Carne del Sol

Up in the nosebleed section

one of nature's drones

surveyed the Old Timers

and apparently concluded that

they were a bit stringy

and perhaps a muscle pull or two

beyond their prime.

But it is autumn in Tucson,

a condition that makes

every hundred degree day of summer

worth having been sweat through.

People elsewhere are puttering in their yards.

The Tucson Old Timers, though,

like beef cured up on the roof of El Charro,

now brown and dried,

just get better.

On a Nippy Tucson Autumn Day in the Morning

David Byars

Ron Peterson

Phil Gordon

Joe Aparicio

Ron Carlson

Reed Palmer, at @12, congrats by John Matthews

Dennis Crowley and John Matthews

Lloyd Barzell at bat, Doc Thompson pitching

Ron Peterson and Bob Daliege:  heavy lifting

This is How Things Look

This is what a second chance looks like.














This is what conflicting aspirations look like.

This is what respect from your teammates looks like.










This is what teammates do when a friend or a teammate's spouse is hospitalized (Tom? Sanderson, and Elda Urtaza).














This is what a catcher looks like just after he has taken a ball below the helmet and above the pads.

This is what baseball over sixty looks like when you get so lucky.

This is what a couple of really good catches can do for you.  

Incidents

No, the comparative sizes are actual.

"Not in my backyard!"
Actually:
"Not'n my back yahhd!"

Our Canadian Dream Child taking it on a hop.

Ambling toward home; taking congrats.

Volunteer looking for Reed's ball:
did it go over the fence and the wall?

Hauling in another;
posing for the camera.

Just wondering. . . ;
not posing for the camera.

Grit and Gristle

 Chico Bigham celebrated his 79th birthday today, a long way from North Carolina.

If you look hard from third base, and the weather is clear, you can almost see how far Chico has come.

September 15, 1938.

On the day Chico was born, Gaylord Perry was born, too.  He stopped playing ball a while ago.

Everybody has somewhere else to go.

When leapfrog meets baseball.