photo credit: SNAKPhotography
My name is Joe and I am addicted to baseball. In spite of player strikes, steroid cheaters and spiraling ticket prices, I am still in love with the game.
How did it start? When our family bought our first TV in the fall of 1957, my dad invited me to watch the Cards play the Braves. As an impressionable 10 year old, I bit and was immediately hooked. This five game series would determine who would win the pennant and go to the World Series. I was enthralled with my new heroes: Stan Musial, Joe Cunningham, Wally Moon, Sam Jones, Vinegar Bend Mizell, and Larry Jackson (all Cardinals of course). But I met Braves greats Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, Red Shoendienst, Lew Burdette and Joe Adcock. It was all magic as I was mesmerized for those five games. Even though the Braves won the series and the pennant and eventually the World Series (against the hated New York Yankees), I fell in love with the Cards.
It is a love affair that has continued through a little thick and lots of thin, but baseball mirrors life as the lean times make the good times all that more rich. Spring training for the 2010 season is under way and I am pumped about following my beloved Cards again this year.
How about a Roundup?
Find me elsewhere on the web.
My post How to Turn Your Failures Into Opportunities ran at Christian PF this week. Give it a look, and while you are there, surf a bit. Christian PF is one of the very top Christian personal finance blogs on the web.
The same post showed up on The Christian Science Monitor this week. Exciting!
These are my editor’s picks for this week:
- Len Penzo refreshingly points out that it is possible to save too much for retirement in Retirement Savings: Why My Kids Shouldn’t Plan on Receiving an Inheritance From Me.
- Must be the week of inheritance posts…Jason shares a little different (but not opposite) viewpoint in Leave an Inheritance For Your Children, a guest post for Bible Money Matters.
- Frugal Dad teaches us a word that our generation has forgotten in The Art of Saying No. Note that it is more than saying “no” to purchases.
- At 90, my Mom remembers the Great Depression, but there are fewer and fewer still around who do. How about the Great Recession? It is a little tougher to get a perspective on something that you are in the middle of, but Pop shares What I’ll Tell my kids about the Great Recession at Pop Economics. A well written and thought provoking post.
- Long Term Care Insurance…at ages 50 and up, you can’t live with it and you can’t live without it. Long Term Care You Can Afford in Kiplinger gives some hopeful hints for those who are struggling with the cost.
Some Carnivals I have been a part of this week are:
Baby Boomers Blog Carnival hosted by Baby Boomers US
Festival of Frugality hosted by Think Your Way to Wealth
Economy and Your Finances Carnival hosted by One Mint
Carnival of Financial Planning hosted by The Smarter Wallet
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m right there with you Joe! I’ve been a die hard Red Sox fan for years!
Although my family and I eventually battled through an incredible amount of debt, I’m quite sure we would have become debt free faster had I not spent so much money going to Fenway Park!
Benjamin,
A kindred spirit! …even if your Red Sox swept my Cards in the 2004 Series. I have never been to Fenway Park, but I love it because of the unique green monster in left field. Our old, old park in St Louis was 310′ down the right field line, but a home run had to go clear over the right field bleachers (which had a screen in front of them). Irregular shaped parks are more fun than the symmetrical ones today.
Hey. I checked your blog and you have a great one. Congrats for paying off $90,000 in debt! Woo Hoo!