By Josh:
Last night I got the chance to return to Salem, OR, where I lived for almost 8 years and is where the 9 Inning Know It All Empire began. I honestly don’t remember the last time I made the two hour drive to watch a Salem-Keizer Volcanoes game, but as soon as I pulled in it felt like I hadn’t missed a day.
I remembered the three straight summers where I didn’t miss a home game. I remembered the young players I got to meet; Joe Panik, Mike Murray, Mike Zunino, Hunter Renfroe and more. I even remember and cherish my chance to meet some legends of the game; Lee Smith, Bobby Doerr, Tommy Lasorda. I remember and feel all of the ballpark food that I consumed over those three years. I remembered the people I met and the dreams I had.
My dreams included working in baseball full time. I still have that dream, and would move in a heartbeat for a full time baseball job, but now that dream is accompanied by other dreams and goals like passing on the love of baseball to my daughter and my soon to be 2nd daughter.
Baseball and the memories it is connected to in my life is interesting to me. My daughter’s first baseball game was a no hitter by the Mariners. The first time I got to throw out a first pitch was on Father’s day because my daughter was the youngest child in the crowd. I remember the 150+ games my daughter had gone to with me before she was 3 years old.
I remember back to when I was a kid and my dad coached me for quite a few years. I often drive by the little league fields I used to play on and I think back to the friends I made and the uniforms I wore.
Baseball is a great game for a lot of reasons; the strategy of the game, the team/individual aspects of the game, even the social aspect of being in the stand. However, it is the memories that are created in baseball that make it the greatest game in the world to me.
Make memories.