I didn’t see it coming.
A Sunday visit with a neighbor who is deep in his bout with old age, including the physical ailments attached to it, took an unexpected turn as we walked out the door together. He stopped me and said in his worn-out, hard-to-hear voice ...
“A man was about to die and his friend asked him, ‘When you get to heaven, will you look and find out if there is baseball up there?’ The friend agreed. After his death, he came back to his friend and said, ‘I’ve got good news and bad news. The good news is there is baseball in heaven. The bad news is you are pitching on Tuesday!”
With that, the veteran of good times and bad, whose body struggles just to stand up, started laughing like he was back batting third in the lineup on his Little League baseball team. I joined him and for a moment, the challenges of life were benched for some levity and a temporary exit ramp that sports are so good at providing.
“It’s a step away from the hard, a step away from the stress and the mundane and you get to step into hopefully something exciting or thrilling,” said Bryce Lake, who spent nearly seven years at BYU working with crowd enhancement gurus like senior associate athletic director David Almodova on transforming the fan experience at LaVell Edwards Stadium.
“That had me wearing a headset and I was in communication with 15 to 20 different departments, often all at the same time — lights, sound, music, band, Cosmo, cheer, marketing, video board, PA announcer,” said Lake. “And at times, those things were firing at the same time and with people asking me questions.”
The chaos is real, but so is the payoff.
“The first time I came down after a game out of the elevator at the stadium, there was a mom and a little boy there. He was tired and she was holding him. I asked, ‘Did you guys have a good time?” The boy opened his eyes and said, ‘The best time!’ Things like that stick with you,” Lake said.
We love having “the best time,” which is why Cougar fans can hardly wait for the return of football. Singer Tom Petty described the waiting “as the hardest part.” Fortunately, there are plenty of things to do and watch between now and kickoff.
For the sports nut, June is like a day at the spa with all of the amenities — The Stanley Cup Finals begin Tuesday, the NBA Finals start Wednesday, BYU’s Jane Hedengren runs for two more national championships starting June 10. The World Cup begins June 11, the U.S. Open tees off June 15, former Cougar AJ Dybantsa is the projected top pick in the NBA draft on June 23 and the Cubs play 14 games at Wrigley Field.
Those are all big moments taking place in other places. Fortunately, a lot of “the best times” are right here in Utah at the ballpark, soccer field, golf course, pool or in the backyard where the McCanns have been playing the same game for generations. Being together with the people we love is truly what creates the best times.
It’s easy to want to rush through it all to get to kickoff of America’s favorite game, but as my seasoned neighbor reminded me with his joke about baseball in heaven, there is a time and a season for everything.
June is here! Let’s make the most of it. As the late Patti Edwards proselyted, “Live in the now” because there might actually be baseball in heaven where any one of us could be pitching on Tuesday.
Dave McCann is a sportswriter and columnist for the Deseret News and is a play-by-play announcer and show host for BYUtv/ESPN+. He co-hosts “Y’s Guys” at ysguys.com and is the author of the children’s book “C is for Cougar,” available at deseretbook.com.