How I Came To Love Baseball

[Talkin' Baseball]

In the summer of 1971 my parents took my brother, sister, and me to a county fair in the neighboring county. We had never been to a fair before, and never went again afterward. I remember being enamored with all the things an 8 year-old boy would be enamored with at his first fair, but as we were leaving something happened that changed my life in a good way. As we were leaving the fairgrounds and the lighting was becoming more dim, in the grass I found something that had been discarded earlier- unwanted. I picked them up, having no idea what they were. My dad explained to me that they were baseball cards. I held on to them and looked them over and over when I got home to better lighting. The only card that I can still remember is Jack Billingham, a pitcher at that time with the Houston Astros. I see that the same card sells on ebay now from $1.75 to $4.49.

I Collected Baseball Cards
I was awful proud of my baseball cards and showed them to anyone who would sit and listen about them. When I showed them to my grandma, she listened intently and when I was done, she went over to a cabinet of hers and pulled out a box. It had maybe 500 baseball cards in it. It was a collection my uncle had put together before he went out on his own. At my next visit, my grandma got the box out again, we looked at the cards again, and then she gave them to me. There were many interesting cards there and I memorized them front and back. A couple I remember were a 1958 Stan Musial card and a 1967 Bob Gibson.

Over the next several years I continued to collect baseball cards feverishly. The result was a collection exceeding 20,000 cards. Some I bought, many were given to me by mothers cleaning up their house. It was an amazing collection. I not only had a card of every player of the day, I had multiples of every card, of every player from the late 50’s through the 70’s. Think about that. Pete Rose, Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax… everyone. It helped me memorize all the teams they played for and their statistics. It was great fun for me.

I Watched Baseball
I watched my first World Series that fall of 1971 between Roberto Clemente and the Pirates versus the mighty Baltimore Orioles. I started watching baseball whenever I could. WMBD out of Peoria often carried Cubs games on Sundays (and yes, I even watched the Cubs) with Jack Brickhouse. I watched the game of the week on NBC with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek. I was tickled to death when they started Monday Night baseball with Joe Garagiola.

I Read About Baseball
Getting the mail in the summer and early fall was a highlight for me. I would take the sports section out of the Pekin Daily Times and read every box score, look at the league leaders, the standings, and scheduled pitchers for the day. It was one of the highlights of the day.
My uncle (who had collected the baseball cards) knew of my interest and every couple months or so, he would stop by and leave a pile of his Sporting News magazines for me to look through. I read every article about every team and looked at the stats of all the minor leaguers, as well as the big leaguers. There was a publication put out before each season with analysis on each team and predictions- Smith and Street’s- I purchased that each year.

I Played Baseball
I played baseball whenever I could. I lived for the Little League games against other kids from my town. After Little League, we got involved in Pony League. That was great because we got to go to other towns to play, got our first experience playing under the lights, and had a great coach who taught us a lot. The worst thing I could say about him is, he was/is a Cubs fan. At the end of each season he would take us to Wrigley Field for a game. We got to see the Dodgers and the Cardinals there.

For about 5-8 years my dad would play “pepper ball” with my brother and I when he got home from working. Sometimes he would be exhausted, but he was almost always was a good sport and would spend at least a little time at it. He also took us to Busch Stadium to see the Cardinals. We watched them take on Fergie Jenkins and the Cubs, Don Gullett and the Reds, and Woody Fryman and the Expos.

My Junior High baseball coach taught me more about how to play baseball than anyone I ever worked with. We would have our regular practice, and then afterward he would hold special voluntary sessions to teach about the nuances of each position and skill. For instance, if you were interested in pitching- it didn’t matter if you were being used as a pitcher or not- if you were interested, he would show you about pitching out of the stretch, making pick-off moves, what constitutes a balk, and all the things no one teaches you. He would do that for each position- where you should position yourself, how to use the cutoff man, who covers on a steal attempt- all the stuff. I wish I knew where is today, or if he is even alive, so I could thank him. He was a Coach.

