Like many
well-established traditions, the origins can be a bit sketchy. For years now, a
good chunk of our alumni men’s athletes has taken to call me “Old Man.” I’m
going to trace this supposed slight back to Vess. While that may or may not be
accurate, the bottom line is, for many of our athletes, I’m the “old man” in
the room. I’m fine with this. I actually think it’s kind of funny. As I enter
my 29th year as coach of this program (29 years!), with my 55th
birthday (55!) looming on Saturday, August 31 (Fun fact! That’s the date of our season-opening home cross country meet
at Vassar Farm), it’s an obvious fact that my future – as a coach and as a
human being on this planet – is much shorter than my past. I’m fine with that;
not that I have a choice. Am I an “old man?” To many of you … yes; 29 years
doing the same thing can lead to that thinking. Do I feel old and act old? Not
really, although my balky hip frequently reminds me of the three screws
embedded therein, as well as the trials of miles due to decades of running,
jogging and walking. So go ahead and call me old man. I won’t say I don’t care,
but I will say I don’t mind.
This long-winded
paragraph above was precipitated by two things: 1. The New York Mets firing two
of their coaches and replacing one of them – the pitching coach -- with an
82-year-old man. Eighty-two (82!) years old! And he’s in uniform! Most
certainly, this is unusual. This hiring has led to a cascade of “old man” jokes
– oh, they want him to relate to the ’69 Mets; maybe they’ll have an early-bird
special for him in the clubhouse before the games; Jay Horwitz, the Mets’
long-time PR guy, has someone HE can call Pops now. On and on and on. Worthy of
chuckles, yes. But the underlying theme of the jokesters: The Mets were fools
to do this. Who hires an old guy in a young man’s world? In this age of
oversensitivity and correctness, it’s kind of odd that we have a low tolerance
for all sorts of “-isms” – but we can breeze through “ageism” with little
issue. Why is that? What if Phil Regan, the aforementioned 82-year-old coach,
has something salient to offer a Mets’ bullpen that is certainly the worst in
baseball and on pace to be among the most feckless of all time? You never know.
If Regan were “fill in the blank” and people were poking fun at his “fill in
the blank-ness,” there would be howls of derision, outcry, calling for talking
heads’ heads! Instead, we mostly chuckle and say “same old Mets.” I’m not
saying this was a smart move or even a good hire; but judge it on its merits,
and not on this guy’s birth certificate.
OK, so the
confluence of all of this can be found here. One of our most loyal alums, a
former assistant coach and just a generally good dude with whom I have been
blessed to stay in touch with frequently, is Cuesta. More than anyone else,
Cuesta is fond of calling me “old man” and he did it again, for the world to
hear, on his Fancy Podcast – of which I was a guest last week. For those of you
who did not see the link on social media, here it is. It’s long (about an hour)
but the time flew by as Cuesta and I were shooting the breeze about anything
and everything sports related (oddly, not a lot about track). It was just like
a van ride or a practice, except the team wasn’t around and we were sitting in
his “home office” (which doubles as a play room for his beautiful little daughter)
and talking into microphones and adding to the ever-expanding world of podcasts
(which I am now getting into … but that’s a post for another day). Give it a listen, if you want. I know Cuesta would appreciate it. And here’s the thing!
Cuesta’s pretty good at this podcast thing. I hope his listenership continues
to expand. At least, that’s what this Old Man thinks.
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