By Sam Reeves

On June 6, 2016, I had surgery to repair a closed ventricle in my brain.

The four days leading up to my surgery were hell. I felt like my skull was going to explode. I passed out several times, had horrible pain and blurred vision. I could not do anything for myself.

I wanted to sit down and write something about it, but couldn’t figure out what. Then my friend and fellow writer, @BaseballGalAl, suggested I write about things I could have missed if everything went differently. I don’t exactly know what she meant by that, but I took it as, “what could have been different if you died?” Whether or not that was her intention, that is how I am attacking this.

There was a very high chance that I could have died had I not gone to the hospital. Let me rephrase that-there is a very high chance I could have died if I did not go to a different hospital.

The first hospital I went to gave me some Tylenol and then did not come back to check on me again. I eventually just checked myself out of that hospital and suffered through two more days of pain before checking into the much better hospital. In those two days, everything was a blur. There was a point where I woke up on my apartment on the floor, next to my dog, with no memory of how I got there. It was like a fever dream.

https://twitter.com/SamR33v3s/status/1666081725267718154?s=20

The year 2016 had some pretty weird and bad stuff happen during it. Almost every celebrity died, Donald Trump won the presidency, and the Chicago Cubs won the World Series. Those are all pretty bad things, but I guess the Cubs winning stopped the then-Cleveland Indians from winning the World Series. But those things are pretty easy to pick on. Any one of those events could have set off the chain reaction known as the butterfly effect, leading us to the present timeline as we know it.

But what would the world have missed if I had died on June 6, 2016?

If I did not make it through that surgery, or even died beforehand, we would have missed one of the most amazing things to ever happen in Chicago White Sox history. Maybe even all of sports history, if you will:

The all-García outfield. The day was April 14th, 2017. The Sox had Willy García in LF, Leury García in CF, and Avisail García in RF. It was genius roster creation from Rick Hahn. Props to Ricky Renteria for making it happen after I was able to survive. Had I passed away, are any of these guys even on the roster? Do the White Sox even exist if I died??? Perhaps they win a World Series if I don’t make it. Sorry about that.

If my time were to come to an end on that fateful day, we also would have missed one of the coolest feats in sports history: Tom Brady dropping a pass in the Super Bowl.

This was one of the funniest things to happen to the greatest quarterback of all time, on the biggest stage in football. The Pats were trying ANYTHING to get an edge on the Eagles. The trick play stuff isn’t usually seen in the NFL much, especially in the Super Bowl. The fact that it was drawn up to perfection and he was wide open makes it so much funnier. Then the Eagles running pretty much the same play and getting a touchdown to seal their win was orgasmic. Everyone wanted to see the Patriots lose, mostly because we were tired of seeing them win. Had I died, I am sure the Patriots would have won, but maybe over another team. Enjoy retirement, Tom.

I often wondered, as a golf fan, if Tiger Woods would ever win a tournament again. Then on September 23rd, 2018, it happened. He won the Tour Championship at East Lake Golf Club. Behind a gigantic crowd, playing with Rory McIlroy, Tiger Woods was back, winning by two strokes over Billy Horschel, getting win number 80 for his career.

After the myriad of surgeries and injuries, it was a feel good story. Nobody knew if Tiger could get back to being a winning player. Feel how you want about Tiger Woods and his personal life, but the man is undeniably amazing at golf. About seven months later, he wins the 2019 Masters. An even crazier feat after everything he went through. Had I passed away, Tiger may never have played professionally again. The chain of events could have been insane.

The last thing I will cover is something near and dear to me. That being the no-hitter thrown by Carlos Rodón on April 14th, 2021. I have written in the past about Carlos Rodón and how much I admire him. The man was written off because of his injuries.

But that night was one of the few times I’ve cried watching sports. That feeling as a long time fan was up there with some of the best sports moments I ever experienced. I am not sure I could’ve been any more hyped for any other guy but Rodón. I would’ve never forgiven myself if I was not here to witness such a great performance. I will never forgive Roberto Perez for not moving his dumb foot and ruining the perfect game.

Reflecting on the last seven years is weird. Especially because seven isn’t a round number for reflection. Due to the weird circumstance that happened, and having a platform in which I can write about it, I had the opportunity to share this.

Obviously, this is a sports blog (mostly), but many other great things happened to me since that surgery. I got married to my amazing wife, have been on many great trips, have two amazing dogs, bought a house, and found a community of Twitter weirdos that I can call friends. Life is funny, it really is. I have learned to laugh more, not sweat the small stuff, and truly live each day as positively as I can. Life is too short to not cherish the good stuff.

There are just a bunch of fleeting moments, and then it’s all over. Don’t let life be a fleeting moment: try new things, meet more people, and know there is so much out there for you.

Don’t let your job or society dictate how you live. Be yourself, and never let anyone tell you that you can’t do something. Unless it’s like the Secret Service or something, don’t do illegal things that will put you in prison for life. Thank you for reading all the way through and if you take anything away from this, I hope it’s that Tom Brady dropped a wide-open pass in the Super Bowl.