Walking Through Hell in a Gasoline Suit
The Memo for May 30, 2025
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“I’d walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball.”
― Pete Rose
As a kid, I felt the way Pete Rose did about baseball. I loved it more than anything. I tried to play like he did, which means I was determined to try harder than everyone else. And, when I reached the right age enough to play Little League, fate led me to the perfect coach.
For someone who makes a living coaching people, I have a hard time thinking of myself as a coach. These days, it seems like everyone calls themself a coach. It has become cliche. My standards for calling someone coach are pretty high, and they were set by this guy, my Little League baseball coach.
Ed Hayes passed this month, a day or two before Major League Baseball finally reinstated Pete Rose. In the photo on the left, I was 12. The second was taken 36 years later, at the funeral home when we laid my mom to rest. He showed up at mom mom’s funeral.
He spent time with me. At the time, he had no idea how much I needed a good man like him in my life.
Playing for him during the three best springs and summers of my childhood made me better than I would have been otherwise at everything I have done since.
To me, that’s what it means to be a coach. If I’m coaching someone, for no matter what reason, I want the rest of their life to be better because of it.
Dignity (noun)
the quality or state of being worthy, honored, or esteemed
Journaling Prompt for May 31, 2025
Write about someone from your childhood who had a significant impact on your life.
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Very touched by this. I had similar men step into my life as a boy and in many ways re-parent me in the ways I didn't get at home. Recently I have been tracking them down and thanking them.