A Man and A Milestone

As of today I’ve finally reached the point in my life where I have something in common with Barack Obama and Hank Aaron. Obama – 44th President of the United States; Aaron – Uniform number 44; me – 44 years. Whenever we reach a milestone or simply hit another cycle on the calendar it often causes us to reflect back on simpler times.

Since my only foray into politics was a failed run at Vice-President in sixth grade, most of my reflections incorporate baseball. I was reading an article in Sports Illustrated by Phil Taylor wherein he waxed nostalgic for his youth and recreating the batting stance of his childhood idol Tommy Agee. That threw me back to my adolescence out in the front yard as I grabbed a whiffle bat and ball and proceeded to have the Cubs take on the Pirates, Dodgers, all comers. I would hunch over the plate and do my best windmill swing for Dave Kingman. I would stand in the lefthanded batter’s box with my feet shoulder width apart, bat parallel to the ground, knees flexed and try to nail my best Bill Buckner double to the gap.

With the pitchback set up, I could be Rick Reuschel or Bruce Sutter (without the amazing splitter) and when the ball nestled into the ribbon square I would whip my arm around, creating a wild umpire call, not really reminiscent of Satch Davidson or Doug Harvey or Eric Gregg.

Without cable, PS3, laptops and cellphones, we were forced to use our imagination, listen to the radio and create images in our mind. It was more fun to go outside and physically be responsible for the Cubs winning 24 in a row than sitting on the couch letting our thumbs hit homerun after homerun.

As a marginal little league pitcher, the one thing I was blessed with was accuracy. I can directly attribute that to the hours upon hours I spent throwing the ball at the square on the pitchback, throwing at the first stair of our house in playing makeshift ballgames or hitting the same spot on the garage to get the proper rebound to complete the much needed 6-4-3 doubleplay.

Birthdays, anniversaries and specific times of the season do a wonderful job of throwing us into the time warp of magical days when life was easy (though it may not have seemed so at the time).

A beautiful cool summer day. A whiffle bat and ball. Is it going to be Bill Buckner or new favorite Derrek Lee with the open stance and vertically stretched approach? Maybe a swing from both sides of the plate is necessary today.