homeruns cause chips

I'll never forget it...everybody was psyched. The Indians were in the World Series for the 2nd time in 3 years. It was '97 & a bunch of friends had gotten together to watch. They didn't win the series but that's beside the point. P.Scott & Lori always had us at their house. We crashed in the 'downstairs room' (that had every color couch grabbed from neighborhood garage sales) with tons of food & fun. Now having fed teenagers on a regular basis, I have no idea how they did it.


Tim was there. This guy is the epitome of excitable! He's ready for a good time ALL the time! "I dare you Tim..." was probably the most common phrases when he was around. A great story teller too. Only problem was that he'd start laughing hysterically before starting so you'd have to pretend to walk away so he'd get serious enough to tell it! Little did I know he was preparation for loving that kind of teenager--and man do I love them!

Back to that night. Energy was high & Tim was excited --he had run pretend bases in the small space between the couches several times already. After this fantastic play...or maybe it was a home run...he decided to run, slide & kiss the player in Scott's TV who made the play. That's common right? He was excited. He acted like any fan AT Jacob's Field, so why not in their living room?! Well it was evidently with too much force because he knocked the TV with his mouth and...*$%$#&%# (crashing noise). Yeah, everyone couldn't help but hear and feel it. He got up chuckling with teary eyes as he held his face. We laughed & asked as we always had, "Dude, WHAT is up with you? Was that your face or your tooth? What were you thinking?" But the laughing kind of faded as the tears continued streaming.

Scott pushed us back & had him sit down. He got him to pull his hand away and we all peered in and saw it...the bottom diagonal corner of his top front tooth was gone. A nice size chunk out of his front tooth. GONE (the best I could come up with). We sat there stunned. "What just happened?" somebody asked. "Tim just did a slid/kiss/chip. That's what happened." He was hard core. He refused to leave or have anything done to it. I think he wiped his eyes on his sleeves, put a towel on his bloody lip and watched the rest of the game (which they lost). Everyone went home amazed.

You had better believe that night went down in the books and to this day...the Tim we knew as a teenager that is now grown...with several kids and a wife...um yeah...I still call him Chip.