Some things just don’t change…and some do.
Ahh, so I told myself I would not blog again until I really had something to say. Not just blabble or posting a million picts to feel like somebody was reading my blog. Nope, never cared about that. For me it was writing for the pure enjoyment of it. If people read it, awesome, and many awesome friendships I created from writing here. Many I hold dear to my heart to this day. Some I have much thought about and wanted to reconnect with and some I hope to see again in all their glory.
So, today without further ado I sit down at the computer. What would MLBlogs hold for me? What would I see? Who might grace the front page with some great article or insightful piece that would remind me what I was missing in my hiatus away from this site?
Well low and behold. More of the same. I had to laugh. More promotion, more pimping to the masses and more selling. I know I missed great articles from real people and moments I could go back and catch up, but for me it’s moving forward. When I came back from my travels and my aunt was dying, I meant it when I said I wanted to prioritize what was most important and I did. So for the crap that is still the same, I’ll never buy you nor will I care somebody is getting a paycheck and pretending to be all about the baseball. The real baseball seeps through into the ballpark conversations on a summers eve or the lone blogger who gets excited everytime fingers hit the keys even if nobody reads it. The real baseball doesn’t pretend or name drop to fuel an ego. Blah blah blah. Just more of the same.
So without further ado yet again, here is what I really wanted to write…
Wow, hard to believe another year of baseball is upon us. I can think back to the ending of last year and the last game I went to. I had just gotten a job and I could finally pay for a ticket again! What a great feeling it was. I can remember the moment walking into the ballpark. My heart was racing like it was my first game ever. I could smell the food, feel the sun warming my skin and I had to laugh as two good friends I had met over the season were busy chattering away between themselves as I strolled behind them. They walked oblivious as to the moment I was having. Filled with emotions, I just walked silent. I couldn’t tell you what they were talking about because I was so thankful for the moment and the feeling of just being there. Baseball had been part of an amazing journey for me and here was the culmination for this season.
We laughed, we watched, we saw a win to end the season for me. These two people were emblematic of this whole thing. “I knew all the rules but the rules did not know me, guaranteed.” You might recognize these fine people. They were a microcosm of America and everything that was good about my journey with baseball. Strangers months before, friends that day and beyond.
March 22, 2010 the sun is setting on the Arizona highway. My Iphone chooses the soundtrack of my life but my mind is elsewhere.
One year ago I was unemployed gearing up for the largest journey of my life. I had just cashed in every penny I ever owned, liquidated my belongings and decided to meet America through it’s people and it’s baseball fans.
This day I had a great job. A job that allowed me the freedom to jump into a rental car and zoom off to spring training to once again find that freedom that awaited me. I had sat in 75 degree weather and yet again felt that feeling of euphoria. Simple things awaited me and I found them. I found more amazing conversations with complete strangers. I found a simplicity in the game I love and the people who follow it.
I could think back to end of the summer as I watched my aunt die and her amazing spirit kept fighting on. She would let me take her up a 14,000 ft peak and we would laugh and take in those moments as we knew they would be some of her last. The Rockies would falter in the playoffs and baseball didn’t seem so important. The winter months would come and snow would cover the life that had blossomed all summer. Death would come just before Christmas, but there was so many precious moments before that. Moments to remember and legends to pass on. My aunt would be upset if she knew I wasn’t writing. She didn’t care what I wrote, because to her it was always good and she knew it made me happy. Sometimes people know what is best for you before you do.
The road would rise to meet the rubber of my tires as I headed east and north back to Colorado. I couldn’t help but think how much was different. A good job, a great family, friends I looked so forward to reconnecting with in the following months. But with death comes life and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t thinking about my son who will be born in late July.
The hours turned into minutes as the night cloaked me and left me to more of my thoughts. I could see his mother and I laughing about painting her belly like a baseball or maybe it might score a few more autographs, kinda like the kid rule. Maybe the pregnant lady rule could get her a full team ball this year. We would see. Because as some things stay the same some don’t. My future will no longer be about Rocky Mountain Way, interestingly enough it’s now Rocky Mountain Ways.
So a big apology to those who have worried about me or wondered what happened to me. “Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans,” and let’s just say I’ve been a bit busy : ) I will talk more about my work helping fund life saving research, my sons advancement into this world and of course the Colorado Rockies among so many other things. It’s what I do.