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"It's a great day to play two." We all loved Ernie Banks, especially me. I grew us just a half a block away. Which way depends on the year. My family moved a lot. I lived ½ a block away on Kenmore, on Grace, at the Carlos hotel on Sheffield. When we lived on Dakin, I could step out of my bathroom window and very carefully step over the tracks and get a free El ride.

I was a Bleacher Bum before bleacher bums were invented. Back in the 60' we could get in the park for free after the 6^th inning, so when school let out in the late summer and early fall or early spring/summer I would make a beeline to the park after the last bell at Lemoyne. My first game I attended was around 1960. I went with a neighbor, Ray Kurstein, he said follow me. So while standing by the players entrance on Waveland, the usher opened the door to let in a player and off we went. Under the player, through the gate, up the left ramp and securely into our seats somewhere in the leftfield bleachers. I was there when an overweight, inebriated woman took off her blouse and waving her beer started dancing. She danced right over the left field wall onto the field, got up with cup in hand and without missing a beat continued dancing on the field. A couple of days later the basket went up.

I sat in the center field section that is now covered with Astro turf before it was covered. I got stuck upside down catching an Ernie Banks homerun in the fence between the catwalk and the leftfield bleachers. We saw all of the greats. I was at the game that Kofax pitched a perfect game against the cubs. I would wander into the park on off days and run through the outfield picking us batting practice balls while a lonely usher in an Andy Frain uniform who would half heartily chase us as we stuffed our pockets with balls.

Ron Santo used to give me his left field box seats if I would baby set his kids. One day while I was watching this kids, he hit a foul ball. I reach down onto the field and fell onto the field. I came up with the ball and that was the only time that I ever was actually on the field. Another time while we were playing line ball outside of the leftfield bleachers, a man approached me and asked if I would like to be the batboy that day. For about 2 minutes I was the most excited 12 year old on the planet until the regular bat boy showed up. Everyday I would wait for Ernie Banks and ask for his autograph and remind him that my name was also Ernie too. One day he asked me what I did with all of the autographs and I had no answer. I still don't have a clue what happened to them all, I just loved the Cubs and wanted to grow up to be Cub when I got older. I could hit a ball twice as far as any other kid that I ever played ball with.

Later in my life I was living in Birmingham, Alabama. My brother-in-law was a Holliday Inn manager. I showed up for lunch and joined him and a couple of his friends, who turned out to be Denny McClain, Chuck Dobson and Phil Caveretta. For those who don't know, Phil Cavaretta joined the Chicago Cubs near the end of the 1934 season and became the team's starting first baseman the following year. He led the NL with 197 hits in 1944 and in hitting with a .355 average in 1945, when he was named the league's most valuable player. The Cubs won the pennant that year and Cavaretta hit .423, with 7 runs scored and 5 RBI, in the World Series, but the Detroit Tigers beat the Cubs in seven games.

When I left Denny was on the pay phone pleading with the Oakland A's owner and general manager Charlie Finley and my brother-in-law asked me if I could drop off Phil at the Birmingham A's minor league ball park. At the time I was 23 and still able to hit a ball a mile. While driving Phil Cavaretta to the ballpark I told him how far I could hit a ball and petitioned him for a tryout. He asked if I had any formal training: little league, American Legion, high school. I answered no to all inquiries and he said that he didn't think that I could compete with some experience so there was my one chance to play ball. I guess it wasn't meant to be. So at 55, a father of 10, I own a fairly successful business in Phoenix, AZ. I moved here to be able to see the Cubs play in the Cactus League and I still know that next year will be our year.