It was a sunny afternoon in early October, the kind that connects the fading of summer with the emergence of fall and its bold colors. I was about to make a bold prediction, with my dad as a witness. We had stopped at a diner after going to the grocery store, and...
It is the first Mother’s Day without her, just as it was the first Opening Day without her. They belong in the same sentence because of my mom’s love for baseball, and the love we shared through the game. We even sang “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” as we said...
Every once in a while, a season in our life runs parallel with a season of a lifetime. It happened to me in 1983. April 4th was Opening Day, but my focus was on the birth of our third child, Kelly Patricia, to whom I gave three nicknames — Lover Dover, Special...
By Jack d’Epagnier It’s the soundtrack of summer. It’s a twilight drive home from Little League with Mom, or a catch in the yard with Dad. It’s playing stickball outside the municipal pool. It’s washing the car in the driveway during a Sunday afternoon. It’s lying awake while the clock radio whispers...
It happened so quickly. I was standing alone in the front of a department store when I noticed a tall, tan man in a tailored suit coming toward me. Somehow, I managed to say, “Are you Jim Gentile?” And for some reason, he said, “No,” and kept walking toward the back of...
In Dan Connolly’s invitation to readers to write baseball essays, he stated that it’s the most lyrical of all sports, and that, “maybe it is how the history is woven into the fabric of this country.” I would amend that slightly. “Maybe it is how baseball’s history, and Orioles’ history, are woven into my fabric.” I am no longer young, when things...
I grew up knowing only one grandfather. He was on my mother’s side, and I called him Pop Pop. We spent more time with the relatives of my father, whose dad died when he was 6, so I mainly saw Pop Pop on holidays and birthdays until I got older. Pop Pop...
When people asked me two years ago why we created BaltimoreBaseball.com, the simple answer was I needed a job. The more complex response, though, is I wanted to create a website that was different from what others were doing. There’s a ton of excellent and thorough coverage of the Orioles out there,...