Articles:
Baseball... A Gift We All Can Share
May 2006
Sometimes we don't know when opportunity not taken becomes opportunity lost forever. The simplest things in our lives, going to the store, stopping by to see friends or family, watching a game, all these things we do often, and much of the time we take for granted that the next time is just around the corner. Some things seem to start and end a circle and make things complete just by the mere fact that they occurred. One of these events happened in May, 1998. The Mason~Dixon Tournament run by Jim Bard in the western Maryland, Pennsylvania area was a top flight Semi~Pro Baseball Tournament that bonded much of Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, West Virginia and Pennsylvania for nearly 15 seasons over the Memorial Day Weekend.
The championship game of this tournament was held, Memorial Day, 1998 in Fayetteville, Pennsylvania at the Memorial Field. Three of those in attendance were my wife, my dad and me. We set out from Virginia on Monday morning at about 9:00 AM to watch the Semi~final and Championship games. Fayetteville is about a 90 minute drive from the D.C. area. My wife, Dorotha, had been to many games with me in our short few years together. My dad, John, getting up in years went to less and less baseball since the Senators were stolen from us so many years before. Dad and Dorotha were sharing a first game together as Father-in-law and daughter in-law. This was a real treat for me as I was able to get us all together for a fun family day in the sun. Unlike MLB this wasn't going to cost an arm and a leg to attend. The entire affair including gas, food and the game was less than $25.00 total. Try taking three people to RFK or Camden Yards for that money. Several players on each team were about to turn professional or had played professional baseball just a few short seasons prior, so the baseball quality was quite good, and it's a very entertaining way to spend a day.
The day was perfect! I don't remember the score and don't care in the slightest either. My dad and my wife had the time of their lives. We all did and on the drive home we topped it all off with a stop at a Dairy Queen on Rt. 30 near Chambersburg, Pennsylvania. While at Dairy Queen, my dad told us some things about his job in the 1950's and early 1960's that he had never shared before. The only thing left was the drive home. I dosed in the back seat while my dad rode shotgun and reminded my wife about landmarks and structures and things long ago gone from the landscape. My dad was born and raised in Hagerstown, Maryland, so this was a homecoming of sorts. It would be his last. My dad suffered from Multiple Sclerosis and had fought the disease for nearly half his life.
What was my wife Dorotha's first game with my father proved to be our last game as a family. He died that December, 1998 at 78 years old.
Bob Schnebly
SABR Member
Industrial Baseball League
