John Gunter

Thoughts on Life and Living

“Baseball Saturday” for the glory of God. . . (video included)

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The men of Baseball Saturday; me, Rush Stuart, Scott Littlepage, Tyler Leuck, Andrew Ols, Ty Nash, Michael Gregory, Conner Norton, Sean Doody, and Manny Mann.
The men of Baseball Saturday; me, Rush Stuart, Scott Littlepage, Tyler Leuck, Andrew Ols, Ty Nash, Michael Gregory, Conner Norton, Sean Doody, and Manny Mann.

Saturday was special here in my neck of the woods. The American men in our city decided to get together and hang from noon on. In this city of many millions (literally), there are only a handful of Americans who live here permanently. My guess is 30-50 in total. This is probably a generous guess, as I personally only of know 22. Of that number, 11 are men.

Ten of the eleven men I know in this city decided to dub the 6th day of last week. . . “Baseball Saturday”. The content of the day was simple; American food and baseball all day. We were to both play baseball and watch baseball in the midst of gorging on red meat and other such American culinary delights.

We met for lunch at McDonald’s (the only “American restaurant” within an hour of where I live). After destroying our bodies, we headed over to a local university in search of a field to play baseball. Between all of us, we have seven baseball gloves, two baseball bats, and four actual baseballs, so “playing baseball” is a pretty generous description of what we were planning.

We found a soccer field, but were quickly dispersed by an official university function.

We ended up finding our way to a dimly lite, closed basketball gym on campus. We decided the place was perfect for our “Plan B”. [Read more…]

The transcendent values of BASEBALL

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My friends Troy Coons, Phil Autry, Julian Krevere, and I at a Braves game two years ago
My friends Troy Coons, Phil Autry, Julian Krevere, and I at a Braves game two years ago

As I sit here in a local coffeehouse, I am thinking about baseball.  We are on the cusp of one on the greatest weeks of each year; Opening Week of the Baseball season.

I love the sport and always have.  I don’t remember a time in life where baseball wasn’t important to me.

Baseball is different than any of the other American sports.  I’m not necessarily saying better, I’m just saying different.  No other sport is called our “National Pastime” like baseball.  As I think about it, I do believe there are transcendent values to the game of baseball which are unique to the sport.

So, in honor of opening week, here are four (plus one bonus) of the more “transcendent values” of the game of baseball which have kept me engaged with the sport well beyond my playing days.

1 – The generational aspect of baseball [Read more…]

Awesome surprise birthday and racing cars . . . (video included)

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John Gunter, Matt Laughlin, and Travis Todd
“The Winner’s Circle”. . . not really, but I did want to take a picture on the winner’s block

After spending a lonely birthday in Bangkok hammering Krispy Kreme doughnuts and thinking about life, I returned to the city in Asia where I lived until last January for a week of meetings.  Upon arrival, my belated birthday took off in high gear. . . literally.

It started off with a dinner and cake with two of my favorite families on the planet, the Todds and the  the Laughlins.  It was a great time.  However, this was only the beginning. . .

Two days ago, Travis Todd and Matt Ashton (visiting with his work this week) were very vague about what we needed to schedule in the afternoon.  We were planning on eating a quick lunch.  However, upon walking up to the parking lot, [Read more…]

Revolting Green Tea Gatorade and my Asian weight room

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Green Tea Gatorade and me
Me and my disgusting Green Tea Gatorade. . . notice that it looks like anti-freeze or something.

Today, several of us were working out in a local gym.  Nothing fancy, but a nice facility for here.

Something happened today, though,  that jolted me into the reality that I am not, in fact, in an American weight room.

Dancing pic in gym
This couple “lights up” the weight room here.

During a break, I bought a Gatorade from the front desk.  Pretty standard.  Opened it without noticing the favor and poured it down my parched gullet.

Bam. . . reality reared its ugly head.  Green tea flavored Gatorade.  Wow!  Not good. 

I like green tea.  Don’t love it, but definitely like it.  I love Gatorade.  Put the two together and it is repugnant.  Seriously.  One slight sip was all I could take.  I needed to brush my teeth to get the taste out.  Not good.

Then, it was as if my eyes were opened.  The weight room here really does have some funny differences compared its counterparts in the US.  I pulled out my phone to take some pics so you could see some of the sites on a random weekday in this Asian weight room.

First, the posters on the walls.  Weight rooms the world over have motivational posters on the walls.  [Read more…]

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