When your grandkids live three hours away by car or plane, family get-togethers are opportune times to measure their growth, particularly if you’re lucky enough to still reside in the home where your children grew up and you haven’t painted over the lines on the closet frame where you marked their ascendancy.
Finley has far surpassed Dan’s height at their equivalent age. At 11 (Tuesday is her 11th birthday), Cecilia Jane is taller than Ellie was at 15.
I take a grandfather’s pride at Finley’s stature. Eighteen months ago I relinquished my title as tallest in the family to my then 15-year-old grandson (https://nosocksneededanymore.blogspot.com/2024/10/d-e-t-h-r-o-n-e-d.html).
He has not stopped growing. Over the Passover holiday visit I kept marveling at what I perceived to be his 6’ 3” frame, only to be corrected that he was just 6’ 1-1/2”. Impossible, I persisted. You’re more than three inches taller than me, and I’m six feet!
Back to back standoff comparisons would not settle the matter. I took out the measuring tape, lined Finley up against a wall, put a pencil mark against the crown of his head and measured out … 73-1/2”! I did the same for myself–71-1/2”.
Sacré bleu!!! He wasn’t six foot-three. More to the point, I was not six feet!!!
I’ve been very protective of my six-foot status. But the evidence of my shrinking stature has become more and more irrefutable. My physician’s assistant who measures my height has been kind enough to humor me when I insist I am still six feet tall. I’ll be seeing her again next week. I don’t think I will be able to keep up the ruse.
I should have realized I was shrinking when I recently put on a pair of suit pants that had previously fit perfectly but now appeared to be too long.
I am depressed. But I’m not alone at being forced to confront reality. Major League Baseball players are facing the same truths about their heights. Because of the Automated Ball-Strike system implemented throughout the new 2026 season, “Of the 430 hitters on Opening Day rosters, 225 lost at least one inch off their previously listed heights in 2024 and 2025, according to data compiled by The Athletic,” the subscription sports department of The New York Times (https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7155626/2026/03/30/mlb-short-kings-height-measurements-changing-abs/?source=athletic_user_shared_article_copylink&smid=url-share-ta).
Baseball players are lucky salaries are not based on size. Then again, a grandfather’s worth is similarly not set by how tall he is.
