26 Sep 2016

Hi Everyone:
     As some of you may know, I love baseball. It's not that I have ever been considered a great ballplayer, or even a very good one. When I was a kid, my father, who liked baseball, never took me to a professional baseball game, even though we lived in Cleveland and on Sundays he frequently listened to the Indians' games on radio. He never played catch with me. In fact, if it hadn't been for our next door neighbor, Allan Jacobs, I doubt that I would ever have learned how to catch a ball. The point is, I did learn and in my younger days I was either the captain of our team or one of the first kids chosen in a pick-up game because I could hit the long ball. I played into my teens and then somehow the game got away from me. It probably happened around the time I discovered girls. Many years passed before I took up the game again. By then, I was too old to play anything but Senior Softball, which I played until my body told me it was time to give it up. Since then, I've become a Miami Marlins fan. I  watch the games on TV and cheer for the team, even when they have a loosing season.
     Yesterday, they lost big. Their brightest star and one of the top pitchers in all of baseball, Jose Fernandez, was killed in a boating accident. What caused it, who was piloting the boat, what went wrong we may never know, but at age 24 this terrific young man with a charismatic smile who was headed for greatness lost his life.
     I saw him once at a spring training game. He looked vibrant and larger than life. Seeing him reminded me of the time I saw John Kennedy up close and personal. He had that same vibrant look. For both of them, all I can do is wonder, What might have been? Too soon gone!
     I know that I'll continue to watch America's pastime. I'll keep rooting for the Marlins to win. I know they'll soon draft or trade for a new starting pitcher and the game will go on. But oh Jose, what might have been.
      Josh