One day in the early sixties a young Long Island boy wakes up to get the day started. He swings his legs from under the covers and plants his feet on the ground. As he stands, he falls immediately to the floor as searing pain like shards of glass course through his legs from toe to head. He can't walk and he's scared.
He's taken to doctor after doctor, poked, prodded, x-rayed a thousand times and told he might never walk again. Eventually, he's diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease called Legg-Perthes. His case was extreme and unusual.
Told bed rest would be an answer to potential healing he spent over a year mostly prone and alone comforted by his mother and his tutors.
Many a day was spent watching his friends and kids from the neighborhood go to school and play as normal outside his bedroom window.
All was not bleak. Within this isolation, he discovered a way to turn inward for relief and a meditative consciousness.
He (Baer) dreamt.
One recurring dream was that of a 'running man' an obvious polarity to him, yet it was more, much more.
As this boy grew in mental strength he knew that staying in bed was certainly a fate for no-one and begged his mom for a way to get up and out.
Crutches were the next phase.
Once he got his 'sticks', he was free from one isolation only to confront another. Kid's can be cruel and he discovered being different this way was going to be tough as he was teased brutally and had to learn to defend himself.
Even this was no deterrence for a kid who now was beyond many in his mental strength and ability to focus past pain and degradation. A focus that led him to a game given to him in a dream by his 'running man', who had now become a young Native American delivering him an answer, a way to heal.
He became enchanted with lacrosse and more specifically with the position of goalie. Goalie play was all about quickness and fierceness, things he was already near master of.
His dreams met reality as his older brother gave him a goalie stick as he too played that position for his local high school team. The light was born that day.
While on crutches he trained as he'd hold them firmly in his armpits and throw a ball against a wall and try to stop the rebound.
Day after day, week after week, year after year he'd do the same.
He became skilled, he recognized the limitations. He had two too many sticks to control. He chucked the ones that brought him misery and kept the one that gave him joy.
He tried out for the freshman lacrosse team and was begrudgingly give a spot by his narrow-minded coach who saw him as most others did, 'the crippled kid'.
The season rolled on and never given a thought or a chance to play, he was hurting, he knew he could play.
By this point, a few others did as well and by the last game, things would change.
'Cliff' the starting goalie was having a particularly bad game and the team fell behind 6-0 in just a few minutes.
The coach was searching for an answer and some of the players called to give 'Baer' a shot.
He did. Life changed forever.
He got a nod from his coach and he entered the game.
Let's step back for a second and imagine what that looked like. A kid who'd spent a year or more in bed and walked with crutches for three plus more and never physically healed.
Let's say 'Baer' had an unusual gait. He waddled, walked like a duck, was accused of 'having a stick up his ass'.
NOW imagine the scene as a team who is up by six in the first minutes of the first period sees this kid walk on the field as the 'backup' to the kid they just shelled.
There was laughter and plenty worse.
'Baer' had heard it all and deflected it all a thousand times before, he was ready.
He takes the crease, bangs the pipes, turns to the field as the face-off to restart the game is set and the whistle blown.
At that instant, the world around him slowed to quarter speed.
As the game restarted, shot after shot was fired his way.
In his eyes, however, it felt like beach balls floating on a summer day.
Nothing went by him.
As this performance continued not only did the attitude of the opponent change, so did his coach's and pretty much everyone's within eyesight.
At games end 'Baer's team had come back and won 9-6, the opposing players who had earlier mocked him were streaming over to pat him on the back and say what an amazing exhibition that was.
Once his team had gotten back on the team bus his coach was ready to speak.
He said he'd mad some mistakes as a coach and a man. He'd judged someone wrongly, he'd never gone beyond the surface, beyond the pre-conclusions he had made.
He reached into the team ball bucket and pulled out a ball and said 'This is no consolation for the mistakes he had made, for his misjudgments'. This game ball meant more than any other he'd ever handed out. 'This is for a performance for the ages, from someone I least expected and certainly the most deserving'.
He walked back to where Baer was sitting, placed a hand on his shoulder and handed him the ball.
