It had all the makings of the perfect Hollywood script. It was a story that could write itself.
Professional athlete suffers debilitating injury. After two years of rehabilitation returns to the sport and plays for Team Canada in the World Baseball Classic.
Athlete signs minor league deal with Chicago Cubs baseball and receives invitation to spring training. Makes 25-man roster. Fulfills comeback dream. Lives happily ever after.
Writers you can take your fingers off the keyboard now. The story is finished.
It officially ended Saturday, somewhere between the spring training invitation and living happily ever after. The comeback tale ended quietly. Abruptly.
For Corey Koskie, the former Cubs Comeback Kid, the decision was easy. All it took was diving after a ground ball to third, a play he probably had made a 1,000 times from his Little League days in Manitoba, Canada, to his last attempt in Thursday’s spring training game against Seattle.
But it was enough for someone who had spent the last two years trying to overcome the effects of post-concussion syndrome. And the “funky feeling” he encountered after the play was enough of a reminder to never want to go through it again.
“Yeah, I coud help this team,” Koskie said. “But really, for your life, is this something you should be doing? This whole game, athletes get treated like you’re a commodity … and sometimes you get caught up in the system. … To be able to sit down with these guys and be treated like a human being… Yeah, baseball is great, but you have the next two-thirds of your life to look at here.”
In this sports age of endless comebacks, retirements and un-retirements, Koskie separated himself from the rest of the pack. His decision distinguished the positive difference between ego and self-interest.
And while his retirement cut the perfect Hollywood script short of its intended conclusion, there’s still a part left that will never make the sports pages. May he and his family live the rest of their lives happily ever after.
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