“There are places…”
Dateline: 2019 season wrap-up
“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.”
— Audrey Hepburn
I am supposed to write a column where I look back on the B.A.S.S. season of 2019 and sort of wrap it up, begin with Palatka, end with the AOY gig, supposed to.
But I can’t. Tried, but can’t.
Let me ask you this, how do you “wrap up” a season on the day that, at this moment, two Mass cards are sitting in my mailbox waiting to be picked up by our mail lady?
One Mass card for the boss, Jerry McKinnis.
One Mass card for the sales guy, Joe Higgins.
Both friends, both when I look back in my mind still standing at those events I’m supposed to write about, supposed to write about who caught fish and how much they weighed.
I guess I could force something about stuff I’ve already written, cut and paste, mail it in, cash the check.
But I’m too old to take a base on balls. Pride, I guess, but also a sense of dedication to you out there who pay money for internet access in the hopes of trying to find truth, or something meaningful within the world wide web.
So here goes for you and my desire to give you some value, and to what may be a shock to my bosses, comes Looking back, forward and up … a season unlike any other for me.
“…I’ll remember…”
“Sometimes you will never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
— Dr. Seuss
Looking back
Welcome to the bigs, for some it was game as usual, for others, if this was football they would have come off the field looking through their helmet ear holes.
The Elites are not your old buddies’ “peach jar” Wednesday night local tournament, not something held on lakes where you can drive up in a camper and practice on it for a month. Up at the top of the game it is faster, it is more intense, it is not about memories, it is about money, hardware and your name in the rafters.
Period.
Some did well, some did not, both know who they are, no need to dig deeper than that. I’m just not in the mood to do it, and frankly don’t know if it will make a difference or not.
For all of those who played the game this year, for all the days away from home, for all the ups and downs, for all the fish caught and the ones who got away, some advice:
Life is made up of 50% of where you came from and 50% of where it is you want to go.
Use the “from” but focus on the “where.”
You know now where you are and what it is that is expected, what it is that you must do.
Do something next year that you will be thankful for decades later in your life.
It ain’t about the pitch my friends, it’s about where the ball lands.
“…all my life, though, some have changed…”
“I’m looking forward to the future, and feeling grateful for the past.”
— Mike Rowe
Looking forward
It is hard to not make today, be about yesterday. But if you are moving forward, keep going.
In a few short months we will say “3 … 2 … 1 … GO!’ and launch the 50th Bassmaster Classic.
A half century of this sport.
A sport that is now generational. I’ve personally have met men who while standing there introduced me to their son and grandson both of whom were handed down B.A.S.S. throughout their lives.
Think about that, a guy dreams up a new sport and through five decades millions of people around the world become involved with it, embrace it and pass it down.
The most important part of that previous sentence isn’t the word “millions” nor “world” but “pass it down.”
I have met “lifelong members,” not “fans” mind you, but people who tell me with pride they are “members.”
Everyone of them, be they the grandfather, be they the baby, have a stake in our/their game. “Members,” we got to this point not on our own but on the shoulders of all those “members,” all those fans who come to us not only because of what we do today, but also because what we’ve done yesterday.
I can’t tell you how excited I am for you the “member,” you the fan to be having this very, very special year coming up. I hope that at the end of the 50th Bassmaster Classic that two banners will be raised to hang in the rafters, one for the winner of this historic Classic.
The other banner I hope raised will be for you, for you the “members” for you the fans. For all the bosses reading this, please remember … there would be no 50th without those millions of fans throughout the planet.
Raise a banner for them too please.
“…all these places had their moments…”
“What we have once enjoyed we can never lose, all that we deeply love becomes a part of us.”
— Helen Keller
Looking up
So what is it that I, and possibly you, should take from the season that just was the Bassmaster Elites 2019?
To be honest throughout the year I really missed my Elite friends of old, and yeah we still keep in touch, but I think the change made us better, made us new.
New faces in old places, but the mood was different.
I remember one of the first stories I did this season was with a young man named Derek Hudnall, never met the dude before, and he told me something, that to be honest, shocked me, something that I had never heard a professional athlete say before, can’t remember the quote exactly but it was something like … he may not be as talented as many out here but he has the dream of making it.
I thought, “Uh huh, but dreams don’t catch fish, talent does.”
That was my thought at the beginning of the season, well before the reality of how the season ended, and so at this time I think that the Derek dude is right.
We all, fans of B.A.S.S., “members” of B.A.S.S. are here because of dreams.
Dreams of people who may not be as talented as the famous ones, but folks who dreamt, and then chased it.
And because of that they will never be forgotten, entwined in this sport as much as those who fish it, as much as those who love it.
As for Derek and myself, and all of those here at B.A.S.S., those who run it, those who build it, those on the stage, those behind the stage, all the wives and husbands who sacrifice so we get to chase the dream … from us all please know this:
It is never to late to follow your dream. Amazingly so, amazingly so.
May you dream big.
May your dreams come true.
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This column is dedicated to Jerry and Joe … and to all of those loved ones lost this season. May they rest forever in our hearts.
“…in my life I’ve loved them all.”
In My Life
The Beatles
“It’s only when we truly know and understand that we have limited time on Earth, and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up that we will begin to live each day to the fullest as if it was the only one we had.”
— Elizabeth Kubler-Ross