When the bad weather hits, I always start missing playing ball more. I think about events from games last season, Pirate buddies, other guys around the league,knowing that somewhere else out there a cdmsbl guy is looking out the window from his office, staring blankly at the snow,wondering if he should have swung at that low and inside fastball that Ansel blew by him, or if he should have dove for that shot that Stark hit by him, or any other of a thousand events. Mostly now I think about my double play partner Jim Jordan.About what a unique character he was, on and off the field. He used to invite me up to his camp on Thompsons Lake in the fall , where we would talk quite a bit about baseball, and very little about anything else. He had a thousand theories on how to play the game better. Mostly, I would just listen to the guy who made baseball his life from as far back as he could remember. A few quirky things about him always fascinated me. I brought up a load of firewood on one of those fall week-ends.It was split and dry and ready to burn. Jim looks at it and says "it's too big. We'll have to split it all up more " . So we get out the axes and start splitting. Jim couldn't hit a single piece. I mean he would miss by 6 inches. I said "How can a guy who swings a bat so well swing an axe so bad ? " He said " I never swung an axe. I swing a bat for a living " . That summed it up right there. To him, baseball was his living, his life.I remember wishing I could be in that place where he was,where the primary reason for the daily grind we all face has somehow remained the desire to be back on the field. It seemed like he had the clarity in life that allowed peace of mind to settle in. Knowing other people that have left before their time,a common theme seems to reoccur . When you seem to have it all figured out, someone up there says " OK, you passed, on to the next level " . Jim did have it all figured out, I continue to wish I could be more like him. Ron
Along those same lines, I played in two Florida tournaments with Jim. Both in January. Whenever a player would express concern about being rusty, Jim wouldn't have any of it. He offered the same pat response: "We're professionals. We'll take our game on the plane."
Having played ball and golf with Jim for many years, I can attest to his dedication to sport in general and baseball and golf in particular. Jim P. hit the nail on the head when he said Jim J. was a nut... He gave me lots of laughts along the way. He also gave me the most stellar advice anyone has given me and reminded me about something that I lost sight of. While pitching in Florida in November a few years ago and warming up, I was jittery and my nerves were getting to me. Jim came up to me and reminded me that this was just a game and that I should relax and have fun with it. Whenever I think of him, those words come back to me... I also remember him on the golf course. It wasn't a complete round unless he could put some coin on the line... always a hustler on the golf course... always a smile and a laugh - not a bad way to go through life...
