On the Richard Record

Home Lake Dedicated to Bob Uecker, “Mr. Baseball,” who transformed the complexities of a game of failure into a Superior form of life. Get Up. My high school baseball coach once explained a very simple concept to my team: in order to win the game, we only needed to cross home plate more than the players in the other dugout. Home plate—the beginning and the end of each run scored. A run that can propel a team to victory or consume them in the most agonizing defeat. Memorable cases may cause home plate to be the end of a legendary career or the start of a walk-off grand slam in the bottom of the ninth. It can be found beneath bench clearing brawls or handshakes between rivals they make documentaries about. In all its simplicity, home plate is where a game of complicated failures all begins. Popouts, groundouts, strikeouts—each aggressive in isolation. A failure for one, success for the other. For as long as I can remember, Lake Superior has been no friend to baseball. Nearly ...