Catfish Hunter and Baseball Thoughts

When I was just a little girl, my neighbor, a retired gentleman, loved to lay his lawn chair in the blazing summer sun and listen to baseball games on the radio. Back then, that was the way folks followed the games, since there was no TV coverage. As I grew up, my high school, like most upstate NY schools, was football mad, so I followed their games. Still, I used to enjoy sitting on the hot bleachers when it was baseball season and watch our barely populated team practice. No one watched them with me, but they loved the sport and carried on anyway. I remember the shyest guy was on the team.

I've always loved baseball, even when it's not been easily available to me. Because to me, it's best when it's seen in person. I was furious when the baseball strike came near to ruining the game. And I've loved many of the players from the 50's through now, no matter what team they were playing on. I love the game more than the teams. Good thing because they move around so much now anyway.

I was reading a magazine yesterday about fantasy baseball (I've not gotten to the point of doing that yet) and I thought of one of my favorites from a long time ago, Catfish Hunter. I mostly followed his career when he was with the Oakland A's (sorry Yankees, I wasn't paying much attention to you then, when he later joined.) I can still immediately recall how Catfish looked when he pitched for the A's. I just looked at some photos of him to see if my mental image of him was still as clear as I thought it was, and indeed, the pictures show that same pitching style, the mustache of course, and just his overall stance. I often can't say exactly what it is that makes me admire a particular baseball player. I can only say it's something about their overall package that catches my eye. So I thought about Catfish and how he's on the heavenly fantasy baseball team. His birthday is this Sunday, April 8.