I contributed an essay for Hobart’s annual baseball extravaganza about the Los Angeles Dodgers, Yasiel Puig, and a friend’s illness. It’s called Ode to Joy. 

Carl Crawford lifted a high fly ball way up in the azure sky for a no-doubt-about-it home run, and hung there in the air for long enough to change everything. It was the strangest thing. The volume got so loud that it transcended the audible realm and enlisted other senses. Our bodies shook, but we were absolutely still. Speech wasn’t possible yet we were all in communication with each other. It was grand, it was glorious, and we were all witnesses to something extraordinary.