db: Team enjoy

Don Barone discovers how competition strengthened family bonds during the Team Championship.

“And I loved deeper…”

Dateline: December 12th

I have had a good year, here.

I have had a bad year, here.

Sometimes trying, sometimes joyful.

Been a year like yours, with ups, with downs, with health, with sickness, with loss, with found, with love, with anger, with smiles, with tears.

A year of being human.

To be honest, I struggle with the human part. Struggle with what we do to each other, the lies we tell, the violence we rein on each other, struggle with the diseases that stalk us, struggle when I see people hurting, struggle when I see the lost souls amongst us.

Struggle with the “Why,” of life.

On the day of creation, did the Universe have a 40+ hour work week in mind.

When the Universe flipped the switch, were taxes, inflation, paying for health care, murder, cheating, the agony of cancer, the loss of a child part of the long range plan.

Was a “struggle” chromosome placed in our DNA.

I have a hard time, with all of this.

This, this thing we call, life. Call, living.

When I look up into space, and see nothing like us, and when I look out my window and see us, I have to tell you, is this really what we were created for.

Have we screwed up the plan, have we screwed up what life on Earth was supposed to be like.

Does the universe hold hope for us, or despair.

I vote, hope.

I vote, hope, because I believe that every once in awhile the universe gives us a peek, lets us get a glimpse of how it was supposed to be.

Gives us a peek when a 68-year-old man leaning on a boat tells me, “Any parent who gets to spend a week with their child…” and then starts crying.

Gives us a peek when sitting under a tall pine tree by the shore of DeGray Lake a wife tells me, “Fishing together tt just brings us closer to each other…” and as she is telling me that she never looks at me but at her husband sitting across from her at the picnic table.

Gives us a peek when an angler who didn’t catch a fish that day tells me, “It’s bigger than fishing, I had a great time and it wasn’t about the fish…” while off in the distance his team partner is shaking his head in agreement.

Yeah, I vote for, HOPE.

“…and I spoke sweeter…”

The most precious thing in the universe, can’t be held.

The most precious thing in the universe, can’t be put in a bank.

The most precious thing in the universe, can’t be bought, sold, or traded.

The most precious thing in the universe is…

…TIME.

“Time, db, time, everything gets so much in the way, but fishing together, this team fishing, it’s perfect for us, instead of me going fishing and just leaving my wife, Penny, at home alone, with this we can go together, spend time together.”

We are sitting at a cement picnic table, the Toyota Bonus Bucks Bassmaster Team Championship weigh-in is going on about 50 yards behind us, us being the husband and wife team of Tony and Penny McCraw.

It’s been a cold day out on the water, Tony has both hands around a paper cup of hot coffee, Penny is still bundled up like that kid in A Christmas Story who fell and couldn’t get back up.

Tony and Penny hail from Galax, Virginia, “right in the Appalachian Mountains,” Tony owns an Insurance Agency, Penny is a Med-Surg Nurse. They have been married 26 years, no children, “…but my brother has eight so between us…” Tony tells me as Penny laughs.

Penny: “On our honeymoon anniversary, we go fishing together, brings us so much closer, in the middle of a lake at dawn, we just watch the sun come up, listen to the birds, listen to the water, just sit there, for me that is my perfect time, ya can’t get better than that.”

Never once as she tells me this does she ever look at me, never once as she tells me this does a smile ever leave her, or Tony’s face.

Tony: “Out there together, you know, all the stuff back home, the bills, the working, all that just melts away, it’s just wonderful, life I guess as it is supposed to be.”

At the end of the weigh-in the McCraw’s came in 58th out of 133, “We had a great time, loved it, wished we would have done better, I’m pretty competitive…” and as Penny is telling me this she continues, “…but you know it…” and she stops mid-sentence and just looks across the cement picnic table at Tony, “…isn’t about the fish.”

Yep, I vote, HOPE.

“…and I gave forgiveness I’d been denying…”

I have a Christmas playlist of 186 Christmas songs.

And yes it is labeled “Christmas” and not “Holiday” because for me and my family it is Christmas, it always has and it always will be. I don’t want to offend anyone, but I’m not going to lie to you either.

I’m a sap at Christmas time, some say I’m a sap all year long, and frankly, I’m okay with that, to me that’s not a dig but a compliment, if a sap is someone who looks for the good, instead of the evil, I’ll take sap any day.

Reality is not what I, or anyone else in the media tells you it is, reality is what you yourself see, feel, smell.

Even with decades of covering the crap we do to each other, I still in my heart believe good outweighs bad on Earth here.

We had here though, an unfortunate event, the 2nd place team going into the final two days got DQ’ued for a rules infraction. I don’t know enough about the rules to comment on that part of it, but I do know human nature.

I don’t know if it was a mistake, or malicious, whether it was intent, or oops, but I caution against a rush to judgment. I’m giving the parties involved the benefit of the doubt, mistakes happen.

Once again, yeah, I vote HOPE.

“…and he said…”

I’m going to quote one of my bosses, and a sponsor of B.A.S.S. here, if that’s a problem, get over it.

Most times when bosses talk I sort of listen, sort of also planning my lunch menu, I never did very well in those useless reviews by management, if I broke a major story and we didn’t get sued, be happy, be pretty darn happy and leave me alone.

