7 time NL All star, 5 Golden Gloves, 64 NL MVP, 8 20 home run seasons, 2 100 RBI seasons…. Held the team right handed home run record until Albert Pujols in 2007. There is a reason the St.Louis Cardinals, a serious franchise, retired his jersey.
But to a certain somebody, what mattered? All of his baseball glory could fade away and he could be anyone else but the impact would have been just as important. He provided that figure of a adult that we all need but don’t all get. When you stand to face the tide of life, there are winners, losers…. And cowards.
Sports tells us a story of life. For Baseball, it’s 162 games or your little league season and the odds aren’t in your favor any day. Few times in anyone’s career is at bat more than a short trip or counting daisies in right field. In that way they all start to matter and everything in life is that chance and that full count, bottom of the 9th, runner on third is out there, somewhere, waiting for you.