And what memories this thread has stirred. I began playing baseball as a child on sandlots before Little League, have switched over to softball and will begin my 70th year by playing in a mens' senior league this spring. My first major league game was seeing the New York Giants at Forbes Field in Pittsburgh with Paul and Lloyd Waner, Pie Traynor, Arky Vaughan, Gus Suhr (who at the time had the longest continuous playing streak in the National League), Mel Ott, Bill Terry, Carl Hubbell. Later games were against the Cardinals with Dizzy and Paul Dean, Frank Frisch, Pepper Martin, Ducky Medwick, the Cubs with Charley Grimm, Gabby Hartnett, Billy Herman and dozens of other memorable players. Subsequent ballparks visited include Cleveland, Sportsmans' Park and Busch Stadium in St. Louis, Tiger Stadium, Fenway Park, Candlestick Park, RFK Stadium im Washington, Memorial Field and Camden Yards in Baltimore, Wrigley Field, San Diego, Atlanta, Shea Stadium, Shibe Park in Philadelphia, minor league parks in San Antonio, Portland Maine, and in the heyday of postwar Class D leagues such places as Oil City and Butler Pennsylvania and Muskogee Oklahoma. Recently I have been to Spring Training games at both parks in Fort Myers Florida. I grew up in the small town of Emlenton Pennsylvania and the local Sterling Oil Refinery fielded a semi-pro team which played against other industrial teams around Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, but also before the war hosted teams of the Negro League, the Homestead Grays, Pittsburgh Crawfords, Newark Black Giants, Kansas City and Birmingham and I had the opportunity of seeing the likes of Josh Gibson, Buck Leonard, Cool Papa Bell. I also saw a man play baseball who had played in the first World Series. Claude Ritchey was a coach for the Sterling Oils and in one game with his team far ahead went in as a pinch hitter. On a visit to Forbes Field my father and others took Claude Ritchey for a reunion with Honus Wagner and I was present at that meeting.   However my best memory did not happen. One day in 1935 Dad had some business in Pittsburgh and asked me if I wanted to go to the game to see the Pirates play the Boston Braves but being even younger and more foolish than I am now I declined because it was only a single game and not a double header. On that day Babe Ruth who had signed on with the Braves after being released by the Yankees hit three home runs, the last three of his career. I did, however, see Ted Williams' last home run, one of the eleven million people who say they were at Fenway Park that Day. And I too have been seeing less baseball, disturbed by the business it has become.