Teammates are to be treasured…you will remember them forever.

Teammates are to be treasured…you will remember them forever.

     I have been playing shortstop for some 40 plus years now and I can recall second basemen, and third baseman from way back to my Little League and Pony Leagues days.  My high school infield is as clear to me as if we were taking an in/out right now.  And the guys I play with today in my men’s league are some of the finest people I know.  Teammates are a treasured memory that will stay with me for my whole life.  The guys you share the epic games with are the people who are the only ones who understand the emotions going on during that particular day at that particular moment in your baseball life.  Those moments on the field when the emotions are high and the game is on the line are the moments that only your teammates and you truly understand.  The bond that comes from sharing the struggle on the field is rare and precious and should be guarded always. 

     My book Gods, Gloves, Pop-ups, and Ponies is partly about my 1975 Pony League team which played for the national title in Springfield, Illinois.  Tomorrow I am travelling back to Chicago to share with my teammates the book I have written and to reminisce about an event that only they truly understand.  Only that group knows the impact a month worth of tournaments had on us, and what the battle for the title really meant to a rag-tag group of 13 and 14 year old boys.  37 years later I can still picture the whole gang and the warm feelings for a shared experience still floods my soul.  We will catch up, and we will re-live, and the 37 years will be as if it were yesterday.  What a great game.

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