Three Run Jimmy Jack

Yesterday my baseball team, the Zephyrs, played at SBC Park in San Francisco. I played 2 innings in right field, 2 in left field and pitched a scoreless top of the 9th. At the plate I K'ed, hit a 2-out RBI single up the middle, then got hit by a pitch. I can see the ball's laces in the bruise on my thigh.

There are certain places a person is in life where they won't be again. I doubt if I'll ever be pitching in Pac Bell Park again. I'm getting too old and too sore to play baseball. But a few weeks ago we played a team whose starting shortstop is 56 and starting second baseman is 60. How do they do it? We have a guy on our team who is 51 and going to have knee replacement surgery on both knees this fall. This was his last day out there too.

There are very few places on the earth more beautiful than SBC Park. Maybe nowhere built by man. The grass is perfect, the dirt is perfect, even the color and shape of the seats as viewed from the field are just about perfect. The only imperfect thing out there yesterday was the the players. And boy was that imperfection visible. I think we all knew the players who belong on a beautiful field like that are the Major Leaguers who play baseball about as well as it can be played. So it is a little bit of a fantasy to just be there, doing that. And it is once a year and costs us $250 each for that one chance to pretend we belong on a field that nice. They turn teams away every year.

I wonder where I'd be in life had I not become massively addicted to baseball? Maybe richer, certainly less injured. Smarter? Happier? Probably not. Life after baseball will be starting soon, I am going to need other hobbies. I was thinking of getting into biking, it is something I can do.

I was born in January, 1966. January is not the greatest month to be born, especially in the midwest, where it is usually very cold. The good news is I have never gone to school or work on my birthday, the bad news is it is close to Christmas and people forget it. I like my un-birthday better, July 1. Exactly half way between birthdays for me. A week from Friday will be my un-birthday. I will be 39 and a half. 40 is closing in fast. That's when youth is officially gone. But, I enjoy the fact that right now in major league baseball there are 15 players older than me. Here they are:

1) Julio Franco
2) John Franco
3) Roger Clemens
4) Randy Johnson
5) Barry Bonds
6) Rafael Palmeiro
7) David Wells
8) Terry Mulholland
9) Jamie Moyer
10) Jeff Fassero
11) Pat Borders
12) Benito Santiago
13) Steve Finley
14) Roberto Hernandez
15) Kenny Rodgers

9 pitchers, 2 catchers, 2 firstbasemen, 1 center fielder and 1 left fielder. 4 are locks for the Hall of Fame, 2 are on the Mariners, 2 are named Franco. I wouldn't be surprised if I missed one or two others. Maybe 40 is just the new 30. I heard Howe Gelb say that 50 was the new 30, but that is just wishful thinking.