baseball with Daddy

I wish I could say that I remember going to baseball games with Daddy...

but I don't, not really.

I remember that we went as a family to some of the games at Grayson...

but those were so long ago in my youth.

Baseball didn't have the draw for me that it does now, after going to Sand Gnats games for seventeen or so years, with family and friends.

Sure, I grew up playing ball with my brothers and the boys in the neighborhood, over in the empty lot cater-corner from our house.

Those were good times!

Perhaps that's why I chose "The Sandlot" this morning.

It always, always, always reminds me of those fun days in the sun as I pitched the ball for both teams so they'd have enough players.

(smile!)

This time, though, I noticed that the movie was an homage to Babe Ruth.

The boys on the team were quite smitten with the legend.

There's even a point when Benny has a dream and the famous Yankee gave him a piece of advice and the boy had felt driven to heed it.

But it wasn't just that generation that was taken by the man.

So was Scott's stepdad, who owned a ball that Babe Ruth had signed, a ball that had been passed down to him as a legacy from his father, who had the ball signed while at a New York Yankees baseball game in his youth.

Three generations of fans in this thirty-year-old film that was set in 1962.

All except fifth-grader Scott, who thought the ball had been signed by "a lady".

That reminds me of that baseball joke I'd shared with folks unfamiliar with the game.

(smile!)

 

It also reminded me of the 1920 silent movie I'd watched toward the end of January.

Titled "Headin' Home", it starred a young George Ruth...

yes, that Ruth...

as a guy who just wanted to play for the town team..

but wasn't allowed by the rich guys...

so he got onto an opposing team and led them to a big win against his home town!!!

The title frame read: "Th' home town crowd wanted to lynch a home town boy for makin' a home run for the wrong town."

Very funny!

That's when the Major League came to his rescue, plucking him out of that small town and putting him in the big league.

His family was so happy!

(smile)

 

My thanks to EPIX for having it during that "free movie" weekend.

I wonder if Daddy ever had a chance to see it.

I very much doubt it, as he was raised out in the country and movies weren't on videotape to be watched at home when he was growing up in the 1930's to 1950's.

Plus, by that time, "talkies" were all the rage, so why would he have watched a silent film?

I know he loved to see Westerns, and probably sports movies, too.

But did he ever watch "The Sandlot"?

Not that I knew of... but it's possible.

In 1993, he and Bonnie had two young sons who would have been at the right age for that to have been a good family night at the cinema...

especially as Beaufort had - and still has - a drive-in movie theater.

I'll have to check with my stepbrothers and see if they remember such a night.

(smile!)

 

Happy birthday, Daddy.