Sam Silver Blog post #2

Sam Silver

COM 241: Intro to Sound, Image & Motion

Blog Post #2

22 September 2014

The Game of a Lifetime

Word List:

·         Real, shock, premier, guardian, laces, mutant, professional, ideology, rainbow, light, awareness, twitter, hashtag, tweet, development, sports

On all other days Jericho could only imagine this moment. While his thoughts were organized, realistic, and incredibly vivid, they could not compare to the actual occurrence. Today, it was real. He was real. It was a shock to the system the first time the ball was hit to him in the first inning of opening day in the premier baseball league that he had never thought he could join. He was known as, “Showtime Jericho Kaline; the guardian of the third base line.” What started as a fun marketing tool turned into an alter ego of sorts which he used to allow himself to let go of his life while he was on the field. Showtime takes over his body as the batter laces a ball just over the bag. True to his name, the guardian dives to pick the ball off the hop with inhuman reflexes and manages to throw the runner out at first. “Oh lordy, is that kid a mutant or what? No way he could have seen that with human eyes.” The announcer says in amazement.

He gently floats back to reality when the inning ends and he returns to the dugout. It was great to know that he can hang with the professional players that he shared a locker room with. He now felt that this was less of a blessing incurred by some powerful ideology, but rather a natural progression of things based on his hard work. He had played for so long, for so many teams. He had worn all of the colors of the rainbow twice over by the time he landed in Baltimore and he couldn’t be happier to not have to change again. In light of his recent job all Kaline could think about was the stability he was finally able to provide for his girlfriend and their daughter. They had been more than accommodating of the dozens of moves that his job had required and, while they never complained, he had enough awareness to know that it was more difficult than they thought, more difficult than their lives should be, more difficult than he would ever allow things to be for them again.

Time did was time tends to do and quickly moved on in the months until Jericho saw a troubling post on Twitter. “Pride n Joy of Seedlerville, J. Kaline, to be moved to Tampa in 5 player deal.” It had the hashtag, “GuardingNewLines” included which made Jericho’s stomach sink. He couldn’t ask his family to move, not again, not so quickly. He enters the kitchen where his favorite girls are making chocolate chip cookies for the school bake sale that his daughter was so excited about. The words floated out of his mouth without any control, almost as if Showtime showed up and decided to take the punishment of this conversation for him. Silence filled the room. Jericho, reeling in uncertainty, could only stand and await the words that would come from the mouths of the loves of his life. His girlfriend seems as though she had been electrocuted but quickly regains her composure for the sake of her daughter. They talk through what would be best for her development and the role that sports would play in their family. Unable to convince her that this would be the last move of his career they decide that it would be best if he left them in Baltimore and they would figure things out while he was in Tampa. The specter loneliness loomed over his head like a dark cloud when he picked up the phone to call his agent. “I’m sorry, but you’re going to need to find a new client. No, it’s not you. It’s us.”