Opening Day

Today was the home opener for the Cardinals' 2008 season. And it was the first home opener in over three decades without Marty Hendin.

Marty was a great guy -- and I barely knew him. In fact, I only encountered him three times -- twice at the ballpark, with students from a partner university in Japan (Marty helped them meet So Taguchi -- a dream come true for all of them), and once at an UMSL basketball game. He was also involved in my department at the university -- he sat on the advisory board.

It would be fair to say that Marty's heart was in a lot of places. And a big part of it -- a large chunk of the Cardinals doodads that sat in his Busch Stadium office (a.k.a., Trinket City) for years -- is on display at UMSL.

A lot of things have been written about Marty since his death in January. And this afternoon, about an hour before the first pitch of the 2008 season, I found myself in the Millennium Student Center at UMSL, glancing at his collection of trinkets, remembering how generous he was to anyone and everyone he encountered.

I think Katie Felts (from KSDK) said it best when she said, "[Marty] always took great care of people."

While I could wish that I had the chance to know him better, I'm thankful that I had the chance to know him at all -- even on a limited basis.