When I got to high school, I hit .500 playing varsity as a freshman. Before my sophomore season, I changed schools. I was beginning to wonder if I might be good enough to advance playing baseball. To what, I wasn’t sure, but I was starting to wonder. I hit .455 as a sophomore, but in the next to the last game of the season, I was stealing second base and slid late. My spike grabbed the base on my late slide and tore up my left knee. It was never the same, and that was that.

So, I didn’t end up with a career in baseball. I went into business instead. I have maintained a life-long love of baseball. Now, with my background in business, I am as interested in the roster-building and business of baseball as I am with the actual game. It is all fun and interesting to me. It sometimes makes my heart hurt when I see posts on here where people are so angry and unhappy with all the goings on. Baseball is a beautiful game, and it is fun.

Merry Christmas all!

[Talkin' Baseball]

In the summer of 1971 my parents took my brother, sister, and me to a county fair in the neighboring county. We had never been to a fair before, and never went again afterward. I remember being enamored with all the things an 8 year-old boy would be enamored with at his first fair, but as we were leaving something happened that changed my life in a good way. As we were leaving the fairgrounds and the lighting was becoming more dim, in the grass I found something that had been discarded earlier- unwanted. I picked them up, having no idea what they were. My dad explained to me that they were baseball cards. I held on to them and looked them over and over when I got home to better lighting. The only card that I can still remember is Jack Billingham, a pitcher at that time with the Houston Astros. I see that the same card sells on ebay now from $1.75 to $4.49.

I Collected Baseball Cards
I was awful proud of my baseball cards and showed them to anyone who would sit and listen about them. When I showed them to my grandma, she listened intently and when I was done, she went over to a cabinet of hers and pulled out a box. It had maybe 500 baseball cards in it. It was a collection my uncle had put together before he went out on his own. At my next visit, my grandma got the box out again, we looked at the cards again, and then she gave them to me. There were many interesting cards there and I memorized them front and back. A couple I remember were a 1958 Stan Musial card and a 1967 Bob Gibson.

Over the next several years I continued to collect baseball cards feverishly. The result was a collection exceeding 20,000 cards. Some I bought, many were given to me by mothers cleaning up their house. It was an amazing collection. I not only had a card of every player of the day, I had multiples of every card, of every player from the late 50’s through the 70’s. Think about that. Pete Rose, Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax… everyone. It helped me memorize all the teams they played for and their statistics. It was great fun for me.

I Watched Baseball
I watched my first World Series that fall of 1971 between Roberto Clemente and the Pirates versus the mighty Baltimore Orioles. I started watching baseball whenever I could. WMBD out of Peoria often carried Cubs games on Sundays (and yes, I even watched the Cubs) with Jack Brickhouse. I watched the game of the week on NBC with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek. I was tickled to death when they started Monday Night baseball with Joe Garagiola.

I Read About Baseball
Getting the mail in the summer and early fall was a highlight for me. I would take the sports section out of the Pekin Daily Times and read every box score, look at the league leaders, the standings, and scheduled pitchers for the day. It was one of the highlights of the day.
My uncle (who had collected the baseball cards) knew of my interest and every couple months or so, he would stop by and leave a pile of his Sporting News magazines for me to look through. I read every article about every team and looked at the stats of all the minor leaguers, as well as the big leaguers. There was a publication put out before each season with analysis on each team and predictions- Smith and Street’s- I purchased that each year.

I Played Baseball
I played baseball whenever I could. I lived for the Little League games against other kids from my town. After Little League, we got involved in Pony League. That was great because we got to go to other towns to play, got our first experience playing under the lights, and had a great coach who taught us a lot. The worst thing I could say about him is, he was/is a Cubs fan. At the end of each season he would take us to Wrigley Field for a game. We got to see the Dodgers and the Cardinals there.

