How To Find a Lost Ball

Published: 2024-11-26

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Lost, Found & Back in The Game

Once upon a time, there was a ball—a baseball wrapped in shiny black electrical tape—it hid in the brush alongside a sandlot where a spirited neighborhood game had halted.

After a long search, the game ended. It was the only ball left.
The half-dozen east-end hooligans hosting the other-siders called for a rematch when a new ball was procured and dispersed to seek and cajole in search of another.

A Rainy Twist and a Homework Assignment

Rain ensued, and the PF flyers shod pee wees became indoor captives.
It may have been a tipping point as the rainy Saturday encouraged engaging in homework. In particular, the assignment was to write about the past weekend.

"My Lost Ball" Emerges on Paper

My Lost Ball fell out of my number 2 pencil onto the widely lined notebook pages, describing the chronological timeline of the lost ball.

Tracked from the boxed blazing white and red stitching to its black lopsided version where it hid in battered repose, My Lost Ball drew a B+ with an A+ for creativity and a D for penmanship and punctuation.

It wrote of the heartbreak of loss—as real as the weeds in which the ball sought refuge—to the prospect of coughing up another week's paper route earnings for a replacement.

A Moment of Realization

To this pen, My Lost Ball represents a watershed moment. My big leagues could come on paper if not grasses of big city stadia.

And it did, traveling from dollar-an-hour proofreading through C-Suite TV production roles, the skinny young body that began the trek is held together with euphemistic electrical tape today. However, my #2 pencil continues to erupt with the spirit of youth.

Rediscovering the Game with SportsEdTV

Ghosting golf, business, and even political messaging had fed my lifestyle tapeworm in the interim until an over-the-transom opportunity to ride content shotgun for SportsEdTV as its Editor pumped additional energy into my give-a-hoot meter.

The Birth of a Book Idea

To add to the burner, during an interview with a renowned golf author, while getting the get-to-know-you early-stage bio questions out of the way, the author flipped the question and began a deep dive into my experiences, ending with, “Well, why in hell don’t you write your book?”

That burst came after I’d spun a few of my favorite and usual ESPN birthing stories.

Writing About ESPN’s Early Days

I've always known that what I know and experienced during those pre-natal network days is fodder for a fun write.

My reluctance has been tied to my friendship and ongoing relationship with Bill Rasmussen, founder of ESPN, believing it has been his story to tell.

He has, in Sports Junkies Rejoice, written when the network was five years old, and another, he wrote recently, One Giant Leap for Fankind, tracing its growth.

During the network’s 25th anniversary, I wrote an essay for Connecticut Magazine, speaking to the courage of unheralded Connecticut people who were instrumental in seeing ESPN through the OBGYN visits and the incubator stage.

Getting the Green Light from Bill Rasmussen

“Why in the hell don’t you write that book?” percolated, bubbling over finally in a call to Bill, asking how he’d feel if I wrote about the unheralded ESPN midwives and accoucheurs.

“What a great idea. How can I help?” was his fast response. We collaborated. Bill’s eventual introduction to the manuscript is a welcome and full-throated approval.

ESPN Alumni at 45th Old Times Reunion

From Manuscript to Publication

Then a big-name publisher was lured into an agreement, I think by my teaser, that invoked romance, gambling, Bolivian marching powder, and other peccadillos along with courage and risk of ‘SPNauts™ who put their careers at risk to strap on to an industry rocket ride.

What I didn’t count on was how my heart sang and sunk daily as I reached out to those wonderful people who, if not close personal friends, were teammates.

Celebrating ESPN's Legacy

Some, sadly, are no more, and some inject a heartfelt buoyancy that is addictive.

The manuscript was delivered with a newspaper man’s appreciation for deadline and ESPN’s Early Days: Daydreams and Nightmares was published in the spring of 2024.

Later that year, My Lost Ball was seen rolling past ESPN’s mammoth campus, where hundreds of ESPN alumni gathered to celebrate the network’s 45th Anniversary, where I was the elder. Bill couldn’t make it.

The Story Continues

Ball bouncing continued the next day when moviemakers filmed 7 original ‘SPNauts for hours, telling and tattling so a screenwriting team would have a barrel of stories to turn into a script.

My Lost Ball keeps rolling, which means I’m still in the game.