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An Impact Player – Henry Izumizaki
Hi, I’m Henry, and you know, at a memorial service, what do you do? You laugh, cry, what’s proper, whatever moves you feel free to do.
I was really very fortunate to spend one of the last few days with Joe, a couple of days before he passed. You know, there’s Joe, even in bed, he’s holding court – he’s covering all the essentials and in retrospect I’m looking at that conversation and saying, “O.k., this is kind of you know, what would I talk about the day before I died?” So here are the essentials:
First – family. We talked about our wives – Debbie and I just celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and Marsha and Joe this September 2nd would have celebrated their 40th. So, we’re talking about the role that our wives played and how crazy they let us be so Marsha, thank you for sharing Joe all these years. Then we talked about Alex and Alex and my oldest James just got their M.A.’s a month ago and Joe hung on to make sure that he was able to celebrate that and so of course he was just so very proud. And Max you know he’s just, boy, he’s got front page stories going on this little rag now, talking about what a great writing career he’s got ahead of him and Joe’s trying to say, “be patient with him” – my youngest Eddie who is 21 year old and I said, “I don’t think he can write a thank you note!” And then we actually talked about Cabell and what a wonderful addition he’s been to the family.
Then our conversation switched to friendships and ours in particular – 34 years Joe and I have been knocking heads and in this setting he was basically saying that from him, his respect for my integrity and I was almost bowled over because that’s how I feel about him and then I went on a little memory lane…
Anybody ever walk with Joe either here in Boston or in San Francisco? It’s a real work out so you know I would kind of trot and Joe would be striding and I would be winded and luckily I didn’t have to talk because Joe had a way of telling you which building was built when and by what architect, where they imported the marble in the lobby but anyway…it’s a fascinating journey.
Then, of course, as Alan says, we talked about serious stuff. The state of the world and amongst other things that we covered was thinking about the current Bush administration and comparing it to the Nixon era and those of you who have read your little thing about Joe know that the Nixon folks chased Joe to the west coast so I guess I should thank them for having sent Joe my way but uh, we sadly had to admit that as bad as the Nixon era was, it pales in comparison to the current situation.
And finally, of course, we discussed baseball. Baseball is our metaphor for all the other joys in life and we were wondering out loud: “What would Willie McCovey have been like on steroids?” And only you true
baseball aficionados will get this one…but we were thinking Bobby Richardson would have had his hand ripped off in ‘62 if McCovey had been juiced.
And now I’m going to do something that you’re very privileged to hear. Joe had made up a game that some of us played on the internet – it was your all-time favorite baseball team, but of people that you have seen play. Now here it is (and this is great because I can argue with Joe about baseball and nothing else):
McCovey’s on first, Morgan’s on 2nd, Brooks Robinson on 3rd
Luis Aparicio at short
Frank Robinson was his left fielder
He put Griffey, Jr. – Ken Griffey, Jr. – in center field, as Joe slyly avoided the Mays/Mantle/Snider debate;
And in right field he put Roberto Clemente and behind the plate he put Johnny Bench.
And his pitchers were Koufax, Marichal, Gibson and Spaan and the local guy – Luis Tiant.
Now how can anybody argue with impact players like this?
Joe was without a doubt an impact player. An impact player is someone who is so good they change the nature of the game and, his Harvard quarterbacking exploits aside, Joe was truly an impact player in the game of life. There have been two impact players for me – one, my late father, and then there was Joe. Joe taught me how to live life with a purpose and now he’s showed me how to die with dignity and grace.
Saying goodbye to Joe on my final visit was hard. We both knew it would be the last time we’d see each other in this realm. And as we were hugging our final goodbye, Joe sensed my emotion and then kind of the awkward moment. And he pats me on my back and he whispers in my ear, “don’t worry my friend, we’ll see each other a little bit later.”
And so we will.
Henry Izumizaki is the Learning Director of The Russell Family Foundation in Seattle, Washington.
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