TERPSTRA: Remember When?

Sometimes I try to forget.

But in all honesty — at least most of the time — I remember.

I remember because it helps me live in the present and look to the future.

I also remember because I think some people don’t look at the past and recall pleasant or important events enough in their lives.

I know what you’re thinking — there’s no sense in living in the past.

I’m not saying that; there’s a big difference.

I would say it’s better to live in the moment because it’s not good to look too far ahead or behind you.

But I still find myself more often than not, remembering.

Some of my favorite recollections are the “Where Are They Now” bits that you see on TV or online. I can’t think of anyone that I’ve ever heard that has disliked those remembrance pieces.

You know the ones I’m talking about.

Where’s Wally Cleaver and his brother “Beaver?” What has changed with them in the last 60 years since they last starred in one of America’s favorite sitcoms, “Leave it to Beaver?”

I know Jerry Mathers, who played “Beaver,” was on an episode of “Married with Children,” like 25 years ago. Other than that, I have no clue what the man’s doing now.

How about past TV stars like the guy that starred in that show from the late 80s and early 90s – “Quantum Leap.” I can’t even phrase it like that anymore because it’s so easy to find out his name after I enter it into a search engine.

Answer? Scott Bakula. He starred in that really bad football movie I saw around that same time. I can’t think of it. Oh, wait. “Necessary Roughness.” Thanks, Google. Remember when we couldn’t find everything out by typing words into a computer.

But seriously, I have no idea what Bakula is currently doing in 2018.

Sports ones were the best.

Whatever happened to Fernando Valenzuela?

If you’re too young to remember when he first broke into the big leagues — and I am, by the way — “Fernando Mania” swept through southern California and the nation in the early 80s. I remember more of his mid-to-late 1980s, early 1990s career, when he was past his prime, but still somewhat serviceable.  

Fernando, as he is referred to a lot of the time, was a young 20-year-old Mexican left-handed pitcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers who featured a vicious pitch that few, if any lefties, have ever mastered – the screwball.

The pitch, utilized by several Hall-of-Famers back in the day, is rare now and almost extinct in today’s modern game. But it propelled Fernando to win the Cy Young award in his rookie season (1981) and led the Dodgers to the World Series title in the strike-shortened season that year.

He would pitch eight shutouts that year — a feat no pitcher has ever been able to top since, except John Tudor of the Cardinals, who threw nine in a single season in 1985. That’s how good Fernando was right out of the box.

“Fernando Mania” was a thing and it did happen.

I remember I missed him pitching in what would be his final season in 1997 by one day. His final “farewell tour” was that year as the Cardinals picked him up and he threw in an Interleague game versus the Brewers in Milwaukee.

Remember old County Stadium? I sure do. It makes Miller Park seem like heaven on earth. And for all you youngsters out there, that was the first year of Interleague play, which I thought was really cool. I know the novelty has worn off, but the Brewers and Cardinals wore throwback uniforms from the 1982 World Series — the last time the Brewers have been to the Fall Classic. And the only time.

So I remember and yeah, I might have rambled on a tad too much about Fernando, but it made me feel good just thinking about what kind of time it was back then. I promise I won’t write about sports for at least two or three more columns. I couldn’t resist, because coincidentally my mother and my brother’s family are headed up to Wisconsin this weekend to watch the Brewers and Cardinals play.

It’s important to remember the people who did great things before us and still continue to do so. We all change and a lot of us can’t do those things anymore – whatever those things are. But pioneers, groundbreakers, trendsetters and even that time you stubbed your toe on the bed and were on crutches for a month should never be forgotten.

There’s no sense in excluding something from our memory banks just because it’s painful or isn’t positive. I understand if you do, but not everything we remember is going to have a positive connotation hanging all over it.

Oh, what’s Fernando doing now? He’s currently in his fourth season of calling Dodger games in Spanish for SportsNet LA.

I’ll end with this.

Next month is, I guess, an important date. I don’t know if I’ll make an appearance, but I will be with these cherished souls in spirit if I can’t be in physical form.

My 25-year high school reunion is coming up this July. I know, I look like I might be somewhere in my 30s — give or take 5 years.

But I remember those years and those classmates. Good times all around.

I remember when I thought I’d never live to see 25. But a lot of us have had moments in our life where at some point we’ve probably felt that way.

So if I do attend the reunion next month, am I supposed to reminisce about the good ol’ glory days or is it more appropriate to focus on the here and now.

I can’t remember.