“Failure does not come from losing, but from not trying.”
— Larry Brown
2002 Basketball Hall Of Fame Inductee
So, why am I talking to Keith now? Here’s the honest to goodness truth, I called him up to give him some grief about his performance on the water these last two years. Yep, I did … and I even told him that was the reason I was calling.
“Um … OK … db..”
But then I said this: “Yeah I thought you kind of stunk up the place, but right before I called you I happened to look up your record these last two years …”
Keith says nothing. He is well aware I don’t do math … or much story research either ... gets in the way of truth and spontaneity.
“How do I look?” said with a bit of an attitude, which is fine, and I’m deserving of a little smack back.
“So dude, in the past two years your average place is 28th.”
“Uh huh.” It’s here where I figure I’m the only one on this phone call that didn’t know that.
“In fact I did your batting average, so to speak, your number of at bats would be your number of tournaments, and the amount of times you got a hit would be your times in the money.”
“Uh huh,” again I’m thinking he is a head of me on this.
“So, with that crazy figuring you batting average is .814 …”
Keith says nothing.
“… in 102 tournaments you’ve made a check 83 times, says you’ve caught about two tons of fish (that gets a laugh) and have won about $1.4 million in the 10 years you’ve been doing this.”
“Huh, that’s just B.A.S.S. If you count everything probably more like, two-and-half-mil.”
So much for telling him he stinks. Actually with those numbers, he’s one of the best to have ever suited up.
“You know, db, all of that is pretty special, but to be honest, if not for a miracle week, I wouldn’t even be here.”
“If you want to make your dreams come true, the first thing you have to do is wake up.”
— J. M. Power
author
I’ll get out of the way here, going to be a bunch of quotes, but it’s all Keith, pretend you’re listening:
“My parents took me fishing, bank fishing, they didn’t have a boat. I was young and living in central Texas, but I knew from the first fish I caught that it was what I wanted to do for a living, but didn’t even know there was such a thing.
“A 12 or 13 I began tournament fishing with a next door neighbor who had a boat, did well, real well, but again I was young in school but had the bug. After school I got a job in a machine shop, would work nights, fish in the day and weekends. I was at the machine shop, it was going through some changes, hard times I guess, the owner came up to me and told me he knew my dream was to be a pro angler and he said ‘you know what, you are young, not married, no kids, now is the time if you are going to do it,’ and he was right. So I quit and moved to Del Rio to guide.”
I’m sitting at my desk eating ice cream and Fritos and writing this stuff down.
“So I’m guiding some oil guys, we hit it off, they say I should give the Toyota Texas Bass Fest tournament a try. I tell them I’m broke, they offer to sponsor me, I enter the tournament and while there someone else who knew about me comes up to me and offers to sponsor me. I had won the Central Open and qualified for the Elites but had no money to do it, so suddenly in a couple of days I have two sponsors and then I win the Bass Fest event, get 150 grand, and just like that, one week, db, I go from no chance to get into the Elites to signing up and joining the tour. It was 2011.”
“One week changed my life, changed my life.”
And once again from Plattsburgh, there is silence.
“Most do not understand the wonderful opportunities life gives until they look back at their life.”
— Eric Handler
Since 2011 Keith has fished in eight Bassmaster Classics with an average finish around 22nd place.