The Soundtrack of My Summer from Baseball, Life, and Other Stuff

The Soundtrack of My Summer

If you have ever experienced a strong emotion or witnessed a particularly striking scene only to have the exactly appropriate song begin to play on the car radio or some other source, you know that can be an interesting, even eerie feeling. It's as if your life has suddenly become a movie and you're listening to the soundtrack.

This happened to me as I was leaving New Market on the morning of August 8th, after seeing the last few players turn in their uniforms and saying a final good-bye to Vic Moyers, the Rebels' bus driver.

The song was Paul Anka's "Times of Your Life." It begins . . .

Good morning, yesterday.
You wake up and time has slipped away.
And suddenly it's hard to find
The memories you've left behind
Do you remember the times of your life?

. . . and ends with,

Gather moments while you may
Collect the dreams you dream today
Remember, will you remember
The times of your life.

You know, you can't make up that kind of stuff.

I already have this odd sense, that this past summer, was a dream. It was too wonderful to have really happened, but then I look at the photos from Al Smith and Melissa Dodge and Anna Kipps and I realize that it must have been real. I mean, after all, there I am, in some of those pictures.

I told the players the first evening that they met as a team on May 31st that my goal was to write a book that they would be happy to pull off the shelf 50 years from now and read to their grandchildren about one of the best times of their lives. Turns out that gathering their moments was one of the best times of my life.

Photo courtesy of Melissa Dodge
Must have been real: There I am at the Old-Timers' Workout.

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Used with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission. - From Baseball, Life, and Other Stuff by Austin Gisriel