I have been a baseball lover my entire life. My dad was an avid Cardinal Baseball fan all his life. It began while listening to the Cardinal on the radio in the little hamlet of Black Oak, Arkansas. The author, John Grisham, who was born in the same county as my dad, Craighead County, Arkansas and attended first grade in Black Oak set his book “A Painted House” in Black Oak. The first paragraph reads:

“The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless.”

I grew up listening to Cardinal Baseball on the radio with Jack Buck, who was the voice of the Cardinals for almost fifty years and his sidekick for five years, Harry Carey and Harry’s iconic “it might be, it could be, it is a home run.” “Ho-ly Cow”.

My grandfather and uncles on my mom’s side were avid baseball players and my uncle, Kurt Ehlmann, played on a Cardinal Farm League.

One of the fondest memories I have of my mom and dad was at the old Busch Stadium. They were walking in front of me up the ramp, holding hands. I’ve never forgotten that.

Both my older sons played Little League Baseball and when my grandson was old enough, he started playing too.  From the time he was little, my son had my grandson involved in baseball.

He started playing baseball when he was eight and he’s still playing twelve years later and now for the Missouri Valley College Varsity Baseball team on a partial scholarship.

He is very skilled and works very hard and is a starting catcher for the team. His team came to St. Louis this weekend to play games against Missouri Baptist College. Like I said, he’s done very well, but the same can’t be said for the team as a whole. Their record is abysmal. But, we went to cheer them on and my daughter-in-law provided lunch for the whole team. She won their hearts.

Oh Yeah. Happy Easter.