The Original Game » hed rush us home from church on Sunday so he didnt

In December, espnWs weekly essay series will focus on family. Cheap Nike Roshe Shoes .In college, when I began dating the man who would become my husband, he told me that his family loved baseball.Okay, I said, treating the news as if hed said they all liked the color blue -- a fine distinguishing characteristic, but nothing that had anything to do with me.No, you dont understand. My brother plays baseball in college, he insisted. I spent my whole life going to baseball games and tournaments.I nodded.Growing up, my father was the only one who liked sports, hed rush us home from church on Sunday so he didnt miss his religious programming. A Dallas Cowboys game.?The importance of my sports knowledge didnt sink in until my then-boyfriends father, Gary, started greeting me at the door on my visits to their house with a baseball trivia question.You cant come in until you tell me what number Kirby Puckett was.Ill answer your question when you can name five Faulkner novels, Id say and duck under his arm.To understand us, you have to understand baseball, Dave once told me over a dinner of burgers at our favorite diner. I shrugged.Whats to understand?The second year we were dating, I started my senior year of college. One of the classes I signed up for was on Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. I loved Faulkner, whose wild characters and dense prose often made me laugh out loud. But I cared nothing for Hemingway. I hated his female characters and the cold feel of his short sentences. But I couldnt take a class on one without the other, so I signed up.We began that semester with Hemingways short stories, starting with the collection The Snows of Kilimanjaro and then moving onto?In Our Time. I was surprised at how often sports were on the periphery of his writing -- the depressed prize fighter in The Killers, the match fixing in Fifty Grand and hunting in The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.It was something Id never noticed before, how consumed with physical action his characters were, how sport gave them an identity, whether real or imagined, that could in turn devastate and define who they were.I told Gary I was reading Hemingway.Oh, hes my favorite author, he said on one of my visits. I was shocked. I didnt think he read anything besides books on management and Mickey Mantle biographies. He told me his favorite book was Old Man and the Sea, and I rolled my eyes.Hey, I guess Im not an English major, he said, so I cant tell you why I like it, just that I think it means something to me. He smiled, but I could tell he meant it. When I picked up In Our Time, I decided just to read it like Gary would, without prejudice.The Three-Day Blow is everything I hate in a story -- boys going into the woods to talk about women and get drunk. But when I read it that fall, I was 21 and in love with a boy who loved baseball. Reading the story again, I saw baseball in a way Id never seen it before. Upset over a breakup, Nick Adams, a character who became an alter-ego for Hemingway, goes to a cabin with his friend Bill. They get drunk on whiskey and talk about women, but that topic contains mystery and heartbreak. So, they talk baseball. Alternating between love and disillusionment for the sport, their words become metaphors for the other things they cant bring themselves to say. When Nick declares ...baseball is a game for louts he might as well be saying love is a game for louts.Baseball is more than a metaphor in this story. It is a thing wholly and completely on its own, a series of events, small stories, with characters and plot, which give the two boys a common language and experience.When all else failed, baseball was a way to be part of something together -- some way to touch and connect with something great, to believe that whatever else fails, here is a thing that mattered, a place where winning was possible, and hope always prevailed. After all, win or lose, the only guarantee is that there will be more games and another season, another chance.That same semester, during Thanksgiving break, as I began to write my final paper for the class on baseball, Hemingway and love, Dave asked me to marry him under the stars while we danced as Carole Kings Far Away played from the CD player on his Mazda. We went back to his parents house and told them.After hugging me, Gary and my soon-to-be brother-in-law took me to the basement to watch the Twins 1991 World Series video. I laughed, but I watched the whole thing, listening to their analysis and finally memorizing Kirby Pucketts number, 34.Lyz Lenzs writing has appeared in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Marie Claire, Pacific Standard, Buzzfeed and the LA Review of Books. She lives in Iowa, but you can find her on Twitter @lyzl Nike Roshe Clearance Sale . But by the time the game started, the Toronto Raptors forward felt even worse. And, for three quarters, it showed as Gay shot a woeful three-for-13 from the field. Outlet Nike Roshe . MORITZ, Switzerland -- Fog prevented downhill racers from getting their Olympic dress rehearsal. http://www.discountnikeroshe.com/ . The showiest items on Calgarys lot were forwards Mike Cammalleri and Lee Stempniak. Both will be unrestricted free agents this summer.England assistant coach Gary Neville believes Roy Hodgson should remain as boss of the national team beyond Euro 2016. Neville reckons England are going through a transformation period and that the former Blackburn, Liverpool and Fulham boss should be allowed to continue the changes.Hodgsons contract expires in the summer and his hopes of remaining in the job may be shaped by how England perform at the finals in France. But Neville believes the modifications in the squad, which began at the end of a disappointing World Cup campaign in 2014, have gone under the radar.Having lost to Italy and Uruguay, Hodgson played teenagers Luke Shaw and Raheem Sterling, against Costa Rica, while Phil Jones, Jack Wilshere and Ross Barkley were all 22-years-old or younger.Of the experienced players in the squad only 36-year-old Frank Lampard played in the last game before the squad returned from Brazil, with the travelling England supporters showing their appreciation after the scoreless draw. Dele Alli (R) battles for the ball in a recent friendly The changes had started in Miami before the World Cup with Danny Welbeck, Chris Smalling, Jon Flanagan and John Stones involved, while Dele Alli and Eric Dier have been involved in the European Qualifiers.We owe those fans something, said Neville.The way in which they treated us at the end of that game against Costa Rica, when we walked over to them, Ive never seen that before. Andy Burton reports from Englands hotel after Roy Hodgson holds his first press conference since naming his final 23-man squad I hope people recognise there was an 18-year-old on the pitch against Costa Rica in Luke Shaw, there was Ross Barkley, Phil Jones, all youngish lads apart from Frank.Jack Wilshere was 22, and the 19-year-old Raheem Sterling came on.Yes, people would argue that the 2014 tournament in Brazil was a major disappointment. Id agree with that, but this summer is a big moment in terms of how the four years will be viewed in terms of the four-year contract we were all given. Raheem Sterling in action against Costa Rica in 20114 People will judge it based upon tournaments. Nike Roshe Clearance. I think Roy can be proud of an excellent piece of work.It needs a good finish in the summer. My view would be that he would go on beyond the summer because at this moment in time hes doing the right things and making the right decisions, not just for himself, but for the team long-term.I think of 2010 in South Africa and old players called back out of retirement and panic calls on the last day to players to come and play.Roy went the other way. He went with Barkley, Sterling, Welbeck, Jones and Smalling. Flanagan and Stones were brought in pre-tournament. Ross Barkley (L) celebrates with Wayne Rooney and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain Post-tournament, Alli and Dier were brought in among others. Hes made a series of really good decisions for the English team but also for future tournaments for the next two to four years and hopefully he, we, can see that through.Roys brought calmness. Players respect him. They say: Yes, I like him. Theres nobody looking at Roy and thinking: Hes a bad man, hes arrogant. Actually they say: Ive got a lot of time for him. England manager Roy Hodgson says omitting three players from his squad was yesterday was very difficult Hodgsons squad for Euro 2016 is the youngest England have ever taken to the competition with an average age of a little over 25.And in an interview for the book, Fifty Years Of Hurt: The Story of England Football And Why We Should Never Stop Believing, Neville insists the perception of Hodgson as a conservative manager is misleading.What Roys been over the last four years is bold. Hes taken the average age down from 28/29 to 23/24 from Euro 2012 to Euro 2016. 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