Baseball 2021

My interest in baseball has not completely faded. I really enjoyed the postseason of MLB this year with the early wild card games and different series including the World. I am happy for the Atlanta Braves to win it all and was glad to see some good games against the Houston Astros. Of course, the final four teams included the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers, all have connections to my life.

I started to play baseball as a little kid in Little League. I was a pitcher and enjoyed being the center of attention in each game I participated in. I could also play outfield and even tried some infield positions throughout my life. I played Junior High School, Senior High School, Babe Ruth League, American Legion League , one year at the University of Vermont and three years in the Stan Musial League here in Florida. 

I also liked to attend games. Although this is the not the complete total but just the games I have ticket stubs for, I attended 276 games; 245 of those were Major League Baseball Spring Training games. These include games where the home team were the Los Angeles Dodgers (6), the Florida Marlins (72), the Montreal Expos (16), and the Washington Nationals (151).

Some of the Spring games were against colleges. I saw the Marlins play both the Florida State Seminoles and the University of Miami Hurricanes. I saw the Nationals play the Georgetown Hoyas. Some were against World Baseball Classic team including the Nats versus both the Korean and Italian National Teams.

There were 6 pre-Olympic games including the USA against the Australian team for 2 games and against the Nicaragua team for 4 games.

We also had a Minor League Team called the Brevard County Manatees. I saw them play 10 games.

Regular season MLB games included 5 in Tampa, one in Miami, one in Boston and 3 at Jarry Park with the Montreal Expos. There were some other games but I do not have the ticket stubs.

My connection to the World Series this year was mainly watching the Manager of the Houston Astros, Dusty Baker, who had managed the Washington Nationals. I had shared this photo on Facebook. I had yelled at him to get his attention and he gave me this big smile.

What I did not realize when Dusty became the manager of the Nats was that I saw him play back in 1974. One of my games was the Montreal Expos playing the Atlanta Braves at Jarry Park. I think my dad got the tickets because Braves player Hank Aaron was at 713 Homeruns when the 1973 season started. People wanted to see #715. On June 1, 1974, Aaron was already at HR #722 and he did not hit one that night in Montreal.

What a lot of people do not know that when he did hit the #715, breaking the record of Babe Ruth, that Dusty Baker was in the on-deck circle to see the HR. At the game I was at, Dusty was batting #3 with Hank Aaron at $4, but interestingly, the #5 hitter was Davey Johnson, the future manager of the NY Mets and later the Washington Nationals.

I love being at baseball games. I love taking pictures at games; I have almost 17,000.  I loved playing the game too, being on the mound and making choices of what to throw.  I still have dreams of visiting all the Major league ball parks. I am still pissed that the Nationals left Brevard.

Our county, Brevard,  has a history with teams playing here. The Minnesota Twins had a connection and the Manatees were their team for a while. The Houston Astros were in Cocoa from 1964 to 1984, I know I went with my parents to a few games there. The Marlins built Space Coast Stadium and played from 1994 to 2002.

I was lucky to see so many games and so many players. Some of the players from this years baseball playoffs include Freddie Freeman (here with first base coach Terry Pendleton)...

I saw catcher for the Braves, Travis D'Arnaud play for the NY Mets...

Of course, there is Jose Altuve, the fantastic second baseman for the Astros...

Short stop for the Astros Carlos Correa...

Lets not forget the Red Sox in 2021... JD Martinez...

Although he played for the Dodgers in the playoffs, he will always be a Cardinal for me, Albert Pujols...

And there was another Dodger in the playoffs that completes the circle. Trea Turner got his start with the Washington Nationals, and his manager was....Dusty Baker...

KieBoom!!!