Lunch

I had lunch Monday with Euks, Clare’s coach from high school.  I also have lunch from time to time with Mike, Clare’s coach from Elmhurst.  It’s time travel either way.

With Euks, I have to go way back.  Clare’s freshman year at Morton was 2006-2007.  Do you remember the Riverside-Brookfield playoff game when they started to pack up their gear in the seventh inning?  You mean the game where freshman Clare started the 4-run, winning rally with a single on a 1-and-2 pitch?  Yes, I do.  Do you remember the game senior year when Clare hit a game-tying homerun against St. Ignatius off the daughter of the DePaul softball coach, who happened to be in attendance?  Yes, I do.

After we revisited these and some other of the good times, Euks told me the last time he saw Coach Mike (they used to play 16-inch softball together).  “He always talks about Clare’s homeruns.”  You mean the one that went at least 275 feet in the conference tournament her sophomore year?  “Yeah.”  Now, let me tell you about the one she hit a week before….

This is how a father relives those glory days, as Bruce Springsteen put it.  I can only hope the ex-player has a way of doing it, too.  I know one of her old coaches would love to have lunch with her.