I Became a Royal Pain

As nearly as I can remember, 5th Grade was the year I discovered my love of softball/baseball, but I don't actually recall how it came about. At recess, I had begun playing softball with the boys around 4th grade because I found that much more invigorating and challenging that just running around the playground with the girls. I don't think the boys liked it at first, but gradually they accepted me because my abilities weren't too much of a detriment. I practiced with my sister at home as much as I could. After all, we had an acre or two of yard to play in.

Feeding my love of the game was the fact that it took several people to play, and I had become quite a social animal by age 10. Some of my best friends were a family who had one boy my age and twins--a boy and a girl--a year younger. They all liked to play ball, and they had a vacant lot next to their home in town. When I could catch a ride to town with my mom or talk her into letting me ride my bike there (about 1 1/2 miles), I called ahead to see if they could round up another kid or two to make the game more interesting. What fun we had!

Since we lived in the country and the closest town had a population of 500 and I needed social interaction, I liked to go into town on summer nights to watch the boys' and/or men's baseball teams play. The games weren't usually organized enough to be publicized, so we never knew for sure when there would be a game. However, over the flat countryside we could see the lights of the baseball field at our home. When Dad came in from work, sometimes I could wheedle him or Mom into taking me to town. I did like watching the guys play, but I must admit that I looked for my friends in the stands as well.

All of this, I suppose, led to my love of professional baseball. Somehow I discovered that a local radio station carried all of the Kansas City Athletics games. I was hooked! Any time I could listen, I did. I begged my family so much to turn the radio to KGGF in the car when the games were on, that my mom finally bought me one of the first transistor radios. The only problem was that the reception wasn't that good. Consequently, I had to hold the radio against the car window to get good reception. Plus, I had to put my ear right next to the radio so that the volume wasn't too loud to irritate the rest of the family. (For you younger readers, headphones for radios hadn't been invented yet.)

In later years, the Athletics left Kansas City and the Royals came in 1969. Hence, the title of my blog "A Royal Pain".