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“It’s unbelievable how much you don’t know about the game you’ve been playing all your life.” – Mickey Mantle
That quote flashed on the screen at the beginning of the movie “Moneyball.” This week I get to experience this for myself. The first time I put on a baseball uniform I was 8 years old. Gas was 35 cents a gallon. Richard Nixon was President. It was one of the greatest days of my life. I played for the Drayton Plains Lions Club. It was a little league for boys age 11 and under. In my first game my coach put me into the game to pitch. I don’t know if it was fear or adrenalin, but I threw my first pitch OVER the backstop. It was all uphill from there.
My wife Lydia gave me the gift of Detroit Tiger’s Fantasy Camp for my 50th birthday. So even though I haven’t played a game of baseball since I was 15 (and by baseball I mean not slow-pitch softball, with wooden bats), I’m about to get on a plane, fly to Florida, and don a Detroit Tiger’s uniform. Number 11, like my boyhood idol Bill Freehan. When they asked me what position I want to play, I said “pitcher.” My wife said “Are you kidding?” I said “Hun, it’s a fantasy camp.” I wonder how big the backstop is at Joker Marchant stadium? I’m about to find out.