Jim Sexton, VP of Digital, which also means VP of Me, has been around B.A.S.S. for a few years now, nice guy, we have become friends, we have a minimum of driving each other nuts between us, but he is also a smart guy, a big picture guy, and he said this to me as I was telling him how this story was going to go.

Jim: “You know Don, I forget sometimes that what we do, what we cover, yeah it is work for us, but for the people out there who come to us, we are reporting, we are showing them what they consider as their fun.”

Their Fun.

At ESPN, inside ESPN I can tell you that we never called you, “viewers,” we never called you, “readers,” we referred to you all the time as simply, “Fans.”

Sexton’s quote launched this story in my mind.

Again, if you believe other people’s reality, FUN, seems to be a thing of the past, complaining seems to be the currency of the day.

Don’t believe it. FUN, is still possible.

FUN, happens.

“db I had a blast.” Had a blast, didn’t have any fish though.

Dave Davis, VP of Sales at Rigid Industries.

Dave and his partner Scott Owens finished in 101st place in the Team Tournament but, “You know db, it’s, it’s you know, bigger than just fishing, I have this unreal feeling of accomplishment just being here, an amazing opportunity for these people to show off their talent.”

Now, if that’s all Dave said, I love the guy and his biz, but sponsor or not, he may not have made the story.

But.

As I’m standing there, pretty much thinking of the interview, uh-oh, suddenly, “…really more special than just fishing. My wife and 3 kids, Allison, Bailey and Cammie, they go over to my parent’s house and they start watching the weigh-in on the big TV screen. Well as soon as I come up on stage my young daughters see it and start screaming ‘daddy, daddy, daddy’ and they run up to the screen and no one else in the house can see it.”

Then, “…my wife, my wife took video of all of that, sent it to me, sent it to me…”

And he just trails off, and I let him watch that video again in his head.

Fun, YEAH.

Yep, I vote HOPE.

“…someday I hope you get the chance…”

The best answers I get, come in response to questions I never ask.

Meet the father and son team of dad, Tom and son, Andy.

Tom is 68 and retired, spent 12 years at Louisiana Tech as the Head Golf Coach, before that Dean of Students. Son, Andy is 38 and a Pharmaceutical Rep.

As I’m writing all those details down, careful not to screw it up, I’m not saying anything, just concentrating, when suddenly Tom starts talking:

“Any parent who gets to spend a week with your son, it’s special, just special…”

And as I look up just as he finishes that sentence, I see that this big guy, this coach, this once Dean of Students … is crying.

Then, Andy starts talking, “He was an amazing dad, for all those years that he gave up fishing so he could be there when I played baseball, golf, as a child, he gave up so much for me, now it’s my turn to do the same for him. He wanted to do this, he’s fishing a lot now, he wanted to do this with me so I said yes, for all he had done for me, like I said, now it is my turn…”

And tears form in Andy’s eyes.

I’m done taking notes. Never saw this one coming.

Tom: “A few years back I had Open Heart Surgery, I tell you, you need to enjoy life, enjoy every moment, really makes you appreciate things…”

And he turns to his son….

“…and people you love.”

And I start to cry.

HOPE, yep.

“…to live like…”

Christmas, my favorite time of year, one of the greatest gifts of my life, my daughter, Ashley, was born two days after Christmas.

Love me some Christmas.

Last Christmas though, the day after to be exact, I was in grave condition in the hospital, infected with the Swine Flu, Pneumonia, on my way to possible Congestive Heart Failure.

31 years to the day that my daughter was born a priest was in my hospital room performing on me the sacrament of Anointing The Sick with Penance and Communion. 

Pretty much, The Last Rites. Of me.

I saw the look in my wife’s eyes.

I saw the look in my children’s eyes.

I knew the look in my eyes, it was of huh, wait a minute here.

NOT NOW.

As I write this, in a very weird twist of fate, today is December 12th. Two years to the date, almost to the exact moment, on 12/12/12 I was being wheeled into an operating room for Brain Surgery.

The docs gave me good odds to be wheeled out alive, not so much, I found out later, to have my sight intact. Pretty much even odds on being blind after the surgery, at least in one eye.

I’m telling you this because I KNOW FOR A FACT, you can’t back up time, you can’t slow it down, and that every freakin’ MOMENT COUNTS.

Enjoy your time for God’s sake.

Give your time to your loved ones, it will be the best gift they, AND YOU, ever get.

Team, is how the universe designed us to be.

Yeah, I vote HOPE…because I’m living proof of it.

For some reason the universe gave me more time, I’m not going to waste it, please, don’t you either.

As I write this the guy who will edit it, Bassmaster Web Producer Chris Mitchell is expecting his and his wife’s first child, the baby may come soon, may come right around Christmas.

Chris my friend, when that package arrives, no other package in your life, no other gift will match it.

Do me this favor, print out the 2015 calendar, then the 2016, 2017, 2018 and the next 40-50 years of calendars.

Take those calendars and wrap ‘em up and place the gift under the tree for your new baby on the way.

From the day the baby is born, check off each day you are with him or her.

Promise me, promise your wife, promise your family, more days will be checked, then left blank.

Time spent my friend, time spent, that is your vote for hope.

This team shindig thing for me, was a gift, a gift I hope happens year after year, hope happens right around this time of year.

Hope, because I needed this.

Yeah, I vote hope.

Hope you do as well.

“…you were dying.”

Live Like You Were Dying

Tim McGraw

Merry Christmas

db