These Are The Days We Will Remember

I got a text from my sister recently that really touched my heart and started me thinking. The end result of which is this blog. Some background...my sister and I have gone on lots of concert roadtrips together. Each one has been different, yet each one was a blast. Some of my most favorite memories were created during these trips, one of the funniest being our first concert at the Allstate Arena (probably known to most of you as the Rosemont Horizon). That trip home was better than the concert...and it was a Keith Urban concert, so that's really saying something. Ashley and I have recently been creating roadtrip memories together as well. Our trip to Nashville, and her tendancy to listen to the Mexican music channels on our trips to Chicago just to name two.

So the text. My sister went to Florida again this year with her family for spring break. They drive down and back. The drive home was long and she and I were texting to help her pass the hours. Late in the evening, after texting back & forth most of the day, I get this text from her: "you are fun on a road trip even when you arent with me." I got teary-eyed. It meant so much to me.

Since then, I've been thinking about all the special events that we experience. Concerts, baseball games, races, etc. The events are magnificent. Experiences that cannot be replaced. I saw Dale Earnhardt win the Brickyard 400. With my father. I've been to baseball games at Fenway. With Billy and the kids. I've watched Greg Maddux pitch against Roger Clemens. With them as well. I've seen Keith Urban perform live (looootttss of times). With Jackie and Ashley. I've seen the Jonas Brothers in concert three times. With Ashley. I've visited the Field of Dreams in Iowa three time. With Billy (and the kids after they were born). I've seen J.J. Redick play basketball in person several times. The first time with my friend Jen, who adores him as much as I do. Billy and I have been to lots of concerts together. Last year we saw Creed and Nickleback together. Concerts--as most of you know--are my drug. Ashley shares this passion with me. Billy does not. While those concerts were amazing beyond words (esp the Creed one, like OMG) it wasn't the same experience being there (not to mention the roadtrips there and back) with him and not Ashley.

My point is, that while the events were wonderful and breathtaking and amazing and unique, the best and most significant memories are created from these events because of who I shared them with. Seeing Dale Earnhardt win that race would not have been as significant if I hadn't been with my dad, a huge Earnhardt fan. Seeing J.J. play with Billy isn't nearly the same as seeing him play with Jen. Going to races with anyone but Billy--who loves the sound and feel of the power and speed of those cars as much as I do--just would not be the same. Being at Fenway would not have been quite as amazing if I hadn't been seeing it through Ryan's eyes, a huge Red Sox fan. Seeing Maddux vs. Clemens would not have been as powerful if I hadn't been sharing it with Billy, someone who understood the significance of what we were witnessing. Seeing Keith without Jackie or The JoBros without Ashley (especially that first time) would not be the same at all if I had seen them with anyone else.

There have been a couple of occasions in recent years where Billy has gone to a pro baseball game or a race without me. Each time, he has told me how it just wasn't the same without me there. Aww, how sweet, right? But I think that he really meant that the people he was with didn't appreciate the expreience or didn't share in the experience with him the same way I did.

We can fill our lives with fun things and special events--but in the end, it's who we share them with that makes them significant and memorable. So cherish the moments, but make sure you cherish the people in them more. For it is the people who make the moments precious.

"These are the days we will remember
These are the times that won't come again
The highest of flames become an ember
And you gotta live 'em while you can..."
~Keith Urban

I LIVE For This

"In the beginning, there was no baseball. But ever since, there have been few beginnings as good as the start of a new baseball season. It is the most splendid time in sport." ~B.J. Phillips.

I'm sitting here watching opening day baseball games. This is, by far, my favorite day of the year. It is my own version of Christmas. I live and breathe this game. I love everything about it. I love reading about it, studying it, analyzing box scores, watching it and especially listening to it on the radio. I love my team, but I love the game more. Winning isn't everything. The game, to me, is about more than that. It is so beautiful. The gorgeous green grass. The beautiful brown dirt. The pristine white foul (fair?) lines. I love the 12 to 6 curve ball, the perfectly executed relay from the outfield to throw out the runner at the plate, the sweet lefty swing, the 4-6-3 double play, keeping score at the games, the third baseman coming in and bare-handing the ball and throwing across the infield to get the runner at first, the brushback pitch and Baseball Tonight's web gems. This game is history to me. And relationships. My father and I share the love of this game. As do Billy and I. And we're passing it along to our children. Ashley's first major league game was on her one-month birthday. She's been keeping score at games for years now. Ryan is named after Nolan Ryan, the greatest power pitcher ever. His first major league game matched up Greg Maddux and Roger Clemens at Wrigley Field. And I sang "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" as a lullaby to them when they were babies. They both have known all the words to the song for as long as they can remember. I'm pretty serious about my love of this game. "The Void," as George Will refers to the off-season, is now over. Baseball is back. I can breathe again!

"People ask me what I do in winter when there's no baseball. I'll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring." ~ Rogers Hornsby

OPENING DAY

For over a century, baseball has been hailed above all other sports as America's National Pastime. And no other game during the regular one-hundred sixty-two game season has been as eagerly anticipated as Opening Day. Just look at any die-hard baseball fan's calendar. Vacation? Holidays? Anniversaries? All are often forgotten and pale in comparison with the coveted first game of the season. Ask any fan what the "official" start of Spring is. Chances are their answer will be Opening Day.Regardless of the outcome, Opening Day still remains as the number one date in the hearts, minds (and on the calendars) of baseball fans everywhere. The official countdown begins after the last pitch of the World Series when we can't wait to hear those two magic words again, "Play Ball!"

"There is no sports event like Opening Day of baseball, the sense of beating back the forces of darkness and the National Football League." ~ George Vecsey

BASEBALL IS

by Greg Hall

Baseball is grass, chalk, and dirt displayed the same yet differently
In every park that has ever heard the words play ball.

Baseball is a passion that bonds and divides all those who know it.

Baseball is a pair of hands stained with newsprint,

A set of eyes squinting to read a boxscore,

A brow creased in an attempt to recreate a three-hour game

From an inch square block of type.

Baseball is the hat I wear to mow the lawn.

Baseball is a simple game of catchand the never-ending search for the perfect knuckleball.

Baseball is Willie vs Mickey, Gibson vs Koufax, and Buddy Biancalana vs the odds.

Baseball links Kansan and Missourian, American and Japanese,

But most of all father and son.

Baseball is the scent of spring,

The unmistakable sound of a double down the line,

And the face of a 10-year-old emerging from a pile of bodies

With a worthless yet priceless foul ball.

Baseball is a language of very simple words that tell unbelievably magic tales.

Baseball is three brothers in the same uniform on the same team for one brief summer

Captured forever in a black and white photo on a table by the couch.

Baseball is a glove on a shelf, oiled and tightly wrapped,

Slumbering through the stark winter months.

Baseball is a breast pocket bulging with a transistor radio.

Baseball is the reason there are transistor radios.

Baseball is a voice in a box describing men you've never met,

In a place you've never been,

Doing things you'll never have the chance to do.

Baseball is a dream that you never really give up on.

Baseball is precious.
Baseball is timeless.

Baseball is forever.

"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball. America has rolled by like an army of steamrollers. It has been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game: it's a part of our past, Ray. It reminds of us of all that once was good and it could be again." ~ Terence Mann (Field of Dreams)