As a pre-teen, living on the south side of Chicago, it was an easy transition from plastering my bedroom walls with photos of Roy Rogers and Trigger to pictures of the Chicago White Sox. The White Sox of the 1950’s were an exciting team to watch (far more so than the struggling Cubs!) My heroes were Nellie Fox, Chico Carrasquel, Eddie Robinson, Billy Pierce, Minnie Minoso…the list was long.

My friends and I chewed pounds of bubble gum to acquire baseball cards, which we traded at recess in the spring. We memorized information on the players, and used the baseball cards as flash cards to test each other.

We listened to White Sox games on the radio, and occasionally journeyed to Comiskey Park to see our heroes in action. We became avid autograph seekers. The best place to get autographs, we discovered, was in front of the hotels where the visiting players boarded team buses to go to the ballpark. We also haunted the apartment hotels where some of the White Sox lived. Thanks to my nervy friends, I was able to collect a number of autographs: Casey Stengel, Yogi Berra, Dizzy Dean, Jim Piersall, Dom DiMaggio, Allie Reynolds, to name just a few.

Wish I could find that autograph book now!

By Sandra Pollock

(originally published in Baseball Ink Vol. 1, No. 1 - June 2000)

A funny thing happened the other day. While visiting a lifelong friend, I had occasion to spend quality time with his 11-year-old son, Luke. I found Luke sorting his collection of baseball cards and leafing through an old copy of “Beckett’s Official Price Guide to Baseball Cards.” He stared directly at me and asked “MD, where are your baseball cards from when you were young?” “In my mom’s basement,” I replied. The conversation, as most with today’s youth, rapidly changed direction. Afterwards I stopped by my mom’s house, ransacked her basement, and found my baseball cards from when I was 11 years old. (more…)

Longtime Atlanta Braves announcer Skip Caray died in his sleep in his Atlanta home yesterday.  The son of Cubs announcer Harry Caray, Skip joined the Braves’ booth in 1976.  Skip’s son, Chip, is currently a broadcaster for the Braves’ TBS games.

Skip Caray is perhaps best known for his “Braves win!  Braves win!” call of Sid Bream’s winning slide in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS.

Promoting the new 3-D animated film Fly Me To The Moon, Nicollette Sheridan delivered the first pitch last Monday night at Dodger Stadium.

Sheridan is currently best known for her role on the television show Desperate Housewives.

Movie promo: “In this groundbreaking 3-D animated adventure, three young flies set off on a courageous mission to become the first insects on the moon by hitching a ride on the historic Apollo 11 space flight. Based on the actual transcripts and the original blueprints from NASA, the film’s stunning visuals and meticulous attention to detail introduce a whole new generation to the awe-inspiring achievements of the space program’s most momentous mission.”

The visiting San Francisco Giants won the game, 7-6.

(Gotta be a “fly ball” and/or a “Wally Moon” reference I can make here!)

When you are a young boy the only place you want to be in the summertime is a baseball diamond, shagging fly balls and taking your cuts at home plate. Our diamond was not a fancy place, with raked infields and immaculate green outfields, marked off by clean white lines of chalk. Ours was a stretch of blacktop with painted on bases and a rusted backstop that sagged from all the foul tips and passed balls that had bounced off it. Yet we derived as much enjoyment there, slowly coming to terms with this demanding game, as those who played in palatial stadiums in the major leagues.

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