In my next 30 years, I'm gonna have some fun (Thanks Tim McGraw)

It’s the last week before I turn 30. I’m treating it like a milestone only because it feels like I should. I won’t really feel any older. I certainly don’t look or act any older than about 25. And other than my recent ankle sprains, I don’t feel it either.

So, as time allows, over the next week or so, I’ll share some stories of my short 30 years that God has gifted me with.

It was the summer of 1987 and the family had just moved from Dayton, Ohio to Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a move I didn’t want to make and everyone in my family knew it. I hated leaving Dayton. I had good friends here and I was comfortable here. But Dad was in the US Air Force and moving comes with the territory.

Vegas was very different from Dayton (Duh). It’s so hot it bakes you in the sun. Granted, there is no humidity but still, 110 degrees is HOT. All of the houses are made of stucco with orange shingled roofs. It’s also really HOT in Vegas. We’d moved into a court with a good number of other kids my age and Heather’s (my sister) age. Oh yeah. It was HOT, too.

We weren’t in Vegas very long at the time of this story. I had taken an interest in baseball and baseball cards when I was about 8 or 9. And living in Dayton at the time, the Reds became my favorite team. While I liked the Reds, it wasn’t until the summer of 1987 that I followed the Reds obsessively. What do I mean by obsessively? It means every morning I went out to get the paper and went through each box score for each game and, unintentionally, memorized every stat I could put in front of my eyes. Of course, I spent more times looking at the Reds’ stats than any others. For instance, and this is off the top of my head w/ no help, in 1987, Eric Davis(my favorite all-time player) hit .287 w/ 37 HR, 100 RBI and 50 SB. I could recite a bunch of other players’ stats from that season, too. Like I said, it was obsessive.

1987 was Eric Davis’s breakout season. He had an incredible April, May and June and looked like the new Willie Mays. And during this time, he became my favorite Red. I loved the guy. He could do no wrong.

I went back and did some research and it was Tuesday August 11th. I remember it was a sunny day and I was out in the court playing with the other kids. Dad came up to me in the morning, told me to grab my ball glove, grab some Reds baseball cards and get ready to go. We were gonna throw the ball in the park and then visit a baseball card shop. No need to tell me twice. I ran inside, grabbed the glove, some Reds baseball cards (including Eric Davis, of course) and was ready to go.

We both got into Dad’s dark blue 1985 Toyota Celica and started driving. About 10 minutes later, I noticed we weren’t going anywhere that I thought. It looked like we were going to the airport. That’s when dad dropped it on me. He’d bought tickets to fly out to LA that day and we were going to watch the Reds play the Dodgers in LA. I was floored and really excited. It caught me totally off-guard. I mean, really, who expects that?

So we flew to LA and went to the game. While I was doing the research to figure out the day, I found the box score from that game. I remembered that Eric Davis hit a HR in the game so that made it a bit easier. That and the Reds lost. A couple years after that, I’d come to expect it whenever I went to a Reds’ game. They always lose when I’m there (this curse was broken about 5 or 6 years ago). Anyway, here is a link to the box score and play by play. Thanks to Retrosheet for this.

The game wasn’t the only memory from that day. The wave has always been extremely popular in LA and it was the first time I’d seen it done. So I got to participate, too. But Dad and I added a fun twist. Dad is a HUGE fan of peanuts. I’ll eat peanuts for the same reason Dad goes to baseball games with me: not because I like them but because it’s something to share in. So, back to the wave. We were sitting in the second of 3 decks in the stadium so there was a deck above us. Basically, there was a concrete roof about 10 feet above us. This is a view of pretty close to what it looked like from where we were sitting. You can’t see the concrete above but trust me, it’s there. When the wave would come around, we’d fill our hands with peanuts, raise our arms with everyone else and let the peanuts go. They’d bounce off the concrete above us and fall on the people about 2 or 3 rows ahead of us. Keep in mind, this four full handfuls of peanuts being launched in front of us. These poor souls would look up at the concrete above them like this asteroid shower of legumes had fallen out of a vortex that had magically appeared above them and closed right before they looked. So while they were contemplating theories of relativity, wormholes, wind patterns and alternate dimensions, they should have been working on physics. Dad and I did this about 3 or 4 times in a row. I think our abs hurt afterwards from laughing so hard. Every now and then, when the people would look back in our direction, we’d look back behind us or up to make them think we’d been hit by peanuts as well.

We also had fun with the rental car. And this started a tradition that carries on to this day in the Moyer household w/ rental cars. I don’t remember the make or model of this rental. All that was important was that we had the emergency brake located in-between the driver’s and passenger’s seat. Dad would get this thing up to about 60-65 (if mom is reading, faster if she isn’t) and he’d pull on that emergency brake and we’d leave these skid marks down the highway. It also produced this grand screeching of the tires that only a 12 year old boy, and his momentarily immature father, could enjoy.

The only downside of the trip was staying after the game and trying to get autographs from Eric Davis and Dave Parker. It was a dismal experience, as my favorite player definitely let me down that day. However, I’ve come to forgive him because I’ve read many interviews with him since then and he’s come across as a very humble and a good man. He was only 25 at the time and I certainly hope no one would hold my actions in my 20’s against me their entire lives. In 2001, I was in Cincinnati to watch his final game there. He was with the San Francisco Giants at the time. On that same day, my new favorite player, Adam Dunn, who also wears Davis’ # 44, hit his 4th major league HR. Ahhh, the circle of life.

Dad and I flew back that night and got in pretty late. I went to sleep with quite the smile on my face that night. Dad really came through, as he has many times since, on that day.

I have many good memories of that summer. I didn’t want to be in Vegas at the time but I was able to make the most of it. It was the best of times…it was the worst…nah. It was just a good time.