Connections

Maybe I look for baseball connections, maybe they exist for everyone.  The Cubs just finished playing the Phillies, and I remember my connection to Philadelphia manager Pete Mackanin; he is the perpetual eighth grader in my seventh-grade universe.  Mackanin is a baseball lifer who played for four teams over nine seasons before winding his way through various coaching and interim managerial jobs to land in the Philadelphia dugout, which is more of a hot seat.  Good luck, Pete.  I also went to high school with Jim Dwyer, who had himself a very nice 18-year career as a left-handed bat off the bench, but with Dwyer it was more a matter of trying to be out of sight and out of mind.  At St. Laurence, upper classmen might beat on us “bennies” and sophomores if we upset them.  I didn’t want anybody taking out an 0-for-4 day on me, which required some very serious blending into the walls (not to be confused with being smeared across them).

Clare has even better connections.  Her one classmate from Morton is a year older, and he was drafted by the Angels her freshman year at Elmhurst.  Long story short, high-A ball proved to be his ceiling.  She also knows the brother of a former teammate, and he’s pitching in AA; his ceiling has yet to be determined.  Years from now, these two will be her Pete Mackanin and Jim Dwyer.