Something unexpected happened to me last week. I answered the phone at the Star Eagle and Dan Stork was on the other end. First he mistook me for Jim, a common occurrence. Then he said I was just the man he was looking for.
I assumed he was looking for umpires again, as it is that time of the year again. He was, but that wasn’t why he called. The reason for this conversation was a job offer. For me! The junior high baseball program was in need of a coach and he thought I could be the man for the job. My resume will now include baseball coach.
One of my favorite activities ever since I was a young kid has been baseball. I remember one summer day, when I was really little, it was raining outside and I was watching television. Through my channel surfing I happened upon a sporting event, Twins vs. White Sox. I can still remember the game like it was yesterday. Nick Blackburn was pitching and I remember watching almost the entire game.
The White Sox scored first, going up 1-0 and from that point they would not score again. I remember the Twins hitting two home runs in that game. I believe one was a solo home run and the other a two-run shot. I’m not 100% on every one of those details, but the final score was roughly 4-1 and it was unforgettable.
From that point on I found a love I had never known before. Prior to baseball I had never really enjoyed sports, not even football. After that season, along with the 2007 Super Bowl between the Patriots and Giants, a new sports fan for life was born.
That Super Bowl was one to remember. The Giants’ Eli Manning was facing the cheating, lying Patriots, or so my dad told me. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world at the ripe young age of 10 that the quarterback of the Giants had the same name as me. I had never even met another Eli! Now I was watching one play in the Super Bowl. Needless to say, after that game I became a football fan for life.
After that game I was left with a void to fill. With football finished, what was I supposed to watch for sports? The following summer I watched and played baseball almost every day. That summer my dad was a trooper. He put in as much work as I did. I couldn’t throw grounders and play catch all by myself. Without him I probably wouldn’t have ever been a baseball fan or even a fan of sports at all.
The next summer I returned to my baseball career and joined little league again. After practicing all summer the year before, I finally knew what I was doing. I went 2-for-3 in my first game and what followed was a season to remember. For the first time I recognized my hard work coming to fruition. From that point forward I would play baseball every year. This is the first year I won’t be playing baseball and it is fitting that my career will continue on in the role of coaching.