Forever - Christian Yelich

I'm A Yelich Now.

Brooklyn~

"David, look at the difference between 2019 and 2021, that's a huge percent decrease. Even better look at 2022 with it. I'm clearly doing something right," I say as I show him some numbers and graphs of injuries that have happened over the past few years.

"I got here in May of 2020, and from when I was promoted so June 2021, until now, look at the decrease. I just don't get why this has to change. Why fix something that's not broken?"

He sighs and looks over all of the papers scattered around us. I'm so glad he's on my side with this, because I know damn well I wouldn't be able to do this alone. "So why don't we create a graph of 2017, when Scott got here, to when he transferred down to Chicago in 2021. Then, let's create a graph from when you got here in 2020 to now. Show them the data and give them some good reasoning."

"You think that's going work?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I think if we can prove that what you're doing is working, then we take it a step further and ask the guys."

"So we're going to guilt-trip them?" He laughs, "If you want to put it that way, sure. I would say just proving facts and making points that you are doing more than enough to keep our athletes from getting hurt."

"Okay, I'll get working on this. When do we meet with them? If I'm being honest, I have other shit to do with Jordan and Sarah. I can make time for this. I'm more worried about this than anything else."

"I know you have other things to do. We meet with them again on Friday at noon."

"Okay, I have more time than I thought. I'm gonna be working in here if you need me."

"Okay, I'll let you work. If you need me, shoot me a text." I nod and hear the door open and close, leaving me to work and think about this stupid meeting.

I put my AirPods in so I can really focus and get this done. It almost feels like I'm in college again. I'm in a conference room, surrounded by whiteboards, playing my music, and working on something important.

I stand up and look through some of the papers that are scattered on the table. I look up at the monitor to see a bigger picture of what I currently have on my screen.

I turn around to see Christian standing there with a bag of food. "How long have you been standing there?" I ask walking over to him, kissing him quickly.

"Couple minutes. I realized you couldn't hear me when you didn't turn around right away," he says and sets the food down on the table. I go around to the chair I was sitting in and check my phone quickly.

"Is this bigger than you thought?" he asks me and hands me a bowl of food. "Yeah. It's not something that can just go away in a day."

"What's all that?"

I finish chewing before speaking again, "That's data from injuries going back to 2017 up until now."

"Why 2017? You weren't here," he asks me clearly confused. "That's when Scott started here. We were looking at the percentage of injuries throughout his time here and then also my time. So here, look at this graph I created. What do you notice?"

He looks at it before taking the mouse and moving it around, "Right here, it's the highest point on the graph, then it slowly starts to decrease over time. Then about here, it's a sharper decrease."

"Yeah, so that high point is when Scott started. I guess he came in on a lot of the guys being injured or on the IL list. So from 2017 to May 2020, he made it better and decreased the number of injuries that happened. Then this decrease is May 2020 to June 2021, that's the time I worked with him. After that, it's been me and the other two, which has had a clear impact on the way you guys play. Less and less of our athletes are getting hurt."