Though I've never met Mr. Howarth, he has kindly allowed a mutual friend to share this email with a wider audience like mine. It's a question and answer submission that he put together for an an upcoming magazine article.
Like me, Jerry has taken up bridge in earnest in his retirement and his comment about competitive genes had me nodding my head.
If you're a fan of bridge or of baseball, I think you will enjoy his comments below.
- Take us back to the beginning: how did you get started in the game? Some details please such as:
Where were you living?How old were you at the time?What were your first impressions? Etc.Back in 1979 in Salt Like City, Utah, I was just finishing my five years broadcasting Triple-A baseball games and decided to take a few bridge lessons to learn about a game I had only heard about. Looking back (and with a smile) I played a handful of games earning exactly 10 master points. I later found out this past year that those 10 points qualify me in the “grandfather clause” to be a life master with only 300 master points needed instead of now the required 500! Who knew?? The best 10 master points ever! A year later we moved to Toronto where I began my 36 year career as a Blue Jays radio broadcaster.
- Who were your first teachers/mentors? I purposely put bridge on the shelf for those 36 years as I realized how time consuming it was to learn the game of bridge and play it to the best of my ability. I also wanted to make a difference in young people’s lives so I coached basketball for 25 years in the off season both in middle school for five years and then at Etobicoke Collegiate for 20 years. After I retired from baseball at the end of the 2017 season, I then took up bridge earnestly and joined the Etobicoke bridge club and the Mobridge club in Mississauga. My first two mentors were Steve Overholt who runs the Etobicoke club and Dave Colbert who is a member of that club and a former Canadian National Champion. Both have become great friends as well as remaining such good mentors for me.
- What are some of the first things you learned when you started that still apply today? I had to learn quickly how to try and focus and concentrate on every card played and that is still and always will be a formidable challenge in this great game. That and to be the best partner I can be at the table always trying to emphasize the positive in the games played by and with my partners. It is so easy to be negative in bridge which is truly a game of mistakes, but the more I put mistakes aside and only compliment my partner’s play along with my own the better I play and the better we play as a team.
- Do you have any anecdote about learning bridge back in the day that you can share? (Looking for something you don’t mind admitting now b/c it’s something funny or silly.) When I first took up bridge seriously at the Etobicoke club back a few years ago, I played a game with, Lezlie Cullen, who is an excellent bridge player and a friend to many including myself. In one of our first games we scored 27% with 19 red boards - still a record for me when it comes to being at the very bottom of the heap. I took a deep breath and a few months after that, Lezlie, and I had a 70% game. She taught me how to get past that 27% game and I am forever grateful.
- Are you playing online at all these days? How has that transition been for you? I play online now each day Monday through Sunday thanks to BBO. I love the two hours of competition and playing with partner’s I had first met in the two clubs. The transition has been an easy one as it always gets back to focus and concentration whether at the club or online.
- What do you find are the pros and cons of playing online? I find only the pros when playing online and with the Covid-19, I am grateful for the chance to play all the time. No cons!!
- Do you ever play against the robots? If so, what are your impressions both positive and negative? No, I have not. I just have no interest in doing that.
- Have you made friendships that started with you and your friend(s) meeting at the bridge table? Yes, I have made many new friends playing bridge since I retired who I will now have for the rest of my life. It still is always about people and then the bridge follows.
- Do you get recognized by people at the bridge table or at a bridge lesson series? Do you find most people are respectful about who you are and pretty much leave you alone? How about out in public away from the bridge scene? Any funny or awkward encounters? I was recognized a lot at first playing bridge in the two clubs let alone, of course, out in public. I have always been able to have a good moment or two talking with these fans who have been ardent listeners over the years and giving them my undivided attention.. I then move on in the conversation and ask them about their lives as I try to keep a low profile. Along those lines, I am so happy I was on radio all those years rather than on TV where the public profile is so much greater. No, thank you. I have had my time in the spotlight and I am very grateful for all the years, but I am also very happy to move on and let others move into that broadcasting spotlight as I leave it. I loved talking for a living at the microphone and now I love NOT talking playing bridge! Haha…lucky and blessed me.
- What do you think about bridge? Is it just a fun pastime for you or has it become a major part of your life? Bridge has become a major part of my life now in retirement to help me deal with and have fun with the “competitive genes” I was born with as I like to call them. I still have those genes to this very day, as I am now fulfilled playing bridge! It is more than just a pastime.
- Have you been able to persuade any family members to take up the game? My wife, Mary, plays social bridge and has no desire to compete like her husband so we both enjoy this great game differently which is fine. I purposely did not introduce our two sons who are now in their early 40’s with kids of their own to bridge because I did not want them to spend their hours learning a complicated game when they have their own careers and families to love and be with as husbands and fathers. Bridge can come later in life for them like it did for me.
- When you are not playing bridge, what else do you like to do in your spare time? Mary and I will watch a lot of great shows on Apple TV and Netflix as well as spending a lot of time with our boys and their wives and our three young grandsons…all good!
- Joe Carter used to play, and maybe still does. Did you ever discuss bridge with the ‘C’ in WAMCO? Joe and I were great friends and he loved playing bridge. On many of our Blue Jays flights from 1993 through 1995 when Paul Molitor was on the team, Joe and Paul would play bridge against Ed Sprague and John Olerud. I would watch loving every minute and their playful dialogue back and forth with each other.
- Any other thoughts or observations about bridge and/or bridge players? As Steve Overholt has said and written many times: What a Game!
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