Postie and Lucy

© 2003 (Rick Wilson) Thomaston Express

Dave Post is a familiar figure to area softball, baseball fans.  From his early days playing baseball in Torrington , he has never been off the area fields.  Twi-Met league in Waterbury, softball leagues in Thomaston and Waterbury, the Tri-State Baseball League, he has graced them all and continues to do so.  Then he met Lucy Zbuska.  She was Terryville, he was Thomaston.  It didn’t matter.  He was a couple of years older.  Big deal.  Sometimes you just know.  They knew.  Two were on thier way to becoming one.  The passion in his life suddenly, unalterably became the two passions in his life.  For the duration.  Almost 32 years later, nothing has changed.  He has grown older, the passion only stronger.  Since his little league days when he sported the gray and maroon uniform of Summit Finishing Co., there has been no greater game on God’s green earth than baseball.  And since that summer night in 1971, there has been no greater lady than Lucy.  Maybe it is the same with all partners, but Postie and Lucy are a unique story.  Anyone who has come across the couple in more than 30 years of baseball action will tell you that.  Where Postie is, Lucy is.  He has never had to tell her the story, she has been part of the story right from the start.  In so many ways, there is no Postie without Lucy.  At the age of 47, he still keeps baseball alive in Thomaston, playing and coaching the Thomaston Spoilers of the Tri-State baseball league.  Lucy has been there every step of the way.  Girlfriend, wife, scorekeeper, calming influence, public relations person – you name it.  Lucy has done it.  Over the years, she has become as well known as her husband.  Teammates and opponents knew Postie AND Lucy.  There isn’t one without the other.  Post never has to come home and tell Lucy the score, she already knows it.  He never has to tell her about the game, she is a part of it.  They’ve walked the path together, a delicious combination of a passion for a game and one another that has worked.  It hasn’t always been an easy job, particularly for Lucy.  Post is a mercurial figure.  He has been known to hit himself in the helmet with his bat when frustrated.  He can be grumpy and opinionated.  It is part of the passion, the same passion that pushed him to see "Field of Dreams" several times and reduced him to tears.  Through it all, Lucy has been there, sometimes agreeing, sometimes not.  But always there, the partnership never waivers.  Postie and Lucy is singular.  Two people, one entity.  Now the curveball (as they both deal with health issues).  May it flatten out.  May the days get brighter.  There is more baseball to be played and watched.  And it has to be done together.  That’s the only way Postie and Lucy have ever known.