I was listening to the radio this morning. Frank Deford was doing a commentary on NPR about baseball, saying that baseball games are too long. It’s a subject that resonates with me. I recalled watching a baseball game where NY Mets ace pitcher Tom Seaver was facing St. Louis Cardinals ace pitcher…I was stopped right there. I could not recall the pitcher’s name[1]. Minutes passed still unable to pull his name from my memory. I wasn’t trying to remember some obscure name that never comes up except in a trivia contest. He was a star player by anyone’s definition. Nor was it the first time his name came up in this context. I’ve used this game, played in under two hours, as an example that modern baseball games do not have to drag on for three or even four plus hours.
Is this what getting old is like? Am I doomed to increasingly struggle to remember words and names? Or is this an early symptom of something truly nasty? Sigh.
[1] Bob Gibson, two time Cy Young Award winner, two time world series champion, nine time all star, National League’s most valuable player, elected into the hall of fame in his first year of eligibility.