Dominic Leone

I called out the trainers and, and, um, I was emotional walking off the field and then in the clubhouse, um, you know, I'm sure some of those White Sox guys will tell you, but it was, uh, it was tough.

I mean, it was tough for me to sit around and, um, but ultimately down the line,

That made my transition a lot easier because, you know, I found out the diagnosis.

I had a partial tear in the UCL.

I needed surgery.

And, you know, at that moment on the field, I didn't think it would be helpful, but like to have that time to process and to just reflect, you know,

you know, from August until the end of the season, it was really nice, you know, because it made me realize like, hey, you know what?

Let's move on.

Let's have some time with the kids.

Let's just get on to the next stage.

Well, and you know, the other thing too is like as a player and I'm sure a lot of guys will tell you, like, you know, the game normally doesn't allow you to leave when you want to leave.

Um,

you know, typically it's like, you know, you're waiting for a job on the off season and nobody calls.

And then all of a sudden you're like, okay, I guess I'm done.

You know?

So, you know, as a player, like honestly, one of your biggest dreams when you get later on in your career is you want to go out on your own terms and, and,

Again, this is the culmination of that moment where I slipped and I fell and I walked Juan Soto and he's jogging on the first base and I'm just sitting here like I felt like at the lowest of low.

But then, like I said, that weight was almost lifted off me and I said, you know what?

This is my chance to go out on my own terms.

It's not pretty.