Baseball is Back!

Baseball is back! I think it would be funny if they combined the designated hitter with the designated driver. That way, he could drive all of the drunk fans home.

I love baseball! Especially this time of year. Teams are sporting new players, new stadiums and new menu items, too. Where else can you find a $10 beer and $5 hotdogs? It doesn't matter. We'll gladly pay the inflated prices because we don't get out to the ballpark very often, and hotdogs and beer are just part of the experience.

This will be a special season. Derek Jeter is retiring and the San Francisco Giants have hired former superstar* Barry Bonds as a hitting coach. Bonds will be responsible for showing players a better way to hit and how to use banned substances without getting caught.

This time of year takes me back to little league in Diamond Bar, California. I think that's when I fell in love with the game. Plus, my whole family loved to play and watch games on tv. Our family even had our own league in a baseball game called "All Star Baseball". We kept stats, too. This was a serious baseball family!

My brothers and I used to play a baseball game called "over the line". It was so much fun! And you only needed four people to play! Oh yeah. The summer months were very hot, but we were not deterred. My oldest brother, John, would drive my brother Jim, John's best friend, Steve, and me to the elementary school nearby. The school was the perfect place to play over the line.

To play over the line, each team would have two players. Defensively, we would set up a line using any objects that were available. One player would guard the line, trying to field any ball that was hit on the ground. The lineman couldn't get in front of the line. The other player would play behind the lineman to field fly balls and balls that made it past the line.

Offensively, one player would pitch the softball to his teammate. They would trade off until there were three outs. It was a lot of fun. One day, John and Steve got into an argument and John drove off and left Steve and I at the school. It was very hot that day and it was about a mile and a half to our house.

Steve and I walked home, but stopped at a convenience store to get some much needed refreshments. We chose Bubble Up and Hostess cupcakes, a decision that seemed good at the time.

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