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Mark Stone

All Part Of The Game




Only here can you get clobbered as badly as I did – and savor every last moment of it.

 

That’s what I thought about as I drove home after the 34th annual Vegas tournament last weekend.

 

Driving west through the desert, each glance up at the rearview mirror surprised me.

 

With each glance, I glimpsed a glowing, post-tourney grin wide across my face.

 

‘Ok, enough of that,’ I’d think, shaking it off and replacing it with my every day, stoic game face.


But just a few minutes later, I’d glance back at the rearview and there was that grin again! And then my wife asks, “What are you smiling at?”

 

“I can’t believe I pitched two games out of four, got totally lit up, and now I’m grinning like a kid?”

 

We laughed. Exactly right.

 

Surely that sobering thought will straighten me out, I reason. But, spying myself again in the rearview mirror just moments later, that damn grin is painted across my face again.


I can’t count the earned runs I gave up but I’m driving home happy – how do you explain that old man?

 

That’s the question I asked myself and then my wife. We discussed it during the long ride home, which seemed to pass in no time.

 

It’s the feel of your cleats chewing into the well-groomed mound. The sweat, the pine tar, the pop the ball makes after whipping past a swinging bat and hitting the catcher’s glove.

 

It’s the clapping from my buddies on the field and their voices urging me on: “Two down now, Stoney! You’ve got this.”

 

And then, they're throwing good-natured jibes at the opposing team who are all our buddies too.

 

The crack of the bat, the bounce of the ball, the beautiful, poetic mayhem it triggers across the infield.

 

‘So, why can’t I smother out this grin on my face?’ I ask myself time and again.

 

And then the answer occurs to me:

 

Because I spent the weekend at the annual Vegas tournament – and this fall I get to do it all over again and for a whole week at fantasy camp.

 

If you’ve been there, then you know that rare joy I felt. If you haven’t, then it’s an experience you owe yourself. I hope you’ll be there to share it with us at camp this November!




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