APBA New Year, 2020 Version

Ten years ago, as we entered a new decade, I was mired two years into a medical bankruptcy after the death of my wife with no real positive outlook in sight. I struggled to make bill payments and forewent most entertainment opportunities because of the cost.  I was a frequent visitor to the public library because the books and videos were free.

Halfway through the last decade, I got out of the bankruptcy, began saving money and started living again. In the fall of 2015, I drove to Gurnee, Ill., about 45 miles north of Chicago, and met the girl of my life. She moved to Arkansas a year later and we began our life. I was at the top of the world.

But then the bottom dropped out.  I had a medical scare, my car quit running, I lost my job of 20 years and ended up working two jobs seven days a week and returned to the financial struggle of ago all within a couple of years.

You never know how life’s hilly path will take you. It’s random; people don’t set themselves up for collapses, usually, and it happens to lots of them. Despite my constant whining of things, I’ve met people in dire worse shape than I.

And now we enter a new decade – if you count 2020 as the first year of a decade. There is that debate that the decade doesn’t official begin until 2021. And with that new decade comes hope for another upswing. I’ve got a decent job in a field totally alienated from the news career I had created over the years. It’s a less stressful job and the hours are set. There are no breaking stories to cover, no tight deadlines to meet, no crazy editors screaming for copy.  I’m also starting to write more for magazines to help supplement income and create a fair life for Holly and me.

Despite all the changes, here’s the stable part. It’s something I’ve written about ever since starting Love, Life and APBA Baseball on Jan. 1, 2012. The APBA game has always, always been a constant. No matter what the circumstances were in life, I always knew I’d get some peace and reprieve by rolling a few games each day. You have the wavy line of life with its peaks and valleys, and running straight through it all is the game. No other game or even any other thing at all, can make a claim like that.

The only time I slowed down playing the replay games during the last decade was when I was making frequent trips to Chicagoland to visit Holly.

So, we’re beginning a new decade – depending upon your interpretation of a decade’s start – and who knows how any of our lives will go. Health issues? Money? New jobs? Who really knows? 

But we do know that the game that we found as youngsters will continue to be our companion as we trek through this new decade. Keep rolling the games into the Roaring 20s.

APBA New Year, everyone.