Kyle Higashioka was very much looking forward to last Thursday at Oriole Park at Camden Yards. He was primed to be Gary Sanchez' backup with Austin Romine moving on to Detroit.
So that Opening Day would've been the first in his career. Instead, he was in Bend, Oregon doing workouts to prepare for whenever that Opening Day comes around -- if ever -- this year.
"Thursday would have been my first major league Opening Day," Higashioka penned in the New York Post. "But, to be honest, I didn't really think about it during the day.
"I think over the years I've gotten pretty good about only worrying about stuff I can control. I know that right now, my goal is to stay ready for when the season does start. As long as I'm prepared for it, then good things can happen."
How has he been preparing? Higashioka has a ton of space at his in-laws' farm in Oregon to work out. He explained how he has a pitching machine that he'll set up in a barn to do catching drills with his wife, Alyse, feeding it with baseballs. He also has foam balls he can hit.
"No, there are no animals in the barn when I'm working on my catching," he wrote. "It does smell like hay in there, but that isn't too bad."
After baseball drills, Higashioka is picking up the guitar more often than he has in a while.
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"Sometimes I play guitar, sometimes I play video games. On the guitar, I think I'm getting sharper, making fewer mistakes. Although my peak guitar ability was a few years ago, when I was living by myself. When you're married, you don't want to play guitar a few hours a day."
And as is the case with many players right now, video game chats have been a great way to stay connected with teammates throughout this hiatus. NBA players are setting up a players-only NBA 2K tournament, for example.
For Higashioka, FIFA is the game of choice with Tommy Kahnle and Adam Ottavino, while Call of Duty is also a favorite.
"I'm in touch with a lot of my teammates, sometimes one-on-one (I talk with Mike Tauchman a lot), sometimes in a group text," he also admitted.
And that's about all Higashioka can do, like the rest of his teammates, to stay ready for the season. There has been no indication as to when the season will begin, with MLB still working on what a season could look like in 2020.
"To the fans, I guess I would just say hang in there," Higashioka said. "Hopefully, at the very least, baseball is going to come back at sometime this year and we can all have that normal, everyday stuff. And we can still have Opening Day."