For about 5-8 years my dad would play “pepper ball” with my brother and I when he got home from working. Sometimes he would be exhausted, but he was almost always was a good sport and would spend at least a little time at it. He also took us to Busch Stadium to see the Cardinals. We watched them take on Fergie Jenkins and the Cubs, Don Gullett and the Reds, and Woody Fryman and the Expos.

My Junior High baseball coach taught me more about how to play baseball than anyone I ever worked with. We would have our regular practice, and then afterward he would hold special voluntary sessions to teach about the nuances of each position and skill. For instance, if you were interested in pitching- it didn’t matter if you were being used as a pitcher or not- if you were interested, he would show you about pitching out of the stretch, making pick-off moves, what constitutes a balk, and all the things no one teaches you. He would do that for each position- where you should position yourself, how to use the cutoff man, who covers on a steal attempt- all the stuff. I wish I knew where is today, or if he is even alive, so I could thank him. He was a Coach.

When I got to high school, I hit .500 playing varsity as a freshman. Before my sophomore season, I changed schools. I was beginning to wonder if I might be good enough to advance playing baseball. To what, I wasn’t sure, but I was starting to wonder. I hit .455 as a sophomore, but in the next to the last game of the season, I was stealing second base and slid late. My spike grabbed the base on my late slide and tore up my left knee. It was never the same, and that was that.

So, I didn’t end up with a career in baseball. I went into business instead. I have maintained a life-long love of baseball. Now, with my background in business, I am as interested in the roster-building and business of baseball as I am with the actual game. It is all fun and interesting to me. It sometimes makes my heart hurt when I see posts on here where people are so angry and unhappy with all the goings on. Baseball is a beautiful game, and it is fun.

How about you? How did you become interested in baseball?

Merry Christmas all!

[Basil Shabazz]

My dad got stationed at Scott AFB in April of 1982.

I was sn 8 year old that fell in love with the most exciting brand of baseball I've ever seen.

1982 & #51 will always be how I fell in love with baseball

[Talkin' Baseball]

My dad got stationed at Scott AFB in April of 1982.

I was sn 8 year old that fell in love with the most exciting brand of baseball I've ever seen.

1982 & #51 will always be how I fell in love with baseball

That was awesome!

[spfldan]

Nice read. Still got all those cards?

[Talkin' Baseball]

Nice read. Still got all those cards?

No. I'm sure they are worth north of 1M today. I sent them the same way I got them. I gave them away. The guy eventually sold them and paid his way through college and law school.

I had several interesting cards of a thin OF for the Kansas City Athletics named Whitey Herzog. Had one of him with the Baltimore Orioles as well.

[Talkin' Baseball]

How did you become interested in baseball?

[sp25]

How did you become interested in baseball?

Very similar to you, Talkin'.

My brother, 13 months older than I, would watch Cubs games with our grandmother when we visited her in SE Iowa. We eventually started watching NBC's Game of the Week every Saturday, with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek doing the games.

In the summer of 1968 when I was 7, we started collecting baseball cards, and I think I fell in love with the beautiful red Cardinals uniforms and the birds on the bat. We had (and still have) All Star cards for Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, and Tim McCarver.

It was in 1968 that I learned magical baseball names such as Willie Mays (I read "The Baseball Life of Willie Mays over and over) and Mickey Mantle. I read a lot of baseball history books, particularly the Little League Series of greatest World Series games, greatest hitters, pitchers, etc.

I have a couple of vague memories of the 1968 World Series, especially Lou's lead off home run in game 4 in Detroit. The following September we were watching on TV when Lou hit a walk off home run in the 10th inning to defeat the fading Cubs. Lou Brock was always our favorite player.

My first MLB game was 1972 in St. Louis against the Phillies. Carlton and the Phillies won 2 of 3 that weekend, but we loved being in Busch Stadium II.

No matter what happened with the team in the 1970s, we stayed with the Cardinals and were finally rewarded with a World Series Championship in 1982. Thank you, Whitey, George, Keith, Ozzie, Willie, et al!

[Talkin' Baseball]

How did you become interested in baseball?

Very similar to you, Talkin'.

