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Monday, February 27, 2012

Douglas ‘Chuck’ Booth (Baseball Writer)- I was born in 1976.  I have two older brothers that were born in 1975 and 1974.  Another brother was born in 1978.  My dad had all of us at the baseball park to watch his men’s league windmill team play baseball for every weekend of the summer.  By the time I was 4, I also tagged along to my brother’s T-Ball baseball practices.  My dad would let me play with the older kids because he knew I loved the game enough to become good at it.  While my other brothers liked baseball, I loved it.  So as they played cars and watched cartoons, I was happy to be watching baseball with my dad on our old 12’ black and white television screen that you had to pound on with a clenched fist once a day in order for it to focus right.  My dad and I would watch the Montreal Expos on the French Channel in Canada.  We always muted the sound, opting for a Bob Seger Record instead, but we would watch the game with laser focus.  My dad had been a huge Thurman Munson and Yankees fan, so when Munson died in a plane crash, it hurt him a great deal .  My dad’s love waned from the Yankees for a bit after.  He started to like baseball on TV when I began asking to watch it.  He and I sat on the couch and watched Gary Carter play.  The Expos were an exciting team at the turn of the 80’s decade with the likes of Gary Carter, Andre Dawson and Tim Raines.  I can remember seeing how involved Carter was in orchestrating the leadership of his team.  Read the rest of this entry →