BASEBALL: First Pitch

Tuesday May 19, what a perfect night for baseball. Great weather and a Royals 6-5 win over the Cleveland Indians in the bottom of the ninth. What an exciting ending. When I stop and think, I'm reminded that Baseball has always been part of the Campbell family. My brothers and I played ball and all of my Dads grandchildren have too. This blog posting will begin a series of baseball stories involving everyone in our family.

My first memories of baseball begin with going to Grandpa & Grandma Bears house on Saturday afternoons. Grandpa Bear, my Dad, and anyone else there watched baseball on television. It may have been called "The Game of the Week" but I'm not sure. I do remember the announcers were Dizzy Dean and Pee Wee Reese. (old baseball fans know who they were) Their sponsor was Falstaff Beer or "Schlitz, the beer that made Milwaukee famous". Occasionally Dizzy Dean would break out into a rendition of "The Wabash Cannonball", something my Dad would do when he announced at Little League baseball games in Lebanon.

In Hutchinson, Kansas my Dad and I made a trip to the local junk yard/trash dump to take some of our stuff to dump. Dad found and we brought home a box of baseball cards someone had thrown away. Man, what those things would be worth today. Also, in Hutchinson Dad played on a local softball team. I don't remember if it was fast pitch or slow pitch. Games were usually at night and I don't remember going to that many games. Dad would take me with him to some of his practices to watch, shag missed balls during warm-up/catch and fouls balls hit out of play. Someone else on the team brought their younger sister, about 12 yrs old and we would share the duties. Dad played catcher and some on first base. In Riverton Dad played in softball games between the local JC's (his team, the Junior Chamber of Commerce) and AC's (Athletic Club).

Dad had his greatest moments coaching teams my brothers or I played on. These stories of Dad coaching, my brothers play, family trips to St. Louis, neighborhood pickup games and other family baseball stories will be a lot of fun to share with you in the following blog posts. "PLAY BALL!" -30-