The Changeup

Hey Jim,

I have been told quite a few times in my life that I “look like a baseball player”. While I always took this as a great compliment in some weird way, in my head you are what a baseball player looks like. While for the most part my memory as far back as highschool is for shit, the great thing about it is that is mythologizes individuals and events. I was a fairly horrific baseball player, it seemed no matter how much I loved the game it was just never meant to be. But I did get to watch a lot of guys with talent play the game back then, and I guess that made it worth all the hours of frustration trying to hit the goddamn ball.

You in my book were one of those tried and true baseball story lines you see in the movies (usually starring Kevin Costner, Dennis Quaid, what have you) the work horse pitcher who seems to never give in to exhaustion. You didn’t have the flashy stuff, but you had consistency. Which especially in high school ball is pretty much what coaches pray for. It seems to me now that they pitched you so frequently and for such durations that any normal human being probably would file a lawsuit. But even if your elbow swelled up, or your shoulder had a comically huge bag of ice on it, you were always the first to volunteer to pitch, regardless of the situation. I think that is what always made me love baseball. A guy can really learn how to go past his limits on the field. He can learn his breaking points, can learn about being alone. There are great moments when you are the hero, but more often than not, like in life, it’s the grind that is the order of the day. You bared the weight of that pretty damn good, especially for being a kid. I think I have kept that with me for all these years since then.

In school our friendship was relatively unremarkable. We had friends in common, and I seem to remember we sat at the same table at lunch. But when baseball season was on you were like veteran of the team, even if it was JV ball.

In anycase our FBfriendship has been more or less an exercise in curiosity. It’s kind of like the lunchroom again, we sat together at a table so stories could be shared over mac and cheese and taco bar day. I don’t imagine given how full your life is you will notice much about this little fb thing, but well you are always a character in my head when it comes to baseball, and it my book that ain’t half bad.

Today was a great day, but tomorrow our FBfriendship will end,

Curt