Waxing Romantic About Baseball...

There is something romantic about baseball (to me anyway) and something in particular about amateur and minor league baseball.  The warm summer nights at a ballpark, families enjoying each other and relaxing in the pace of the game at hand, kids scrambling for foul balls, sausage and peppers wafting through the air, and maybe an occasional beer to wash down a good hot dog or bag of peanuts makes life seem simple and easy. 

Every time I watch Bull Durham it takes me back to when I moved down to Virginia to start my first "official" job out of college with Newport News Shipbuilding.  I saw the movie and just wanted to go to the ballpark to watch ball games when ever I could.  I got to see the Norfolk Tides quite a bit (back then the New York Mets AAA affiliate, now the AAA affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles) and the Peninsula Pilots (then a Class A affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, now part of the Coastal Plains League ... which as I read it sounds a bit like an independent, mid-Atlantic version of the Cape Cod Summer League).  Makes me want to spend most of my summer living down on Nags Head, NC and going to ball games all over VA and NC with the occasional jaunt back to New England to see the Paw Sox, the Portland Sea Dogs, or the New Hampshire Fisher Cats.


The Lord knows I love the Red Sox (even though they are stinking to high heaven right now) but baseball itself is a joy to watch and be a part of.  And like I said I've had the good fortune to live in areas where there was plenty of minor league baseball (southeastern Virginia, here in New England) and it's a blast to take in a game.  I'm looking forward to some warmer weather and taking in some ball games!  Whether it's the Paw Sox down here, the Sea Dogs when I'm "down Maine" over the summer, who cares!  It will be summer time and baseball baby!  And maybe, just maybe, if I am good I'll get to take in a Harrisburg Senators game down in PA when Kendell heads off to school in August.  As the Beach Boys wrote "wouldn't it be nice"...

I Actually Know a Published Author...

A very dear friend of mine that I grew up with, John Leahy, will be a published author soon!  Jack is the radio voice for the Merrimack College Warriors of Hockey East fame (and rival of my alma mater UMass Lowell) and for the last several years has been the radio voice of the North Shore Spirit (Lynn, MA), Kalamazoo Kings (Kalamazoo, MI), and this year will be the radio voice of the Florence Freedom (Florence, KY).  Jack recently got word that the book he wrote about life on the road with the Kalamazoo Kings during the 2009 season will be published.  I can't wait to read it!  Look for "Living A Kings Life" coming soon...

"The Bard"? Absolutely Not! But Maybe Not Too Bad at Haiku...

OK... so I've already removed the suspense that I can actually write.  My forte was always math.  Just ask my favorite sister Tina (my ony sister so she has to be my favorite by default... LOL) who go the creative writing brains... another line that I did not get into in time to get any.

I do remember back in my elemntary school days back at Chemung Hill School (the best school I ever went to or enjoyed the most) I could write a mean Haiku.  I've seen versions on the net in 5-7-5 syllable form and 5-5-7 sylable form.  I was taught the 5-7-5 version so that's what I'm sticking to

One came to me the other day before I was heading into Beth Israel for the start of chemo round #2.  Thought I'd share.  Enjoy, critique, laugh, scratch head, have fun...

spirit and resolve

to get me through the battle

this will not beat me

Non-Depressing, Non-Cancer Related Family News

The good stuff is coming first...
Kendell is, as we speak, somewhere near or in Rome, Italy for her spring vacation.  She will have touched down about an hour ago and is now basking in the central Italian mostly cloudy 50 degree Fahrenheit weather of what I can only imagine is one of the most glorious and interesting places on earth.  I can't wait to hear all about her trip.  I asked her to keep a diary so she can share with me her thoughts on the food, the culture, and the restaurants, the decor, the sights and smells, you name it... everything.

Carson is doing very well in her ballet class.  The Giselle performance is coming up in May and Carson was just moved up from an understudy to a part in the first act.  It's a big part, all pointe work, and she'll be on stage for just about the whole first act.  Fantastic work Carson!

I'm happy that the girls are getting to lead as normal a life as possible while I go through this third battle.  It is very important to me that they do not get too caught up in this.  They have lives to live and I want them to live them the best they can and enjoy their lives the best they can.  They will never get this time back and I don't want them to just be saddled with memories of dad and his cancer.  Life is too short to dwell on the bad stuff.  There is too much good stuff to see, do, taste, smell, and enjoy...

Bring Back "The Farside"

It is said that laughter is the best medicine.  I always found the Farside by Gary Larson twisted and exceptionally funny.  I enjoy lobster especially when I am in Maine vacationing with my family... my wife and kids, my sister, brother-in-law, and their kids, my dad, my mom, my aunts, my cousins and their kids.  Like I said I love to cook and this cartoon seems an appropriate metaphor for life sometimes.  Some days you are the "dunker" and other days you are the "dunkee".

Fight or Flight

Why blog? It's cheaper than paying someone to tell me how nuts I am. Besides, my kids do it all the time. Kidding. Actually that's my wife's job.

I'm about a day and a half away from chemo round two and scared sh--less. Chemo round one was worse than anything I experienced in 2005 when I was initially diagnosed or when I was re-diagnosed in the fall of 2006. The good side... I lost a little weight. Seriously, I needed to. Bad side... just about everything else. I have no idea what keeps me going.

It is said that everyone has a talent for something be it music, art, athletics, whatever. I missed those lines and apparently stood in the line that was for "talent to take a beating and still be stupid enough to continue fighting."

I was in PA over the weekend with my wife and kids.  My oldest daughter was accepted to Penn State and we went to visit the campus.  I liked it so much down that way that I wanted to stay and not come back for chemo round #2... but I did anyway.  Okay, the money was running low too but so what.  Apparently my "fight" response is stronger than my "flight" response.

I've been shedding hair worse than a squirrel with mange the last three days so I went and had the rest of my toupee removed.  I'm not down to bare skin ala Kevin Youkilis but it's close.  Thank God it's spring and the weather is getting a bit warmer.  I walked out of my hairdresser's place and felt the cold wash over my head like I had just dived into a pool.  Weird.