Many sports fans consider this to be the ultimate week of the year. A non-stop barrage of top notch events, crammed into about eight days. It starts with the Final Four, then MLB opening day before ending with the Green Jacket on the 18th hole at Augusta. I must say that I agree. In fact for me, this week will be hard to top. One day in particular. Saturday, April 3rd. The wife and I decided to get away to the in-laws place in Arkansas. (They are not originally from that uh…. wonderfully scenic part of the country, so when I have kids they should have all of their appendages and be able to grow more than one tooth)
That Saturday, I played 18 holes with my father in-law and managed to only lose 10 balls, hit two houses and lower my handicap from about 90 to 88. We followed that up by posting up on the couches and taking in the Final Four. Sometimes I live a truly charmed life.
In my line of work I run into the occasional sports celebrity but so far I’ve only been star struck twice. Mario Lemieux made my palms sweaty way back in the mid 2000’s and new I-Cubs manager Ryne Sandberg recently turned me into a nervous 12 year old kid with a dream and a pair of cleats.
The back story is this. I grew up idolizing #23 as he wowed the masses at Wrigley and I pondered my future beyond the cornfields of southern Minnesota. I am the biggest Twins fan I know but when it came to childhood heroes, it was always Ryno. I wore #23 in football and baseball. I pretended it was me roaming the right side of the infield when that tennis ball bounced off the house back to my glove, over and over, all summer long.
You forget about those moments as the gray creeps into your beard and one high paid, spoiled athlete after another slowly ruins your image of pro sports.
Now the circle of life brings me and Ryno together in Des Moines, and it’s my job to stick a mic in his face all summer long. Kids don’t grow up worshiping the manager, but my eyes will be locked in on the guy making the calls from the dugout for the next 6 months of my adult life.
