B is for Ball Games

Continuing with my theme, "Daddy's Words,"  the next question was one about ball games. My dad has always loved baseball, and this is what he wrote  (in my keepsake book) about a particular memory involving a baseball game in about 1948 or '49.

Did you go to ball games as a boy? What kind of food did you eat?





Of baseball--





During high school days, our school had a Class C franchise with the Pittsburgh Pirates--the Hutchinson Elks.  We sometimes attended a game as paying customers, but more often  I watched, along with friends, from a tree limb outside the right field fence.  There, we could chase down a souvenir any time a home run was hit.  

I don't remember ever succeeding in taking home a souvenir.

But I do remember the chase.

You see, the ball club had an official retriever who was paid to chase those balls and bring them back.

Half of one of his ears was missing--it reportedly had been bitten off during a wrestling match in his youth.   He would pounce on any kid who tried to make off with a home run ball. 

So---when we saw Tarzan running toward us, we would run for cover or act like we had no interest in chasing the ball.

Of food, I ate hamburgers, hot dogs, and veggies!  (Pizzas came to the US--or to  my awareness--in my college days.)

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