My brother, 13 months older than I, would watch Cubs games with our grandmother when we visited her in SE Iowa. We eventually started watching NBC's Game of the Week every Saturday, with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek doing the games.

In the summer of 1968 when I was 7, we started collecting baseball cards, and I think I fell in love with the beautiful red Cardinals uniforms and the birds on the bat. We had (and still have) All Star cards for Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, and Tim McCarver.

It was in 1968 that I learned magical baseball names such as Willie Mays (I read "The Baseball Life of Willie Mays over and over) and Mickey Mantle. I read a lot of baseball history books, particularly the Little League Series of greatest World Series games, greatest hitters, pitchers, etc.

I have a couple of vague memories of the 1968 World Series, especially Lou's lead off home run in game 4 in Detroit. The following September we were watching on TV when Lou hit a walk off home run in the 10th inning to defeat the fading Cubs. Lou Brock was always our favorite player.

My first MLB game was 1972 in St. Louis against the Phillies. Carlton and the Phillies won 2 of 3 that weekend, but we loved being in Busch Stadium II.

No matter what happened with the team in the 1970s, we stayed with the Cardinals and were finally rewarded with a World Series Championship in 1982. Thank you, Whitey, George, Keith, Ozzie, Willie, et al!

That's cool. That is a very similar experience.

[sp25]

How did you become interested in baseball?

Very similar to you, Talkin'.

My brother, 13 months older than I, would watch Cubs games with our grandmother when we visited her in SE Iowa. We eventually started watching NBC's Game of the Week every Saturday, with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek doing the games.

In the summer of 1968 when I was 7, we started collecting baseball cards, and I think I fell in love with the beautiful red Cardinals uniforms and the birds on the bat. We had (and still have) All Star cards for Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, and Tim McCarver.

It was in 1968 that I learned magical baseball names such as Willie Mays (I read "The Baseball Life of Willie Mays over and over) and Mickey Mantle. I read a lot of baseball history books, particularly the Little League Series of greatest World Series games, greatest hitters, pitchers, etc.

I have a couple of vague memories of the 1968 World Series, especially Lou's lead off home run in game 4 in Detroit. The following September we were watching on TV when Lou hit a walk off home run in the 10th inning to defeat the fading Cubs. Lou Brock was always our favorite player.

My first MLB game was 1972 in St. Louis against the Phillies. Carlton and the Phillies won 2 of 3 that weekend, but we loved being in Busch Stadium II.

No matter what happened with the team in the 1970s, we stayed with the Cardinals and were finally rewarded with a World Series Championship in 1982. Thank you, Whitey, George, Keith, Ozzie, Willie, et al!

That's cool. That is a very similar experience.

Sorry to hear of your injury that cut short your baseball career. I played Little League and was fortunate to win 3 championships in my first 4 years, plus I made two All Star teams. I played 3 years of high school baseball but by my junior year I didn't dedicate myself to practicing as much as my peers, so I played in a rec league when I was 18, and made another All Star team. I then played several years of slow pitch softball, which damaged my shoulder, then a collision on the bases when I was about 35, breaking my cheek bone, ended my playing days!

I have always loved the game and the Cardinals!

[Talkin' Baseball]

How did you become interested in baseball?

Very similar to you, Talkin'.

My brother, 13 months older than I, would watch Cubs games with our grandmother when we visited her in SE Iowa. We eventually started watching NBC's Game of the Week every Saturday, with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek doing the games.

In the summer of 1968 when I was 7, we started collecting baseball cards, and I think I fell in love with the beautiful red Cardinals uniforms and the birds on the bat. We had (and still have) All Star cards for Lou Brock, Bob Gibson, and Tim McCarver.

It was in 1968 that I learned magical baseball names such as Willie Mays (I read "The Baseball Life of Willie Mays over and over) and Mickey Mantle. I read a lot of baseball history books, particularly the Little League Series of greatest World Series games, greatest hitters, pitchers, etc.

