Chris was the first person to text me that I was an MLB.com notification. We agreed to play catch on January 11 (Day #11), a day filled with ridiculous weather. Once my book published, we talked about a possible music and poetry collaboration at some point in the future. On January 11, I could not begin to imagine what 2018 would look like.
Chris didn’t know what this year would become for him either. He won an Alaskan cruise and took his wife on an extended vacation at the end of July.
“The weather was absolutely perfect. Every single day was sunny, it was truly gorgeous and there was so much to see. We saw big brown bears much closer than you would want to see big brown bears.”
Chris showed me pictures of breath-taking beauty — waterfalls, humpback whales, and glaciers. He told me stories of watching sled dogs train in preparation for the Iditarod.
“There were at least 80 dogs, maybe more. They’d bring multiple sleds in and the dogs would just go crazy until they got hooked up to the sled, then they were focused, ready to run. The dogs that weren’t hooked up, though, they were so loud. It was incredible.”
Chris’s story reminded me of Gary Paulsen’s Winterdance.
Much like I read The Soul of Baseball each Spring Training, Winterdance is the book I read each winter, a book of a Paulsen’s courageous perseverance and ignorance as a rookie racing the Iditarod. I usually don’t even start thinking about Winterdance until after Christmas. I might have to break it out early this year.
Chris and I bundled up and headed to the ball field, determined to catch video proof of playing catch in the snow. We were successful.
When the snow on my glasses finally interfered too much with actually seeing the baseball come my direction, we stopped playing catch.
On Sunday, April 28, the Royals will host the Angels. Maybe there will be a Shohei Ohtani sighting. That same afternoon, about the time the Royals secure the victory, there will be a celebration of music, story, and art. Please mark your calendars and bring your gloves.
Who knows what weather will be like on that day.
