One More Pitch: The Music Video!

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My lil' bear cub and me

Yesterday was a happy, happy day! I had the wonderful and profoundly moving experience of showing my daughter, Erin, the music video for One More Pitch, a song I wrote to celebrate her childhood and the joy of our Daddy and Erin times together.

Click here to read about the history and meaning of One More Pitch. You’ll find the lyrics to One More Pitch at the bottom of this post.

I am forever indebted to my very good friend Jeffery Goodson for writing the music to go with my lyrics and for doing such a beautiful job of putting this video together. That’s Jeff with the guitar at the start of the video.

All the home movie footage and photos are

The Joy of Being a Baseball Fan

Can “sports” and “spirituality” coexist in the same sentence? Absolutely! The adrenaline rush from an exciting game stirs something important in our souls, inspiring us to work harder and reach higher in our own lives.

When the Minnesota Twins made their playoff run in 1987, eventually becoming World Series champions, the entire state of Minnesota was emotionally sky-high for a full month. People were happier, more outgoing, more likely to strike up a conversation with a perfect stranger. After Game Seven of the World Series, I’ll never forget watching everyone outside the stadium celebrating, laughing and hugging each other—people they had never met before! I saw one guy high-fiving people from his car as he drove by. Even now, the memory of that time brings a smile to many a Minnesotan.

As that magical season unfolded, I wrote a tribute to the team called The Miracle Twins and followed that up with Thanks to the Twins after they disposed of the St. Louis Cardinals in seven games in the World Series. Fittingly, before the season had started, I had written a parody called Hrbek at the Bat, which was later published in

Dad

I was fresh out of high school when I wrote a couple of non-autobiographical song lyrics to the tune of Charlie Daniels’ Uneasy Rider. One of those lyrics is called Dad. That was over thirty years ago, and there are some dated references to be sure, but it still holds up pretty well.

The second lyric is called George. I have a soft spot in my heart for these two songs and always wanted to share them with others. This blog gives me the perfect opportunity to do just that. Hope you enjoy them!

 

DAD

Early last week, I caught a ride back to town,
It’s been quite awhile since I’ve been around,
And the first place I stopped was my Dad’s corner store.
For some strange reason, I felt out of place,
But he was awfully pleased when he saw my face,
He said, “I’ll be right with you, son, as soon as I’m done sweepin’ the floor.”

I said, “I came all this way to see you again,
And all you can give me is a

George

I was fresh out of high school when I wrote a couple of non-autobiographical song lyrics to the tune of Charlie Daniels’ Uneasy Rider. One of those lyrics is called George. That was over thirty years ago, and there are some dated references to be sure, but it still holds up pretty well.

The second lyric is called Dad. I have a soft spot in my heart for these two songs and always wanted to share them with others. This blog gives me the perfect opportunity to do just that. Hope you enjoy them!

 

GEORGE

George was the neighborhood junkie and our baseball coach,
You never saw him without a bat or a roach,
He was a few years older than us but he had our respect.
But one day when he cried, “Guys, let’s pick teams,”
His pupils were burstin’ apart at the seams,
When he collapsed in the dirt, we all knew he was pretty well wrecked.

With a bat in hand and a glazed look in his eyes,
He yelled, “Out in the field, I’ll

What Happened to the Child?

Many a bewildered parent has wondered how their bright, cheerful grade-school daughter could turn into a sullen, depressed teenager virtually overnight. Clearly, twelve-year-old girls face a tremendous amount of pressure from society, their peers, and themselves. Many girls feel that they cannot perform well academically and still be attractive to boys. And then there is the wholly unattainable Barbie doll model of feminine attractiveness that shreds girls’ self-esteem and spawns potentially fatal eating disorders.

Our Daughter’s Eyes

My little bear cub

When my daughter was three, a terrifying thought struck me: If something happened to Kate and me, Erin wouldn’t even remember us! In my view, that would be a tragedy of epic proportions. She was the center of our world and the joy of our lives. I couldn’t stand the thought of someone else raising Erin and her having no memory of the parents who loved her more than life itself.

I couldn’t get that thought out of my head, and finally had to express it on paper. The result was a song lyric called Our Daughter’s Eyes. I worked on it quite a while before I was satisfied that I had given it my best effort.

Fast-forward six years. I was so impressed with Dr. Bernie Siegel’s landmark book, Love, Medicine & Miracles that I sent him a copy of Our Daughter’s Eyes because I thought it was in sync with the subject matter of the book. Bernie wrote back to say that he couldn’t read it without crying and wanted to include it in his next book. I happily agreed.