CHILDHOOD PARADISE
March 17, 1999
That was a thought provoking note. Thank you for sending it to me.
How coincidental you would send that to me today. I had a conversation with my father this morning that prompted me to wonder, "how many more tomorrows will we have?"
I had just stepped out of the shower when the phone started ringing. I ran, still dripping, into my room to get it.
"What are you doing today?" It was dad.
"I'm going to the Devil Rays game with the Phillies in Clearwater," I said. He knew that already. We'd talked about going to the game together. Being from suburban Philadelphia, seeing a Phillies spring training game would be a big kick for him. For me too.
When I was growing up, we’d listen to Harry Kalas, Andy Musser and Richie Ashburn broadcast Phillies spring training games from this place called Jack Russell Stadium in this city called Clearwater, Florida. I eventually became curious enough to look on a map to see exactly where that was but I knew from the first pitch I heard that while my teeth chattered in the Pennsylvania cold, Harry, Andy and Richie chatted away about baseball, beaches and warm sunshine and that was enough for me to think the place was paradise.
Now my dad and I could go see one of those games except he had a dentist appointment at 11:30. An appointment he couldn’t blow off because it had taken him two months to get it. "If I get in right away, I could get home by noon," he said hopefully. "But I wouldn’t be able to get to your place until 12:15."
It was almost as if he had called me merely to try to talk himself into believing that he could go to the dentist and still go with me to the game and get there in time for its one o’clock start.
"I was going to leave right now but I’ll wait for you if you want," I told him.
But he had decided it wouldn’t work. "You go ahead," he said. "We’ll see another one."
And that’s when I thought, "how many other ones will there be for us?"
I did make my pilgrimage to Jack Russell Stadium to watch the game. One thing is different now; I root for the Devil Rays. There no divided allegiance. I sat in the seats wearing my Devil Rays hat, applauding Wade Boggs’ diving slide into third base for a 2 RBI triple among the many plays I enjoy in the Devil Rays 8-1 romp.
I used my media pass to go into the press box and I peeked inside the Phillies radio announcer’s booth. Richie passed away in 1997 but Harry and Andy were right there, broadcasting baseball and talking about the beaches and the warm sunshine to some kid in Pennsylvania home from school because of the foot of snow that fell overnight up there.
That kid must think this place is paradise. You know what? He’s right.
Take care,
John
PS: Only 24 days before Devil Rays Opening Day!
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©1999 John McQuiston