the boys of summer...

Little League baseball is a very good thing because it keeps the parents off the streets.
~ Yogi Berra


Welcome to you folks dropping in from Mad Friars/San Diego Padres! This blog represents my humble efforts at blogging and provides me a free way to display my photography and writing. This pic is one of mine taken last Wednesday at the Eugene Emeralds 1st day of training at Civic Stadium, posted at the Mad Friar's wwwebpage, the site for San Diego Padres' scouting.

Never a great ballplayer as a kid, I played Little League for a couple of years back in elementary school, played softball in the early '70s (where I also bowled and played basketball in the base leagues) while I was in the Air Force down in Austin, Texas at (the former) Bergstrom AFB. While living in Fresno in the '80s I played slowpitch there with a group of buddies in a league, and... well... we were pretty good for a bunch of old hippies. I found out then I actually could play good ball. And when you hit a game winning hit, it doesn't matter whether you're a pro or an amateur, its still waaay cool!


Always a fan, I saw my first pro game at the LA Coliseum when the Dodgers played there before the Chavez Ravine stadium was built (and thats another whole and seperate future blog post). I went to HS with at least a couple of quality baseball players. Garry Maddox won professional baseball's Golden Glove Award 8 consecutive seasons (1975 - 1982) and his skills prompted Phillies broadcaster Harry Kalas to remark, "Two-thirds of the Earth is covered by water. The rest is covered by Garry Maddox."

I was also in high school with Alan Ashby.

Alan ended up with the Houston Astros where he caught for flamethrowing fastballer Nolan Ryan. Alan eventually wound up catching more games than any other player in the Astros' franchise history. It seems I remember one of his outstanding stats from HS was not allowing a stolen base while he was behind the plate. Maybe someone can confirm or correct that for me.



My kids' great uncle, Scott McKinstry, is editor of Oldtyme Baseball News (McKinstry, D. Scott, editor. Oldtyme Baseball News. P.O. Box 833-S. Petoskey, Michigan 49770; 6 issues for $ 24.95/year; published since 1988) I'm not sure if its still in publication but I can remember seeing copies while still married to the kids' mom.

So, summer is here, and as they say in baseball: Play Ball!

Oh yeah, and PS:

I'm always seeking photo work, especially of the paying kind! and I will gladly sell prints of almost any of the images posted here. Contact me... no job too small, no wage too high!

allan ( allan_e@efn.org )