The Don't Blink Zone: Fat Baseball Players

"Like they say, it ain't over till the fat guy swings." -Phillies catcher Darren Daulton on stocky first baseman John Kruk

In my efforts to step back and savor what is right in front of me, I realized it doesn't all need to be life changing or altering revelations. You know, some things that you take for granted probably have always made you smile, but maybe you just never took the time to slow down and REALIZE you were actually smiling. In that spirit, I have taken to carrying a small notebook with me to jot down some of these times when I catch myself grinning. In doing so, something came into focus. That there are many SIMPLE things that give me satisfaction that just weren't obvious to me....funny how one's definition of "obvious" changes when you slow down and take the time to recognize it. So, welcome to the "Don't Blink Zone", a place where I will share some of my newly apparent simple pleasures.

#1 - Fat Baseball Players

I just returned from a long weekend in Clearwater, Florida where I experienced my own little piece of heaven....baseball spring training. There are some things that I have ALWAYS recognized as making me happy to be at a ballgame: sunshine, green grass, heckling an ump, hot dogs, beer and yes...Crackerjack (by the way, the lack of "cool" Crackjack prizes anymore does NOT make me smile). But I realized that there was something else that gave me IMMENSE, no pun intended, satisfaction at a ballgame. Something that I was able to identify that gave me a quiet, and even a little unnerving sense of happiness at the ball field....fat baseball players.

Why is it that on the rare occasion a rotund ballplayer emerges from the dugout...I find myself smiling? Just to be clear, not laughing in a disrespectful sense, but more of a satisfied chuckle. Now that I look back, I have to admit that fat ballplayers have ALWAYS made me happy. I can even say I have an all-time favorite plus-sized model...John Kruk of the Phillies, and now of ESPN's "Baseball Tonight". But I never really identified WHY it was that an overweight major league baseball player would put a smile on my face. Seriously, shouldn't the pretty boys of baseball, the Derek Jeters and Chase Utleys, be responsible for the grins on female fans across America? And wouldn't a chuckle at an overweight person be considered rude in most other venues? Mullet aside, the Krukker made me smile because he was an anomaly. He didn't look like an athlete, he certainly didn't act like an athlete, he didn't even profess to be an athlete. Yet there he was, occupying first base for the Philadelphia Phillies as a founding member of the 1990's "Macho Row", and pulling in a hefty salary doing so. It was as if his presence on the diamond was a way to thumb his nose at the establishment, defy the odds, and even proclaim "I ain't no athlete lady, I'm a baseball player". Hey, he even titled his autobiography that (a SMART mullet headed, fat ballplayer at THAT! I might have been in love).

So, while in Clearwater watching a ballgame, I took a few moments to ponder WHY an overweight ballplayer might be the reason for that grin on my face. And this was my conclusion that I jotted down in my handy notebook. A fat baseball player gives me a sense of joy because he defies the odds, he is successful at something that society thinks he shouldn't be successful at, he breaks the mold of how we view "athletes", he is the proverbial under dog. As if this isn't enough, he pulls this all off while rocking a pair of unforgiving polyester baseball pants that no overweight man should probably wear in public, let alone in front of a national viewing audience. These realizations give me hope. Give me motivation. Give me a sense that anything is possible. And it definetely gives me a smile. Simple pleasures aside, please don't ask me to share the prize in my bag of Crackerjack, allow me to loudly educate the ump on his missed calls, let's PLAY BALL, and always remember it's never over til the fat guy swings!

Don't Blink,
K