Striking Out…


I often see life in terms of sports phrases.

Winning, Losing, A Game of Inches, Lost a Step,  Knocked It Out of the Park, Win one for the Gipper, the philosophy exemplified in the book I worked on with sportswriter Dick Schaap, “Winning Isn’t Everything It’s the Only Thing”, Tackling Life’s Ups and Downs, Being on the Offensive, Pitching a Story, Hail Mary, Full-Court Press, Slam Dunk, Verbal Volleying, Monday Morning Quarterback, Ball Is In Their Court…I could go on and on.

I was seriously excited to start spending my afternoons filled with baseball and my beloved NY Yankees.

Yesterday, all personal activities were scheduled to  cease at 4pm which is game time on the west coast and then, unceremoniously, the game was dumped early Monday morning due to a Corona outbreak involving another baseball team.

So instead of flying high and getting ready to welcome the Yankees into my living room, I found myself striking out.

Soon after the ESPN game cancellation notification, I received a call from an unknown caller (I answered because of the Florida area code) asking me about house sitting our place in Florida.

Surprised by the apparently random call, I told him I loved the man who has been taking care of the place for decades…my parents were his first clients.

Bob was also a big NY Giants fan so we texted about all things good and bad relating to the football team.

The caller was so sorry to inform me that our trusted friend and housesitter, Bob Kaye, had just passed away from Covid-19.

Naturally, my thoughts ran to Queen E.

The news hit me hard…so many of those my mom knew have departed, sensing the distance between us increasing😥

The tears welled up and kept on coming yesterday as I thought about Bob and then watched tributes to Regis Philbin and John Lewis.

Damn it…I abhor loss in the game of life.

2 Comments

  1. Toby,
    So sorry, I didn’t know that Bob house sat for you. Unfortunately his wife passed within a week of him. It was so sudden.
    I know a great gal if you need a house sitter… She does lots of homes here and has a great reputation. If interested let me know. I don’t know if she would be interested but
    you can always call her if you want.
    We have all been experiencing a lot of our friends passing during these trying times.
    Between Mr Orange, Corona and aging this has been the ” worstest” summer at HR
    It CAN ONLY get BETTER…
    Stay well …and safe…
    janet

  2. Ugh – so sorry for loss…

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