April 21st

The avalanche of pleasant memories held off till late, after 8 PM, when I checked to see what was on the MLB Network.  Good decision.  They were showing “The Natural,” and that got me to thinking about who to cast in any possible remake.  Thanks to the attention he’s getting over on ESPN with “The Last Dance,” Jerry Reinsdorf would be perfect in Robert Prosky’s role as The Judge.  Yes?

 

Then I saw they were going to run a “classic” MLB game.  Lo and behold, it was April 21^st, 2012, White Sox at Mariners.  Boy, do I remember Philip Humber’s perfect game for the Sox, and I only heard the last inning or so. I remember other stuff even more.

 

Clare and her Elmhurst teammates were playing at Carthage College up in Kenosha.  It was decent weather for Wisconsin, maybe 50 degrees with sun.  This was the best Elmhurst team Clare would play on, the perfect blend of under- and upperclassmen.  The Bluejays won the first game, 3-0, to push their season record to 20-10, 4-3 in conference.  In game two, Clare had two RBIs on two doubles in a game that saw a 4-0 lead turn into a 7-4 loss.  Oh, well.  If we had swept Carthage, it wouldn’t have made the next weekend as exciting, when we qualified for the postseason for the first time in fifteen years.

 

Anyway, everyone was in a decent mood on the drive back, Clare texting Michele about Humber.  I put the game on the radio, so I guess we listened together in different vehicles.  I’d found a supper club to have an early dinner at, and the game was over by the time we pulled into the parking lot.  Poor Humber, he never seemed to trust his stuff, sort of like a pitching version of Conor Gillaspie.  It was a nice place, by the way, with white tablecloths and relish tray.

 

A week later, we were back in Wisconsin, all the way up to Appleton for a frigid, nonconference doubleheader at Lawrence University.  Clare hit a ball 260-270 feet that day, longer than I’d ever seen anyone do in softball.  Six days later, she hit a ball even further in the playoffs.

 

Thank you, MLB Network, for setting off this particular avalanche.