Besebal was a berry good for me

I loved baseball as a kid. My friends and I played every day at the school field. It was pick up baseball. We would have enough kids for two teams, If we came up short of players, we would play left or right field out. , depending on which side of the plate the batter swung from. We would alternate sides as needed. At age 12 we joined a Detroit Recreation League and played organized ball for the first time in our lives. That meant w had a coach, umpires, real bases and our catcher had full equipment. The city provided us with 2 new balls for every game and bought 3 bats for the team. We did very well the two years that I remember. The guys I hung with were all terrific athletes. When they got to high school, everyone became a starter on the Chadsey High School varsity team, a Class A team in the tough Detroit Public school League Pat Battistelli ss Jim Sendeck 2b Red Hennig 3b Mike Dziurgot c Mike Cupchak 1b Andy Justice cf Wally Petro p and of Ron Szymborski of Andy Justice cf These 9 guys were the guys that played baseball together before and during high school. 3 were all=city and one was an all state player.Mike Cupchak was a 6' 4" powerhouse who received a full scholarship to Arizona State, could hit a ball further than anyone in the city. The only problem was he struck out 90 percent of the time. I think he holds the record. I didn't attend Chadsey and did not play ball at U of D but I did play second base and OF with these guys in the Detroit Fireman's Federation League.. It was a good league in which most of the top high school athletes played. Our team actually won the regional finals due to a 7th inning, 2 out triple with two men out and a steal of home plate by yours truly. It was a hard line drive down the third base line. My most heroic baseball moment. The interesting thing about these tomes was that our parents rarely, if ever watched us play . They were too busy trying to make a living. My dad is the guy who taught me to catch and throw in the backyard on Lonyo. When we started, he bought two mitts a 4 finger wilson for me and a first basement mitt for him. We palyed fairly regularly until I was about 13. At that point I threw the ball too hard for my dad to see His coordination had slowed some and his vision couldn't follow the ball too well. I was throwing curves and a knuckle ball. Coach Chuck Moses was so excited that we all were afraid he would have a heart attack and die on the field. Coach was one of the first people in the country to have a successful heart transplant. His case drew national attention. Back then, we had very little if any adult supervision,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, but we all had a love of the game We didn't have the other distractions that today's kids have. We met on the field every day at 3 o'clock when school was in session and we played until 6PM when the church bells announced 6 PM. During summer vacation we started at 10 in the morning and played intil we became exhausted, hungry and thirsty or until our parents came looking for us, They always knew where to find us.