Baseball And Beef: Finding My New Routine

With the Sports World On Pause, Fans Are Left Searching High And Low For Something To Fill The Void

SETH HERROLD
@HERROLDTIMES
Sunday night I tossed a pair of five-gallon buckets into the bed of my truck and called my brother, who is visiting my parents this week.
“Do you want to go feed the calves with me?”
For those of you who do not know, I am what they call in the agriculture world “a hobby farmer.” I farm a few acres and have a few cows on the side.
Where are the sports? I thought this is a sports column?
Hang in there friend, it’s coming. Just a little more back story to paint the scene.
So, I had five cows that calved late last year, so their calves were not big enough when it came time to take them to the sale barn to make the all-important farm payment. They stayed home with their moms and were weaned this spring. So now, every night, I get one bucket of corn from a grain bin and one bucket of sweet feed from a bag and head north to where the calves are staying. It is a chore that my wife, three-year-old son, brother-in-law and now brother have all helped with.
On the way to the first stop to get the feed on Sunday, my brother and I talked about whether or not a baseball season would actually happen this year. It was the typical conversation between two diehard sports fans in the current world we live in. We pondered the horrors of no football in the fall, losing a year of Patrick Mahomes’ prime and Saturdays in the SEC. We talked at length about missing the nightly adventure that was Kansas City Royals baseball.
When I first revived this column in an attempt to keep myself essential, I wrote about how much I was going to miss baseball and Opening Day. Five weeks later I can tell you that is still the case. The biggest thing I miss, as I stated in that first column, is the routine that baseball gave me. I enjoyed the day building to the game that night as much as I enjoyed the game itself.
While I no longer have that, I have been surviving as well as anyone can under these circumstances. I didn’t know how or why until Sunday night, feeding the calves with my brother.
“This is a great little chore,” he said. “It’s not too much work but it gives you something to do every night.”
He was right. Subconsciously I have replaced my baseball routine with another routine – feeding the calves. Feeding those five calves has become my nightly baseball game. Instead of second-guessing pitching changes and lineup decisions, I’m guessing weights on five calves.
Dad has told me the cattle market right now drops off on bigger calves. He keeps telling me not to let those calves get over 650 pounds. When the calves sell, though, I will be looking for a new routine to replace sports. So I’m not sure if those calves will be sold before they get over 650 pounds. I might still be feeding five full grown cows this time next year if sports keep getting cancelled.
I think it is important for us to have some type of daily routine while we try to come out of this global pandemic that has us all shuttered in quarantine. Sports fans, especially, need something to do in place of watching baseball, basketball or any other sport that has your heart. It can be any number of things: going for a drive or a walk, watching a Netflix series a few episodes a night or playing ball with the kids in the backyard.
For me, it’s feeding the calves. If I’m alone I enjoy the brief moment of solitude. If I’m with my wife and son, it is a great family outing – one that always ends with a trip into Gilman City so Cash can get one of those juices with the character head on top. You know, the ones that are like $3 a bottle. I keep telling him he is hurting my margins on these calves, but he knows when we get to the lot we are really close to Gilman. And he also knows if he asks I will run in for him. He is pretty smart that way.
When my brother-in-law was parked in my driveway with his RV, it was mandatory that I let him know when I was going to feed the calves so he could ride along and help. With my brother here this week, it gives me someone with whom I can talk sports.
So I will keep feeding those five calves every night, waiting on sports to make its triumphant return.
This week’s recommendations are…
Read: Blood and Thunder by Hampton Sides. I’ve been giving you sports books on a weekly basis, but I’m running out of ones I have actually read. This book, however, is one of my favorites revolving around Kit Carson and the American West in the 19th century.
Watch: As a kid, I watched a lot of NASCAR racing. I haven’t watched hardly any of the sport in the last five or six years, however. I was a big Jeff Gordon fan and when he retired it kind of killed my motivation for the sport. With the sports world still on pause, however, I may have a NASCAR renaissance. NASCAR will be one of the first sports making a return, doing so this Sunday with a 400-mile race at Darlington Speedway in front of no fans. Sunday’s race starts at 2:30 p.m. on FOX.
Eat: On Friday, my wife and I finally got to try Jousting Pigs BBQ in Liberty. We have wanted to try it for a while now and since trips to the Kansas City area only revolve around appointments now, we jumped at the opportunity. The place is located right next door to former Trenton resident John Kennebeck’s 3 Halves Brewing and it is well worth the trip. I recommend the brisket. If you didn’t notice reading this column – I’m a beef guy.