My interest in baseball took hold at a very early age in the 1940s, when my brother and dad listened to all the Pirates games on the radio at our home in Collier.
By the time I was in the fourth grade, I was going to an occasional game at Forbes Field. I was even able to attend the 1944 All-Star Game there — I can still see the blazing lights and feel the warm summer breeze of my first night game.
By the seventh grade at St. Francis Academy, my obsessive interest needed to be channeled.