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!

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.

Thank you for the kind words. I have found success and happiness. Baseball is enjoyable and I'm glad I have that as part of my life, but life is more than baseball.

[Talkin' Baseball]

A funny story-

About half way through my first year of Little League I was having a "pinch me" moment. I was about to get to pitch for the first time. The pitcher, who was a year older than me, and our best pitcher just didn't have it for that game and the coach had decided to bring me over from 3B to pitch. I couldn't believe my luck.

I was on cloud nine just be able to play on a team, let alone get to play, let alone play on the infield, and now- I was going to get to pitch! I took my warm-up tosses until being ready to go. The catcher crouched, the batter stepped into the box, the umpire crouched slightly and leaned forward. Then the umpire noticed something- he stood up straight threw his arms up and said, "Time. Your shoe is untied".

"I said, it's ok".
"You need to tie it", was the reply.
"It's ok" I said back, getting more uncomfortable.
"You need to tie it, You could trip on that and get hurt" came the answer.
Now I was busted. Though my mom had tried to get me to learn to tie my shoes when my younger sister learned, I was an empty-headed boy with much more important things to do. Now my priorities were changing. There was nothing more important in this moment than knowing how to tie my shoe- but I didn't know, and now in front of both teams and the families there to watch the game I had to have the third baseman (who I had just replaced) come over and tie my shoe.

I learned the reliever lament the hard way- you can go from the fireman to an idiot in a hurry. I had gone from the pinnacle of my life to the biggest public humiliation of my life in about 2 minutes.

When I went home that night I learned how to tie my shoes before I went to bed.

[2ninr]

A funny story-

About half way through my first year of Little League I was having a "pinch me" moment. I was about to get to pitch for the first time. The pitcher, who was a year older than me, and our best pitcher just didn't have it for that game and the coach had decided to bring me over from 3B to pitch. I couldn't believe my luck.

I was on cloud nine just be able to play on a team, let alone get to play, let alone play on the infield, and now- I was going to get to pitch! I took my warm-up tosses until being ready to go. The catcher crouched, the batter stepped into the box, the umpire crouched slightly and leaned forward. Then the umpire noticed something- he stood up straight threw his arms up and said, "Time. Your shoe is untied".

"I said, it's ok".
"You need to tie it", was the reply.
"It's ok" I said back, getting more uncomfortable.
"You need to tie it, You could trip on that and get hurt" came the answer.
Now I was busted. Though my mom had tried to get me to learn to tie my shoes when my younger sister learned, I was an empty-headed boy with much more important things to do. Now my priorities were changing. There was nothing more important in this moment than knowing how to tie my shoe- but I didn't know, and now in front of both teams and the families there to watch the game I had to have the third baseman (who I had just replaced) come over and tie my shoe.

I learned the reliever lament the hard way- you can go from the fireman to an idiot in a hurry. I had gone from the pinnacle of my life to the biggest public humiliation of my life in about 2 minutes.

When I went home that night I learned how to tie my shoes before I went to bed.

Classic tale TB. Always enjoy your posting. Merry Christmas.

[Talkin' Baseball]

Another funny story-

My brother and I grew up in a rural area in a time when it was more difficult to find entertainment. One of the things we did to pass the time was play baseball. He would much prefer to play catch than to play a game. He was 2 years younger than me, and while he was very good, at those ages 2 years matters a lot. Playing catch was more interactive and not directly competitive like playing a game.

I preferred playing the game and couldn’t understand at that age why he was reluctant. A game for the two of us went like this; One person batted until he had made 3 outs. It was pitcher’s hand, so if the pitcher got to the ball before you got to first base you were out. If you struck out, you were out. If you were tagged out advancing on the bases you were out. If you safely stopped on any base, you had a “ghost runner” and you went back to bat.

Our baseball “field” had been moved about 200 ft away from the house due to window breakage. I had to really beg, plead, and negotiate to get him to agree to play. Usually one of the stipulations he would put out there was, “I get to bat first”. I would agree to just about anything to get him to play.

So, we would go out and play and eventually I would get the three outs needed to get to bat. Somewhere between my trek from where I had fielded the ball and him heading to the pitcher’s mound our paths would cross. When he got one step past me and my back was to him, he would make a mad dash to the house. If he could get in the front door before I got to him, Mom would protect him. If I got to him before he could get in the door, I would give him some big-brotherly treatment, and he would come back and pitch to me.

We spent countless hours each summer playing baseball.

[Talkin' Baseball]

Last funny story today-

Pony League baseball was probably my favorite time of actually playing baseball. I enjoyed playing in other towns. The team was comprised of the dedicated players. We were getting better at it. I enjoyed playing night games.

This particular game I was catching. We had played about 3 innings already and I was receiving warm-up tosses from the pitcher. The umpire was standing off to the side making casual conversation when he asked me, “Are you wearing a cup”? I never wore a cup and told him so.

I continued receiving the pitches, but noticed the umpire go over to my coach and talk to him. They went over to a player on the bench who was primarily a catcher and I saw him reach in and pull out his cup. I remember thinking “Oh no. No, no, no, no, no!
Sure enough, he came back over and directed me to go over and use my teammate’s cup. I had learned something from my shoe-tying humiliation, and I refused. The umpire and my coach talked for a bit, and coach quietly removed me from the game and replaced me with the cup-wearing catcher. I was livid!

In retrospect, it is important to protect the “yadi’s”. What I know now that I didn’t know then, is that they are nice to have intact later.