Five years ago, my buddy Dan and I started weekly catch. We’d meet up in a park for a half hour or so and throw a baseball around. A little chatting. A handful of attempts at throwing some heat and a lot of casual lobs. Nothing more complicated than that.
Lately it's a little less regimented and scheduled around the temperaments of our mutual shoulder injuries. The circle has also widened to a Catch group text thread for the handful of us who have an interest in showing up for a toss. (Version 2.0 of this would be a Catch app where you can find enthusiastic partners in your area. Grindr + Playgrounds is the pitch, but weirdly VCs aren’t reaching out.)
It didn’t start with Dan though. Despite never really playing baseball, I’ve long enjoyed tossing a baseball around. The cooperative rhythm of it. The anticipation of the trajectory and the fulfillment of a solid thwack in the glove… It speaks to me and has become enough of a thing that when certain friends and I travel to meet one another, there’s always a reminder to pack a mitt.
I appreciate that it’s a game, but not a real one. You can vary the speed and the technique. Get a little spicy with it, sure, but catch is mostly a chance to move the body, soak up some sunshine, and work in some quality time.
It’s a social convenience that the ball is generally being thrown at conversational distances, but catch leaves space for either option. If the few words exchanged are “Nice throw” after an effortful pitch, or an ironic “I’ve got it” while squinting into the sky for a fly ball, that’s just fine.
There’s an intimacy to it as well. Mild, but at least akin to a handshake or a hug. Something about the unspoken ramping up and down of pace and finding yourselves in sync. I mean, having a catch with your dad is a sort of cinematic shorthand for fatherhood. So, for men who lack the ability to emote and connect in more intimate ways, maybe catch is an inroad. Connectivity… at a safe distance.
But maybe I’m overthinking it. Maybe it’s just throwing a baseball around.
Regardless, big fan.