Summer Was Baseball

Summer Was Baseball
For 35 years, from the time I was 13, summer was just a synonym for BASEBALL. The season did not begin in June for me. It began at the end of February when pitchers and catchers reported to various Florida cities for the annual sports ritual known as "spring training." I had discovered the game through television and grew to love it through radio. I was a Cincinnati Redlegs fan. My daddy took me to my first "live" game, at old Crosley Field. It was just the two of us and it was a very special time for me. Over the years, attending "Opening Day" became a ritual, in sickness or in health, in snow or in sunshine, playing hooky or taking a vacation day from work, I was there for the start of my summer-in April!
The late A. Bartlett Giamatti, commissioner of baseball, wrote, "[Baseball] will break your heart." And it gradually did mine. Now, summer is just a season on the calendar. It has no special meaning for me and, on the list of seasons, ranks 4th in my mind. (Autumn is #1.) But, during the glory days of my youth, summer was BASEBALL.

CREDITS: KITS: Miranda Moved Mountains and Room 19 Project 2 One by Sissy Sparrows(TLP) Worn Photo Edges 3 by Lynn Grieveson (DD). PHOTOS: web. FONT: Arial.