Oh Captain! My
Captain! Reflections of a Hero
We all know
the story of Neverland and its famous residents. Peter Pan, Tinkerbell, and the
Lost Boys all call it home, and today I wish I did as well. If I lived in
Neverland I would never have to grow up. My childhood would be an endless loop
of current memories playing out over and over again in real time. What exactly does Neverland have to do with
baseball you ask? Let me explain.
Today,
September 24th, 2014, is a day I saw coming but never wanted to reach its
destination. Today was the day that Derek Jeter may have played his final home
game at Yankee Stadium. There is rain in the forecast tomorrow threatening to
wipe out the finale against the Orioles. I have been a lifelong Yankee fan, and
Derek Jeter became a part of my life at the age of 10. When you’re 10 years old
you don’t have a care in the world. Adulthood is so many exits away on the
highway it doesn’t matter how long the drive is. Take it slow, take it all in,
and most importantly, cling to adolescence as hard as you can for as long as
you can. I’m almost 30 now and adulthood is front and center sucking the life
out of me one day at a time. Gone are the days of Little League and Power
Rangers. So too are the days of playing outside until the street lights came on.
Everything I loved at age 10 was now an afterthought; everything except for
Derek Jeter.
Yankee fans
have some practice with having to let go of childhood idols. Last season it was
Mariano Rivera who bid us farewell, but this season it’s different. It’s Derek.
Maybe it was getting to see him play for 9 innings every day that made him
stand out more in relation to Mo. Either way, this one is going to hurt more.
The last remaining piece of childhood those my age had left will be no
more. The fight with adulthood was
pretty even, with just the slightest advantage to the opposition. However,
adulthood has now tired us out and is ready to deliver the knockout punch.
This is
where Neverland comes in. If I could live there the end wouldn’t be near. I
could continuously live out opposite field base hits, jump throws, The Flip,
and The Dive. I would never grow old and neither would Derek Jeter.
The sad part
is, just like every other place we wish we could be, or every other path we
wish we could have taken in life, its wishful thinking. We grow up, players
grow old, times change, it’s inevitable and there’s no stopping it.
I could go
on and on about the stats, the championships, and the class, but we all know
full well about that. This isn’t about that. This is about a hero going out on
his own terms and taking a piece of all of us with him.
“Never say
goodbye because goodbye means going away and going away means forgetting.” This
quote from Peter Pan is as good of a way to wrap things up as any. We will not
be saying goodbye Derek because we refuse to let you go away or be forgotten.
You may not be on the field again starting a baseball game after September 28th,
but you will forever be starting in our hearts and in our minds. “Heroes get
remembered, but legends never die.”
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