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I like beer drinkers. They are happy… for the most part.
Yesterday I caught my second foul ball. I felt bad and gave it to the guy I stole it from. It’s not the ball that gets me; it’s the thrill of the athletic ability to time the catch.
No one at this park knows that I once played in a state championship… that I should have played in college… that I could have played at this level…
Perspective.
Tonight our home team blew a 3-1 lead in the ninth. I bought our pitching coach a beer afterwards, because I knew he thought it was his fault we lost, but more so because I just like him. He felt like he was to blame because it was his decision to put in the new guy… 3-1 lead in the ninth….
Perspective.
I love the park. I love my job.
I meet so many fun people. I meet interns who are just getting out of college and working for peanuts. I meet people trying to climb the ladder into major league baseball. I meet young girls chasing future stars. I meet fans, trying to get autographs. I meet …
Everyone.
And I love it.
Perspective.
I tried to tell Bill our pitching coach that for every one we lose… we win one we shouldn’t have. That’s life too. Sometimes it just doesn’t matter what choice you make…
One of my favorite lines from a movie is from Remember the Titans…
Coach Boone’s wife says, “Sometimes life is hard, for no reason at all”
That’s perspective.
And sometimes… we just get that good day. We get the rainbow. We get to see the osprey fly into the left field lightpost carrying a fish. We see the awesome catch and the comeback.
Perspective…
When I was in high school I lived close to my high school. I never missed a day of high school and I was the first one there every day, mainly because I love my friends… they are my family.
I remember driving to the school one afternoon and sitting in left field, past the foul pole, all alone. I remember thinking (at 18) if I was ever to be buried somewhere, this would be it. They had just mowed the grass and it was heaven. There was a grove of three evergreens there and the view overlooked the valley.
I am now almost 30 years older and I had that same feeling tonight. After the game, the cleaning crew sees me sitting in the stands and we joke and laugh about making me leave and go home… but to me…
it’s all perspective….
Some of the people I have met when I played ball in high school are still friends of mine that read this blog… and some of the new friends who read this I will have just met this year… but they are all friends.
And good ones at that.
I remember driving to the school one afternoon and sitting in left field, past the foul pole, all alone. I remember thinking (at 18) if I was ever to be buried somewhere, this would be it. They had just mowed the grass and it was heaven. There was a grove of three evergreens there and the view overlooked the valley.
I am now almost 30 years older and I had that same feeling tonight. After the game, the cleaning crew sees me sitting in the stands and we joke and laugh about making me leave and go home… but to me…
it’s all perspective….
Some of the people I have met when I played ball in high school are still friends of mine that read this blog… and some of the new friends who read this I will have just met this year… but they are all friends.
And good ones at that.
Perspective.
Yes… we lost tonight, but I feel lucky because I seem to win every night.
Happy birthday Dawn, I luv ya Keith, I miss ya Big Jim, You are the best bartender (without a doubt Mary), Go Vols (for Nick), I’ve been crushing on you for 30 years Kim, Thanks Ray for ending Beercott 2009, Stick with the school Box, Luv ya Sis and Nipper and GNO and this could go on and on…
Happy birthday Dawn, I luv ya Keith, I miss ya Big Jim, You are the best bartender (without a doubt Mary), Go Vols (for Nick), I’ve been crushing on you for 30 years Kim, Thanks Ray for ending Beercott 2009, Stick with the school Box, Luv ya Sis and Nipper and GNO and this could go on and on…
And this was supposed to be a post about getting to beer 10,000 at the park…
To be continued?
I’ll end with a picture.
This was a regular when I was working for the Redfish. I remember him because he always smiled and he was always happy. His name was Jay and he always had his boy JJ with him…
He was killed in a car accident a couple weeks back.
I did not know him all that well, and he probably only knew me as beerman… yet it has me in tears because he was a good soul and I miss him.
Perspective.
4 comments:
I LOVE IT! Of course I lived most if not all of it with you. But, as most siblings do, we don't always share "perspective" but this one, my dear loving, kind, sweet, generous, thoughtful and AWESOME brother . . . . we share. Your always with the "funny" sometimes it's nice to see the "change up". (That's a pitching term right?)
Mom to Nipper
Beerman, Thanks for the memories. Remember, Perspective is never a bad thing as long as it is genuine...ya hit on a LOT of great memories that I know a lotta readers probably won't get, but all part of what makes us who we are. Again, thanks.
Eating a stuffing sandwich from under your bed, drinking all the cheap wine we could find in the house, putting a strip of tape down the middle of our room in college, stopping 6 times in the snow on the way back to Ship when I did not want too, the T ride home from the John Prine concert, spending time by yourself with my wife and children, perspective changes all the time but love of anything just grows and grows !! Wish I could buy that 10,000 beer from you but with perspective comes truth. Very well written my BFF ! cubby
This is my favorite post you have ever written :) I loved everything about it. It makes me want to go to a ball game and I am not a baseball fan!
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