Mr. BAW said:
I was every bit of Benny "The Jet" Rodriguez was; when summer came around it was baseball from sun-up to sun-down...we used to hike to a Little League field about a mile from our neighborhood and play until the watchman from the nearby factories would call the cops ... then scatter...We'd also play crossways on the local football field, and if you hit it into the grandstands above row M it was a homer, anything below that it was a double...those were great times....:sniff:
I've got a great story, a heartbreaker if you don't mind...(clears throat)...I pitched the opening game for our Little League, I was 11 playing as a 12 year old...it was North Torrance against North Redondo...I was the pitcher. In the first inning, I walked the bases loaded and then proceeded to strike the next 3 guys out; that followed with the next 6 guys in a row...we won that game 1-0, my childhood, high school and still friend, Dave Skaggs (Baltimore Orioles), hit the solo home run...I was so excited; I couldn't wait to see how the local newspaper wrote up the game on the following day.
I waited with anticipation and nearly mugged the newsboy when the evening edition came; I ripped open the Sports Section, found page 3 and there it was...
"Dick Estendo shuts down North Redondo"....
WHO THE HELL IS DICK ESTENDO????????????????? Assholes, I am Ricky Estrada....! (I was Ricky back then...)
The story followed the game line and I came to quickly understand the power of the media, you see, the Daily Breeze newspaper is located in...you guessed it, North Redondo...they didn't care; if it was their intent to break the spirit of an 11-year old, it worked, I was crushed...we lost the next game and we were out of the tournement, back in the old days, it was one loss and your done...I still feel pain about that newspaper article...but the story is a good one told to my kids, over a bottle of wine, some joyful tears and thinking back to how I shut down North Redondo.
Great times...:sniff: