[Eugene Church]

MY LIFE IN 2024
EC's Life Is An Encore in '24

So far, so good in the New Year... EC is still on a high... enjoying being back on the radio after a lapse of 21 years... also glad I didn't stop going to Nursing Homes to play music... my wife advised me not to stop, just cut back on the number... plus a little ole lady named Shirley made me reconsider retiring... she rarely say anything to me other than to request her favorite song, "Waltz Across Texas" by Ernest Tubb and the Texas Troubadours... I think God used my wife and Miss Shirley to tell to keep going to nursing homes... so I listened to God instead of EC... doing the will of God is THE KEY to life.

Anyway, I had a great time this week at the nursing home and the residents did, too... it's a win-win for both of us and I'm rarin' to go to two more next week.

EC just started back reading... really enjoying Joe Posnanski's "Why We Love Baseball - A History in 50 Moments"... just read the introduction of the book and its sparkles... yeah, buddy, this looks like a good read.

"Quips, Wit and Quotes From The Diamond Minds"
(Excerpts from Joe Posnanski's Book "Why We Love Baseball")

"We know the reasons some do not love baseball. It's a slow game with lots of meetings, lots of standing around, lots of aimless jogging on and off the field. Over the past 25 years the game has slowed to the point that Major League Baseball changed a series of rules to pick things up. Baseball can feel repetitive, one ground ball to second looking just like the rest. There is no clock -- other than the new pitch clock -- and games sometimes drone on interminably, and there always seems to be a scandal going on.

Baseball has no slam dunks, no breakaways, and little violence. There is no goal and no goal line, no basket, and no finish line. There are no blocked shots, no blindside hits, no blocked punts, no electrifying runs, no alley-opp passes, no kick saves, and no bicycle kicks.

Baseball does have math, though. Lots of math.

"You made me love baseball," Lisa tells Bart on the Simpsons. "Not as a collection of numbers but as an unpredictable, passionate game beaten in excitement by every other sport."

I asked around.

"I love baseball," Wilie Mays said, "because it's a game you can play everyday."

"For me," Bryce Harper said, "I think it just began by being able to out with my family, enjoy a game of catch. There was nothing better than going out on a Saturday and hanging out and smelling the weather and the fresh-cut graass, crack of the bat, and you're dreaming..."

"You have to understand," Henry Aaron said, "in Mobile, Alabama, where I grew up, we didn't have many things to do. In fact, we didn't have anything else to do."

"Why?" Theo Epstein asked. "I honestly don't know. My parents tell me that from the age of two on, I was just obsessed wtih baseball... They say I'd be down in Central Park, swinging the Wiffle Ball bat, and the crowds would gather because I'd be hitting homers, which I doubt is true. But if it is, that was the peak of my athletic career."

"I don't know what it was," Justin Verlander said. " I don't ever remember not loving baseball."

I've asked the question to hundreds of people while writing this book. Some came back with simple things. Crack of the bat.. Triple in the gap. Smell of the freshly mown grass. A dancing knuckleball.

One fan told me about his first baseball game -- not the action on the field but the feeling of climbing up on the stairs from the concourse and seeing the stadium open up to him. The colors of the sky and grass and dirt and seats overwhelmed him and stayed with him. He said it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen.

(EC really related to the last comment... I love to go to stadiums and enjoy the magnificent green mansions... I have been to 38 major league stadiums... my wife and I are right up to date... we also love to go to minor league parks like Rickwood Field in Birmingham (the oldest ballpark still inexistence), McCormick Field in Asheville, La Grave Field in Fort Worth (a re-creation of the old home of the Fort Worth Cats of the Texas League)... we even went to an independent game in Alexandria, Louisiana, to watch the Alexandria Aces play at Bringhurst Field... I love to look at all the baseball diamonds along the interstate highway when we are traveling... little league parks are near and dear to me... any park is near and dear to me... yep, I love baseball)

"Another told me about a Little League moment he remembered. He grabbed a bat and nervously walked toward the plate to face a pitcher roughly the size of LeBron James. He looked down to the third-base coach for some advice ("Pick out a good one!") and he stepped into the batter's box and saw his pitch and closed his eyes and swung... and felt that incomparably sensation of making good contact.

Is that a direct answer? No.

Does it explain why we love baseball? Absolutely it does.

EC remembers playing baseball in a field on my uncle farm in Alabama... I was the only athlete in the bunch... but me and my three cousins marked off a field and hit the ball around... EC has fond memories of Galvez Park and Crawford Park in Mobile where we would play sunup to sundown, daylight to dark... we would go home when it got so dark we couldn't see the ball anymore... my best year was in 1953 when our 13-year team won the Mobile City Recreation League title... we beat Thomas Park 7-5 for the title... it was fast-pitch league, but we didn't have a pitcher that could pitch fast... Russell Clark was our pitcher... he just lobbed the ball over the plate and let them hit it... we were a great defensive team... I was the shortstop... didn't make one error all season... at 13 EC was a very good ballplayer... Russell never walked anyone... a big reason we were unbeaten that year... Thomas Park had a lefthanded fastballer named Bobby Sossaman... he was very fast with great stuff, but he was also wild... we beat them because they made errors and gave up many walks... we made no errors and Russell didn't walk a man... yeah, buddy, that's why I love baseball.

During the summer in Sheffield, Alabama, I played PONY League baseball... I was the #2 pick in the preseason draft to create the teams... Billy Newton, a really good hitter and catcher, was the #1 pick and rightly so... I played for the Red Sox and made the league All-Star team at shortstop... when we went to the state tournament in Alexander City, we were the smallest team there... Alexander City had players with beards... we only had peach fuzz... yep, they whipped us 19-5 in the first game... we lost the second 17-5 and were eliminated... we were way overmatched... but hey, we still had good time... baseball was fun even when you lost... nope, winning ain't everything... fun and enjoyment is why I played baseball.

One of my favorite seasons was in an adult church basketball league... we all must have been in our 40s and 50s... we went 1-12, but loved every minute of it... we just enjoyed the comaraderie of each other company... we were the leftovers, the leftouts... our church had two teams... one with all the best players and us, the left outs... the best team played to win... couldn't stand to lose...they really were bad sports... we played in the last game of the season... boy, the best team did not like being beaten by the leftovers and the feftouts... yeah, buddy, that victory was really sweet.

Also remember playing in my backyard on Downman Road in New Orleans at age 10 or so... just playing by myself, imagining I was at Yankee Stadium or Ebbets Field, batting in the bottom of the ninth... yep, I hit a homer and won the game... and to be honest, I did it pretty often... for some reason and as luck would have it, you know the bases were always loaded... guess I was a legend in my own mind... boy, what a thrill running around the bases to the cheering crowd.... yep, I made the noise myself simulating the crowd noise... those were the good old days.

I used to sit by the TV, turn the sound off, and do the play-by-play of the Baseball Game of the Week on Saturday with Dizzy Dean, Pee Wee Reese and Buddy Blattner.

I used to create a baseball game using a deck of cards... EC spent hours at the dining room table entertaining myself.