Thanks Digger.

the number 27.

it really is my favorite number.

there are 27 books in the New Testament.

there are currently 27 amendments to the U.S. Constitution.

and 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 = 27. and graphically it just looks so cool.

the bottom hook of the 2 matches up so great with the top hook of the 7 -- yes, the perfect number truly.

but i really had to laugh this afternoon -- when i sat in my car coming back up 441 toward Mad -- remembering why after all this time 27 still is my favorite number. Yes, i was thinking back on a lot of things. A lot of things that i had forgotten. And it all started with Digger's baseball glove.

Was out at the Hoopengardener residence picking up wee ones. Sitting there marveling at how after spending entire day with a house full of kids both Digger and Michele seemed still in such good spirits.

Was kind of vegging... trying to marshall my children somewhat toward car.... when i heard Gerald say to HK, "this is my glove. i've had it since i was 9 years old."

ok -- am a total sap for anything sentimental, so snapped out of veggative state -- and started to listen. "it was the only gift i got for Christmas." -- (think year would have to be 1978) -- and he said, "it was the greatest thing in the whole world."

"i was going to play little league the next summer." "i slept with the thing."

ok -- Digger -- found this glove on on ebay. if something ever happens to your beloved one, this one sold for $35.17 plus $8.50 a few days ago.

Yes, am sentimental fool -- loved the little boy treasuring the glove thought. but this journey down baseball memory lane became a tad more personal when Gerald told Hannah K, "see it's signed by Ron Guidry."

Ron Guidry. hmmm.

and before i knew it my mouth opened up and the words came spilling out. "Ron Guidry. 1978 Cy Young Award winner." "New York Yankees."

"Louisiana Lightening. " Digger laughed. "Gator," i remembered, and we were off. He ran and got some book about the history of baseball gloves and we talked and talked. All these memories came rushing back in some very weird 1970's baseball time warp. As Michele sat there patiently somewhat smiling, somewhat shaking her head.

i guess she's heard this all before from Digger. but guess not from me. oh -- just so much i had forgotten.

I have been ragging Baseball lately. the sweet Morgan County games. Barry Bonds. I really don't know anything about the current Braves roster, other than John Smoltz is still pitching, we have a horrendous bull pen and there is some star whose last name begins in a F.

but that was far from true many years ago. i loved, loved baseball.

i loved ron guidry. he was awesome.

the 1977 - 1978 New York Yankees. catfish hunter, bucky dent, Graig nettles, thurman munson, chris chambliss, mickey rivers, willie randolph, lou pinella. so great.

won the AL championship series over the KC Royals (another great 70s team)
and the WS over the Los Angeles Dodgers. (another great team of the 70s -- steve garvey. tommy lasorda, great team that-- i never liked)

ok -- i never played baseball. didn't play softball either. "girls" just didn't back then in the dark ages. guess it was more about me and my dad. the oldest of 2 girls, dad and i got really, really tight with the sports stuff.

i loved it so much. remember thinking -- what could be better that sports broadcasting as career? getting paid to travel everywhere seeing great sports stuff. was the first degree i got at SMU and after law school did brief stint at CNN as intern in sports department. Maybe that's when all this love of sports thing started to change?

Yes, think it was the first time i fell in love. i had forgotten about all that till today. and as i am sitting here, think part of me is still that 12-year-old carrying a flame.


1975 World Series Game 6 at Fenway Park.
Boston Red Sox
Cincinnati Reds
Reds lead series 3-2.

bottom of 12th.

12:34 a.m. October 22, 1974.

pitch from Pat Darcy.

Ball meet wood of #27's bat, and it carried and carried...





And as Carlton Fisk for the BoSox leapt, leapt willing, willing that ball out of the park --

guess i was doomed.

and fated to forever lose a piece of my heart to the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, and number 27.

Funny thing was i had forgotten about all that till today and Digger's Ron Guidry Glove.




Fenway Park.

in my grand old sage wisdom at 15 -- i pronounced before i die have 2 wishes -- number one was that want to see a game at Fenway.

So for my 16th birthday Dad and i headed up to Boston in middle of July for a 3 game series with the Minnesota Twins that somewhat coincided with birthday.

the Twins trained in Orlando and dad always kind of pulled for them. am sure he never understood this weird Red Sox thing. But he was my great dad and off we went.

Remember going to the game. walking along one of those great old Boston streets in the "Fenway" neighborhood. it was so wonderfully New England -- i think another thing i just loved about it. So different from FL. So old, blue color and so irish.

we walked through some buildings -- i looked up and there it was. just boom. no big monolith. remember thinking it's so small. it's so old. it's so green.

We kind of cluelessly wandered underneath stadium and approached the entrance to our section. and as jaded i am with major league baseball today, i tell you thinking back on that moment... walking through that portal -- and there it was.

that Green Monster. the wall, the grass -- it was perfect. at least in my mind. Like it had been painted. Some amazing still-life of Americana.

Many things/moments in my life have not lived up to expectations. but as i type this almost 27 years later, i am shaking my head remembering how really special it was.

Carl Yaz, Rick Burleson, Jerry Remy, Jim Rice, Dwight Evans, Don Zimmer, Dennis Eckersley, Bob Stanley and of course.


the catcher Number 27. ok -- looking at this picture right now. am young teen again and thinking -- he really is too cute. Pleease......

Yes, in 1981 Carlton Fisk -- became a free agent, played and finished his career with the Chicago White Sox. and with that the spell he had over me was broken.

Mostly because, by that time i had actual boyfriends. real people i could sit in stands, watch play game and think were cute -- and could carry on conversation with. Honestly, it was partly that White Sox Uniform. and that new number -- 72.

Carlton Fisk and 72. yes, it was all wrong.

guess time was passing and i was growing up. Even though i don't feel same way toward baseball, i really just hope it is me that is different.

i hate the thought that Major League baseball drove me away like some love that so drastically changed over the years that you woke up one day and thought who is this person that i once was so madly in love with?

Yes, hope those Morgan County ball-diamond boys and girls look at the Majors the way i once did.

just notice the number of emails in my box at present is -- 27.

Shows God really does have a sense of humor -- or is closet Carlton Fisk fan. Read tonight that at last second Fisk replaced the White Sox cap in his Cooperstown Display with a Red Sox one.

ok -- just reading that made me fall in love with him all over again.

See really am sentimental sap .... and at least at this moment, kind of in love with baseball again.

thanks digger.