Pitcher Bob Gibson mowed down hitters with such ease in 1968 (22-9, 1.12 ERA, 28 complete games, 268 strikeouts) that MLB recognized the problem was Gibson had an advantage because he threw down at batters from a raised pitcher's mound. In 1969 Major League Baseball decided to lower the mound from 15 inches to 10 inches, in hopes to "increase the batting." That year Gibson went out and showed that he could probably strike guys out if he pitched uphill (20-13, 2.18 ERA, 28 complete games, 269 strikeouts).
Lawrence Taylor was such an amazing pass-rusher in the NFL, offenses changed because of him. When you see offensive tackles standing up with one foot back before the ball is hiked, that is because of LT. Before he arrived, all offensive linemen usually put one hand on the ground and had their feet relatively square. Because LT was so fast, tackles were being beat with such regularity and quarterbacks getting smacked with such velocity, linemen tried to gain any advantage they could. By standing up and having one foot back, the lineman is already in a pass-blocking position. That fraction of a second could mean the difference between a touchdown pass or Joe Theismann's broken leg.
These are what we call game changers. Nothing is the same after game changers.
Thursday, I took Reese to the Children's Museum and had to do some other errands. As a result, we were not home for her to take a nap. She slept a little bit in the car, but no more than 30 minutes. Considering she takes about a 2-hour nap, I knew she was still tired when we got home. I put her in the crib and closed the door knowing she would eventually fall asleep, even if she did fuss a bit at the beginning.
I was reading in our bedroom with the door closed when the handle started to jiggle. The door swung open and Reese stoop there with a big smile and said, "Hi!"
I was in shock. How did...but weren't you...what the hell just happened?
Reese figured out how to climb out of her crib!
Attempting to put her to bed that night was an arduous task. She kept climbing out of her crib every time we put her in it! She was obviously tired and needed to sleep, but she realized she didn't have to do what mommy and daddy wanted. Her exhaustion eventually overcame her independence and fell asleep.
Yesterday I converted her crib into a day bed. I was fearful she would try to climb out of the crib and fall and hurt herself. Even though she had accomplished the task without incident the night before, I was afraid something bad could happen the more tired she got.
The daybed idea made it easy and safe for her to get in and out of her bed, but also made it easy for her to stay out of her bed.
Last night Amy and I took turns trying to put her to bed. It lasted about three hours. And Reese woke us up at about 5 this morning (because she could) and fought taking a nap again.
There were points I thought were game changers with Reese. When she could roll over. When she could sit by herself. When she could stand. When she could eat normal food. When she could open any drawer in the house.
But this really looks like a massive game changer. This one is going to be hard to top. For awhile, anyway. I'm sure Reese will find a way to surprise me with some new skill that forces Amy and I to change the way we parent.
But like the sport greats mentioned earlier, you can change rules in an attempt to level the playing field, but history shows that those changes rarely matter. Which means, Amy and I can change all we want to try to slow down Reese, but it probably will not matter.
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