From that moment forward Baer went from being 'the crippled kid' to being 'the lacrosse kid'.
To be continued...
He's taken to doctor after doctor, poked, prodded, x-rayed a thousand times and told he might never walk again. Eventually, he's diagnosed with a degenerative bone disease called Legg-Perthes. His case was extreme and unusual.
Told bed rest would be an answer to potential healing he spent over a year mostly prone and alone comforted by his mother and his tutors.
Many a day was spent watching his friends and kids from the neighborhood go to school and play as normal outside his bedroom window.
All was not bleak. Within this isolation, he discovered a way to turn inward for relief and a meditative consciousness.
He (Baer) dreamt.
One recurring dream was that of a 'running man' an obvious polarity to him, yet it was more, much more.
As this boy grew in mental strength he knew that staying in bed was certainly a fate for no-one and begged his mom for a way to get up and out.
Crutches were the next phase.
Once he got his 'sticks', he was free from one isolation only to confront another. Kid's can be cruel and he discovered being different this way was going to be tough as he was teased brutally and had to learn to defend himself.
Even this was no deterrence for a kid who now was beyond many in his mental strength and ability to focus past pain and degradation. A focus that led him to a game given to him in a dream by his 'running man', who had now become a young Native American delivering him an answer, a way to heal.
He became enchanted with lacrosse and more specifically with the position of goalie. Goalie play was all about quickness and fierceness, things he was already near master of.
His dreams met reality as his older brother gave him a goalie stick as he too played that position for his local high school team. The light was born that day.
While on crutches he trained as he'd hold them firmly in his armpits and throw a ball against a wall and try to stop the rebound.
Day after day, week after week, year after year he'd do the same.
He became skilled, he recognized the limitations. He had two too many sticks to control. He chucked the ones that brought him misery and kept the one that gave him joy.
He tried out for the freshman lacrosse team and was begrudgingly give a spot by his narrow-minded coach who saw him as most others did, 'the crippled kid'.
The season rolled on and never given a thought or a chance to play, he was hurting, he knew he could play.
By this point, a few others did as well and by the last game, things would change.
'Cliff' the starting goalie was having a particularly bad game and the team fell behind 6-0 in just a few minutes.
The coach was searching for an answer and some of the players called to give 'Baer' a shot.
He did. Life changed forever.
He got a nod from his coach and he entered the game.
Let's step back for a second and imagine what that looked like. A kid who'd spent a year or more in bed and walked with crutches for three plus more and never physically healed.
Let's say 'Baer' had an unusual gait. He waddled, walked like a duck, was accused of 'having a stick up his ass'.
NOW imagine the scene as a team who is up by six in the first minutes of the first period sees this kid walk on the field as the 'backup' to the kid they just shelled.
There was laughter and plenty worse.
'Baer' had heard it all and deflected it all a thousand times before, he was ready.
He takes the crease, bangs the pipes, turns to the field as the face-off to restart the game is set and the whistle blown.
At that instant, the world around him slowed to quarter speed.
As the game restarted, shot after shot was fired his way.
In his eyes, however, it felt like beach balls floating on a summer day.
Nothing went by him.
As this performance continued not only did the attitude of the opponent change, so did his coach's and pretty much everyone's within eyesight.
At games end 'Baer's team had come back and won 9-6, the opposing players who had earlier mocked him were streaming over to pat him on the back and say what an amazing exhibition that was.
Once his team had gotten back on the team bus his coach was ready to speak.
He said he'd mad some mistakes as a coach and a man. He'd judged someone wrongly, he'd never gone beyond the surface, beyond the pre-conclusions he had made.
He reached into the team ball bucket and pulled out a ball and said 'This is no consolation for the mistakes he had made, for his misjudgments'. This game ball meant more than any other he'd ever handed out. 'This is for a performance for the ages, from someone I least expected and certainly the most deserving'.
He walked back to where Baer was sitting, placed a hand on his shoulder and handed him the ball.
From that moment forward Baer went from being 'the crippled kid' to being 'the lacrosse kid'.
To be continued...
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