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My 6th grade reading teacher challenged our class to a contest…we were to keep track of all the books we read each quarter to see which student read the most. I already loved to read, so this extra incentive simply pushed me to do more of what I loved. My favorites were sports in general and baseball in particular (I read every book John R. Tunis ever wrote). But I also love the biographies…George Washington Carver, Abraham Lincoln, etc. Of course there was a strategy for winning the contest: pick out books you love and avoid long books. I would have loved reading Swiss Family Robinson for example, but I tried to avoid anything over 200 pages.
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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.
