Baseball is not life, but it is and always has been a big part of my life. Because this is true, I have purposefully retained many memories of certain games, people, and incidents that are crystal clear. These memories span all of the levels of baseball I have played starting with the Minor Leagues in Cape Girardeau to the 60+ senior leagues in St. Louis, MO. Successes and my share of failures; all are part of the fabric, and if you pull a loose thread, a story might unravel and reveal itself. Over the years I have told many of these stories so often that my wife, Rita, encouraged me some time ago to write them down.
This is also true: we tend to tweak and edit ever so subtly the scripts of our triumphs here and there to suit ourselves and fit the narratives we would like others to think about us. This does not make us bad people, rather only human. As to failures, they will seem magnified or diminished based on how we feel about ourselves at any point in time. Those thoughts are always there, however.
Many of the stories in this blog will center around my college baseball days. Success in baseball at SMU would turn out to be fleeting for me and my teammates. On the other hand, it should also be mentioned that baseball is, and always has been, a game of redemption. That may be ultimately the reason I love it so much. The next game will always and forever be that opportunity for redemption. To that point, I have been lucky to be able to play this game into my sixties, thanks to men’s senior baseball and other men my age with the same passion for the game. I am in my eighth retirement, currently, although my agent is listening to offers.
In the big scheme of things, my baseball career has mattered little, as it was not a large stage. A relative few are chosen for the large stage, although it should be noted that baseball is mostly played on a myriad of small stages. The drama and the humor and the occasional poignancy are nonetheless real. The following stories really did happen, tempered only by my memory.
Little stories from the big adventure 