Well folks, I'm back after quite a bit of time off. I feel like I have really been slacking and I know that there are oh so many of you out there that just really need to hear about all the many wonderful things going on in my life so I'm sorry for the hiatus. With that said I think I might change the pace a little bit with this one. I mean yes, my sister is still bat shit crazy, and yes she just got done working everyday for two straight weeks(longest weeks of my life)but I think I will cover all of that stuff on another day. Today I feel like talking about one of great loves of my life, I feel like talking baseball.
There are so many different reasons why I love baseball. Almost too many to count, I can go on obnoxiously about baseball for hours upon hours believe me. Some of you out there have already ended up in the cross hairs of one of these rants that I sometimes go on, and for that all I can say is, You're Welcome!
Now as I was saying, there are so many things that I love about baseball, but the thing that I love the most, the thing that I miss more than anything, the thing that I can feel deep down inside of me that comes up every year around this time and won't leave until sometime in October. The thing that I love most about baseball is 60 feet and 6 inches. You might be thinking what is this 60 feet 6 inches you speak of? Well the best way that I could describe it is that quite honestly it is the distance that turns boys into men. It's the distance where games are won and lost, where careers are made or broken, it's the distance between death and immortality.
You may at this point be think what in the world is wrong with this guy, is he delusional, how can that be all of those things? You may not understand it, but it is, it is most certainly all of those things and then some. For those of you that still don't know what 60 feet 6 inches is, it's the distance from the pitcher's mound to home plate on a baseball field. To me it's home, it's Mt. Everest, it's the greatest place on earth. I spent many a days out on a ball field, 60 feet 6 inches away, some of the best days and the most heart breaking days of my life.
Now to really understand what I'm talking about you have to understand what baseball is. Some people think it's just a game, that it's something for boys to do in the summer. Some people know it's our national pass time but they really don't think much more than that. To the people that have been goodly enough to be touched by this sport know that it is so much more. It becomes so much more than a game, it changes who you are inside, it becomes a certain way of life, it becomes a religion of sorts, where people pray to the god of first pitch strikes, and the god of the hanging curve ball. When I was a wee lad of 18 years a coach told me that sooner or later you'll find that there are those in this world that have played baseball, really played baseball and then there is everybody else. Now at the time I didn't have any idea what that meant, and when he said it I just kind of smirked and shrugged it off, but as I've grown up I know that he his absolutely right.
Now baseball is the ultimate team sport. There is no shot clock or game clock or time limit, as long as the weather is good and there is no lightning, you play until the game is over. And you're gonna fail more than you're gonna succeed. It doesn't just test you physically, it test you mentally on every imaginable level. I was at one point a pretty good baseball player, nothing special in particular though I worked hard, tried to set a good example, and showed up everyday. And once I got to the level where my little bit of talent and my hard work couldn't exactly cut the mustard anymore I had to give it up. It left a sour taste in my mouth but I guess it always does, when things end. They always seem to end too soon, weather you play for 15 years or 40.
Now that I've given you that little in site into my baseball, let me tell you exactly what 60 feet 6 inches means to me. I am an average guy, and on a good day I can be said to be kind of funny and somewhat awkwardly charming, but that's on a very good day. I was always a good student in school, not because I was just the smartest person in the room, but because I had this thing were I just wanted to know more about everything than anybody else, so I worked really hard to try and do that and in doing so school became something that I was good at. All of that is great. There is nothing wrong with any of it, but on the baseball field I was something totally different. On that pitcher's mound 60 feet 6 inches away from home plate I was a king. I was larger than life and I knew exactly what I was put on this earth for. To throw strikes and help my team win.
There's a feeling you get when you're up on that mound, when you're staring down the opposing team's batters and you know, I mean you absolutely know that on this given day they can't touch you. There is no greater feeling in the world. To know that you're team is depending on you and that you are going to be able to come through for them. And when it's gone, when it's all over all you want is it back. 60 feet 6 inches is where it all begins. You stare down the opposing batter, and you quietly tell him what you are about the throw before you throw it, and it doesn't matter because he can't touch it. You stand on that mound and you sing to yourself, to keep yourself in the rhythm of the game. You talk to yourself when you walk the nine hole. And people think that you are halfway crazy, and the beauty of it is that you are.
60 feet 6 inches can seem like five miles away when you are three outs away from closing out a big game. When you are 100 pitches into the game and your whole body feels like it's about to break down, and you dig down deep for that last out. You and your catch both know you got nothing left but you dig down anyway and find something, anything, and when you get that last out you feel like you can do anything, because you've pushed yourself further than you ever thought possible and you came out on the other side. 60 feet 6 inches, where most of the defining moments of my life have come.
