As a kid, I loved baseball. I loved playing it, watching it and I most certainly treasured riding my bike to the closest store to get a pack of baseball cards. Mike, Jackie and me would round up coke bottles, okay they weren’t all “coke” bottles, but we didn’t care the brand. We could get .02 cents for a returnable bottle, the original form of recycling. Anyhow, when you had found yourself 20-25 coke bottle , you were good to loudly ride your rattle of bottles down to the store. You had enough money for a big pack of 10 cards and enough left over for a cold pop to drink as you unwrapped your treasures. You had to be careful to not drop the bubblegum as it was usually o old and brittle that it would shatter if dropped.

The world series was in September and played in the daytime. I stealthily rigged a transistor radio (google it) in my pocket and ran a earpiece up through my sleeve taped it to my finger so I could lean my head on my hand and listen to the game while in class. I thought I was so secretive until one day my fifth grade teacher Mr Profit asked loudly “what’s the score Jimmy?”

And I won’t get started of the pull on my heart strings listening to John Fogerty’s ” Put me in Coach” song.  Or the “magic water that falls from my eyes” that still come from watching  Robert Redford in The Natural or Kevin Cosner in “For the Love of the Game”…………all of those were about so much more than just baseball.

Spring training is just around the corner, get ready to play.  en theos ††† jim