How It All Began...

It's hard to believe that the first baseball game I went to was nearly 28 years ago. I was a fan before June 10, 1979, but being at a ballpark for the first time was a religious experience, even at 5 years old. And as luck would have it, I got to see two future Hall-of-Fame 300 game winners duel each other in Steve Carlton and Phil Niekro. It's funny that is still the best pitching matchup I have seen, and may ever see. I also got to see Mike Schmidt, who's in the Hall, and Pete Rose, who should be. The weather was beautiful, the game was exciting, even with a lopsided 10-3 Braves win. The ballpark, well, did I mention the weather was beautiful? Yes, my first game was at Veterans Stadium, the cavernous, colorless cookie cutter park in Philadelphia. The park will always hold a special place to me, however, as I spent most of my childhood splitting games between here and Yankee Stadium. Thankfully, Darwin-ism finally caught up with the Vet in '03, and it fell down and went boom. It looks much better as a parking lot next to the beautiful Citizen's Bank Park. The good memories remain though.