Was My Salvation...
Maybe...
If you've ever been in one of my classes... and remained awake... you have probably heard this story. I enjoy telling it.
It's about my one ill-fated attempt to play baseball... I was a kid and decided one year... I wanna play baseball... and I got assigned to a team. It was fun! I went to practice... chased fly balls... and ground balls... and foul ball... and every now and then, maybe I got some batting practice in.
Our uniforms were cool as well. All cotton with button front jerseys... like the real major league players wore... Not t-shirts and stuff like what the kids today wear.
I didn't get to play a great deal. I can count the number of times I got to play on one hand. If I got to play in the field in the top of the fourth inning, that was one time... If I got to bat in the bottom of the fourth inning, that was another time.
So it wasn't a great deal of playing time. I soon came to realize that even though I was going to every practice, those who didn't come to practice got all of the playing time.
Anyway... I played my two or three years... went on to bigger and better things (I suppose). I eventually got married and then bought a house.
Guess who my insurance agent was?
Yep... you got it...
Coach.
Buying a house and pretending to be an adult is pretty time consuming... I just thought to myself that when the policy came up for renewal, I would move it to another company.
Eventually, the notice did come and I did change it to another agent that I knew. In about the time it takes for the paperwork to make its way to the agent, I get a phone call...
Ring Ring Ring
Me: Hello...
Coach: Hey Hey Big Jim... (Coaches at that time seemed to call every player 'hey hey big whateveryournamewas.)
Me: Hi...
Coach: Big Jim... I see that you canceled your homeowners insurance with me...
Me: Yessir, I did...
Coach: Why??
Now... at this point, I tell my students about a great learning moment... 'Don't ever ask a question if you aren't willing to hear the answer.'
Me: Because I went to baseball practice everyday... and chased fly balls, and ground balls and foul balls and stuff... and only got to play five ( 5 ) times... I never got to play.
Coach: Oh, Big Jim... you were the best baseball player I had!!!
Me: Koff Koff Bullshit
Coach: Don't be that way, Big Jim...
Me: I can't help it... I wanted to play baseball...
We hang up and that's the end of the conversation.
I would love to say that is the end of the story... but it isn't.
... a few weeks later, Coach died. He died. He died.
... and I would love to say that is the end of the story... but it isn't.
...because a short time later, I have a dream... and it's Coach... and he's crying... begging for forgiveness...'Please forgive me... Please forgive me, Big Jim...'
Of course, i wanted to play baseball so I told him "no"...
And that was that.
I've thought about that dream over time... trying to figure it out. I wondered if, on the 'Scale of Life,' that one event was a fly in the ointment. Was I causing Coach to remain in some Purgatory-Like Realm... or in Limbo??
I dunno...
Anyway...
Anyway...
That kid might just be what keeps you from moving on to a Better Place when ones time is finished here.
Just in case this might be the case, I am thinking about performing a small ritual in class one day... just let Coach go...
Fast Forward 50 years later...
So, I fall off this stupid fukken ladder...
It's been a nightmare...
Headaches from Hell...
I've been told by several doctors that I am fortunate I didn't kill myself.
I go to see a new doctor last week...
He comes in... he's looking at his papers...
He says...
"I know you!!!"
''You Were My Baseball Coach!!!!!"
Oh Shit... I thought.
I did notice a big big smile across his face...
I asked...
"Did you have fun playing Baseball???"
His reply was a big
YES!!!!!!
I do think I've dodged a bullet.
