There are fights you choose, and there are fights that choose you.
Baseball taught me that a long time ago. Sometimes you step into the batter’s box knowing the pitcher has better stuff than you have ever seen. Sometimes you dig in anyway, because pride will not let you back out. You tell yourself you can catch up to the fastball. You tell yourself you can foul off the breaking ball. You tell yourself one good swing can change everything.
That was my first instinct.
Since February, I have been unable to leave the country. Because of that, I have delayed the launch of the Bohol Coconuts for months. Every plan my wife and I built, every promise we made, every sponsor conversation, every Founders Club membership, every dream attached to that baseball and softball field in Bohol has been trapped in the same holding pattern as my life.
At first, I wanted to fight.
I believed this was about my freedom of speech. I believed I had to stand up, raise money, hire lawyers, and go to war. That is why I started a GoFundMe. I thought the only honorable thing to do was fight back.
But common sense eventually walked into the dugout and tapped me on the shoulder.
A small minnow does not fight a whale and win. A man like me does not have the money, machinery, or time to take on the United States government and expect to come out on top
Maybe that sounds like surrender. Maybe it is. But my wife and kids need me in Bohol. The Coconuts need me in Bohol. The kids we built this dream for need the coach to finally show up.
So I made the hardest decision of my life.
I have decided to take all of my books off the market in hopes of saving my baseball and softball club, protecting my family, and being allowed to leave this country. I spent over a year and tens of thousands of hours writing, building, planning, promoting, and sacrificing. My wife and I gave up so much because we believed this dream was bigger than us.
Now my life is in shambles.
Sponsorship funds may need to be refunded. Founders Club memberships may need to be refunded. Trust that took months to build has been damaged by delays I could not explain and could not fix. I was naive for months. I did not understand what was happening to me. Now that I believe I know the truth, it is terrifying.
This is the biggest fight of my life, but it is not the fight I wanted.
The fight now is not to win an argument. It is to get home. It is to stand on that dirt in Bohol. It is to save the Coconuts before the dream dies on paper.
Moore or less, I have learned the cruelest lesson of my life.
Sometimes survival is not swinging harder.
Sometimes survival is dropping the bat, walking away from the fight, and praying the game you truly love is still waiting for you on the other side.
