Part One From My Old Man

Evidently, I missed Part I of my fathers stories about our athletic exploits (or lack thereof as the case might be). So without further ado., the complete, unexpergated .....


First son howard is continuing the coaching tradition started by me when he was a kid. I can fortell the future on this. With today,s tight rules about aggressive behavior by fans and coaches, he will probably end up in the mill valley prison system. Community service there might be something like serving mint juleps to guests of meet the prisoner day. Coming from a tough neighborhood in washington heights where the amateur code was take no prisoners i thought the suburban coach should bring the same semi ruthlessness. Apparently i was behind the times. The players ,sons #1,#2and #3 each had his own identity. #1 started fast as a left handed fastball pitcher but faded fast as his weight seemed to stand still for several years while everyone else grew like they were on steroids. He was the winning pitcher of his league one year early on. After that came #2 , the best athlete of the 3 but rather timid. A starting pitcher on his 1st liitle leaguen team: one that went undefeated for the first time . He hung around for a long time but never lived up to his potential in baseball. His real sport was basketball where he excelled and i kept getting into fights with refs,coaches and parents.this kid got so nervous before a gamer he usually threw up. #3 still cannot hit a baseball. He was a runner and ok but no superstar. He played football and could run away from the defense but couldn,t catch the ball. A tough situation for a wide receiver. He played tough and even made the h.s. varsity basketball team based on his hard work on the court.