George Sherrill once worked at a baseball facility in Memphis, but didn't like it because he had to watch somebody else play the game he loves. He hated the weeks he spent working for UPS in Nashville in the winter of 1999-2000, with the conveyor belt dropping boxes against his shins as he struggled to keep up. "It was the Christmas rush," he recalled the other day. "I kept stacking them in the truck the wrong way."
So he quit, because even though Sherrill wasn't drafted out of Austin Peay and his first job in pro ball was in an independent league, his focus coming out of college was always on playing baseball, on preparing to play baseball. Through all of the twists and turns of his strange journey to the big leagues, Sherrill never thought about quitting, never thought about concentrating on a conventional job, like filling the back of a truck for UPS. He simply didn't envision his life without baseball, of a time being away from the sport, or a team. "I love the game so much," Sherrill said.
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Buster Olney
