Over the past few months I have been mentally preparing for tomorrow. Tomorrow I turn 30. I admittedly found myself quite apprehensive about this fact. As I really began to examine and pray on why I was apprehensive I realized it was because I felt there were some gaps in my history. Particularly gaps in two areas of near lifelong interests of mine: Music and Major League Baseball.
Specifically, growing up, I inherited a lot of my parents cassette tapes when I was young. Music was my first love. I played many of these cassettes and wore them out, or they jammed in my cassette player, or accidentally got stepped on, etc. We have evolved technology wise into much easier and higher quality sounding recording mediums, but I have always had a sentimentality about cassettes. Therefore back in January, when I completed the building of my full retro stereo, I began purchasing some of the name brands and makes of cassette tapes on Ebay that my parents had used for recording the very albums I grew up listening to and enjoying. I then recorded the albums on those same cassette models using the tape deck I had purchased second hand. Thus, I filled in my history by recreating what I had back at age four, five and six, filing in my history and finding a strange peace in moving forward in life.
Now to my love for Major League Baseball. I didn’t develop this interest until the Autumn of 1995, due to the Cleveland Indians’ magical run to the World Series, and my Grandfather’s tutelage on what makes the game so great. However, my entire life I had always wanted to go back and learn about and see games that had occurred between 1987-1995, the eight years of my life that I didn’t follow the game. I used to always ask my grandfather “did people record games from back then?” and he would say “probably, but I don’t know who did.” I would always read stories about years like 1989, when the Loma Prieta Earthquake caused a ten day delay in the World Series, or hear people slightly older than me talk about classic playoff and World Series games in the early 90’s, and wish I had been able to see them. Heck, I even wished to watch games played by the Indians at Cleveland Municipal Stadium during that time, even though they were known to be horrible!
This past February I was on YouTube and happened to notice a playlist called “Classic MLB” and looked at it curiously. I saw in this list were links to tons of FULL baseball games from back in the late 80’s and early 90’s! My eyes lit up! Could I finally have that wish fulfilled? Sure enough, every game from the 1991 and 1993 World Series in on there! Footage from San Francisco in 1989 is on there! There are even some Indians games from back in the late 80’s and early 90’s posted there! So I have been filling in my history over the past three months, watching and enjoying those games! Seeing players like Lenny Dykstra, Dave Henderson, Joe Carter, Will Clark, Mitch Williams, Kirby Puckett, Terry Pendleton, Dennis Eckersley and even Indians players from the ‘bad years’ like Cory Snyder, Brook Jacoby, and Pat Tabler succeed and fail on the big stages, has been thrilling!
Somehow being able to fill in my cassette collection and take in classic baseball games as if they were live has given me peace. I don’t completely understand how or why, but I do know that back in December I was praying for God to give me peace over my upcoming 30th birthday. I never could have anticipated that this was the way He would do, but it has sure seemed to be the case! Matthew 6:8 tells us that our Father in heaven knows our needs before we even ask, and I can say with all honesty that I have seen this to be true in my life these last six months. So tomorrow, at 2:37pm, when I officially have been on this earth for 30 years, I can say I am at peace with it, and looking forward to what Jesus has planned for me in this next decade!
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