Baseball
 

. . . every fan's dream

 
    Every fan dreams of catching a ball in the stands at a big league baseball game.  My first
trip to a major league ball park took place in 1959, at the age of twelve, on a field trip with my 
little league team.  At the time, the Los Angeles Dodgers played in the cavernous Coliseum,
originally built for the 1932 Olympic games.  Some generous sponsor had awarded our group
a handful of free tickets for a section of wooden bench seats thirty rows back, high in the right
field corner.  Prior to the game, during warm-up drills, Frank Howard, the Dodger right fielder,
tossed a ball up into the bleachers, and it headed on a line straight for me.  Unfortunately, at
the last possible second, the kid sitting in the seat directly in front of me jumped up -- and the
ball hit him square in the nose.  Blood splattered in all directions, and the ball bounced away.
Thirty-seven years passed since that day, and I must have attended a hundred big league ball
games in a dozen cities across the country, but not a single baseball ever landed remotely
close to me again.  That is, until . . .
 

Learn more about Major League Baseball at:   www.mlb.com

Certificate for making a good catch in the stands  (1996)

   Learn more about the Atlanta Braves at:  www.braves.mlb.com

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Don't know much about baseball?   Want to gain a quick feel for the national pastime?   Click here
 

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