Pitch & Catch

10/22/2018

Rodgers and Hart wrote many songs and one of them, “Blue Moon”, came to be my SIMH this morning and has lingered awhile. It’s been sung and recorded by many, Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Elvis, even The Marcels! Says a lot about love and loves, but nothing about a “blue moon.”

A blue moon is the second full moon in a single month, happens about every 16-18 months. Hence, the saying, “once in a blue moon” means not oddly, but not regularly. The song may hit upon something in the true blue moon vein concerning how long it takes single people to find “the right one.” He/She only comes along once in a ……..

Well, this is a strange topic for me to be writing about since I married at 17 and she still can stand me (most of the time.), so I think I’ll change the subject.

A few years ago I met an elderly man who went to one of the home bible classes my brother Jack teaches. We talked a while and he asked me if I had played sports in high school. I said yes, baseball and basketball. He asked what position in baseball and I told him bad pitcher and bad outfielder, but I could hit the ball. So, I told him Jack was my catcher until he graduated.

He said was Jack a good catcher, I said yes. He said, “What’s your best memory of a baseball game?” And so, this story:

We were playing a good school, probably the best on our schedule, but we were at home and optimistic. However, as usual, I wasn’t doing real well on the mound and the score was something like 5-4 in our favor when I weakened even more and they loaded the bases. The man coming up next was Bob Underwood, the best in the county, one of the best in the state and went as far as AA pro ball. He already had a double and a single off  my pitching that day.

Jack runs out to the mound and says, “Do you think you can throw him 3 straight curves”, “Sure,” I said. He said throw the slow curve first. So, I threw the slow curve and he just watched it go by for strike one! Jack ran out again and said, “Wanna do that again or the fast curve?” I said, let’s try the fast curve. He swung and missed!!

Jack came out a third time and said, “Throw the slow one and we’ll get him.” “No,” I said, “Let’s do the fast one, he missed it!” Jack said, no, the slow one. I said, no, the fast one. He said, “You’re sure?” I said, “Yep, I’m sure.” So, I throw the best fast curveball I ever threw in my life. He swung, the sound was deafening.

We didn’t have a left field fence. Somewhere out there way further than any outfield fence I’d ever seen anywhere, was a creek! The ball he hit from my best curve is still going, somewhere over that creek! They never found that ball!

Jack and I can still laugh about that today.

When I finished that story, the elderly gentleman from Jack’s bible class laughed and laughed, then put his hand on my shoulder and said, “You and Jack tell that story just exactly alike!” And we both laughed. It is nice to know that some memories remain the same to those involved, right?

Oh, and no, we never came back and won that game. the final score was even worse.

Thanks for reading, the Elder