#at least i got to see fob live for the 4th time - that was great

[yearasxghost]

also i fell down the stairs yesterday. this ain't my week.

[kensblivet]

Chainless Key

I lived on base housing at Lowry Air Force Base when I was in the 4th and 5th grade. My dad had to do his duty and go to South East Asia for the war effort and we had to move off-base. I don't know all the mechanics, but I'm sure it was convoluted for my parents to accomplish this. My mom worked in a grocery store so I'm sure it was easy for them to decide to stay in the Denver area even though there was a good possibility that when my dad was done in a year in the jungle he wouldn't go back to Lowry.

We moved out to Aurora, a Denver suburb where I attended 6th Av, Elementary School for 6th grade. But I was a Little Leaguer and the Little League I played with was at the Air Force base. I did some serious bike riding. I really don't know how far it was to the ball fields but I'm guessing about five to the base, and then another two at least to the ball fields on base. It was a stretch.

I was what I heard used for kids later, a latchkey kid. My mom had a babysitter to come to our place while she was at work. My sister was still too little to be on her own, and I was too...well, teenager to help out. So we had a baby sitter. I had my own key and my mom let me decide if I wanted a chain or key fob for it or no key adornment. I decided to buck the norm and go bare key. It stayed in my pocket all the time. And I had a ball glove, a ball, and a bat. And I had a ten-speed bike. The bike worked okay, but it was cheap and I had to keep fixing the derailer to keep from having to ride in high gear all the time. But it got me there. And that's how I got to baseball practice and games. Anytime my mom was off she would pack my sister up and take me, and she made it to a lot of my games, but mostly I rode my bike that season.

Baseball tryouts are in March and it all gets going in April. Denver is still cold until May mostly l and I did some cold ass rides to ball practice. I remember a gray freezing day riding that bike through Aurora. I knew all the streets to go on to stay off the main drag for most of the way but you had to get on 6th Avenue to go into the base and it was a big wide multi-laned thing with lots of cars. And the day I'm recalling was really windy. If you know Denver you know that wind. It cuts like a razor and it'll blow a little twelve-year-old boy right off the road. And if you're pedaling into it you're lucky to move forward at all. That was me all the way to practice. I think one of the dads threw my bike in his truck and drove me home after. Thanks, Captain!

But, I rode that bike to play baseball. And I missed my dad. He was always my coach, (and my warm way to practice). I did, however, use that as an opportunity to stretch my wings a bit. At the first team practice, the coach asked us what positions we played. When he got to me I said: "I play second or third, mostly." I was a pitcher, was always the main pitcher on the team I was on. I did play positions when I was over the innings limit and had the arm for any infield or outfield spot, but I didn't offer that option up. I had decided I was gonna start hitting left-handed and concentrate on being a great hitter. I wasn't going to pitch.

Well, we didn't have a pitcher. There was one kid who signed up to be pitcher who could actually throw. But we kept practicing and began the season with one decent pitcher and a couple other kids who couldn't throw. We were in trouble almost immediately when the first practice games started, and the coach was desperately worried about the pitching situation. Someone ratted on me. Someone told the coach I was a great pitcher.

Our coach recruited me and I easily relented and agreed to pitch. So now we had two pitchers, but our other big problem spot on the diamond was at catcher. we didn't have anyone who could catch, especially with shin guards, a vest, and a mask on. Except for the other pitcher guy who could catch. So we played. I pitched the first game and the other guy caught. We won our first game. We had another game that week, but I was limited to how many innings I could go, so we had to start the other guy.

I was wondering who we were gonna get to catch. The guys who had signed up as catcher could barely find the ball diamond. Our coach was calling the line up before our game and called my name to hit third and catch. Catcher, I was to be catcher? I had never caught a game. I had caught pitchers for warm-ups or burn out and had a catchers glove, but I had never put on shin guards or a chest protector. We were out on the field first and the coach helped me get my stuff on and I went out and squatted down behind the plate. I got it, right off. And liked it!

The rest of the season it was my bud pitching and me catching then vice versa the next game. I had a great season while my dad was gone. I hit the most homers in the league and I won the strikeouts title as a pitcher. I was batting left-handed. I heard, and I think it was from Mickey Mantle, that a right-hander had more power from the left side. I took it as gospel. I had the best season I'd ever had at the plate. And I really liked being catcher. It's the best view on the field. You see it all, you get to razz the hitters from behind them, and you direct the game. Sometimes you might think the pitcher is the one in charge, but it's like the man behind the curtain pulling the strings. The catcher runs the show.

I never caught much after that, just in a pinch, and the next season we moved to Taiwan and my Little League career was over. They played Pony League there and the high school had a team. I was the pitcher again, my dad was the coach, and I had a great two years of solid baseball there. I still always carried my house key in my pocket with no chain on it.