R.I.P. Ted Ulaender

Memory is a very strange thing.

Last night, I opened my Sports Illustrated and learned about the passing of Ted Uhlaender. Yeah, that guy. Never heard of him did you? Ted was a ball player for the Minnesota Twins back in 1968, maybe '69 also. Then he moved on to the Indians I think.

Somehow, a synapse or two inside my 10-year old head recorded this name as it was mentioned by Tiger announcers George Kell or Ernie Harwell way back when, in some series against the Twins. Some of my fondest memories of my Grandfather were when I would listen to the Tiger broadcasts on a warm summer night on his scratchy AM radio, in "up north" Michigan. The small speaker competing with the hum of crickets and an occasional whip-poor-will back in the woods behind the house. And along with that memory, stuck some of the names, like Uhlaender, who by itself, never would have stayed if it wasn't for the connection to these wonderful summer nights.

Until I read it yesterday, I hadn't seen, nor thought of that name once in the last ten years. Not once in the last twenty. Not once in the last thirty. And yet, I read it and recognized it instantly. Very strange....and really a miracle when you stop and think about it.

I read a quote one time; can't remember from who, but it was something like, "man will know about everything in the universe, before he knows how his own brain can comprehend it". Of all the thinking powers, I think the ability of memory is the strangest. It can be very pleasant, and very awful. But it always amazes. Now don't ask me what I had for lunch yesterday. That escapes me at the moment. Ask me in 2019.