We Used to be Giants

John Fogerty sings “Got a beat-up glove, a homemade bat, and brand-new pair of shoes / You know I think it's time to give this game a ride / Just to hit the ball and touch 'em all / A moment in the sun / It's-a gone / And you can tell that one goodbye!”

In a previous life it was a badge of honor as a tour manager to barrel into a van with guitar cases, drum kits or even just friends and drive miles and miles to get to a concert.  These days, I am a dedicated equipment manager to my son and his aspiring baseball career.  Instead of a haul from Guitar Center, I find myself loading baseball bats, multiple gloves and catcher’s gear to get to Little League games.

Road-tripping once meant debating classic drive-time conversations like who was more influential, The Beatles or Led Zeppelin as we fought for control over the radio or CD player.  These days, my son and I just take turns playing music for each other on my iPhone that we might like.  Yes – I confess, I slipped DJ Shadow’s collaboration with Run the Jewels “Nobody Speak” into the mix and smiled so big when he hollered at El-P’s flow: “I'm unmentionably fresh, I'm a mensch, get correct / I will walk into a court while it wrecks”.

Traveling to shows also meant a certain amount of pride in performing 8 shows in 7 days, but now it is bragging about 10 games and several practices in 8 days.  Where my mapping skills used to take me to places in Pennsylvania like Media, Millvale and West Chester, these days it is Beaver, Harrison City and Saxonburg.  All special places in their own right, but these days my reason for adventure rivals why people traveled “to Iowa for reasons they can't even fathom.”  With a wink and a nod to W.P. Kinsella and Phil Alden Robinson, I arrive at fields innocently.  Walking out to the bleachers; sitting in shirtsleeves on a perfect afternoon and watching a game and as if I was dipped in magic waters.  It reminds me of all that once was good and it could be again. 

We live in crazy, crazy times but I am taking a lot of positive energy from being socially distant at these games but at the same time rooting on my son and his teammates.  Borrowing from Rage Against the Machine’s song “Renegade of Funk”, these boys believe in each other and are following the mantra, “No matter how hard you try, you can't stop us now".  And just as his team has rallied in the bottom of the 6th inning, I am hoping that we can as people.   

Now instead of wanting to go to a gig at the Williamsport Community Arts Center we have our sights set on a game at Howard J. Lamade Stadium.

Thanks for reading.