A Great Year To Be A Red Sox Fan

My first at-bat in organized baseball was at age 7. I rode the bench all year in this ersatz league, which didn’t abide by any rule requiring kids to play. The town was so small that the team had players from my age up to about 12. The league wasn’t connected with any official organization like Little League, so there weren’t requirements to play all the kids. But in the last game of the season the coach took pity and put me in for an at-bat in the final inning. I crowded in close to home plate, squinting out at the pitcher. My parents had not yet figured out I was terribly nearsighted....

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