highline56 Vignettes

Here's the picture I thought was in the annual. Mac Malone was probably so pissed at my give-a-shit attitude by then, he may have kept it out. Although I did get my letter. I probably was late for practice as I puffed on a leisurely Marlboro and stretched the short drive from the high school up 152nd to the Burien field house, where we practiced and played our home games, to about 30 minutes. Hmmm, how could he possibly have known I'd been smoking? Was I an idiot or what?

Mac was a great guy, a hell of a good coach, and he'd done a lot for me. He knew baseball better than anyone who ever worked with me. He put me on the varsity baseball team as a sophomore (hell, I'm still a sophomore). This is definitely one of the things I'd do differently if I could go back again. He deserved the utmost respect and 110% from me and all I did was alienate him with my poor attitude, lack of hustle, and disregard of his rules. Way to go, Ken! I knew it all back then, or so I thought.

Should have listened to all the things I was told but I was young and too proud at the time,
Now I look at my self and find, I learned the hard way every time. Jim Croce

That's a great story Alan Bahrenburg sent in about the uniform change, but I'm afraid he gives me too much credit. The part about showing up late was right on, but rather than trying to save time by changing into my uniform while driving, I was probably just showing off by doing another of the thousands of stupid things I did at that age; as did we all, but I think I was taking up the slack for some of the others who decided that following at least most of the rules got them a lot further than disregarding them. My Studebaker wasn't really all that precious to me because all my buddies had Fords or Mercs and they were so cool. I was stuck in what I (and my Ford owner buddies) called a "Stupidbaker". Little did I realize at the time how lucky I was to have a nice car like that. I always figured, "I'll never get a girl into a Studebaker" (it probably wasn't the car that kept them out) but I did manage to force a couple in.

I do treasure our baseball days, Al. When I looked over to my left and saw you there on first base, it was comforting to know you were one of the guys I could depend on. I always wished I could throw a ball with my left arm like you and my dad did.