The French have the right idea. They all take August off.
Now, of course that can’t be literally true. If it were, who would be around to make soufflés or wait on you at the café?
But you gotta love the concept. Just take a breather. Recharge the batteries. Shut down for a bit.
So, let me take a week or two here to step away from politics and write about stuff that’s just nice. By definition, that means that I cannot mention the current occupant of the Oval Office.
Let’s think about baseball instead. And specifically, let’s recount the story of Trent Grisham. For those of you who don’t follow the Milwaukee Brewers, Grisham is a rookie outfielder just called up to the majors. And he’s one heck of a nice story.
The kid was drafted out of high school in 2015 and paid a $2.7 million signing bonus. But he struggled in the minors and by the end of last year he was more or less given up on by the club. He’d never make The Show.
Then he moved his thumb. You see, during all of his years of astounding success in high school and before, he had this unusual way to hold a bat. Instead of wrapping the thumb of his top hand around the handle, he extended it down the shaft. Despite his success with this approach when he got to the professional minor leagues his coaches insisted that he adopt the conventional grip. And he tanked.
Then last year, fed up with it all and with little left to lose, he defied his coaches and went back to his old grip. And bango! Balls started springing off his bat and exiting ballparks. He was hitting for both power and average. The Brewers finally called him up to the big leagues on Aug. 1 and he has performed well since joining the club.
But the story gets better. A lot better. When he was drafted his name was Trent Clark. But a couple of years ago he changed his last name to Grisham, his mother’s name, to honor her for having raised him alone.
Wait. There’s more. In addition to the unusual placement of his thumb on the bat there’s one more thing about his grip that is different. He’s one of the few players in baseball who never wears batting gloves. Why? Because when he was a kid batting gloves became so expensive that his mother couldn’t afford them. So, he learned to hit without them and now he says he just feels the bat better that way.
If you can read all that without getting at least just a little bit verklempt, well, you’re a harder person than I am. Trent Grisham’s story is about promise turned sour and then redeemed, about the experts being proven wrong (always satisfying), about tenacity and hard work paying off, about excellent parenting in the face of tough odds, and about a son’s love and respect for his mom.
So here in the Paris of the Midwest go to a Wisconsin version of a Parisian café where they show ballgames on the television. Order yourself a nice cold beer and take in the game. For a few hours give yourself a break from thinking about the man in the Oval Office, who has nothing at all in common with Trent Grisham.