I have a couple of vague memories of the 1968 World Series, especially Lou's lead off home run in game 4 in Detroit. The following September we were watching on TV when Lou hit a walk off home run in the 10th inning to defeat the fading Cubs. Lou Brock was always our favorite player.

My first MLB game was 1972 in St. Louis against the Phillies. Carlton and the Phillies won 2 of 3 that weekend, but we loved being in Busch Stadium II.

No matter what happened with the team in the 1970s, we stayed with the Cardinals and were finally rewarded with a World Series Championship in 1982. Thank you, Whitey, George, Keith, Ozzie, Willie, et al!

That's cool. That is a very similar experience.

Sorry to hear of your injury that cut short your baseball career. I played Little League and was fortunate to win 3 championships in my first 4 years, plus I made two All Star teams. I played 3 years of high school baseball but by my junior year I didn't dedicate myself to practicing as much as my peers, so I played in a rec league when I was 18, and made another All Star team. I then played several years of slow pitch softball, which damaged my shoulder, then a collision on the bases when I was about 35, breaking my cheek bone, ended my playing days!

I have always loved the game and the Cardinals!

It didn't just cut baseball short. It bothers me still today. I have been putting off a knee replacement for years. Walk with a limp. Knee pops with every step. It left an impression on me with regard to players having injuries, or putting off surgeries (Hjerpe). It sounds simple when you say it, or write it- people recover from knee surgeries all the time- but sometimes they don't.

[fullswing]

My dad worked at Mickey Mantle's Holiday Inn in Joplin back in the fifties. He told me stories about knowing Mantle and meeting Maris and Ford.
My first baseball memory was the '64 WS. The teacher at school would bring the huge b&w tv into the classroom on the big cart and we'd watch the games. You old guys know what I'm talking about.
The following Thanksgiving, I told my uncle, who was like a big brother to me, that I sure wished NY would have won and he told me, No, you want the Cardinals to win, and that's how it all started.

[Talkin' Baseball]

My dad worked at Mickey Mantle's Holiday Inn in Joplin back in the fifties. He told me stories about knowing Mantle and meeting Maris and Ford.
My first baseball memory was the '64 WS. The teacher at school would bring the huge b&w tv into the classroom on the big cart and we'd watch the games. You old guys know what I'm talking about.
The following Thanksgiving, I told my uncle, who was like a big brother to me, that I sure wished NY would have won and he told me, No, you want the Cardinals to win, and that's how it all started.

Neat experience.

[OldRed]

When I was a kid, my dad always had the game on the radio. Even my grandmother, who never saw a game in person would always listen. It was just a part of our lives to be a baseball fan, a Cardinal fan.

[Talkin' Baseball]

When I was a kid, my dad always had the game on the radio. Even my grandmother, who never saw a game in person would always listen. It was just a part of our lives to be a baseball fan, a Cardinal fan.

St Louis fans seem to have a super strong connection to the game on the radio. I wonder if that is true of all fan bases, or just the Cardinals fans?

[CorneliusWolfe]

In the summer of 1971 my parents took my brother, sister, and me to a county fair in the neighboring county. We had never been to a fair before, and never went again afterward. I remember being enamored with all the things an 8 year-old boy would be enamored with at his first fair, but as we were leaving something happened that changed my life in a good way. As we were leaving the fairgrounds and the lighting was becoming more dim, in the grass I found something that had been discarded earlier- unwanted. I picked them up, having no idea what they were. My dad explained to me that they were baseball cards. I held on to them and looked them over and over when I got home to better lighting. The only card that I can still remember is Jack Billingham, a pitcher at that time with the Houston Astros. I see that the same card sells on ebay now from $1.75 to $4.49.

I Collected Baseball Cards
I was awful proud of my baseball cards and showed them to anyone who would sit and listen about them. When I showed them to my grandma, she listened intently and when I was done, she went over to a cabinet of hers and pulled out a box. It had maybe 500 baseball cards in it. It was a collection my uncle had put together before he went out on his own. At my next visit, my grandma got the box out again, we looked at the cards again, and then she gave them to me. There were many interesting cards there and I memorized them front and back. A couple I remember were a 1958 Stan Musial card and a 1967 Bob Gibson.

