When Bruce Springsteen wrote “Glory Days,” he wasn’t inventing a character; he was preserving a person. Joe DePugh was the kid with the live arm and the easy grin, the pitcher who could “throw that speedball by you” and then walk off like it was nothing. They grew up side by side in Freehold, New Jersey — one destined for stadium lights, the other for quiet diamonds and working life — and then slipped into separate worlds until fate steered them back to the same bar door in 1973. That chance reunion, two old friends trading memories over drinks, became the spine of a song millions would sing.

Decades later, as cancer claimed DePugh’s life, Springsteen’s tribute stripped away myth and fame. He spoke not as “The Boss” but as the right fielder who once rode the bench, in awe of his pitcher. In remembering Joe, he honored every anonymous teammate, every forgotten star of our own small-town stories. “Glory Days” now plays like a eulogy and a promise: that the people who shaped us never fully leave, as long as their stories keep circling the bases in our hearts.