The Annual Alumni Game: Reliving the Glory

Last week I wrote about how baseball is timeless: not only in the sense that the game is measured by innings rather than minutes, but also that it has the power to bring out the child within. There is no greater example of this than the annual Alumni Game. Last Saturday, Vassar baseball alumni from various generations gathered on Prentiss Field to recapture their college baseball days. The nostalgia for baseball was as thick as in Bruce Springsteen’s Glory Days: “I had a friend was a big baseball player… but all he kept talking about was glory days.”

A lot has changed about Vassar baseball since some of the alumni played (a new field, for example). But what hasn’t changed is a love for the game, for the Vassar baseball program, and for the school. These passions have persisted throughout all the generations of Vassar baseball. They are what keep the alumni coming back year after year.

Alfonso Lopez, a Vassar graduate of ’92 hit a screaming line drive, which I jumped up and snared out of the air, robbing him of a base hit, and perhaps, a chance to relive his glory days. (He proceeded to shout: “I know your dad!” which is true, though I didn’t know at the time or I would not have been so unkind as to get him out.) But I imagine that getting a base hit was not necessary for Alfonso to rekindle his glory days. Because Vassar baseball is about more than just one base hit here or there. It is about the camaraderie we form with our teammates and coaches. And perhaps, the alumni are still basking in their glory days when they come back and see all their old friends and teammates, and marvel at how far the program they left behind has grown.