I suppose it’s no mystery that I love the game of baseball. I’ve played it since the age of 5 and followed the pros for about as long. I grew up in Bristol, Connecticut...now home of ESPN but then a home to a minor league team for the Boston Red Sox. Like most folks there, I loved the Red Sox. They weren’t on TV and I didn’t have a radio, so I learned everything from reading the paper and buying baseball cards. To me, it was the only game.
Some years ago, Ken Burns filmed a documentary on the history of the Baseball and it aired in 9 separate 2-hour shows which were appropriately called ‘innings’. I watched every episode, enthralled by the way he weaved the tale and how much I related to it. It was as if he’d been with me in my childhood and knew just how baseball had been a part of my life. Anyway, Don easily likes baseball as much as me and grew up in the same fashion. His family knew this and many years ago, they bought him the complete Baseball documentary. Funny thing is...he’s never seen it. I called him the other day with an idea...
“Let’s get together over the winter and watch the episodes one at a time. Then...the night before the opener...we’ll watch the final inning and go to the game the next day,” I said. He loved the idea...they’re always good...and we saw the first episode last night at his place. He provided me with a dinner of bacon, lettuce and tomato sandwiches and Frito’s. Nothing Paleo about it...but we were watching baseball, after all.
The Alexanders are an unusual family. They’re all runners...extremely so. Colby is now running for the University of Oregon...two years from being an Ohio state champ and one of the five fastest milers in the country. Aubrey was there too and she was no slouch...taking sixth in the state in the mile. They had a friend over and the entire time we were sitting and watching the documentary, they were in some dancing competition using their Wi. I can’t say this is unusual behavior...the night I was there to watch the final game of the World Series, Don had insisted we play darts while we watched. They just can’t sit still...and there isn’t a pound of fat on any human...or animal (the dog and cats are lean, too) in the house.
Don loved the show...not that I was surprised...and wanted to know how soon we could look at the second inning. It was late and so I started gathering my stuff to leave. He stopped me and said, “got time for a game of darts?” He weighs about 125 pounds. Maybe I just need to get a little more active...
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