Throw a Ball

There are moments where life will take you over and you make choices to relax… find time for yourself as opposed to spending it with those that mean the most to you. Resist the urge. – Make a memory. The people around you are counting on you.

My Story:

I can’t remember how old I was… maybe around 10 years old at the time. My parents wanted me to play little-league baseball. – I have to tell you, I dreaded it. Here I am as a kid where my eyes were out of alignment and I’m playing baseball…. A ball is tossed at you and you hit it with a bat or catch it with a glove which relies upon depth perception which guess what… I DIDN’T HAVE! I can’t remember my coach other than the fact it was a friend’s (Dan Caputo’s) dad.

I was embarrassed to be there. No kidding, the first time I was at bat where our team had two outs, I heard a kid on my team whisper to a friend, “there is our third out.” — Hit a base-hit… because screw-him…. But nevertheless, it was a tough thing for me to deal with.

I’m a little competitive. I remember coming home from that game asking my dad if we could play catch. He had just come home from work (he worked in downtown NYC) and took off his tie, unbuttoned his shirt and in about two minutes found his way to the backyard. We tossed that ball for nearly two hours straight. It got to the point where my mom turned on the back porch light and even said, “Dinner’s getting cold.” — We didn’t care. We kept tossing that ball.

That night meant a lot to me, and when I think of my dad, I still can remember us tossing that ball in the back of our house in New Jersey.

What I wouldn’t give to have you catch that ball one more time dad. I miss you.

How I practice it today:

I can’t tell you how excited I am to pick up my Lacrosse stick when Will, Jack or Zoe want to play. Will asked me to warm him up before Lacrosse tryouts this year. – It was SNOWING and I was out there. My gift today, I don’t care what the situation is, when you are asked by your kids to engage and play… you play.