Big Jim
By ice rivers
- 1261 reads
Is there anything more profound and tragic than the humbling of a giant?
I’m talking about Big Jim.
Big Jim was a startling physical specimen at six foot four and a rippling 235 pounds. Big Jim had reflexes of lightning and peripheral vision of an eagle. Big Jim had the eye hand co-ordination of a Krupa or a Rich. Big Jim was a great teammate whose joy in the game was an inspiration for all.
When Big Jim came to bat, the third base coach backed up ten yards to try to avoid the laser shots ripping down the line. Baseball is one thing, survival another.
Big Jim progressed through the minor leagues like a meteor. Pitchers learned early that it was impossible to throw a fastball past Big Jim. Many tried and many failed.
Next came Uncle Charley, the curveball. Uncle Charley separates the men from the boys. Big Jim murdered the curve ball.
In the field, Jim had a rocket for a throwing arm and enough speed to cover more than his share of left field.
Big Jim destroyed the league in his last stop in Triple A ball. Clearly he was in the wrong league. While still a kid, Jim made it to the show where he immediately started to go yard.
If the ball was over the plate, fastball, sinker, curve, knuckler, slider, slurve or change up, Big Jim was ready willing and able.
It didn’t take long to realize that you couldn’t get the ball past Big Jim even on the edges of the corners.
It didn’t take much longer for the big leaguers to discover the low outside curveball.
The discovery was accidental but inevitable.
Big Jim, like everybody else, had trouble hitting a ball that was far from the plate.
Everybody else learned not to swing at such an offering.
Big Jim was neither everybody or anybody.
He swung every time and missed almost always.
When he did make contact, it was usually a dribbler down the first base line.
The word spread. Throw Big Jim low outside curveballs.
Next thing you know, Big Jim was out of the show.
He returned to the league that he had just terrorized but his reputation and weakness preceded him. Big Jim had seen his last fast ball.
Pretty soon, his weakness became evident to all of the people in the ballpark.
This added to the drama of every Big Jim at bat. Everybody, including Jim, realized that he was more than capable of homering with every at bat. Everybody including Big Jim also knew that a strike out on an outside curve was far more likely.
Yet he persisted....going up to the plate over and over again and whiffing on the same pitch. He knew the problem. Everybody knew it but Big Jim couldn’t resist the temptation. Over and over the giant waved at three pitches and took the walk of shame back to the dugout. All of those miraculous aptitudes wasted.
Jim still remained a fan favorite so it took awhile for the booing to start but when it did, it was as humiliating as was the vulnerability itself.
Quickly Jim transmogrified from Hall of Famer to Freak of Shamer.
The nightmare increased as Jim was demoted, demoted, demoted until mercifully, he was released.
No more outside curves.
No more shots at the show or shots in the show.
All that remained was the image of the giant trudging slowly back to the dugout holding onto his bat and his sanity.
The story is that Big Jim like most of us failures, never learned to adjust or learned only after the opportunity has passed us by.
That one glaring weakness...that one terrible secret that weakens and discourages us all.
The good news is that Jim started playing softball. In softball there are no outside curves. Big Jim went on to be a legend in softball but let’s face it...Softball isn’t the show.
Not everybody makes it to the Show...that’s why the Show is the Show.
Even when we make it to the show, we gotta keep learning because only the Babe Ruths own the show and the show eventually deep sixes everybody including the Babe.
So we find our level and do the best we can. Our failures are mostly personal in nature so we hide our weaknesses well until we are destroyed by them or gain some control over them.
Wherever we are, we are in our show. It’s up to us to adjust or squander the gifts we were given.
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Comments
big jim throws low, I guess
big jim throws low, I guess we all do somehow.
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Interesting picture of the
Interesting picture of the difficulty of adjustment and to keep learning when seemingly successful. Rhiannon
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