Coach

Clare and I had lunch with her college softball coach yesterday. The best way to describe Coach P is as a master teller of stories, all of them true, all of them connecting one person to another. Kevin Bacon needs six degrees. Coach P gets it done in two, three max. I can hold my own talking sports, provided I can steer the conversation away from hockey or college football; when that fails, I employ a mean head-nod, as if I know what the other person is saying, or agree. What struck me was how good my daughter was at the same thing. She didn’t even need to nod. We talked baseball (Coach P hates Yasmani Grandal); they talked softball and college politics. There was a time when Coach P wanted Clare to take his place, but things happened, and the world turned a different way. Some things are not meant to be. Because Coach P is connected to everyone (see above), he knows new White Sox infielder Nicky Lopez, who went to high school by him. We may even get Sox tickets through him. Lopez, I mean. No, Coach P. No, both. This interconnectedness takes some getting used to.