2008 Woodie Awards
More than just a sport
Ben Nielsen
Issue date: 4/13/07 Section: Sports
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When people find out I like sports, I typically receive this question: Which sport is your favorite? I give them a quick answer: baseball. Some then ask me, "Why baseball?" and I give them a name: Mike Morris.
Morris stands about five-feet, six-inches tall with the right shoes on and looks like he could use one of those Miami Beach diets. He is partially bald and suffers from gadget syndrome (the need to buy every gadget known to man). His wife is about four inches taller than he is and is not going bald. This, everyone agrees, is a good thing.
While no one knows who Morris is, it should be known that he and his brother are, supposedly, the smartest persons in the world. If Mike does not know the answer to a question, his brother most certainly knows the answer to it.
Morris is easily the most influential person in my life. While his head is balding, to me, it is flourishing with the white hair of a wise and learned scholar. Though his stature is short, his presence seems gigantic. It is weird how someone's appearance in another's life can be completely altered by the contribution of that person.
But I would have never known Morris if it were not for one silly game: baseball.
Acting as my little league baseball coach and father to my best friend, I do not want to imagine my life without Morris. There is no number that could calculate how many lessons I have learned from him through baseball.
I distinctly remember all of the conversations about the Kansas City Royals (back when they only lost 80 to 90 games) on the way back home from practice. I was in his car when I heard that George Brett was retiring. Morris was my coach when I hit my first home run and he was there every Sunday teaching Sunday School. He taught me the advantages of the "squeeze play" and informed me of the values of "thinking." I have had many other coaches in many different sports, but none of them measure up to Morris.
This is why sports are so valuable to a community. Why they are so cherished in many different individual's lives. It is not so much about winning and losing, it is about who you won and lost with and how you did it. It is about growing as a person in a different world.
Baseball is a perfect world to grow in.
I look forward to every new season. I look forward to every new lesson that will be learned (like not pitching a guy who's last name sounds like "Risky" in the ninth inning) and re-living lessons of the past (never count on Mike Sweeney being in the line-up for a full season). But most of all, I look forward to hanging out with people and the car rides back home with Mike.
Morris stands about five-feet, six-inches tall with the right shoes on and looks like he could use one of those Miami Beach diets. He is partially bald and suffers from gadget syndrome (the need to buy every gadget known to man). His wife is about four inches taller than he is and is not going bald. This, everyone agrees, is a good thing.
While no one knows who Morris is, it should be known that he and his brother are, supposedly, the smartest persons in the world. If Mike does not know the answer to a question, his brother most certainly knows the answer to it.
Morris is easily the most influential person in my life. While his head is balding, to me, it is flourishing with the white hair of a wise and learned scholar. Though his stature is short, his presence seems gigantic. It is weird how someone's appearance in another's life can be completely altered by the contribution of that person.
But I would have never known Morris if it were not for one silly game: baseball.
Acting as my little league baseball coach and father to my best friend, I do not want to imagine my life without Morris. There is no number that could calculate how many lessons I have learned from him through baseball.
I distinctly remember all of the conversations about the Kansas City Royals (back when they only lost 80 to 90 games) on the way back home from practice. I was in his car when I heard that George Brett was retiring. Morris was my coach when I hit my first home run and he was there every Sunday teaching Sunday School. He taught me the advantages of the "squeeze play" and informed me of the values of "thinking." I have had many other coaches in many different sports, but none of them measure up to Morris.
This is why sports are so valuable to a community. Why they are so cherished in many different individual's lives. It is not so much about winning and losing, it is about who you won and lost with and how you did it. It is about growing as a person in a different world.
Baseball is a perfect world to grow in.
I look forward to every new season. I look forward to every new lesson that will be learned (like not pitching a guy who's last name sounds like "Risky" in the ninth inning) and re-living lessons of the past (never count on Mike Sweeney being in the line-up for a full season). But most of all, I look forward to hanging out with people and the car rides back home with Mike.
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