Over the next several years I continued to collect baseball cards feverishly. The result was a collection exceeding 20,000 cards. Some I bought, many were given to me by mothers cleaning up their house. It was an amazing collection. I not only had a card of every player of the day, I had multiples of every card, of every player from the late 50’s through the 70’s. Think about that. Pete Rose, Bob Gibson, Hank Aaron, Willie Mays, Sandy Koufax… everyone. It helped me memorize all the teams they played for and their statistics. It was great fun for me.

I Watched Baseball
I watched my first World Series that fall of 1971 between Roberto Clemente and the Pirates versus the mighty Baltimore Orioles. I started watching baseball whenever I could. WMBD out of Peoria often carried Cubs games on Sundays (and yes, I even watched the Cubs) with Jack Brickhouse. I watched the game of the week on NBC with Curt Gowdy and Tony Kubek. I was tickled to death when they started Monday Night baseball with Joe Garagiola.

I Read About Baseball
Getting the mail in the summer and early fall was a highlight for me. I would take the sports section out of the Pekin Daily Times and read every box score, look at the league leaders, the standings, and scheduled pitchers for the day. It was one of the highlights of the day.
My uncle (who had collected the baseball cards) knew of my interest and every couple months or so, he would stop by and leave a pile of his Sporting News magazines for me to look through. I read every article about every team and looked at the stats of all the minor leaguers, as well as the big leaguers. There was a publication put out before each season with analysis on each team and predictions- Smith and Street’s- I purchased that each year.

I Played Baseball
I played baseball whenever I could. I lived for the Little League games against other kids from my town. After Little League, we got involved in Pony League. That was great because we got to go to other towns to play, got our first experience playing under the lights, and had a great coach who taught us a lot. The worst thing I could say about him is, he was/is a Cubs fan. At the end of each season he would take us to Wrigley Field for a game. We got to see the Dodgers and the Cardinals there.

For about 5-8 years my dad would play “pepper ball” with my brother and I when he got home from working. Sometimes he would be exhausted, but he was almost always was a good sport and would spend at least a little time at it. He also took us to Busch Stadium to see the Cardinals. We watched them take on Fergie Jenkins and the Cubs, Don Gullett and the Reds, and Woody Fryman and the Expos.

My Junior High baseball coach taught me more about how to play baseball than anyone I ever worked with. We would have our regular practice, and then afterward he would hold special voluntary sessions to teach about the nuances of each position and skill. For instance, if you were interested in pitching- it didn’t matter if you were being used as a pitcher or not- if you were interested, he would show you about pitching out of the stretch, making pick-off moves, what constitutes a balk, and all the things no one teaches you. He would do that for each position- where you should position yourself, how to use the cutoff man, who covers on a steal attempt- all the stuff. I wish I knew where is today, or if he is even alive, so I could thank him. He was a Coach.

When I got to high school, I hit .500 playing varsity as a freshman. Before my sophomore season, I changed schools. I was beginning to wonder if I might be good enough to advance playing baseball. To what, I wasn’t sure, but I was starting to wonder. I hit .455 as a sophomore, but in the next to the last game of the season, I was stealing second base and slid late. My spike grabbed the base on my late slide and tore up my left knee. It was never the same, and that was that.

So, I didn’t end up with a career in baseball. I went into business instead. I have maintained a life-long love of baseball. Now, with my background in business, I am as interested in the roster-building and business of baseball as I am with the actual game. It is all fun and interesting to me. It sometimes makes my heart hurt when I see posts on here where people are so angry and unhappy with all the goings on. Baseball is a beautiful game, and it is fun.

Merry Christmas all!

Sounds like you might've been a stud prospect! Sorry it didn't work out but it sounds like you've still found success and happiness. You always post really good stuff and interesting content, makes sense from your history. Merry Christmas to you as well.