minor league play

    7
    1294

    Crash Davis couldn’t do anything but play baseball.
    With a name like that, what else could he do?
    Quick – name all the baseball players you know
    named Milton. (You get my point, I’m sure.)

    Twenty years after Crash and company graced the
    silver screen, I stood on the deck above the first base
    grandstand in the house that the movie helped to build
    and picked up the foul ball that fell at my feet.

    The ball was foul, product of bad swing. Only a few
    folks around us sharing in Clergy Appreciation Night
    sponsored by a local funeral home – even noticed.
    There was no great story attached except for this:

    For the first time in my life, I got a baseball at a game.
    I came home with a token of the game I love and
    cannot play. I wasn’t even breathing through my
    eyelids. Good times never seemed so good.

    Peace,
    Milton

    7 COMMENTS

    1. Your post has caused the ugliness of envy to arise within me. I’ve attended many, many major and minor league baseball games and have never come away with a foul ball. In Christian love, though, I celebrate with you.

    2. Congrats! and I don’t know if this is a comfort or not – there is at least one baseball player named Milton and he’s pretty good. Unfortunately Milton Bradley can also be quite the jerk…

    3. You know, the only question I have after reading this post is:

      “Did you remember that the rose goes in front?”

      What an awesome experience. Good on you.

    4. Milton Bradley plays outfield for my Rangers, though I believe right now he is on the injured list and playing AA in OKC.

      jacoby ellsbury for the sox has a great baseball name.

      There was an outfielder for the Expos named Floyd Youmans. And i have friends that tell me I have “baseball forearms.” Could have been me, Milty, could have been me.

    5. Milton, I was in Richmond interviewing a seminarian for a job and decided to go see the Richmond Braves play…this is their last year in Richmond…about 40 people in the park….game almost over, I walked out to the parking lot which is at the end of a sidewalk that is parallel to the left field line…i heard the crack of bat, turned and a foul ball bouned in front of me, right into my hands…Richmond is also in the same league and I, too, have my first foul ball with the 125th year prominently displayed just as in your photo….roger paynter

    Leave a Reply