And So It Begins...

January 2026

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Pitching during the 2025 baseball season

January 1.

The new year.

It means, to many at least, making resolutions.

I have reading goals and writing goals and exercise goals and family goals, and more. These aren't really resolutions, they're the way I try to live my life. It's not about a new year, it's about a quest to continually try to improve... in so many ways. I have a long way to go.

But this isn't about New Year's or resolutions or anything like that.

It's about the fact that with January comes the time for me to begin getting ready for baseball.

I'll be 58-years-old this coming summer. I will be pitching for my baseball team as soon as spring dawns.

This will be my eighth season since my comeback began. (The Yankees still haven't called me. I don't know what they're waiting for.) I hadn't played baseball in 34 years (since my junior year of high school) when this journey began. At the time most people said, "You're at the age when people quit baseball, not when they start playing." But I started, and it's been a dream ever since.

I went a few seasons, my entire team did, before we won a game, but we now win more often than we lose. We even won the league a few years ago ("World Champs!"). Along the way I also helped pitch a different team to a tournament championship in Cooperstown - on Doubleday Field (a dream if there ever was one).

So, when the new year comes, it signifies to me that it is time to begin to get my arm ready to pitch a baseball 60', 6" from a mound up to 100 times (sometimes more) on most Sundays from April through August.

In order to do that, I need to get ready.

This doesn't mean I have to "get in shape." I exercise every day, and have for decades. Making the time to run, lift weights, ride my exercise bike, and/or walk is part of what I do every single day. That's as natural to me as breathing.

But getting my arm ready to throw a baseball at a competitive level - that takes a little something different. And that is what begins on January 1.

To prepare, I took out my baseball net, set it up in my basement, and started my throwing program. I have a whole routine that involves some exercises, but the main focus is on throwing - getting my body back in the rhythm of pitching from a wind-up and throwing a baseball.

To start, I threw 50 pitches - none hard nor fast. I didn't try to make any pitches move. I simply went through my wind-up and threw again and again, 50 times, softly.

Next week I'll reach 75 pitches.

The week after, I'll get to 100.

After that I'll start really throwing - first 25 at just about my regular speed, and then in successive weeks, a bit more than that and I'll begin to throw a bit harder and harder.

Along the way, I have to listen to my body. My lets me know how my progress is going and what my progression should look like.

If I'm going to play ball, if I'm going to pitch, I have to be at my best.

And to get there... that begins by throwing, softly to start, on January 1.

I can't wait for the season to begin!