here’s an article i read on the dodgerthoughts website that struck a chord with me. if you want the complete article, you can find it there.
ross porter has been a dodger announcer since before i was born.
….”
And so it is today that I return from a weekend away at my college reunion, a weekend all about connections made and lost, to learn that Ross Porter has officially been told not to return to the Dodger broadcasting booth.
This is not a tragedy, not a death in the family. Some fans won’t even miss Porter, though I think even most of those, as has been written elsewhere, cringe at how callously his departure was handled. (Among other insults, Dodgers.com did not even do a news story on the event, instead publishing only that feeble press release.)
But for me and many others, when we think of the Dodgers right now, there is that hole where Porter sat, where his friendly drawl floated through the air. There is that emptiness.
For selfish reasons, I feel this even more than a few others. Porter, as you might know, became a friend to me and this website this year, friendships that I consider among my highlights of 2004. Those won’t end with his departure, but I will certainly regret the distance as he moves on to his next job.
We can cherish the fact that Vin Scully is still around, but the hole of Porter’s absence remains.
For now.
From where I sit today, what saddens me the most about Porter leaving the Dodgers is not that it leaves a hole, but that the hole will eventually close up. And what we’ll be left with are just the hair’s-width memories of what it was like to listen to him talk about the Dodgers with some of the same passionate level-headedness that I try to bring to this site.
Today, people feel Porter’s departure. Tomorrow, all they’ll do is remember it.
“….
i’m going to miss ross porter. i remember calling and emailing him on his dodger radio show back when he used to do the post game shows.
anyways.. that’s not why i’m posting this.. it’s the last few words that jon weisman writes in the end. “it leaves a hole, but that the hole will eventually close up”
i take this in two ways..
one. i find it sad it’s so easy to move on. i’ve done this countless times in the past and i don’t doubt that it’s something i’m going to do in the future. it’s something i wish i’d stop.. i’ve been reading “what’s amazing abou grace?” in bible studies. it has countless stories of love lost and never returned because petty things. in each story, people move on but carry a certain bitterness with them.
two. i realize it’s too easy to live in the present. a lot of times, i sacrifice what would be better for me later for some small satisfaction now. i guess a short term example would be not doing my homework to watch tv. a long term would be, i suppose, heaven.
i realize these two ways of taking the quote contradict themselves… i’m not sure what the point of me posting this was.. it just.. something that struck me and i’m not sure if completely makes sense either
