I first started doing this on email with some of my friends. Paul Kingsbury, who was one of them, suggested I blog on this after some friendly banter filled the emails. His wish is my command, so here we go....
I started this little experiment when I had 25 days left in my teaching career. I picked Gail Goodrich who wore #25 for the Lakers. Kobe Bryant was my choice for #24. Today is #23 and that is where I will begin my blogs on the countdown to retirement!
23: My good friend, and probably the greatest athlete that I have personally become close to, is Scott Masingill (Sorry, Brownie…you’re a close second). He’s a golfer, of course, and they wear no number. But when he was in basketball at Payette High, he wore #23 BEFORE Michael Jordan. Perhaps that’s why MJ chose 23? But alas, I must defer to another #23 who hit what is arguably the greatest home run in World Series history. Good enough clue? Kirk Gibson, hobbled by injuries, limped to the plate in his ONLY World Series at bat and hit a 3-2 slider from Dennis Eckersley over the fence for a walk off victory over the Oakland A’s. His gimpy yet thrilling rounding of the bases has been replayed on TV a million times. The date was Oct 15, 1988. The Dodgers went on to win the series in 5 games.
Do you remember where you were when that happened? I was in Council watching with my wife and in-laws. I remember thinking that the swing looked like it produced an ordinary fly out. When I saw the right fielder, he wasn’t moving and I thought the ball must have been right at him, but he wasn’t putting his glove up in the air. Then we all saw it go over the fence, and I erupted into Penny’s arms and we started dancing and jumping arm in arm around the living room. My father-in-law, Herb, got up, muttered a cuss word, and went directly to bed. It was a game we always played: him rooting against any team I was rooting for. I think he secretly was rooting for the Dodgers, but he wouldn’t admit that…even at gun point.
What’s cool about the replay is watching the crowd in the background. Grown men and women, professionals at work, doctors, lawyers, all going crazy and acting like little kids giddy with excitement. Sports can do that to us.
In our first year of marriage, Dusty Baker hit a game tying grand slam home run and the Dodgers went on to win and got in the World Series. I jumped off the couch, over the table in front of it, and while I was in the air, my hand hit the lights on the ceiling and two or three fell down and broke. When Penny heard the racket, she came around the corner and saw me jumping up and down amidst broken glass, and Glenn was jumping up and down on the couch. When we settled down, she asked the question I still cannot answer to this day: “Why is this game so important to you?” I just said that I didn’t know other than it IS important.
Monday is the sports number I always wore and my favorite number period. I wear in honor of my favorite baseball player of all time. I actually ran into him at TVCC when I was broadcasting a game two years ago, and I got his autograph. Guesses anyone???
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