Robs Networking News and Notes

Robs Networkers and Welcome2URTeam

2005-10-18

Imaginary Friends are Cool

Hello Bloggers!

My, no comments on the last one. Hmmmmmm

Going to have to do better.......please post comments if you

see this and like it. (or even if you don't.  :)

I have baseball on the mind tonite, what with the epic Astros and

Cardinals series going on. Even going to let my son stay up a bit

to see it. It was also cool to see the White Sox get to the Series.

Maybe the curse of Shoeless Joe can now be exercised. Anyway,

I digress.......

On with the story........

When I was a kid (seems like only yesterday) I loved baseball

but unfortunately had no one to play with most of the time. My

brother was into books and my Dad was not on the radar screen.

I will say grandad did his best as an eighty year old to take time

out from his day to toss the ball around or to pitch to me. Standup

guy.......this I am certain!

In lieu of constant companionship, I invented two sports heros...Mike

and Bob. Mike was the baseball player, Bob was football. More

about Bob in another episode.

So Mike was, at the time of me inventing him, about 48 years old

and I think the oldest player to ever play. (Not sure if I was aware

of Satchell Paige at the time.) Mike held the record in every category

including breaking Aaron's home run record and eclipsing the Cy

Young 500 win mark. My, what a versatile guy he was. Played for

every major league team and also played every position on the

field. He even was a player manager one season. One thing Mike

taught me (or I taught him) was the impossible dream can come true

if you just believe. Man, what a time we had. Every day was a game

winning world series homer or a perfect game. Maybe a fantastic

finish or a miracle comeback. Youth has a way of bringing out the

ever so hopefully side of life. My tip to you is to carry that into

your adulthood and your life will be magical. Isn't that right Mike?

Rob

2005-10-04

There's No Crying In Baseball

The 1978 Pittsburgh Pirates Season was an interesting one for

sure. This team waited till the end of the year to play their best

ball - September specifically. As a 10 year old boy, I had either

watched or listened to every game that year. I never lost fatih.

The Phillies seemed to have the division that year; Bucs were

chasing them all season. It came down to a 4 game series with

the Phillies with the Pirates down 4 games in the standings. If they

could sweep this season ending series, and beat Cincinnati on

Monday in a rainout makeup game, the Bucs would go to the

playoffs.  As improbable as it seems, the Pirates won the first two

games of the Series which led us to the NBC Saturday Game of

the Week with all eyes watching. It was a high scoring game from

the get-go, but the Phillies prevailed 10-8 led by two homeruns

from their Pitcher, Randy Lerch. I remember the tears like they

were yesterday, how could a game unleash such a flood of

emotion. Not sure, but I do know this, those heroes that we

watch as children mean the world to us; I just hope we meant

something to them as well. Shed no tears for me or the Bucs,

for we came back the following year and Won a World Championship!

Now, if we could only get back to .500 ( it has been 14 years of losing

around these parts).

Todays Playoff Winners........Yankees and Cardinals (Go figure...)

Rob

No Newer Entries No Older Entries