Life after baseball no free pass
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—When Anola, Manitoba native Corey Koskie was forced out of pro baseball due to injury, his faith kept him from spiraling into depression.
It was July 6, 2006, nine years into Koskie's Major League Baseball career, when it all came crashing down. On that day the third baseman tried to make an over-the-shoulder catch, only to have his legs slip out from under him. His shoulders slammed against the grass. He didn't hit his head, but he did suffer the same symptoms a car accident victim would experience from a severe case of whiplash.
The play itself was spectacular, shown in TV highlight reels in both Canada and the U.S. However, it effectively ended the career of the player named one of the 50 Greatest Minnesota Twins of all time.
Koskie, who also played for the Toronto Blue Jays and Milwaukee Brewers, never fully recovered. While he attempted a comeback with the Chicago Cubs and played for Team Canada in the World Cup of baseball in 2009, he knew it was over.
"Through it all, I believed there was a bigger plan in this," says Koskie, who attends Plymouth Covenant Christian Church, a non-denominational evangelical church near Minneapolis. "When I was suffering from post-concussion syndrome, I had to learn to live with myself. My faith played an incredible role in filling the void. It kept me still and kept my mind still."
But he didn't sit around and mope. A year ago, Koskie purchased two Planet Fitness franchises in the Twin Cities and went into business for himself. It has been more difficult than playing big league baseball, says the member of the Manitoba Baseball Hall of Fame.
"My biggest struggle was not the transition from baseball to business," he says, "but to understanding that there has been a transition from the belief that you had to work hard to be successful to a belief that you can just sit around waiting to win a lottery.
"I'm learning how to be nice without having people take advantage of me. I'm trying to learn how to effectively communicate to my employees what their boundaries are. I never thought employees would be this difficult, but I'm dealing with it. Finding good employees is a very difficult task.
"It has become clear to me that I have to change my perception of the employee in order to have a better employee. Playing baseball was a lot easier, but I'm starting to get it figured out."
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