I admire any life well-lived, and I thank you for sharing your dad's story.

Other than that, keep your head up, Alex. I hope what I said before helps. It's a tough road you're travelling on now, but there are rest stops and junctions along the way, and you know we all got your back. Do your thing, and God Bless you all. >;)

Five remembrances that Buddha taught us to meditate on each day.

1) I am of the nature to grow old; there is no way I can escape growing old.

2) I am of the nature to have ill health; there is no way I can escape having ill health.

3) I am of the nature to die. There is no way I can escape death.

4) Everything that I value and cherish today, I shall in the future have to be separated from.

5) My only true inheritance is the consequences of my actions; of body, speech, and mind. My actions are the ground on which I stand.

You have my deepest sympathies.

My Father had a stroke three years ago and now is suffering the early stages of Parkinson's. Thanks for you loving tribute to your Father, I hope, when that day comes (in the distant future) I can remember him with as much poise and love as you have. Thanks for sharing your personal pain - truly a beautiful thing.

All the best.

Mike

I lost my dad back in '93. Even after all this time, there are still some tough moments. The sadness of loss and the pain of missing him will always be with me, but more and more I think of the good times and just smile. The weird thing is the number of things I'd like to ask him now that I never thought to ask him when we were together. I guess that's true of everyone.

I sometimes look at my kids and wonder what they will remember when I am gone. There's no user's guide to parenthood, so we do the best we can do. I know being a father has helped me understand my Dad a little more than I did when I was a struggling kid. I wonder if he would understand me a bit more now at this point in life. Who knows.

You've got a lot of friends here, Alex. Use us when you need us.

Hang in there,
Zack

Just as an FYI, according to Retrosheet/B-R.COM, Murcer's game winning homer against the Birds in the early eighties wasn't an extra-inning job, but DID happen in the bottom of the 9th
http://tinyurl.com/2tco2b

Other Yankees DID hit game-ending E-I homers against the Orioles in the early 80s, but Murcer wasn't one of them ... (Nettles, Dave Revering, Butch Wynegar)

(sorry, I'm a huge Murcer fan) ....

But back to more serious matters .... I feel awkward thinking of paying my condolences to someone I've never met in person, but I just might tonight.

Thanks for sharing ....

My fist pro baseball game ever was at The Stadium in '81: Yanks Vs. Orioles with my dad and sister. I don't speak with either much anymore, but that is a fond memory nonetheless.

On a sidenote, I can still recall fans in the rightfield seats throwing money (mostly coins and dollar bills) at Reggie while he was playing the field, and, in true Reggie fashion, him picking up the bills and pocketing them.

Luis Venitucci

Read a little C.S. Lewis:

"For the trouble is that one part of you is on His side and really agrees with His disapproval of human greed and trickery and exploitation. You many want Him to make an exception in your own case, to let you off this one time; but you know at bottom that unless the powers behind the world really and unalterably detests that sort of behavior, then he cannot be good (in the sense of indulgent, soft or sympathetic). On the other hand, we know that if there does exist an absolute goodness it must hate most of what we do. That is the terrible fix we are in.

If the universe is not governed by an absolute goodness, then all our efforts are in the long run hopeless. But if it is, then we are making ourselves enemies to that goodness every day, and we are not in the least likely to do any better tomorrow, and so our case is hopeless again. We cannot do without it and we cannot do with it. God is the only comfort, He is also the supreme terror: the one thing we need most and the thing we most want to hide from…Goodness is either the great safety or the great danger -- according to the way you react to it…

If you look for truth, you may find comfort in the end: if you look for comfort you will not get either comfort or truth -- only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin with and, in the end, despair."

And that is what Buddhism deals with: despair.

Sounds to me that your Dad had made friends with that absolute goodness, probably through his Jewish roots. Keep it in the family, Alex.

And just think - only 28 days until pitchers and catchers. Life goes on.

http://tinyurl.com/2jnwoc

ACLU Urges Baseball Hall of Fame to Let the Show - and Democracy - Go On (4/18/2003)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW YORK - In a letter sent today to the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum, the American Civil Liberties Union urged president Dale Petroskey to reconsider his decision to cancel a 15th anniversary celebration of the movie "Bull Durham" because stars Tim Robbins and Susan Sarandon have spoken out against the war in Iraq.

I hope my return to baseball isn't premature Alex. Hope you are hanging in there.

That game when Bobby Murcer hit the game winning homer, indeed it was the ninth inning. I'm pretty sure he was pinch-hitting and it was my first experience with the earth-shaking thunder of Yankee stadium. As Murcer strode to the plate, the crowd was booming "BOBBY! BOBBY! BOBBY!" and then he popped one over the right center field wall and the place went balistic and I remember looking at my dad like it was somehow his doing and he was smiling so big and nodding his head saying to us boys 'yup this is really as wonderful as you think' Not because he was a Yankee fan but because he was a dad and his kids were in the middle of it.

A friend of mine said to me when he learned about our dad dying, he said, 'This is going to be difficult. Because no matter how nutty or curious your dad could be sometimes, he was your dad and he was the man you loved most on this planet. And that fact is what makes it such a powerful experience.'