Column debut for JAPAN Forward

This column appears on the Japan Forward website.

[Odds and Evens] Here’s My Promise: A Compelling Sports Coverage for JAPAN Forward

May 4, 2020

By Ed Odeven

I was born seven weeks early in April 1974, and my mother still reminds me about it.

“You’ve always been in a hurry,” she says.

That’s probably true. But maybe it was just meant to be.

I’ve always loved sports, and the month I was born marked a major feat in Major League Baseball history, one of the biggest accomplishments ever on the baseball diamond.

Three days after my big arrival in New York City, Atlanta Braves slugger Hank Aaron belted the biggest homer of his career, No. 715 on April 8, 1974. What did it mean? That he had surpassed Babe Ruth, on MLB’s all-time home run list.

I wrote my first big book report in elementary school on Babe Ruth…