Heroes

Can we put a price, a value on childhood memories?

I come from a long line of St. Louis Cardinal fans.
I joke that I'm a ?th generation DNA infused Cardinal fan.
It goes back to the generation before my grandfathers dad.
I lived with my mother, my sister and my grandfather on a farm four miles from a town you wouldn't know in the middle of the southwest Missouri Ozarks from 1966 to 1970.
Prime Cardinal country.
My mother had the "holy" trinity of Hank Williams, Patsy Cline and Stan Musial.
My parents honeymoon was spent at Sportsman's Park so she could say she saw Stan play.

One of my very first recollections is of the 1964 Cardinal World Championship.
Deep in the synapses.

From then until 1975, Bob Gibson was the baddest man on the planet for me.
Jeez, if he played now, he'd be tossed out of every game for retaliating.
Flip that bat one time, and I'll send one under your chin at 95 mph.
No one ever charged the mound with him, not ever, he was a bad ass.

Why do our regular heroes get old?
Does Spiderman ever get old? Doesn't seem so.
Batman? Superman?
How does Bob Gibson get to be 85?

This guy broke his leg in a game and continued pitching.
The Cardinals won the World Series when I was eight and eleven.
Certainly formative years for anyone.
In the 1968 World Series, Gibson put them on his back but it wasn't enough.
1968. Hard to fathom for me that was 51 years ago.

His last game was in 1975 and they retired his number immediately.
I drove almost five hours to be there.
But, I was there for each game.

I met Mr. Gibson on an elevator one day, and as he walked in, I got tongued tied like never before.
I guess I made the mistake of saying something he wasn't fond of, (I grew up worshiping you or some stupid thought that came to mind) he grunted at me when the elevator door open and walked away.

Didn't matter, it was Bob fucking Gibson, and whatever a Chris Farley moment it was, I got to tell him what he meant to this awestruck 33 year old who was 12 at that time.
I'm not big on sports people as "heroes" but damn it, he's mine.

He's 85?
Fuck.

No, can't be, it'll be like if a Beatle died.

Pancreatic cancer has no idea what it's up against.