My Time Of Year

From the time I was a little kid, I loved baseball.  My dad grew up selling scorecards in the old Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis and raised me with his memories while we watched games at the old Busch Stadium.  He was also on hand for the opening day of the new Busch last season and still has his love for the game.  Now that I live in Denver, I’ve tried to pass that love on to my son as we watch games at Coors field but somehow, it isn’t the same as the lore that surrounds the Cardinals.  Above, there’s a picture of Cardinal legend Red Schoendienst at age 84 visiting with Albert Pujols’ son, who is six.  It reminds me why I love the Cardinals and the history they bring to major league baseball.  My dad tells of the time he snuck into the Cards locker room in the 40’s after selling his scorecards.  He put himself into Stan Musial’s locker and closed the door.  When Stan opened his locker, imagine the surprise!  Today, security would put you in jail.  But Stan, he signed his bat for my dad while Schoendienst argued for him to leave.  In the end, my dad said he laughed and wound up signing the bat too.  My dad still has the bat and all the memories that go with it.

I love the start of baseball season!  I’m not happy with the way the finances are going but there is something spiritual about sitting in the mid-day sun with a scorecard, a cold coke, and a ballpark dog with lots of relish and mustard.  It’s a little slab of heaven on earth for this preacher!