Baseball was back at Angel Stadium. Not all the way, but it was back Friday night.

Nick Adenhart wasn’t there but he wasn’t gone, either, and he won’t be gone. Not this year, not for a long time. He’ll always be part of this team, part of these players’ lives. Part of fans’ lives.

And by playing, his teammates did what they had to do: They moved on. Nowhere near ready to, nothing else to do but to, they moved on and did their thing, did what their friend dreamed of doing, and did.

Jered Weaver did the one thing he could do: As he said, he battled. He put it all out there. He honored Nick Adenhart with more than initials on a cap or scribbled on the mound. He did it by performing their shared art with everything he had — much like the kid himself did it Wednesday night.

Baseball moves on. It always does. And it will this year with the memory of another young man gone too soon — as it has in recent Cardinals seasons. And it moves on with more tough days to come. And more tears.

But baseball keeps on keeping on. And without ever talking to Nick Adenhart, you just know that’s how he’d have wanted it.

Yakyu Haiku
That’s the American tradition of baseball in Japanese, and here’s an Americanized version of a Japanese tradition:
Bullies the baseball,
But has that spring cherub look –
Miguel Cabrera