I have a 12 year old son, Maximus, who plays travel baseball. He’s
a good kid, he loves playing. This travel baseball thing is sorta
crazy. You go all over the place so your kid can play a sport that
generations in the past played in the schoolyard with their friends.
I was against it at first with my older son, but damn it, my wife was
right on this one. It turned out pretty well. And get this: There is
no other place to play, so everyone is doing it. So, if you want your
kid to play, pay up and get ready to go all over the place so he
can’t sit on his butt playing video games.
My oldest son played
travel ball for many years and now the 12-year-old is playing. Each
team that my sons have been a part of has always had some drama going
on. Either a coach sucks and is an asshole, or you have a parent or
two that doesn’t fit in at all and thinks their kid hung the moon and
his next step is to play at Yankees Stadium. Well, I am pleasantly
surprised with the team that Max is on. No shitty parents, no shitty
coaches. I get along with everyone, and that’s saying something for
me.
I have a tendency to go
off by myself and be antisocial and sit way in the outfield all by
myself. I have been around this stuff for many years and usually the
best bet for me is to distance myself from anyone. Keeps me away from
all of the BS. I used to bring a book and just look up when my son
was batting. Who really cares, anyway? The kids should just have fun
and get better and learn to play the game correctly. For one game a
few years ago, I sat so far back in the woods that I was in a
honeysuckle bush. With this team I actually converse and I smile and
stuff. I wouldn’t mind if every parent had to stay home or very far
away where the kids can just play and have fun, but I don’t see
that happening anytime soon.
A few months ago, the
team traveled to Rehoboth, Delaware for a tournament. The first
night, all the parents met up for drinks and dinner and everyone
began partaking of these orange crush drinks that this particular bar
is famous for. You can barely taste the alcohol in the drink and
before you know it you have had seven of those wonderful things and
you are propositioning the crossing guard on the way back to the
hotel. It was a good time. One parent wasn’t there, however – one
of the boy’s fathers.
The next day, I
approached the father and asked him what he did the night before.
“Oh, I went to the gym,” he said. Immediately, I was curious and
fired up. I had already gotten all of my training in for the week, so
I didn’t feel a pang of guilt that I drank 7 crushes while he
trained, but I was very impressed with his dedication. I had to find
out more.
Turns out, he had an
awakening of sorts one day in November of 2023. At age 51, he decided
to get back to the gym. He had trained with weights when he was
younger, and also boxed, but as obligations piled up in life, he
drifted away from the gym. He had cut out alcohol a year before and
felt better, so he took the next step and cut out the junk in his
diet and began lifting weights again, going to a local gym. In
November of 2023, he weighed 280 pounds. On July 10, 2024, he weighed
220 pounds.
When he reentered the
gym, he focused on the barbell basics – squats, benches, and
deadlifts. He also threw some machines in there along with some
dumbbells. I wasn’t surprised that he went right in and did the
basics. Because when he was training in the gym in the old days,
everyone did the basics. For one, some gyms had no machines and some
gyms had a lat pulldown and maybe a leg press and leg extensions and
leg curl. There simply weren’t a lot of machines around back then.
And machines were an afterthought, really. Everyone knew that the
barbell was the way to get big and strong.
When he got back to
training, right away he said that he felt the love of the iron coming
back. I was envious of the “new beginning” feeling that he was
going through, where every training session is better than the one
before, where you can’t wait to get back into the gym for your next
session. That feeling when you notice that your arms fill out your
shirt a little more. You feel stronger just walking around, and it
happens very fast. It’s a magical thing, and it only happens with
strength training.
We discussed the
phenomena we experience called the “lifting high” after a tough
workout, and how you feel when you walk out of the gym like you can
conquer the world. He talked about how much he loved that feeling,
how it was addictive.
Each time I’d see him
at games, we’d start talking about his progress. I have a tendency
to get really excited when I talk about training and eating and
programming, so I probably talked his ear off. He asked me some
questions and I gave him a little advice, had him increase some carbs
on some days and then talked about some theories on training and
programming. He said he felt like a new man, that he felt amazing now
that he was going to the gym and how it was changing his life. He
told me what a great stress relief the gym gave him after working
long hours as a union official. We all know about Iron Therapy and
how problems disappear as soon as we get under the bar or feel that
knurling in our hands.
A few weeks ago, the
team had a tournament in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Besides the
11-hour ride from hell to get there, and the 9-hour ride back, it was
fun. He and I trained together for a few days. The gym we found
charged 25 bucks for the week. Think of what you’d pay in New York
City for a week at a gym. He did great. He had his amino acids mixed
in a shaker cup and his cutoff sleeveless shirt, and he was ready. He
trained very hard and we did set after set together. He was into it,
dedicated and committed. Again, I was impressed. He has a new life,
really, getting stronger and better daily.
I had a professor in
junior college who was always telling me that I would one day need to
switch to a “lifetime sport” like tennis and golf, that weight
lifting is a dead end as you get older. I remember him being quite
adamant about it. That was in 1985, and I often think about what he
said. At 56, I still haven’t swung a tennis racquet or a golf club.
Nothing against those sports, but the iron still beckons me and as
long as I use my head with the programming, I don’t see any reason
why weight training can’t be an activity that can be done for a
lifetime. And hell, don’t you want to stay as strong as you can for
as long as you can?
I really love when
someone makes a turnaround in life. It ain’t easy to get going all
over again, to have the discipline to just say, “Okay, that’s
enough, time for a change,” and then do it and stay with it. How
inspiring is that? Those kinds of stories show that it’s all about
what you decide your path is going to be in life, and it also shows
that it’s never too late to make a drastic life change for the
better.
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