Well, yesterday was not a good day. Not to be negative, but we might want to get used to it. Very tough times are on the way, I fear.
To start with, four people I know closely and care about lost their jobs . That's a personal thing, but they're good people and sometimes that's not enough and I know that people you care about are in the same boat and even you might be in this boat.
It's awful.
And then the news from BG about the baseball program.
That's a wow. I'm terribly sad. I'll go into more about that in a second, but I don't want anyone to think those feelings are a criticism of what happened. These are incredibly difficult decisions and painful and they are going to come for a while. While it makes me sad, I am 100% supportive of the decision and the people who made it. I am sure that it was the right thing to do for the university.
I'm glad I didn't have to do it.
Think of the man who did. Bob Moosbrugger made an incredibly difficult decision for him as a person. A former BG baseball player, he may well have burned his relationship with all his teammates and fellow alumni. Some of them--or many--will view him as a traitor. He ended something he loved and I cannot imagine how many nights he spent staring at the ceiling over this.
These times are calling for true leaders. People who put their organization and the people they serve first. Who act with courage and purpose. Who shoulder burdens, not avoid them.
We have that kind of leader in our A.D.
I have so many memories of going to games at Stellar Field.
I can remember my Father taking me there--that's how long ago it was--and when I saw the programs in that little box they had at the top of the ramp, I was thrilled to find out they were "free." I'd be about 8 at this time. I remember seeing Paul Miles--my hero at that time--make what my Dad said was a "circus" catch in LF.
Later, after my Dad died, a family friend used to pick me up from the babysitter and take me to games. Later, I rode my bike out every day after school.
You couldn't keep foul balls but they gave out a twizzler when you brought one back so the kids raced each other to get them. Not me--I was too interested in the games. I was also slow.
In the older days, when the sun was out, some students would bring a keg of beer and sit in the stands with it. They'd verbal the opposing team...not dirty, but super funny and the other team's crowd would get into it. Good, clean fun.
I remember Larry Owen hitting a walk-off homer once. He was always doing that.
I saw Kip Young play. Hershiser. Larry Owen. Andy Tracy. I met John Knox once. I saw Jeff Jones pitch a bunch. I'm sure I saw Roger McDowell but I honestly don't remember that. Grant Jackson's nieces were my babysitter.
When I was in junior high, I used to hang around the bullpen. There was a backup catcher on the team named Ron Ullery and he was a Reds fan like me and he and the other pitchers and the guy spotting them would talk about baseball and they were very nice to me and made me feel really good and for all I knew at that time, they were major leaguers.
I worked the scoreboard a couple times.
You could really work the umpires over in that setting.
There were crazy days when the wind was blowing out and it was barely baseball.
It made me so happy. That's what I remember. I remember so much and there's probably more.
Now, of course, it has ended and that makes me sad. But we can't keep things alive for the sake of nostalgia. Real decisions have to be made for today's world and today's world is not a good place.
Danny Schmitz. He's the longest-serving coach in BG history of any sport. He's had great success. And he's beloved. In the community, by former players. He's a good man and I can't imagine how it feels today for him.
Same for all his former players. And current players. This is just awful all around, a true sense of loss for so many people.
I was thinking...the news came out earlier yesterday that the football team won't stay in hotels the night before home games anymore. It was hard to give a shit about that by the end of the day.
It was a rough day. Baseball was BG's first sport. If we're going to marshal one thing, we are going to need to make it our resilience.
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