I remember attending games with my family as a child, although my earliest memories were of a stadium called Brigg’s Stadium. But I don’t know if I ever visited while it was called Brigg’s. They changed the name to Tiger Stadium in 1960 and I don’t remember being there at that age, but I do…
MLB Ballparks
Ninth Inning
Top of the Inning I’m loaded up and ready to take-off from Maguire AFB, headed for Rhein Main AB in Frankfort, Germany. Had a little hiccup in my travels, the airlines lost my luggage. They sent it all on a milk run into the plains states (Nebraska) instead of taking it off of the plane…
Eighth Inning
I can remember driving into Washington DC. It was early in the evening, just after dark, but the fragrance from the cherry blossoms that DC was known for were in full bloom. I’d been around cherry trees before but they never smelled like that! It was an invigorating aroma that was greatly needed after the…
Seventh Inning Stretch
Back to Work Ok, that was fun! Two weeks at home, visiting relatives and friends, and feeling like I’d never been there before. Most everyone I knew was either in college or the military. There was a war going on, remember? So, I wasn’t too sad to get back to the base and find out…
Seventh Inning
It’s May 12th of 1969 and Dad and Mom are dropping me off at Fort Wayne. Not the city in Indiana, but the old military installation outside of Detroit, where I and many other guys and girls will be taking their physicals and being sworn into the U.S. military. It started at 6:00 am and…
Rain Delay
It was 1963 or 64 when my dad and mom took my brother and me to our first Major League Baseball (MLB) game. I remember this game because it was the first or second annual ‘Bat Day’ at Tiger Stadium. I remember arriving in the ball park area and parking in a front yard near…
Sixth Inning – Year Round Love
Mom and dad were always bowlers. The handful of trophies on top of the china cabinet and the bowling trophy clock on top of the TV console were glaring proof of that. So when I got big enough to roll that 6-pound, multi-colored bowling ball down the lane, I was introduced to the second sports…
The Fifth Inning – Winter Cold
About mid-December, the ground got too hard (frozen) to be tackled on and the golf courses were closed for the winter. Snows like the one pictured above made it possible to hunt during the week because school was cancelled because the buses couldn’t get through the roads until they had been plowed. That meant half…
Fourth Inning – The Off-Season
Like all good things, seasons would come to an end. Baseball season wasn’t very long. Spring was still cold at night and April and May were sometimes somewhat rainy. I think most seasons lasted just long enough to play each of the opposing teams twice, meaning 14 games in 7 weeks. Throw in the Fourth…
Third Inning
About the time I got to Team #1, a number of major things took place in my life. First, my brother was old enough to play little league baseball. He was a minor leaguer! That worked out great because the minor’s played their games on Mondays and Wednesdays and the majors played on Tuesdays and…