Marlene and friends at home 10/18/26 (D. Hoekstra photo)
VERONA, WI.–When Marlene Buechel grew up on her family farm in tiny New Glarus, WI, in the 1950s, she had no clue about the larger community she would later encounter.
And what it would mean to her.
Marlene is one of the most effervescent baseball fans I know. She has been a Milwaukee baseball fan since 1953. She is a Brewers season ticket holder and drives 180 miles round trip between her home in Verona and Milwaukee. Marlene attends roughly 25 games a year. She turns 89 years old next month.
Last weekend I wanted to visit [...]
Thank you, White Sox, thanks Bill! (Provided photo.)
Baseball Hall of Famer Bill Veeck loved incongruity, so he would have enjoyed Saturday’s “Bill Veeck Night” at Rate Field. The White Sox did a fine job with Veeckish stunts such as a pre-game petting zoo featuring Stella the Sloth, a 60-second marriage in center field officiated by former White Sox great Ron Kittle, a puffy Andrew the Clown, and a cool Veeck bobblehead.
But incongruity rounded the bases at the end of the game.
Jesse Cole, the effervescent founder of the Savannah Bananas barnstorming baseball team, appeared with a video message [...]
A hand-carved baseball bat sits atop a bookshelf in my office. It was made by the Birmingham Black Barons first baseman Lyman Bostock, Sr. The bat is beautifully finished and lacquered. Bostock’s name is wood burned into the bat with the title “Negro League Legends.” The bat is 36 inches long but it covers miles of distinguished memories.
It is a magic wand.
I purchased the folk art from Bostock in 1994 when the Chicago Sun-Times sent me to Birmingham, AL. to trail Michael Jordan playing minor league baseball for a few days. I was privileged to have many meaningful assignments at the newspaper. This remains near the top of the list. Meeting Bostock was more [...]
Scorecards from the author’s basement.
The promise of Cubs opening day never gets old.
Time is a stiff wind, but when baseball’s opening day rolls in, I am young again. There is hope in the air. On April 1973 I attended my first Cubs season opener at Wrigley Field. I have not missed one since.
On March 30 I will attend my 50th consecutive home opener. I’ve made it through snow, rain, sun, lockouts, marriage, divorce, illness, a thousand woo-woos, and a pandemic. And I have a scorecard from every game. That’s the longest streak for anything I’ve done anything in life except for writing. And [...]
