At age 4 I was hospitalized with Scarlet Fever. When it came time for me to be discharged from the hospital, the doc said 'no' because a foot rash had not fully healed. Mom and I pleaded until the doc said to my mother, "Ok, I'll let him out if you promise you won't let him do anything strenuous." She promised and I got discharged. I guess my mother thought that meant forever. I can remember my brother out playing when I was 8 or 9 and she was still keeping me home. I read every book in the library for my age and as I got older I kept reading at every opportunity. In my teens for one year I played all the sports. But, in football, forget it. In those days if you couldn't run fast, you played the line no matter what you weighed and I was slow and skinny.. In baseball I was ok. I seldom struck out and I could throw accurately tho not very hard and because Sol, our best athlete, wanted to play 2nd, I played 3rd base. I wasn't good enough to play at shortstop Sol, that rat, he was our best athlete and should have played shortstop. But he wanted to play 2nd. At 3rd I always played in close because I didn't want anyone to find out how weak my throwing arm was. The coach would yell and big bruises were all over me but even when I backed up because of the yells from the coach, I would come back in with the pitch no matter who was batting.
In the league the teams finishing 1st and 2nd would play for the championship at the end of the summer and we finished first. In the championship game, in the bottom of the 7th, our left fielder gets hit on the leg by a pitch and we put in a pinch runner.
When the 8th starts the coach says, Howard you're in left, and the pinch runner plays 3rd. He kept saying he was always afraid I was going to get killed at 3rd. Anyway no fly balls come my way and we finish the 8th 4 runs in front. Now its the top of the 9th and after the other side gets 2 runs, with 2 out, their best hitter comes up and hits a fly ball to left center. I'm running like hell, my glove stretched way out when I step into a grass hidden hole and start to fall. The next thing I know I'm on the ground and unbelievable,. . . . the ball is in my glove.
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| Miracles do happen, |
Amazed I hold the glove up. Everybody is yelling, then they're pounding me and hugging me and I hear a father say. 'That was as good a diving catch as I have ever seen by anyone, anywhere."
I thanked the Man upstairs and now was positive He had me hit that tree with my head (at 10 or 11) because my mother had told me not to sled down any hills of snow, from the top of the hill and I did not listen.
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