CLEVELAND, Ohio - I turned 70 this month … 70 is a big number.
One of Jimmy Buffett’s songs was “A Pirate Looks at 40.” It was about a friend of Buffett’s from Key West named Phillip Clark, who apparently did more than a little smuggling in his day.
The song makes 40 sound old. Then again, Buffett wrote it when he was 28.
The song was released in 1974, when I was a freshman in college. I was never into Buffett’s Margaritaville lifestyle. I love his ballads such as “Come Monday,” “Son of a Son of a Sailor” and “The Captain & The Kid.”
I love this from “You Wonder Why You Ever Go Home.”
Years grow shorter, not longer …
The more you are on your own.
I wish I had written those lines.
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Jimmy Buffett kept signing nearly up to his death at the age of 76 in 2023. Associated Press
Growing older & wise (I hope)
The older Buffett became, the more grateful he was to see the crowds at his concerts. He was happy to play some of the old songs because he knew that was why many of his fans came.
In his audience, he saw a lot of gray hair and bald heads. They looked more than a little like him.
It’s that way when I go out to speak. Most of the people there are over 50. Quite a few still read the actual newspaper. I’m still grateful and overwhelmed at times when so many people come to hear my talks. There were more than 200 at the Avon Lake Library on Wednesday night.
Many have memories of a special family member taking them to games when they were young. For me, it was my father and Tribe games. Also, some Cavs games. Football was No. 3 in our house.
For many others, it’s the Browns … the 1960s and the title … the Kardiac Kids … Bernie Kosar.
I love these lines from Buffett’s Captain & The Kid:
We both were growin’ older then, wiser with our years
That’s when I came to understand the course his heart still steered
He died about a month ago, while winter filled the air
And though I cried, I was so proud to love a man so rare.
That goes for my father. While he wasn’t a sailor, he was a man whom I never fully understood until he died on his 78th birthday. Nor did I fully appreciate how he set me up for life.
It was only after he died that I thought of the fact that he delivered the PD when he was kid, and then later drove PD trucks before going into the Army in 1941.
His senior class Benedictine yearbook had a note reading: “Hey, Tom, when you’re sports editor of the PD, remember to give us a shout.”
He never told me that was his dream. I never saw that yearbook until after he died. I really do stand on his shoulders.
FRIENDSHIP IS ABOUT SOMETHING
My wife Roberta loves Lake Superior. This is one of my favorite pictures of her, taken on a chilly summer night. She is my wife, best friend and All-Star editor.
Feeling grateful
This is from “A Pirate Looks at 40″:
I feel like I’m an over-forty victim of fate…
Arriving too late, arriving too late.
I recently was talking to Doug Dieken. I mentioned writing stories about Danny Coughlin, Larry Dolan, Jimmy Donovan and some others who recently died.
Doug said, “You’re writing ‘em, I’m going to the funerals.”
We both laughed, but the pain was real. The former Browns tackle is 76.
When I think of the line, “Arriving too late … ” I quickly flip to losing so many close to us too early. Many of you know the feeling.
But that’s only some of the time.
At 70, I think of my partner in life.
I’ve known Roberta for 50 years. We’ve been married for 47. As I was writing this, I asked her how many of my resumes and cover letters to sports editors did she type. That was in the middle 1970s when I was applying for jobs across the country during my last few years at Cleveland State.
“At least 25,” she said.
This was before computers. She also typed and edited many of my stories and at least 10 of my first books – before computers came into our lives.
Fifty years later, she still edits my stories before they go to cleveland.com. The same with my books.
A Sportswriter Looks at 70 … and thanks God for his wife and best friend.
I also think about writing on the typewriter and dreaming of seeing my byline in The Plain Dealer. At one point, I wanted to be like Hal Lebovitz, the esteemed sports columnist for the PD when I was growing up. God blessed me with that job at the age of … 52!
Now, it’s 18 years later. People still want to read me. They encourage me. They remind me that like Buffett, I don’t have to be “an over-forty victim of fate …”
Writing about sports, faith and life does keep me going … and it’s still fun.
PS: I’m not retiring. I’ll probably go down just like Jimmy Buffett, writing up until the end. He died of cancer in 2023 at the age of 76.