God Bless You James,
You Taught Us All to Be Funky!
At last Playoff Baseball is here! As soon as the temperature begins to drop and there is a crispness to the air there is nothing better than the drama of baseball. The pure electricity of each game is like nothing else. There is nothing better than watching any of these games but it is even better when the team you have followed all summer (in my case the beloved Red Sox) finally get to the point where every game is a do-or-die battle. Every at-bat suddenly matters and watching every pitch is like riding the ups and downs of a roller coaster. Watching each pitcher begin their delivery is like standing on the edge of the highest cliff and teetering with the chance of falling as the ball makes it’s way either to the catcher’s mitt or sailing into the air waiting to see if it is caught or flies out of the park. Each hit is like mini celebration or a tiny dagger plunging into your heart.
To me the greatest thing about Playoff Baseball is the fact that as each game plays out like the grandest operas you know that you are watching history in the making. Each play has the potential of being the play that goes down in history. The homerun that everyone will remember or the catch that every kid will attempt to re-enact while standing in the field of thier neighborhood park.
I always make the attempt when the games are not to late to sit down with the boys and get them to watch the games with me. I want to be able to watch a highlight from a game 20 years from now and remember back and say to the boys, “Remember when we were watching that game? Where we were or what we are doing?” I think this is always a great opportunity for fathers and sons have the ability to connect with something in common. The ability to share a special moment of their own.
This has not always been the way for me. I did not watch games with my father in this fashion but I can say that baseball did in fact bring us closer together. When the Atlanta Braves made their many trips to the Playoffs my father was able to secure tickets to many of these games, even some to the World Series. Even though many of these games were loses, the fact that for a few days in the Fall each of these years we made these pilgrimages to Atlanta to watch the games. I was older then and after years of not always being the closest with him it was during these times that started the transformation of my father not being the taskmaster or the authority figure that as a younger child many children see their parents as being but slowly becoming a true friend and someone I began looking forward every day to talking to and just hanging around with. Even though I am sure he was not aware of how I felt during these times, I treasure each of these moments and the ability of finally connecting with him a a peer and on equal ground.
My father passed away five years ago and it was during the 2004 World Series that these moments became evident to me. As my Red Sox came back and won the Series that year I had yearned for the chance to call Dad every morning to share the previous night’s memories even though I was sure that he probably did not stay up to watch the game. The chance of being able to share my excitment with him was not there any more and that is when it struck me the hardest that he was gone forever. This is when the memories of the games we had attended became the dearest to me.
However I have been lucky, my first son was born after the Red Sox won the series in 2004 for the first time in 86 years. After coming back and wining after being down 3-0 to the NY Yankees (boooo!) and then sweeping the St. Louis Cardinals in 4 games I felt almost as if my father had passed a small miracle down to me from heaven. Even though that my son was to young to understand the games I had felt a yearning to share these moments with him in the same way my father had shared the memories of the games we had gone together before. I had almost felt as though the miracle of the Red Sox winning the Series that year was a gift from my father. It made me appreciate the miracle of my own son’s birth and made me realize that I wanted to fill my son’s life early on with these same great memories I had waited to share with my own father.
And of course the miracle continued as the Red Sox again began their sweep of the Colorado Rockies in 2007 my second son was born. It is almost as if with each miracle that comes along in my life, the Red Sox win the Series. Coincidence, eh? It seems to me that this has always been a way that my father sends a complimentary gift to me for the miracles that occur in my life.
So when people ask me why I love the Boston Red Sox and why I love Playoff Baseball this is the reason. I look forward to the chance of another miracle in my life and look back to the memories that this time of the year has brought to me.
So thanks Dad for giving me these gifts and GO RED SOX!
This was the view from the back steps of our rental home onHunting Island. Two years ago there was about 100 yards of back yard before you even got to the dunes. Of course this is high tide and the picture below is a view at low tide. Some difference. Wow!
This past Labor Day weekend we took a trip down to Hunting Island, SC. This is my favorite place in the world. Hunting Island is a SC State Park so there are very few cabins there rest of the island is completely wooded. The Vietnam scenes from the movie “Forrest Gump” was shot on the island so this would give you a pretty good idea of the topography of the island. It is a great place to go and visit with your family. It is usually just you and the beach all day with the rare beachwalker from time to time. Oh, and cellphones rarely work down there as well and that is always a plus!
The sad thing about Hunting Island is that it is quickly eroding away. In the past few years there have been hundreds of feet of beachfront washed away due to this erosion. Unfortunatley the state of South Carolina has already sunk as much money as they can into the island. It has become the task of the “Friend of Hunting Island” to help maintain the island, and they are doing a wonderful job.
The erosion is getting so bad that we were actually evacuated from our cabin on the Sunday before labor Day due to the washing away of the road due to the combination of erosion and the rising tides with the incoming hurricannes.
Here are some before and after photos as well a a video of the beach and our evacuation drive to let you see how it was.
