How sweet it is

While most of his counterparts throughout the minor leagues are focusing purely on baseball and that coveted call up to the big show, you'll probably find Parker Dalton occasionally sitting back and just taking it all in.

Dalton, an infielder with the Great Lakes Loons — the Los Angeles Dodgers class A affiliate, describes carrying out his duties as a ballplayer as, "icing on the cake."

Don’t get the wrong impression. Dalton isn’t a lazy athlete along for the ride.

One of the first things the 25-year-old Houston native mentioned to me when I was talking to  him about the Loons for my summer series about minor league teams around the state was about how hard he and his teammates work to impress fans and scouts alike.

But after a bout with cancer, Dalton knows playing baseball isn’t the number one focus of his life anymore — living it is.

“One of the things I realized was you have no control of your life, your baseball career, anything like that,” Dalton said.

Preparing for his senior year at Texas A&M University, Dalton was diagnosed with malignant melanoma — a serious form of skin cancer. Fortunately, he was able to overcome it through treatment.

While there is no trace of cancer left in his body, it did leave Dalton with a stronger sense and grip of humility, spirituality and awareness.

“They could have found more, and that could have been it,” he said. “It was a lesson early in life that you don’t have much control. Playing baseball now is a gift.”

“When you think about it, when you remember, ‘Hey, you almost never got to do it again’, it really makes you cherish it.”

Dalton’s perspective of simply enjoying the game and realizing how privileged he is to play it was refreshing to hear.

It was one of the many examples I came across during my baseball excursion that truly encompasses the passion surrounding the sport, its players and its fans — regardless of the level.

And, for a few days this summer, I was glad to be apart of it, too.