Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

Can a Single Picture Turn Me Back Into a Baseball Fan?

A funny picture of fans' response to a foul ball at a major league game.

Who are you in this picture?

I grew up in Dayton, Ohio, as an ardent fan of the Cincinnati Reds during the Big Red Machine era – Pete Rose, Johnny Bench, Tony Perez, Joe Morgan, and so many other stars.

I basically gave up following baseball during the World Series strike of 1994. I figured if they could play the game in the middle of World War II, something as relatively unimportant as a money dispute revealed how much heart American’s Pastime had lost.

This picture probably won’t bring me back to fandom.  But it’s a classic that brought a smile to my face – and I bet it makes you smile too.

Wouldn’t this be great as a Norman Rockwell painting?

Which fan do you most relate to?

RIP Stan Musial: Just a Few of His Incredible Numbers

Stan Musial died at age 92 - he was married 71 years.

Hall of Fame baseball player Stan Musial died on Saturday, January 19, 2013, at age 92.

Just a few numbers to consider:

  • 22 seasons in the major leagues (1941-1963), all with Saint Louis
  • 3,630 hits – 4th all time
  • 1815 hits at home
  • 1815 hits on road
  • 3,026 games – 6th all time
  • 6,134 total bases – 2nd all time
  • 20 straight years as an all star
  • 3 NL MVPS
  • 3 World Series championships as a player
But perhaps the most impressive number and the true measure of his greatness.
71 years married to the same woman.
A tip of the hat and shout out to the legend known by his fans as “Stan the Man”!

10 Signs Football Is Upon Us

10. every morning at 6:30 your house’s windows shudder and shake unevenly from the percussion section of local high school marching band practice – six miles away.

9. coverage of the US presidential election and European bailouts drop to pages four and five respectively when the USA Today NFL preview edition hits newsstands.

8. ESPN begins advertising the two-hour pre preseason special guide to new fall beer commercials.

7. a stack of decade-old-plus t-shirts your spouse, girlfriend or mom has been asking you to get rid of is carefully boxed and carried to the crawl space – and replaced by a box of decade-old-plus sweatshirts your spouse, girlfriend or mom had been asking you to get rid of that was carefully stored in the crawl space.

6. you are momentarily overcome by a light-headed giddy sense of euphoria that you won’t have to watch any more baseball games to get a sports fix until the World Series is played sometime during football season in what appears to be blizzard conditions.

5. colleges and universities allow young people that are are into extracurricular activities like “pursuing a degree”and “hitting the library” back on campus in time for the first football game of the year.

4. you realize you know the first and middle names of every member of the offensive line of your alma mater even if you can’t get first names of your own kids right every time.

3. ignoring pain from bunions and planter fasciitis you have your youngest child hold a football vertically on the ground so you can see if you can still kick a game-winning field goal as measured by the back of your garage roof.

2. you call your niece – at her father’s and fiance’s request – to see if you can talk her out of that Saturday afternoon wedding date that falls at the same time as the big rivalry game she is considering.

1. as you stretch out the inflamed rotator cuff and extend the half-locked knee joint, you think back fondly on all your old football injuries – even if you never played the sport.