Outfield Years

We hadn't seen each other in years and it was the first thing he remembered.

I remember it also.

I think about it all the time.

At the end of the season, all the best players from the twenty-five teams were combined into two teams for an all star game.

The best in the league for that year.

Three of us were selected from the Blue Jays and I was playing right field because of my throwing arm.

Three seasons into the position at this point it felt like a natural extension.

Most of the game saw action only in the infield and it was only in the later end of the game that the hits started coming to the outfield.

The bases were loaded and I knew the hitter who was up at the plate, big, powerful, and I could just tell he was going to hit the ball to me.

I had the suspicion that the other team was avoiding me for the entire game, or at least it felt that way as I was just standing around for the entire game.

A hard swing and the ball was on its way to me.

I always played deep so I could move forward and adjust to catch the ball. In position, raise my glove, and wait for the ball to land.

Just moving, no thinking, nothing to worry about.

And then it entered my mind:

This is the all-star game, I need to catch this ball.

Next moment, the ball was suddenly closing in and I tried to catch it versus just putting my glove in the path of it and letting the ball do the work.

It tipped off the top of my glove and shot over my head, I could hear it thud on the ground behind me.

The best I could do was throw it home, but even with my arm it took time to close the distance to the catcher.

Yes.

I remember it also.