After 34 non-stop years, Kris Bird knows his career is nearing its end.
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The Tamworth native was introduced to baseball by his father, Phil, when he was four years old. Phil coached him for much of his time in juniors, too.
But now, as he nears 40 with a son in the early stages of his own baseball journey, Bird knows he doesn't have many games left in him.
"I'll probably hang up the boots next year. I might have one more in me," he said.
"We'll see how we go."
The veteran pitcher is currently in the midst of yet another Tamworth Baseball Inc. June Carnival.
He is not quite sure how many he's played now. Around 18, he estimates - one of which he got through with a broken foot, while a handful of years ago he was forced out after another nasty injury to his ankle.
It's hard to keep track of them all.
But Bird proved today that he is still more than capable of delivering for his side, as he was one of the standouts for coach Andrew Ferris in Tamworth's first game, against the Illawarra Giants.
"I think Kris Bird threw well in the first game this morning," Ferris said.
"They were a really good hitting team, and he did well to limit them. All credit to him on that."
The home side lost that opening clash and followed it up with another defeat to Canberra in the afternoon.
It was a disappointing day, but the diagnosis was simple.
"We just didn't convert runs," Ferris said.
"We hit the ball well, but we managed to find their players. All credit to the guys that hit, but we didn't have much go our way. That's just the way it is sometimes."
It didn't help, Bird added, that with just four teams in the draw, they are all through to finals regardless.
"It's hard to get motivated for games that don't mean too much," he said.
So the team will learn from today's games and use tomorrow's, starting from 8am against the KC Gallopers, to shake off the rust and get themselves firing before Monday's finals.
After making the grand final last year, the team came into the 2024 edition buoyed by the knowledge that they are competitive with top sides.
"The last few years, we've been building and building and building", Bird said.
"We've got the team, and we can stick it to the ABL players. They're full of stars, we just play well together. It just wasn't our day today."
Last year's final was a moment to savour for the long-time Tamworth representative. But what would it mean to go one further this year and claim the title?
"It'd be great," Bird said.
"That'd probably be the icing on the cake that would make me hang the boots up."
