This is where it all started - the beginning of a lifelong relationship.

I never got over the excitement of unwrapping a new pack of baseball cards. The smell of that pink, stale, brittle gum and then rifling through the cards looking for the pictures of my heros. I would carry the cards of every player on my home team Angels along with the ones of the players of the opposing team to every game I attended. Back then it wasn't so hard to get a player to sign. I must have had several hundred. It hurts to think they were left out for trash almost forty years ago by my father who thought it was becoming an obsession.

 

A fire grew inside as I was not allowed to play little league. At fifteen when my parents finally gave in I made up for lost time and enjoyed being selected to the all-star team my first two years playing. This launched me right into high school where I enjoyed winning the CIF Championship playing the final game at Dodger Stadium (pictured), the field where I watched so many of my heros play

Getting cut from the local community college baseball team, I took a detour and played football for two years at that same community college. Then with the semi-pro team "Orange County Rhinos".

 

 

 

It wasn't long until I would be back on the baseball field again

Starting back to 1988 and not missing one year since Sundays would be my day of worship - on the baseball fieldI would meet some of the greatest people over the years. Some are gone now, some I have not seen since. Some stayed in touch, some became lifelong friends.

Many of those years I managed and played. We created so many great memories, collected so many trophies I still look upon every day.

 

And still to this day I continue to play. Those who know me understand as long as I can walk and breathe I will find a team that has a place for me. The day I give up baseball is the day my soul dies. Nothing can replace playing baseball on a bright sunny day. Win or lose, it is truly America's game.