As I listened to my friend speak on the telephone I couldn’t help but eavesdrop a bit. The fellow he was speaking with was telling my friend about a planned reunion for a summer league baseball team that played 20 years ago. As a freelance writer, I am always on the hunt for a story. But it seemed a bit ridiculous to me. A summer league team planning a reunion get-together?
As an Englishman who moved to the States 25 years ago, I have still never “got” Americans and their passion for baseball. I still have trouble calling that game they play on Sundays “football.” But this conversation my friend had with the coach of this team had piqued my interest. So I began to ask him questions about it all.
Who was the fellow who coached this team? How old were the kids who played on it? Why are they even planning on having a reunion? I mean, it’s a stupid summer-league team isn’t it?
“No it wasn’t” my friend said to me. “It was much more than that. I’ve heard just about every story about that team and you wouldn’t believe some of the shit these guys did. It may be the greatest story NEVER told.”
“Can I speak with your friend about this?” I asked.
“Yeah, he’d probably want to talk about it. He’s still a little pissed off about how it all ended, but if you can get him to start talking about it, he’ll probably never STOP talking about it. Why would you want to talk to him about it?” he asked.
“Well”..I said…”If it is what you say it is, I just may have found another story.”
He laughed and said “And you’ll probably become a millionaire if you dare tell that story.”
I procured the telephone number of the coach. I called him. I spent at least an hour on the phone with him. It took him a while to open up, but ten minutes into the call I was on the floor in hysterics. He spoke about his players and fellow coaches with a hallowed reverence. I never learned anyone’s FULL name. He had “other” monikers he used for them…such as “General” or “Hank” or “Weapon” or “Wiley Jackson”….when I asked him their REAL names he sounded almost offended that I didn’t know who these people were. I figured I’d find all of this out later. He spoke of the things that happened in the games they played like it had happened YESTERDAY.
I must admit that by the end of the call I was a full-blown FAN. I wanted to know everything about “the four years” as he called it. I asked him if we could produce a blog that could chronicle the history of this group leading up to and also covering the events at the reunion itself.
“Oh yeah” he said. “But you’ll have to pay me……..cause I ain’t paying you nothing.”
There was silence on the phone for about five seconds. It was possibly the longest five seconds I have experienced. Someone had to say something at this point. So I broke the deafening silence with the words “When can we get started?”………
Colin James 12/21/10
From Gee: This guy Colin is going to write the stuff, send it to me, and I will publish it. Bear with me while I figure out how to do this wordpress blog. I’ll figure it out. Merry Xmas everybody……………
verdugo288 