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Ed Rife: Better Than We Were

It is the experience of most of us
that some people are just better at doing things
than we are.  Ed Rife was like that.
He played baseball as if it were a skill
as ordinary as walking, and sometimes
he wondered why most of us
had so much trouble walking.

It did not happen often, but sometimes
he wondered out loud, and when he did,
most of us concentrated on the basics:
things like learning how to walk,
or maybe paying attention to how many
outs there were, and when not to bunt.
And to ourselves, we wondered why
Ed made it look so easy.

He didn't attack a pitched ball.
He met it with grace and a swing
that was not something added on:
it was part of the arc of the line drive,
part of how he turned to first;
part of how he knew what would happen,
and whether it was possible to take two.

Maybe Ed was born that way.
Maybe he got to Carnegie Hall by practicing.
Whatever it was, it was something lovely
when Ed picked up a ground ball
and turned to first in one easy motion,
and when he did, we said, "Damn,
he makes that look easy!"
And we promised ourselves that
we would pay more attention,
and try to become better than we were.

Some people do things better than we,
and maybe we do some things well, too,
but rarely with the easy grace of Ed,
looking down part first, as if he already knew
what he could do; while we
tried to become better than we were.

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