Friends gather to support SixSeeds board member
The group ambled onto the Gordon College track on a cool Saturday afternoon in early April. With wives and children looking on, half the men began push-ups on the field inside the track while the others kept count. Based upon the general quality of push-ups, this was not an elite group of athletes. After a short break, they switched places and with increasingly shaky biceps, the second group also heroically completed as many push-ups as their bodies could muster in two minutes.
Next came the sit-up exercise which followed the same protocol as the push-ups. Then after a short recovery period, the entire group lined up for the last and most grueling event, the two-mile run. Some took off with the confidence and energetic strides of teenagers, while others carefully paced their laps at a slow jog. For eight laps, they competed against each other and the clock, against their aging bodies and excess pounds, all this “for Dave.”
The group was used to competition of a different kind - the kind based on computer-generated baseball statistics. They were members of the Boston Baseball League (BBL), a fantasy baseball group that began in 1991 when many were slogging through their first year at Harvard Law School. They used the statistics of their pretend or “fantasy” teams and competed against each other during the rest of the baseball season. From April to October, they turned in line-ups, evaluated the make-up of their team, made adjustments due to injury or poor performance and made trades.
The men have become much more than fantasy baseball rivals: a true sense of family has developed.
Since then, each spring is marked by “Draft Weekend” when the original group (along with others who have since joined) gathers on the East Coast to choose their baseball teams – some traveling from as far as California. The families of the BBL all understand the sanctity of Draft weekend and some wives accompany their husbands to the weekend to renew ties with other BBL wives. Through the years, the men have become much more than fantasy baseball rivals. There is a love of words and ideas amongst this group with its core of lawyers and writers (four members are published authors, while one has sold over a million copies of his book). Their daily e-mail banter about family, children, work, politics, illness, current events, sports, baseball and other humorous and random topics, has created a camaraderie that can only develop with communication and time. The last sixteen years have produced a continuous string of dialogue, both high and low quality, both humorous and serious. With the assistance of Blackberries and the never sleeping Internet, a true sense of family has developed.
That sense of family came to the fore in the fall of 2007 when one of their own, David French, possibly the most prolific e-mailer of the bunch, joined the army for one year as a Judge Advocate (JA) in Iraq. It was natural for the BBL to join with his family (Nancy and their two children, Camille and Austin) to show their support. Many members along with their families partnered with Nancy to help David and his fellow soldiers through the SixSeeds Send-A-Box Campaign. Some in the BBL held large gatherings in their homes to create care packages stuffed full of sheet sets, food, DVDs, magazines, toiletries and letters, assembled in production line style. Others made phone calls and organized church groups and friends to fill stacks of boxes. Still others used their family nights for letter writing to the soldiers. The boxes are still rolling in and so far, every soldier (1100) in David’s squadron has received two boxes.
Symbolic of the “with him in spirit” sense the BBL members have felt since David departed, they dedicated the 2008 BBL Draft weekend to their longtime friend. The draft itself was marked with a half hour break to speak to David in Iraq via webcam, where he gave the men a tour of his Army headquarters with his characteristic wit. Afterwards, the suffering began.
The men gathered at the Gordon College track, where they competed in their 2nd Annual Army Fitness Tests. In their uniform army green t-shirts inscribed with their simple motto, they tackled the same physical tests David trained for and passed in order to join the Army. They pushed themselves to the limit that crisp afternoon, straining muscles they didn't know they had, in order to honor a friend’s conviction, dedication and service to his country. It was the least they could do “For Dave”.
News item submitted by Jean Kingston