Sunday Feb 23

 Bud's Boys 'Are We There Yet?' Issue

I certainly feel like the kid stuck in a car with the feeling of never reaching his destination. When will we make it back on the course? Frustration level nearing critical. 

Raymond checks in with some fun with numbers facts. At this date last year, he had played 29 rounds. His total this year stands at 11 with slim chances of adding to that total this week.

So, while we wait for Mother Nature to ease our pain, I have some medical updates to share and then an attempt to fill my time with a short story from my ever more unburdened memory.

Health Update #1

Great news from Bill! The results from a recent PET scan show him to be cancer free. He is so looking forward to more golf this year. Way to go Bill.

Health Update #2

Tom's bypass surgery on the 13th went well as planned. He is currently rehabbing at the Lutheran Home in Cape. It is a slow process, but I certainly have seen some improvement this past week. We wish him the patience to recover as best he can before resuming his normal routine. The one thing I know for sure, May and June will be here before we know it.

Health Related Update #3

Leroy received an e-mail from Mercy Hospital saying he had an unpaid bill from a Dec 30, 2024, knee injection at the Perryville facility. The unpaid portion of his bill totaled up to .01 or 1 penny. Please contact Leroy directly with any advice you can share.

At this point all BB's news is through for the day. Today's meeting is over, so to speak. If you wish to stick around to hear someone talking about the good old days, especially self-centered over exaggerated ones, you have been warned. I myself will tune out or excuse myself when in this situation, but sometimes the depth of boredom can make us do things we normally wouldn't. Here is my attempt at a Short Story, a Novella if you will. It is a memory I've always wanted to put in writing and as I lose bits and pieces of memory each year, I will use this break from our golf to finally do it. Thanks for reading on.

                                       I-SC Hoosiers

                                                                   Foreword

The Cardinals are on TV, and I am thinking of spring and warm weather. Baseball too.

Anyone still reading along with us probably, like me, remembers when baseball was much more than it is today. Baseball memories of today's adults are of travel teams and 'select' teams. Baseball in my memory was a most everyday way of summer. Back yards, vacant lots, or even the street were all options used to get our daily baseball fix. We occasionally even played on a field dedicated to baseball, but usually on the 'sandlots' as they were called. Baseball filled our youth until we hit those teenage years. In fact, when I played my last 'Babe Ruth' game in the summer of my 15th year, I assumed my baseball career was over. I was wrong. Although I was very fortunate to be part of some great football and track accomplishments at Illmo-Scott City High School, there is no doubt the following story is the most cherished sports memory because it wasn't a one-day event but was spread out over the month of May in 1973. The I-SC Rams baseball team.

A hint of the movie 'Sandlot' with this group. Naturally we had played ball together for years, but our attire was sandlot like. The uniforms were over 10 years old. New caps had been issued 2 years ago but you had to provide your own if you hadn't scavenged one from a previous player. I went with an LA Dodger hat as it was at least the correct color. You can look at Vince's cap above and notice it being a Harris Truck variety. Didn't matter, we were just playing ball although we will refer back to this later in the story. The 'Hoosier' part of the title refers our underdog role similar to the boys in the 'Hoosiers' basketball movie. Let's venture back, "Sherman, set the Wayback Machine to March 1973." "Yes Mr. Peabody!" 

Chapter 1: The New Recruit

March of 1973 held promise for me. As a pole vaulter on the track team, we were welcoming a new coach with a vaulting background. He held the Arkansas high school record for a freshman and was a 4-year vaulter at Arkansas State. He immediately replaced our ages old poles with the latest version of new technology and had us doing indoor drills during the winter to ready us for the spring. Good times ahead!

The reality of March 73 was much different. A horribly wet spring made practice difficult and sure didn't help one's attitude. The new fancy pole? Well, I guess you would think that replacing your 15-year-old irons with brand new Callaway irons would instantly make you much better golfer. We all know that's not how it works. You still have to know what to do with the equipment. I have heard when Ted Williams' players couldn't get results from his teaching, he would just step in the box and say, "Just watch this", and then step in the box and even though in his 50's hit line drive after line drive. That's exactly what my track coach did. After watching several more of my futile attempts, he just grabbed the pole (while wearing khaki pants, sweatshirt, and coaching shoes), took about a 30-foot half speed run and easily cleared what would have been our school record. "There, just do that." I have to be honest, that does not do much for one's confidence or desire. 

About this time the Ward brothers were at my house visiting my brother and I when one of them said I needed to join the baseball team. It would be fun to throw the ball around again, more fun than the track team. It was perfect timing. We could play both sports back then with little conflict, so the idea of splitting practice time seemed an attractive option. The baseball coach was glad to have me, I hadn't missed but a week of baseball. My track coach was young enough to see exactly what was going on. Instead of working harder at pole vaulting I was wimping out by playing baseball and curtailing track practice. He shrugged and said, "We'll just have to work it out best we can." If nothing else, my spirits were higher as I felt freed from the self-induced pressure that I had put on myself. Happily, I was playing ball again and truth be known at the time, I did not even realize that baseball had a state tournament.

March 28th was the first game of the year, a 9-0 victory over Scott Central. The season had begun.

End of Chapter 1