In 2012 Adrian Cardenas was a 24-year-old Chicago Cubbie, had 11 career hits, and publicly decided to quit baseball to drape himself in more intellectual pursuits. He wrote about his decision eloquently in a piece for The New Yorker garnering admiration from some and dismay from others. “With every semester that passed, I loved school more than I loved baseball, and eventually I knew I had to choose one over the other,” Cardenas wrote. Never wavering, Adrian went on to major in philosophy and creative writing at NYU and eventually obtained a master of fine arts degree.
Although Cardenas never played in an Oakland uniform, he was a top 10 prospect at one time, and I remember watching him quite often in the summer of 2011 with the AAA Sacramento RiverCats. I stumbled across his film, El Artesano (The Artisan) a few days ago, and found it to be quite touching with dazzling cinematography and an artistic touch without pretension. In a world of disposable media, I found myself reflecting on the short film even a few days after watching it. If you have 12 minutes of time I would like to petition you to click on the link below:
https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2020/08/25/el-artesano-the-artisan/
Coco Crisp's Afro 
This post is a great public service. Thanks. Count me as one who admires Adrian Cardenas for his perspective. I am glad to see him using his talents beyond sports.
Thank you for the link and suggestion.
Of course, Cardenas’ story is similar to Andrew Luck’s although it goes without saying (but I am going to “say” it, anyway) that Luck was far more accomplished in pro sports than Cardenas.
I was working for the A’s as a baseball operations/player personnel consultant when they acquired Cardenas. He was very highly regarded. I was out of baseball when Cardenas retired.
Good stuff. As a Braves fan, I never liked the look of Ralph Garr in those softball uniforms with the short pants. (Man, that guy could hit…and run, but I digress.) It’s good to see both the Sox and the A’s in the postseason.