During the 2017 MLB season, John Jaso, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ first baseman realized he wanted to retire.
Whenever the team played by a body of water, he often found himself heading down to the marina. Jaso was determined to buy a sailboat and he’d been searching tirelessly. Before a game against the Orioles, he drove to Annapolis, Maryland, where he finally saw the boat he wanted to buy: a 2014 Jeanneau 44 DS. Jaso had it surveyed, bought it and headed back to the stadium for the 7:10 p.m. game.
At the end of the season when his two-year, $8 million deal was over he told reporters he would not sign a new contract and would instead retire. “I have a sailboat,” he said, “so I just want to sail away.”
Jaso found the MLB life to be unfulfilling, especially when compared to a life spent sailing around the world. “Sometimes I’ll just be out on the boat bobbing in the water, not sailing or even fishing, and I’ll think to myself: ‘There’s nowhere else on the planet I’d rather be than right here,” he said.
Jaso felt that he was stuck in a world of consumerism and overconsumption. “Why do we always have to have more, more, more?” he said.
“When you’re sailing, you’re going back to something primitive,” he said. “You’re removing yourself from the material world — this concrete, electronic world. And you’re returning to this sense of wonder. It’s the same sense you get when you’re holding a newborn baby, looking into their eyes, and feeling the world disappear around you.
“Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we all come from the same place. When you’re out there on the water, you remember.”
For the full story, go to the New York Times.
