Today was the playoff round for the high school girls baseball tournament with a 9 AM start. I took the morning off to enjoy a sunny but brisk few hours diamond-side.
The game started off great. 2-0 after an inning and a half. At this point I had started to notice someone I thought I recognized standing to my right. The beard and glasses looked familiar, but I haven’t seen this guy in person for maybe 30 years.
I continued to watch the game and glance over periodically, and then I noticed a Montreal Expos sweater. His family were die hard Montreal Canadiens fans so the odds were now that this was my guy.
I walked over and as I approached, called out his last name. “Pattison” he smiled back, and from there we talked through most of the game until the meeting I had to call in to at 10.
We were very close friends growing up, as were our parents. I remember many parties in their basement, playing basketball 21 and ball hockey in their driveway, as well as epic street hockey games well into the evenings with our friends from all over the city.
His step-daughter was also playing for our team, and he had told her similar stories I had shared with my girls about climbing the underground parking fence at their school to play hockey with our nets and equipment.
We played ice hockey together for many years, and remembered traveling tournaments like the one in Washington, DC. where we played street hockey in the underground parking while a fire was put out in the hotel.
We talked about our parents and siblings, shared man hugs and it was like our friendship hadn’t missed a beat.
The girls were knocked off in game 1.