Woke Up, Fell Out of Bed

 

With Chris Erway, the closest among the many broadcast
partners I've worked with (2010)

There simply isn't time to wallow.

There's been time to think but the plan has been to remain on top of things. 

I'm grateful for those who reached out with realistic, constructive, brainstorming ideas. A few real estate agents have been talked to so far as we start the process of looking for a new home.

Mentally, it certainly has been a struggle, despite my trying to avoid wallowing. That being said, I have definitely blown off steam.

I saw a place last night that, per the interwebs, was new to the market. It was still in Greenwich and my only gripe was it didn't have a washer/dryer. I sent a note to look into it and not only was it not responded to but the listing was gone today.

So, yeah, that will happen and probably continue.

Much to my shock, I did actually sleep a little last night. I put my AirPods in my ears, put my eye mask on, and put my head down. 

SiriusXM has a station on their app that is called Night Noise. In short, they describe it as "From Ambient and Downtempo to White Noise and Nature Sounds."

This makes it easier to drown out whatever nonsense The Cat is up to.

A day later, I'm trying to come back to the mindset that everything is going to be OK. But I'm not going to lie: it felt very hard to believe, even into this morning.

But guess what? Life goes on. Thus, it was up to Stratford to teach this morning while still preparing for baseball in Cooperstown next week.

The group of students I had this time was very interested in learning play-by-play and I was more than happy to teach that. That meant "The School of Vin" was open for business. It felt good to let students break down some of Scully's best.

We ran out of time but I meant to play some more, including some things that I wanted them to offer opinions on.

It was also fun to be talking about broadcasting on what was the 25th anniversary of my first game broadcast on the radio.

I was raw, I made mistakes, and I learned from them. I listened to a little of it today during "Doublheader" and I cringed.

In fact, I actually broke out into a sweat. There wasn't enough detail for my liking.

But, as I wrote online today, I hope I've gotten better nearly 1,900 games later.

That also allowed me the chance to salute my friends from the days of working in corporate for PM/Kraft, and doing play-by-play for the softball league I played in.

As a result, I got comfortable and figured out that I could tell stories of a game. 

Eventually, I took that and became the lead at WGCH. I still hold that honor.

I can reflect on so many of those games, with names like Dave McClure, KC Cunningham, Michael Collins, Ryan Preisano, Anthony Volpe, Josh Breaux, and Gavin Muir being among the memorable moments.

The on-air partners start with Russ McCarroll in game one and stretch through Sean Kilkelly, Mark Rosen, Tom Kane, Ricky Fritsch, Mark Smallwood, John Spang, Chris Kaelin, and, of course, Chris Erway.

There are people behind the scenes such as Bob Small, AJ Szymanowski and Shawn Sailer (both of whom worked on the air with me as well).

There were others. Many. Too many to name.

And, of course, there was the audience. Always.

And the critics -- good, bad, and otherwise. 

And the support of family and loved ones.

And the people who weren't exactly supportive. They challenged me.

I still love doing it.

Thank you.