My sweet, dorky husband

Cooper and Dean spent the weekend in Redding, Ca playing in a tournament in the BigLeague Dreams Ballpark; a replica ballpark that does tournaments, etc. Apparently there is a restarant there, and apparently there is a picture in said restaurant of Lou Gehrig with the text of the Farewell Speech he gave at Yankee Stadium when his illness progressed too far for him to play anymore. My husband called me to tell me that he read the lines of the speech, and when it got to the part about the wife...well, he just wanted to call and tell me he was thinking of me.

Dean has come a long way, and I have to say, it has been worth the wait.

Here is the text of the speech.
"Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. I have been in ballparks for seventeen years and have never received anything but kindness and encouragement from you fans.

"Look at these grand men. Which of you wouldn't consider it the highlight of his career just to associate with them for even one day? Sure, I'm lucky. Who wouldn't consider it an honor to have known Jacob Ruppert? Also, the builder of baseball's greatest empire, Ed Barrow? To have spent six years with that wonderful little fellow, Miller Huggins? Then to have spent the next nine years with that outstanding leader, that smart student of psychology, the best manager in baseball today, Joe McCarthy? Sure, I'm lucky.

"When the New York Giants, a team you would give your right arm to beat, and vice versa, sends you a gift - that's something. When everybody down to the groundskeepers and those boys in white coats remember you with trophies - that's something. When you have a wonderful mother-in-law who takes sides with you in squabbles with her own daughter - that's something. When you have a father and a mother who work all their lives so you can have an education and build your body - it's a blessing. When you have a wife who has been a tower of strength and shown more courage than you dreamed existed - that's the finest I know.

"So I close in saying that I may have had a tough break, but I have an awful lot to live for."

Dean and Cooper come home tonight; Cooper has a short break from baseball, Dean and the U of O will continue through the winter.