Chicken Soup for the Baseball Fan's Soul: Inspirational Stories of Baseball, Big-League Dreams and the Game of Life by Jack Canfield

Author:Jack Canfield [Canfield, Jack]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Motivational & Inspirational, Baseball fans, Baseball, Self-Help
ISBN: 9781623611040
Google: J0dwMAEACAAJ
Amazon: 1623611040
Publisher: Backlist, LLC - a unit of Chicken Soup of the Soul Publishing LLC
Published: 2012-09-17T18:30:00+00:00

with the Iron Horse and the Sultan of Swat, and served breakfast to Alexander—and never felt the need to say a word about it.

Jon is like that about other aspects of his life—his Army service in Italy during World War II, for example, or the hundreds of good things he has done for charities when no one is looking.

Two decades after our trip to the Bronx, Jon and I remain good friends and avid Yankees fans. We talk about all sorts of things, but I am smart enough never to bring up my feeble attempt at impressing someone who lives with such memories—and such humility.

James Breig

Play Ball!

Sports have always played an important role in my family's life. My father has been involved in every type of sports activity known in the free world. He especially enjoys the game of baseball. As a youngster, he played constantly, and when he was unable to play, he found alternatives. My dad loved the game of baseball so much that he actually moonlighted from his job at U.S. Steel's Carrie Furnace to sell peanuts at Forbes Field while watching his beloved Pittsburgh Pirates play ball. No problem, until he was so enamored with the game that he failed to see his boss sitting in row five waiting for a snack. Thankfully, his boss loved the game as much as he did. My mother even tells stories of being seven months pregnant and walking all over the eastern suburbs of Pittsburgh looking for kids for my dad to play ball with. He loved every aspect of the game and he attempted to bring this same fierce love to his hometown by being involved with Little League baseball.

When I was young, our family did not know what a family vacation at the beach was all about. We shared the lives of seventy-five or so young boys each summer. My dad coached, umpired and even took a swing at runm;

the local league. Anything that needed to be done, he was there ready to help. We have countless stories to share about the numerous things that took place over my dad's twenty-five years in this game. Perhaps our favorite story involves his brief stint as an umpire attempting to brave a real fan—namely, one little lady that went by the name "Mom."

As I stated, my dad would do anything to help. One night in late June 1972, the local coaches could not find anyone to umpire an important game between the crosstown rivals of Tri-Town and the Eagles. This was an important event for our small town located in southwestern Pennsylvania. Being that it was an important game, Dad decided he would umpire and take home plate. He swaggered up to the plate and in his deep, infectious voice filled with excitement, he bellowed, "Play ball." My dad is a fair man and he takes this game seriously. He began calling "strike, ball, strike" and so forth. Each time that he offered his decisive shriek of "strike" during

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.