Greetings and welcome to the first entry in my baseball blog.

Like most ‘Baseball Dads’, my ‘love’ for the game started when I was a kid.  When I was in 5th and 6th grade, I loved to go to California Angels baseball games in nearby Anaheim, then come home and play baseball at the school grounds with my friends.

There were usually just 4 of us so we played ‘hot box’. The ‘field’ was about 30 feet wide and shaped like a giant rectangle. The ‘infielder’ played about 60 feet or so from home plate in between two hats.  The ‘outfielder’ was about 80 feet behind the infielder.

Since Brooks Robinson was my favorite player, I’d play the infield and imagine I was Brooks making all those diving plays like he did in the world series against the Reds.

A Home Run was anything hit over the outfielder’s head in fair territory. As you might guess, there were lots of foul balls. But it was FUN! What a GREAT GAME. I never got the chance to play organized ball due to economics. My mom let us play and supported one sport, and I chose basketball.

Fast forward a million years later, and I have my own boys playing ‘organized’ baseball. (argh argh)

To this day, I still go into sporting goods stores on a regular basis to swing a bat, try on some gloves, grip some baseballs, and check out the baseball STUFF! “What’s this newfangled doohickey here?”

I’m like “Tool Time’s” Tim Allen when it comes to my kids and baseball STUFF!   Can I afford it? HA! Heck NO! But… THIS is BASEBALL! Can’t pay the rent because your kid needs a NEW $400 bat you can’t pronounce because it ‘LOOKS’ good? R U kidding me? Landlord can wait! THIS is BASEBALL! Job interview? … OR…Missing my kid’s baseball game? Hmmmm… I didn’t want to work for that guy anyway!

‘BONKERS’? …… Me? Sure. It’s BASEBALL season! Let’s have some FUN!