Thowback Thursday: Mark Bellhorn

Dear Em,
Baseball is back, & no one is as thrilled as I am. Watching the games & listening to the announcers brings back a happy nostalgia that I can't completely describe. It's one of the things I love most about being an American.

Today's TBT photos come from a time when it wasn't baseball season. It comes from one of our Christmas Jammies photo shoots. Mostly to surprise my Dad, I got the whole family Red Sox shirts with their last names printed on the back. Your daddy doesn't like Red Sox shirts with non-player names printed on the back. It's understandable. It can actually be quite confusing to sit at a game & think that the Red Sox have a new player I never knew about- only to realize the person in front of me is wearing a tshirt with their own last name on the back.

This was the first Christmas after Daddy & I got married, & I was kind of excited about my new last name. I had thoughts of how stinkin' cute it would be standing next to my new husband with our newly matching last names printed across our shirts. On the other hand, I knew your Daddy would probably never wear the shirt again if I got him one with his last name. Unfortunately, I did know he'd wear a Bellhorn shirt again & again.

Who is Bellhorn? He is one of my least favorite Red Sox players of all time. It was really hard to watch him bat. In 2004, he led the league in strike outs. Surprisingly, he was also among the league leaders in walks & on base percentage. In fact, half of his plate appearances resulted in a strike out, walk, or home run. Through what I can only describe as a miracle, he was on fire that post season. He hit three doubles & three home runs with eight runs batted in- ultimately helping the Red Sox win their first World Series since 1918- and ultimately cementing him in your daddy's heart.

Daddy & his best friend dubbed Mark Bellhorn, the All Or Nothing baseball player. They laugh about Bellhorn being their mentor by choosing to live their lives with an All Or Nothing mantra- the joke being that most often they can choose nothing (like Bellhorn's strike outs) & still be abolutely amazing. So when I'd ask your daddy to do something & he would forget, he and his best friend would look at each other & laugh as they said "All or nothing."

And that is why, while my whole family wore Red Sox shirts with their last names on the back, I stood next to your daddy, with the name Bellhorn printed across his own shirt (the ironic thing being they no longer made Bellhorn t-shirts, so I had to create one the same way I did with all of our last names). Sigh. He's lucky I love him so much.

I love you so,

Mommy

P.S. Daddy did eventually wear a Red Sox tshirt with his actual last name printed on the back for your first Christmas, the first Christmas that our little family of three shared the same last name. And, just like I thought, that tshirt only makes bedtime appearances. At least he wore it more than once.