Catching Up With Coach Mike

A Personal Post - Please Read

May 05, 2025

“They deem me mad because I will not sell my days for gold; and I deem them mad because they think my days have a price.” ~ Khalil Gibran

Let me start off with a warm welcome to all our new subscribers. I hope you enjoy the content. Please spread the word.

I apologize for the prolonged absence; the last couple weeks have been both a trying and somewhat emotional time for me. But today, I’ve chosen to write.

Yesterday was a milestone in my life, I started my 60^th year of playing some kind and level of baseball. The Naperville Yankees took the field as the home team at Eisenhower High School in Blue Island, Illinois, squaring off against the Giants in the Roy Hobbs 60 and Over Baseball League. I started at second base and was listed as batting 8^th in our order. Unfortunately, there was a light rain coming down during warmups and once we took the field, the rain increased. After four batters, it was coming down steadily and hard, ultimately the umpire called the game. It will be made up later in the season. Drenched, but overjoyed that another season had started. Our next game is scheduled for this Saturday.

As many of you know, I am a Certified Personal Trainer. I have my own business, Coach Mike’s Personal Training, L.L.C. and work part-time at Woodridge ARC (quite a few hours), Lockport Challenge Fitness, and contract for Gold Standard Trainers. It is very satisfying work, seeing people’s lives enriched, their bodies changed and living a healthier lifestyle. I’ve truly enjoyed most of this work.

Today, was my first day of “semi-retirement”. I chose to reduce my workload a while ago, planning to reach this date after starting to receive my Social Security benefits as well as some investment funds. It was a hard decision, and quite emotional, but it was time. I will still be doing some limited one-on-one training as well as fitness classes. I don’t have a hard stop date to go “fully retired”; I’m sort of easing into this phase of my life. I will truly miss the people that I trained and will continue to enjoy the ones I chose to stay with. I will dearly miss the staff folks with whom I have worked, although I will still see some of them for shorter periods of time now, they mean the world to me and I absolutely want to stay in touch (and friends) with them, but it marks a change. I facilitated three training hours today, spoke with staff and headed home. I felt a sense of relief to have started this, but also felt a bit of loss and uneasiness, I suppose this is normal. We shall see.

So, what’s in store for me now. Well, I will be doing things that I truly love, things that I have a passion for. Yes, I will still be working doing limited training. I will still be playing baseball, which is my first love. I will be playing a bit more golf, an activity that allows me to share time with good friends and my son. (I shoot in the 80s, any hotter than that, I don’t go out. Joking!). I will be blogging more as writing has always been a passion of mine. I had thought when I was younger, it might have become my profession, but I didn’t take the chance. I will be reading more, a lifetime pursuit. I have a deep love of music, so I will also be playing guitar more. I have already started performing at Open Mic nights recently. My hope is to perhaps take on some paying gigs as well. Another guitar opportunity I’m going to pursue is “Busking” (Street Performing); I will be stopping off at the Lockport City Clerk’s office tomorrow to have some questions answered and to obtain a permit. Of course, I will be traveling more with my wife, family and some friends; enjoying life and the people with whom I’ve been blessed. The only criteria will be, “do I enjoy this?”

If you’d like more information on any of my pursuits, please contact me. I will NOT be accepting any new clients, and I have limited my hours, so that is off the table. If you’d like a copy of my Yankees schedule to come out and see a game; if you’d like to lose some golf balls together; or see me perform on stage, on the street or have any gigs for me (I will be creating an email distribution to announce playing dates for those that want to see me) the process will be the same, contact me via text, comment on this blog or shoot me an email to this address. I also welcome other ideas from retired folks on how they spend their time.

With all that said, I’d like to share a couple “Top 9” (I don’t do Top 10, I’m always afraid David Letterman might sue me) on these subjects so you can get to know me a tad better. Plus, it’s fun to make lists.

Top 9 Favourite Baseball Movies:

1. For Love Of The Game

2. Field Of Dreams

3. The Natural

4. A League Of Their Own

5. Bull Durham

6. Major League

7. Pride Of The Yankees

8. The Sandlot

9. Mr. Baseball

(CLICK HERE to see a blog post regarding this.)

Top 9 Favorite Authors:

1. Richard Bach

2. Stephen King

3. Dr. Suess

4. William Shakespeare

5. Earnst Hemmingway

6. Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

7. Edgar Allen Poe

8. Janet Evanovich

9. Robert B. Parker

(Many others.)

Top 9 Favourite Songs:

1. More Than A Feeling – Boston

2. The Hard Way Every Time – Jim Croce

3. If You Could Read My Mind – Gordon Lightfoot

4. Two Of Us – The Beatles

5. In My Life – The Beatles

6. Angie – The Rolling Stones

7. Sentimental Lady – Fleetwood Mac

8. L.A. Goodbye – The Ides Of March

9. Today Is Mine – Jerry Read

(Hundreds of others.)

Top 9 Favourite Guitarists:

1. Jim Hendrix

2. George Harrison

3. Keith Richards

4. Eric Clapton

5. Brian May

6. Lindsey Buckingham

7. Roger McGuinn

8. Prince

9. Jerry Reed

(Just off the top of my head, again, hundreds more.)

Top 9 Favourite Male Singers:

1. Gordon Lightfoot *

2. Jim Croce *

3. Jimmy Buffett *

4. Paul McCartney

5. John Lennon

6. Gerry Rafferty

7. Gram Parsons

8. James Taylor

9. Warren Zevon

(*Reasons why I started playing guitar.)

Top 9 Female Singers:

1. Carly Simon

2. Marilyn McCoo

3. Olivia Newton-John

4. Dusty Springfield

5. Aretha Franklin

6. Carole King

7. Nancy Wilson (Heart)

8. Linda Ronstadt

9. Eva Cassidy

I hope this gives you an additional glimpse into my life and some insights into who I am.

This semi-retirement thing is new as will be the next phase, full retirement whenever that comes along. Debbie and I both will have to test it out and get used to the new adventures. The life I’ve lived isn’t going away, the important people I want to always have in my life, I will work to have them remain. I will still live by the principle “That we are all just walking each other home” and my goal will continue to be that “I make a difference in people’s lives”.

Look forward to more posts here in “Comments” and if we have personal relationships, I look forward to spending more time together. Thanks for your continued support.

~ Coach Mike

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