Andy is the reclining guy.There’s no surprise as to what’s been on my mind lately.
Early Sunday morning I found myself waking up while mentally rehearsing what I was going to say when it was my turn to speak at my “farewell” reception at the library later that day. It felt as though the dream I was having just continued on its own, even though I was fully awake.
Once I got out of bed, these meditations continued to crowd out other thoughts. I even found it difficult to concentrate while reading the newspaper.
“Do you want to bike to Andy’s baseball game?” I asked JoAnna shortly before she left the house to attend 9 o’clock mass.
“Sure,” she replied, though not too convincingly.
I asked her again as soon as she returned home a little more than an hour later.
She stopped in the kitchen doorway, pausing on her way to the bedroom to change her clothes, and gave me a puzzled look, as if the question had stumped her.
“I’m not sure if I really I want to bike today,” she said.
I must have responded with an obvious look of disappointment for she quickly backtracked.
“But I’ll to if you want to.”
“I really do,” I confirmed. “I feel the need to burn off some nervous energy,” I added.
And to stop thinking about my little speech (for which I feel I already have a perfectly adequate mental outline).
The final game of the 2008 CYO season featured a match-up between Ashton’s (Andy’s team) and Waunakee at Martinsville, which, according to tradition, it seems, always hosts the championship game.
With the wind at our backs, JoAnna and I biked to Martinsville, a 10-mile trek, at a quick-and-easy pace. The game was already in the 4th inning by the time we arrived, with Ashton down by a run, 3-2. (Later, Andy would be quick to inform us that the three runs he gave up in the top of the 4th were unearned.) Andy retired all three batters he faced in the top of the 5th, one on a strikeout and the other two on weakly hit ground balls. Ashton tied the game in the bottom of the 5th on Joey Haack’s towering home run to straightaway center, a short 290 feet from home plate. In the bottom of the 5th, Drew Meinholz cracked a bases-loaded double over the rightfielder’s outstretched glove to give Ashton a 2-run lead. Andy remained in complete control, not allowing a batter to reach base in the 6th and 7th innings. By the 7th inning, though, he looked to be quickly running out of gas but managed to finesse his way to a victory, like a crafty, veteran ballplayer.
After the game, I overheard one of the Ashton’s coaches say to Andy, “I hear that’s three of the last four championships you’ve won.”
Andy ended his CYO career in high style. Once he turns 21, he’s no longer eligible to play in this league.
Early Sunday morning I found myself waking up while mentally rehearsing what I was going to say when it was my turn to speak at my “farewell” reception at the library later that day. It felt as though the dream I was having just continued on its own, even though I was fully awake.
Once I got out of bed, these meditations continued to crowd out other thoughts. I even found it difficult to concentrate while reading the newspaper.
“Do you want to bike to Andy’s baseball game?” I asked JoAnna shortly before she left the house to attend 9 o’clock mass.
“Sure,” she replied, though not too convincingly.
I asked her again as soon as she returned home a little more than an hour later.
She stopped in the kitchen doorway, pausing on her way to the bedroom to change her clothes, and gave me a puzzled look, as if the question had stumped her.
“I’m not sure if I really I want to bike today,” she said.
I must have responded with an obvious look of disappointment for she quickly backtracked.
“But I’ll to if you want to.”
“I really do,” I confirmed. “I feel the need to burn off some nervous energy,” I added.
And to stop thinking about my little speech (for which I feel I already have a perfectly adequate mental outline).
The final game of the 2008 CYO season featured a match-up between Ashton’s (Andy’s team) and Waunakee at Martinsville, which, according to tradition, it seems, always hosts the championship game.
With the wind at our backs, JoAnna and I biked to Martinsville, a 10-mile trek, at a quick-and-easy pace. The game was already in the 4th inning by the time we arrived, with Ashton down by a run, 3-2. (Later, Andy would be quick to inform us that the three runs he gave up in the top of the 4th were unearned.) Andy retired all three batters he faced in the top of the 5th, one on a strikeout and the other two on weakly hit ground balls. Ashton tied the game in the bottom of the 5th on Joey Haack’s towering home run to straightaway center, a short 290 feet from home plate. In the bottom of the 5th, Drew Meinholz cracked a bases-loaded double over the rightfielder’s outstretched glove to give Ashton a 2-run lead. Andy remained in complete control, not allowing a batter to reach base in the 6th and 7th innings. By the 7th inning, though, he looked to be quickly running out of gas but managed to finesse his way to a victory, like a crafty, veteran ballplayer.
After the game, I overheard one of the Ashton’s coaches say to Andy, “I hear that’s three of the last four championships you’ve won.”
Andy ended his CYO career in high style. Once he turns 21, he’s no longer eligible to play in this league.
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