FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Aubrey Huff looked down at his cell phone, recognized the phone number of the incoming call and realized he probably was about to get bad news. He just never fathomed it would be this bad.
It was about 7:30 on a November morning, an odd time for a phone call from Tampa Bay Rays traveling secretary Jeff Ziegler.
"I picked it up and thought, 'This probably can't be good.' And he said, 'Huffy, I just want to give you the heads-up that Joe Kennedy has gotten into an accident,' " Huff recalled. "I was like, 'Gosh, is he OK?' It obviously had to be bad if he was calling. He goes, 'Well, he died last night.' I just said, 'What? Is this a dream?' At the end of the day, we found out what happened. When something like that happens, you come to realize what's important in life."
Huff, now the Orioles' first baseman and cleanup hitter, and Kennedy, a pitcher, had arrived in the majors a year apart with Tampa Bay and quickly become close friends. They were both gregarious personalities and free spirits who enjoyed the big league lifestyle.
Kennedy hadn't been in an accident that day in 2007, but he had collapsed and died as a result of hypertensive heart disease. His death was one of several experiences for Huff that helped change his outlook and resulted in one of the best seasons of his career.
Also that month, Huff made derogatory comments about the city of Baltimore on a satellite radio show, earning a hefty fine from the club and the jeering of its home fans. Then in November, Huff and his wife, Baubi, welcomed their first child, Jayce.
"I grew up really fast in a short period of time," Huff said. "I just let it all go. I quit worrying, especially with my son being born and Joe dying. I really had a lot of stuff going in my head and I told myself, 'This is just a baseball game. This isn't life. Just go out and have fun every day and not worry about your numbers.' When I went out there and had my best years in Tampa, that's what I did, just played the game and went out there and had fun.
"It just got to the point where it was really, really hard to deal with. I was going, 'Is this even worth it?' I know we're paid a lot of money as a professional athlete and that sounds stupid to say, but you really want to play well and compete and I was just not doing that."
