"TAKE ME OUT TO THE BALL GAME..."

Thursday, August 29, 2013

BASEBALL

B―IN THE SERIES CLIF FROM A TO Z

Besides baby pictures, one of the first pictures ever taken of me is of me standing in our front yard wearing a baseball cap and with a ball glove on my left hand.

I love all sports. I love ball―baseball, football, basketball.

When I was in elementary school we didn't have Little League. The closest thing to it was the boys from one school would schedule a game with boys at another school across town. And of course, we had neighborhood "gangs" that got together and chose up sides. Sometimes girls were allowed to play.

By the time I reached Jr. High my brother had found me a job in a grocery store. I went to that job immediately after my last afternoon class and never had time to participate in sports.

Graduating college I moved from Abilene, Texas to El Monte, California. Shortly after my move to California the Dodgers moved from Brooklyn to Los Angeles. They didn't have a baseball stadium and played their games in the huge Los Angeles coliseum. That's where I attended my first and only World Series when the Dodgers played the White Sox in 1959. 

One of the blessings of living in the Los Angeles area was being able to attend games of both the Dodgers and the Angels.

After we moved to Northern California I attended an Oakland A's game one time and I saw the San Francisco Giants play several times at Candlestick Park.

Our son, Allen enjoyed playing baseball when he was young. Once when he was scheduled to pitch a game we were 350 miles away at Malibu attending a Bible Lectureship. We left before the Lectureship was over and drove him home so he wouldn't miss the game. He still has a ball from the game he received for pitching a shutout.

Of course today my favorite team is the Arizona Diamondbacks. They have won their division five times and the World Series once in 2001.We have been to Chase Field to watch them play several times and we almost never miss a game on television.

"Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jacks........"

You know something, in all the times I have been to ball games, I  have never eaten any Cracker Jacks---in fact I don't remember ever even seeing any Cracker Jacks at a game.

 At a Diamondbacks game on Father's Day 2003