, a pool table, foosball, card tables and even shuffleboard games. The lockers are great because there is a lot of room to put all my stuff into. It is right in the middle of downtown Columbus near so many things to do. Columbus is a great town even if it is home to the Ohio State Buckeyes. Ha-ha.
Luckily, I wasn’t too distracted by everything going on and I managed to start off the year hitting well because I am trying to maintain a great approach. Overall, there are always areas of my game that I would like to improve on, but I am happy with my strong start to the season and hope to show more power as the year progresses.
Thank you everyone for reading the blog.
Please if you have anything you would like me to pray for please let me know via email matt@mattlaporta.com
Finally, feel free to email with any questions you would like me to answer in my next blog post.
Welcome to my Official Blog
04/01/2009 3:54 PM - Matt
Looking back over the last few months it is hard to believe that spring training actually made my life simpler. Let me just give you a brief rundown of my offseason: Played winter ball in Venezuela, got married to my beautiful wife, honeymooned in Jamaica, did the Christmas and New Year’s stuff, went to the NCAA Football National Championship game in Miami, flew to Cleveland for Indians winter development program, and then drove over thirty hours out to Phoenix to start spring training. So the fact that we have been in one city for the past two months is quite an accomplishment in itself.
I have really been enjoying myself out here in Arizona. The Indians organization, players, managers, and coaches have been better than I could have hoped for. The atmosphere has just been great between the players and me. I had the opportunity to be a part of Big League Spring Training for almost six weeks and it was a great experience just to play at that level with so many great players was such an honor.
Overall, I have had a pretty good spring. I started out well, slumped a bit, but battled back and finished strong. In the end, I have had a blessed spring and despite the beautiful weather here in Arizona, like most of the guys, I am definitely ready to move on to Ohio and start the real season.
Make sure to check back often for more blog posts and you can also follow me on Twitter.
