Live a Life

 

Broadcasting a lacrosse game featuring a Canadian team.
Now I'm hated in two countries.

So it was a long day into night.

From the podcast to the lacrosse game to "The Clubhouse."

Well, to be clear, I recorded the podcast but only partially edited it.

And I called the Hill Academy/Brunswick lax game but haven't edited that or uploaded it to the archive yet.

Same with "The Clubhouse." I made it to Mount Kisco with time to spare but I was basically a tornado from the moment I walked in.

Then we had dinner and I came back home.

Tomorrow will be similar, including teaching a session at CSB.

So, let's address Brunswick. It's a pretty huge honor to say I'm the play-by-play announcer for the team that was number one and is now (as of today, and it will go back up) 13th in North America.

That fact is irrelevant but it does make me smile. It's just good fortune to be associated with that kind of success.

In truth, in the long run, I'm literally a conduit. There is no ring for me if they win a championship nor will I host their banquet or even be invited. 

I'm the broadcaster. The "commentator." I know my role.

I occasionally get offered a hamburger.

Thus is the glory of what we do. We're with the team until we're not and, overall, we're disposable and I get that.

I've been along for four Greenwich football state championships. I was invited to host their ring ceremony once. They had one for the 2022 team a few months back and I knew nothing about it until I saw pictures later on.

This is the nature of the beast.

I bask in trying to do my best at what I'm there to do.

*****

With spring here, it's once again time for sports such as youth baseball, softball, lacrosse, and so on to take their rightful place. Parents across the land push their children who "want" to play these sports to do their things.

"Want."

There's such a deep inner malevolence to this. That's not to say there aren't kids who want to play. Oh, gosh, more do than don't. I did and, guess what? I wasn't truly an athlete. I was a kid of heart and, in the end, I'm where I belong.

But there are those parents who think the only way for their child to survive is to load them up with every sport and activity possible.

As opposed to, you know, maybe letting them just be kids.

Sean played baseball for five years. Then he decided to stop. He never returned to sports other than filming them or attending them.

I mostly let Sean be Sean. Overall it has worked and he's figuring his own life out.

I literally beg those who enable parents who live their kids' lives through social media to stop. 

Please stop enabling the behavior.

It's not cute and you're not helping.

This is a post I wrote just over a year ago and I think it's worth repeating.

Not every kid is going to be Aaron Rodgers. Not every kid will go in the NFL Draft. Some will watch it on TV. Everyone can have a purpose and still be a big part of this world.

And it's OK.