Baseball and Genealogy

I wrote an article a few years ago for Gen Weekly [Genealogy Today] about baseball crossing generations. I think it's online now, so try a Google search if you'd like to read it.

The baseball season is winding down and my Reds continue to fade this year. My first big league game ever was at old Crosley Field in Cincinnati. I think it was the last game of 1961. I was just getting interested in baseball at the time. We also attended Indianapolis Indians AAA games at old Victory Field/Bush Stadium.

I was a big Yankee fan from 1962-1968. As the Yankee greats were traded or retired [Berra, Mantle, Maris, Ford, etc.], my interest in the Reds increased. I got to see the Yankee greats, the Big Red Machine, Koufax, Drysdale, Musial, Mays and dozens of others.

My maternal grandfather was a big White Sox fan. My Dad was a Yankee fan until the late '60s. We sort of adopted the Reds at the same time.

Pop attended the 1939 World Series at Wrigley Field in Chicago. He saw Joe DiMaggio belt a home run. [That was also Lou Gehrig's last series.] In 1964, we went to see the Yankees play the White Sox. Mickey Mantle hit a home run that day. Mantle took over as Yankee super star from DiMaggio.

Pop and my grandmother took in Indians games at old Washington Park [about where the Indy Zoo is today.] He and Mom took my to old Victory Field many times.

My parents and I shared a lot of baseball memories - crazy ones, fun ones, weird ones. We detoured to Houston to see the Astrodome enroute to Florida. We nearly froze to death at Chavez Ravine [Dodger Stadium] in June.

I wish I could have talked baseball with Mom's father and with Pop's mother. The sport crisscrosses generations. I've even been able to get my girlfriend to attend games at Indy's new Victory Field. We've been to Wrigley and Great American as well. Trade off? She's a NASCAR fan. I go to the Brickyard 400!