As Giti and I were taking our 3-mile walk (Giti actually goes everyday and I make maybe 3-to-4 walks-a-week) – we came upon a young fellow with a pretty good left arm — pitching to his father (who was catching in front of the family’s Volvo [Dad’s catching position being a pretty good incentive to pitch and catch well!]). When I marveled at the great left arm of his son – the proud Daddy pointed to his other son who was waiting-in-the-wings (were they twins?) and said that he had Koufax and Drysdale in his Boyz. Way cool I thought to myself – not only do we have a Father who enjoys his sons – but they all seemed to love baseball – what with the boys in their little league uniforms and Dad coaching in-the-here-and-now, and, for a possible, exciting sports future.
A-few-days-later I started reading Ray Manzerak’s Light My Fire; about Ray’s life, and take, on Jim Morrison and THE DOORS. Ray was a self-described jock, and judging from some of those early pictures with his brothers – he definitely seemed to have the body for a successful athlete. He suggests that his love for music drowned his love of sports. Indeed, he reported walking away from an “at bat,” to listen to a song coming in on a spectator’s radio. Ray also suggested that he never learned the name of the artist(s) or the song – but that this was a defining moment in his life – where the power of music declared itself to him. I experienced a similar reverie while our family vacationed in the Hogsback Mtns. – in the vicinity of Cape Town — when that magical sound of a cascading organ came out of the radio. I, too, never learned the name of the artist of the song. But Ray M.’s love of LSD would have eventually de-railed any athletic endeavor!
Flash to Ray Landis – who very recently admitted his steroid usage and accused Lance Armstrong of being the Master Doper and bringing Floyd into the flock of drug-augmented cyclists. Brother Paul asked me years-ago if I thought that Lance Armstrong took steroids – I replied, “Of course he does!” Brother Paul also asked why Lance had never been busted. I told him that Lance was at least two steps ahead of the testing technology: that Lance was on the “cutting edge” and cycling testers had to play “catch-up” with him. Now we come to learn that Lance may have been bribing cycling officials as well. When I heard that Sheryl Crow split from Lance – it confirmed his guilt for me – because Sheryl seems like a real nature girl to me and I’m pretty sure that she didn’t appreciate Lance’s duplicity. But when Lance crashed in the recent Tour de California – right after pointedly denying Ray Landis’s accusations – this suspicion was re-confirmed. Lance was lucky that Sheryl makes her own money – unlike Paul McCartney’s one-legged, ex – who was “chomping at the bit” to tell us all more about Paul’s heroin addiction.
Friend Carlos says all pro athletes are “juiced” and we should let athletes take whatever-the- Hell-they-want-to – to push the human body as far as it can be pushed (I have agreed with Carlos elsewhere).
So to all the baseball Dads out there – enjoy your sons and daughters while-you-can, because it’s-just-a-matter-of-time before they’ll need to get “juiced” with something to keep competing, or, they might just become musicians –either way, they’ll probably forget the hours that you invested them – and, how you risked the family car to help make them great.