Back

 Back from yet another fine Baseball in Literature and Culture conference in Ottawa, on the Kansas side of KC. I talked this time about characterful characters of the game, players who were characters in the eccentric sense of the term but also possessed of character in the Greek sense (αρετη [aretê], excellence, virtue).

The school's prez was kind to give me an OU baseball cap just for driving so far to get there, I always joke about the half-dozen or so steps I used to take to present at the conference back when MTSU hosted it and my colleagues thought it amusing to schedule my talks across the hall in "Dining Room C" (they wanted me to submit a travel reimbursement request, just to mess with our administrative accountants). Couldn't do that now, DRC is now TBTV. 

It was good to reconnect with family en route, and my old college roomie, and the conference colleagues I look forward to seeing every March just before Opening Day. 

Morning keynoter Brad Balukjian, a biologist and fan who tracked down most of the aging athletes he found in an old 1986 Topps waxpack of baseball cards, was excellent and a lot of fun to hang out with at the pre-conference reception and post-conference Happy Hour. It was good of him to attend my talk. 

Lunch keynoter and Cooperstown Hall of Famer Andre Dawson was charming and funny. Wish he'd attended my talk too, and seen the slide that quoted Richard Ford's appreciation in The Lay of the Land:

“The kind of happy I was that day at the Vet when "Hawk" Dawson actually doffed his red "C" cap to me, and everyone cheered and practically convulsed into tears - you can't patent that. It was one shining moment of glory that was instantly gone…”

What a moment that must've been for old Frank Bascombe. But of course Frank is fictional. I caught Dale Sveum's foul ball in St. Pete in 1992, that was real life. (Dale was no Hawk, but he did eventually get to manage the Cubs.)

   

That first night in Ottawa was different, we stayed in an airbnb that used to be City Hall.

 

After Happy Hour we made our way up the road to Lawrence and dinner at Fields and Ivy. 

The next morning we spent a delightful couple of hours at the Truman Presidential Library and Museum in Independence...

(Did you know Harry loved baseball?)--

...followed by a late lunch at the best KC bbq I've had yet, at an unassuming little place down the street from Harry's old home called A Little BBQ Joint.

And then another overnight family visit, and finally home.

It's good to write this down, as it is to write up all of life's positive experiences. They get even better with each re-telling. 

And now, on the almost-eve of MLB Opening Day, it's can't-wait 'til next year!

What a fine time this is, early Spring! A renewal of life, you might think to call it.