Sitting in the quietude of Anaheim Stadium overlooking a darkened field with only the grounds crew and a few family members lingering, I felt a light bulb go off in my head.
Moments earlier, Vlad Guerrero hit his 399th and 400th home runs. Kendry Morales didn't have such a bad day either with two of his own. The Rays Jason Bartlett came up a single short of the cycle and his Tampa Bay team lost a thrilling 8-7 game against the Angels. To complete the spectrum, former Foresters player Matt Garza had a terrible day, one that had him ending up throwing things in the dugout.
To me, baseball was only part of what I tell my wife Munch was "a day and a half."
With two decidedly different projects going on-one, interviewing major and minor leaguers about their memories of playing with the Santa Barbara Foresters baseball team. The other, a tale about my cousin's original birth father who was a spy and covert operations specialist for the O.S.S.-the precursor to the CIA.
August 10, 2009 was a day that awed me in two senses, the first about the tale of my cousin's family just because it seemed so improbably. The second, about the awe in the form of physical prowess that caused this writer to gasp not once, but twice.
The fact that I have the privilege to write about them both in the present and the near future has awakened a spirit that lay dormant while writing meaningless pieces that paid bills, yet inspired none. All the while, being able to talk shop with the likes of former New York Times sportswriter and current Sports Illustrated writer Lee Jenkins and discuss cycling with Tampa Bay manager Joe Maddon.
And lastly,I was not only able to interview someone (in this case Garza) who didn't particularly have a good day, but managed to get him to smile when getting him to think about something other than the game. Okay, the last thing is a bit over-the-top indulgent, but it's my blog after all.
In short, today was a pretty damn good day for this journalist.
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