My dad was barely eight years old when the ball cleared the fence, but Bobby Thomson’s ‘Shot Heard ‘Round The World’ in 1951 was a moment that stayed with him his entire life, one that ended earlier this year. For Thomson, he too died this past Monday, ironically in Savannah, Georgia where HE lived and I was married. That fact […]
Category: Baseball
Normal Baseball: A New Frontier
I was in row two for the opening game of the team’s existence, a 7-0 shellacking of the Evansville Otters in their historic Bosse Field. For the five of us that made the trip, it was an optimistic start to the return of professional baseball to Bloomington/Normal. With two additional wins to complete the weekend sweep, the Normal CornBelters’ first […]
Two Trips and Three Fingers
(Nyesville, Indiana) – Nyesville, Indiana was once an active coal mining area. Located in west-central Indiana not far from the Illinois border, the area today is more noted for the annual Covered Bridge Festival that includes stops in nearby Rockville. I wouldn’t call it a tourist destination. I made trips on consecutive weekends to a town that no longer exists, […]
Always a Champion
Looking at the photo, I wonder if it was the highlight moment of his challenging life, a moment filled with elation, devoid of worry. Barely 18 years old, he and his teammates are celebrating an undefeated Iowa state baseball championship, a 1-0 victory over West Waterloo on June 8, 1961. Sporting his #7 uniform number, he batted third and played […]