#1056 Musings Beyond the Bunker (Friday January 24)
Good morning,
There is a lot to worry about. That said, we need a little more hope for the future. And that’s the theme for today.
WE CAN ALL USE A LITTLE HOPE RIGHT ABOUT NOW
Here is some inspiration provided by Adam Torson:
“But that’s the wonderful thing about man; he never gets so discouraged or disgusted that he gives up doing it all over again, because he knows very well it is important and worth doing.”
-- Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
“I find hopelessness to be a kind of pain. One of the worst kinds. For me, finding hope is not some philosophical exercise or sentimental notion; it is a prerequisite for my survival.”
-- John Green, The Anthropocene Reviewed (2021)
OUR DIFFICULT TIMES ARE NOT THE FIRST
As I consider how we are in the midst of complicated times that promise to get even more chaotic soon, I am drawn to the simple brilliance of this quotation, one of the greatest beginnings to any novel:
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only."
~Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
BASEBALL COMETH
And a little from the most hopeful of sports… We are a mere four weeks from the start of Spring Training. With its arrival come memories of seasons past, attending games with family and friends, many of whom are gone, and the rich lore of this wonderful sport.
For those of you with whom I’ve played golf, you may note that when I can personalize golf balls, I choose the number 32. This number represents two athletes whom I admired in my teenage years. No, James Brown is too early and Magic Johnson is too late… One of the two is O.J. Simpson, who went on not to deserve my admiration. The other is Sandy Koufax, arguably the greatest pitcher of all time (perhaps the greatest lefty), despite a number of pretty remarkable pitchers both before and after his career. He had a relatively short career of 12 seasons, but really only was a “regular” starter beginning in 1961 and continuing for only six seasons. During those six years, he mounted a remarkable set of statistics. In appreciating his career, it bears looking at what opposing batters had to say:
1. Jackie Robinson: "Sandy Koufax was the greatest pitcher who ever lived. There's a lot of things I'm unsure of, but I'm sure of that. It was an honor to watch that man pitch."
2. Hank Aaron on Koufax: "If he chose to strike you out, you were striking out. And there wasn't anything you could do about it. He knew it, you knew it, the fans knew it. When he was out there, there was a strange hush in the crowd, like they were looking at a miracle. And you know what? They were."
3. "Sandy would strike me out two or three times a game,” said Willie Mays. "And I knew every pitch he was going to throw – fastball, breaking ball or whatever. Actually, he would let you look at it. And you still couldn’t hit it."
4. Pete Rose on Sandy Koufax: "I couldn't hit him, just couldn't. He had that 100 plus mile an hour fastball that he could locate, and that damned curve that came at you in the low 90s and acted like it fell off a table when it got two feet in front of the plate. I think I hit .144 or something like that against him. But hell, I didn't see nobody else doing any better."
5. Willie Stargell said, "trying to hit Koufax is like trying to drink coffee with a fork."
6. Ernie Banks said while watching number 32 walk out to the mound: "It's like being in the ballpark with Jesus."
I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW
While it isn’t necessarily all blue skies out there, this is a tune that makes me smile whenever I hear it, particularly the Jimmy Clift version and this video:
It’s going to be a bright, bright sunshine-y day…you have to have hope.
Have a great day,
Glenn