Baseball etc

Recently read a couple of friend Harry's blogs. I love his critiques of what he sees going on nowadays. It would be unfair to refer to him as a curmudgeon as the man does not have a mean bone in his body. I prefer to think of what Harry writes - and occasionaly myself - as just "thoughtful observations."

Occasionally, as in the last blog when I took on the subject of politicians I'm aware many would/will simply dismiss my observations as coming from some old fool. And, that's okay.
Just about anything someone might call me reminds me that I'm still alive and kicking.

Unfortunately, some very special people in my life cannot say the same. Hopefully, they can read blogs up in Heaven as both my friend and I take the time to reminisce.

Both Harry and I wrote about instant replay. I immediately was reminded of the joke about instant replay when it first came on the TV's in local bars. I watched a guy hit a homerun on the screen in front of us at Martini's a Pittsburgh bar and restaurant.

A drunk nearby, who was shooting pool for drinks asked me:, "What's all the noise about? I explained that the batter just hit a homerun. I said, "I'll bet you a buck the next guy does too"

Okay, I cheated the guy but I bought him a drink with his buck.

We were witness to a lot of changes back in those days. I had a friend by the name of John Tubbs. Most of us smoked back then and you could do so at Martini's bar.. Tubbs asked the guy beside him if he had a light. The guy handed him something that looked like a shotgun shell.

Tubbs said, "What's the !@#$%^ is this?" The guy explained it's something new and was called a throwaway lighter. Tubbs looked at it for a minute,spun the wheel at the top and lit his cigarette. Then he turned away from the guy and heaved his lighter down the other end of the bar.

Not all change is bad - nor good. I can't count the number of times when I sat with my brother Jim at McKechnie Field in Bradenton watching Spring Training games. Something suddenly happened and I immediately looked toward the oufield fence for the instant replay.

You get accustomed to being spoiled - yet, I still have some really fond memories of things I did to amuse myself as a kid that involved baseball and other pursuits when we were bereft of today's conveniences.

I loved our summer vacations up at Edinboro Lake about 17 miles south of Erie, Pa. We rented a cottage that was aptly called ,The Bambi. It may have been the smallest cottage on the lakefront, but it served the needs of 3 kids and their parents who had never been able to afford a week of summer vacation before.

Sometimes we had access to a rowboat - or a bamboo pole. With the latter I dug up earthworms in the soft damp soil adjacent to the lake side of the road. I bought a bobber, sinker, line, and an assortment of hooks either down the way at The Canoe Club or from the folks who rented out the cottages.

I knew absolutely nothing about fishing but, I did know that for a skinny shy kid who spent a lot of time looking downcast, this was the greatest activity I could have found. It wasn't very expensive either.

Another time-taker-upper was a sawed off broomstick and some gravel stones that I could throw up in the air and hit out over the rickety wooden dock across the road. That is, when I wanted to hit them. You see I did a play by play of two teams - like the Pirates and The Cubs -replete with the names of all the players and the order in which they batted.

It was amazing. The Cubs simply could not solve Cliff Chambers and Murry Dickson, but Ralph Kiner and Wally Westlake murdered them..