The Bucket List

Cable TV is now advertising the movie “The Bucket List,” and after watching one such ad, I mentally updated my own bucket list.  Of course the top of that list is that I can continue to mentally update this and other lists.

 

Next would be to bring my blog Stepping Up To The Plate to a successful conclusion.  Doing that would mean that I have lost a ton of weight-literally, not physically-and that I was able to play baseball one more time.  I think a Major League Fantasy Camp would be a great place to begin and end a second baseball career, but it will be difficult choosing one.  They all look like fun.

 

I want to visit Cuba.  Cigars, music, and 50’s Chevrolets are like siren songs to me.

 

I want to spend my winters in San Francisco.  I love the city, and it has been several years since we last traveled there.  I miss it.  I am not sure there is a better place anywhere to watch people.  Otis Redding’s song may have been melancholy, but I would like nothing better than to sit by the dock of the bay and waste time.

 

I would like to visit Gettysburg.  Actually, I would like to visit many Civil War battle sites.

 

One time only I would like to travel with the Ice Road truckers in Canada.

 

I would also like to drive the Alcan Highway to Alaska.

 

I would like to golf with Bill Murray at Pebble Beach.

 

I would like to visit Wrigley Field and Fenway Park.  And of course, I would like to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, NY.

 

I would like to walk a marathon.  OK, that may be the craziest idea on the list.  I would need to walk 26 miles at a faster pace than I now walk 2 ½ miles.  I would like to walk a half-marathon.  That only sounds half crazy.  The Big Sur Half-Marathon was one I had in mind, but with the recent fires I may have to change my mind.  Although by the time I am able to walk that far, everything will be green again.

 

I would like to watch a Duke vs. North Carolina basketball game at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

 

I would like to do an oral history of the Settje and Meyer clan.

 

Being a writer, I would really love to cover the NCAA basketball tournament for Sports Illustrated Magazine or even ESPN Magazine.  Not just in typical sports journalist fashion.  Nope.  I would need a company like Net Jets and a hotel chain to sponsor me. My idea is to travel from city to city covering what everyone else is not.  I would travel to four different cities hosting the first and second rounds, and the following week spend one day at each regional site.  Of course I would go to the Final Four as well.  Hence the need for Net Jets and hotels.  I think this is a great story idea.

 

Another wonderful story idea would be covering the NCAA bowl week.  Again, I don’t want the story that everyone else is getting.  I would interview graduate assistants, punters, and hot dog vendors.  You know the ones that no one else talks to on media day.  I would also want to interview Erin Andrews, but that is another story.  It would be seven bowl games in seven days in seven cities.  That sounds like a tough job, but with the help of Net Jets and hotels, I am up to it.  C’mon ESPN, how can you pass on this idea? A monthly Mitty-esque column.  You’ve never heard of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty?

 

This bucket is overflowing.  I would love to check off just one of the items on the list.  Well, two would be nice.  Three would be even better.

 

 

~ by Ron Meyer on July 16, 2008.