01/02/2023
In July 2022, I took a trip to New York and attended a game at Yankee Stadium. While there, I learned about a man named Dan Reischel who started a project called 162 Games of Catch.
During the pandemic, Dan realized that the simple joy of playing catch was perfect for a safe, socially-distanced activity. He later came up with the idea to play catch with 162 different people (162 being significant because of the number of games in an MLB team's regular season). Dan's goal was to play catch and have conversation. There was not a hidden agenda tied to it. He just wanted to meet and visit with people over a game of catch.
I loved this idea and wanted to do this myself. With Dan's blessing, I have also decided to take on this challenge to see if I can play catch with 162 different people during the 2023 calendar year. I hope to do this with many friends and also want to extend this offer to people I do not know quite as well. We can learn a lot about people and break down barriers just by opening our ears and our hearts to others. There could be some opportunities for some fun conversation, but I hope this experience also opens up avenues to have some "real conversation."
I live in Wellington, KS and work in Winfield, so this will likely be limited to the south-central Kansas area (though there might be opportunities to travel for some special games of catch). As I work towards this goal of "Jason's 162 Games of Catch," I hope to share tales of the wonderful people I meet and the special stories from their lives (though obviously respecting any boundaries within sharing stories).
If you might be interested in playing catch with me, feel free to message me or send me an email. I can envision playing catch taking about 30-60 minutes, but in some cases, the conversation could possibly last a lifetime. Who knows?
Welcome to this journey with me!
Jason Ault
