Baseball

I love baseball with all my heart. And, I can't watch a baseball game without feeling my dad's presence and that makes me love it all the more. No matter how much of a lead the Giants got, my dad would always say,"We need some more runs this inning" I am that way too. I never watch a game without feeling that it all could be taken away from us at any point. But there are certain things that can't be taken away from us. And, one of those things is my dad. He will always be there, shaping the way I see things and reminding me of who he was. My family lost him last year and the sting is still there but I know it was time for him to go. He didn't like being in his 90's. He didn't like his body betraying him. And so, though he is no longer here physically, he is always next to me as I fill in the next box of my baseball scorecard, and as I set my mind on the next batter coming to the plate. Catchers know the game probably better than any other player out there and my dad was a catcher for SF State and all through his years in the Army. All his kids learned the game from him and we all love it dearly.

When a player did great, my dad would say "Atta boy" When a player did poorly, he would say "You bum". It used to crack me up because he always loved that same player the next time he came to the plate. Baseball is a game of living in the moment. Each new batter is an opportunity and a potential threat rolled into one. Baseball forces us to be in the moment and not look back. I guess that is why I feel him next to me during the game. There is no looking back. He is there with me explaining what I see as I see it.

Here are two pictures of my dad playing baseball in an alley in SF, during a break from work. In one picture he is catching and in the next he is batting.