85-73


I'm a 52-year old Northern California native, lifelong Giants fan (suffering since 1962), and partial (one-eighth) season-ticket holder at PacBell (er, SBC?) Park.
My work travels have afforded me the opportunity to visit every major league park (plus many of the long gone ones and dozens of minor league parks), three visits to Cooperstown (including two induction weekends), and I'm working on a 20-year streak of Spring Training visits to Scottsdale -- now running two full weeks each March.
I was at the first night game at Wrigley Field (8-8-88) and for four years was at the opening day of a new MLB ballpark (Comiskey in '91, Camden in '92, the Marlins very first game in Miami in '93, and Arlington in 94).
It goes without saying that, besides my family and home (and sometimes work!)... baseball is my passion! I have four children from a 15-year first marriage (sons 25 and 22 and 17-year old boy-girl twins who are seniors in high school) and a lovely second wife of 12 years and a 9-year old son that I've coached for five years in Little League.
My oldest son's name is "Brett" (born in 1979) and my 9-year old is "Nolan"... and he joined his mother and me in Cooperstown in 1999 for Nolan Ryan's induction. Nolan and I were on hand when Barry hit #71 and #72 that evening against the Dodgers and again on opening day in 2004 when Barry hit #660.
I worked as a sportswriter for the #3 daily in the Bay Area ("Contra Costa Times") and covered the 1971 Giants-Pirates playoffs along with A's, Raiders (including Madden post-game interviews back then), and 49ers games for a number of years (but didn't travel with the teams). I've been fortunate enough over the years to stay close to the game, including things like dinner with Will Clark (on his 23rd birthday as he entered his second MLB season),
play a week for Larry Bowa (1991 "All-Star Fantasy Camp" in Orlando), and get hitting tips from Mickey Vernon. Passion... or, as my wife might suggest, a "sickness"?! I began playing APBA in 1964 and still have a pristine card set from that season (later purchased to replace the originals) and was an original DOS Baseball beta tester for Kenneth Miller, and later was a regular beta tester prior to the introductions of StatMaster and BWin. I didn't join my first full league, The Mudville Baseball League (still going strong, but refusing to move to AIM) ntil 1991 and for eleven years it was the only league I was in, serving for most of the final five seasons as commissioner.I have intentionally limited the number of leagues I participate in -- simply to be able to give each team and league the ttention it deserves. Currently, I'm in only five leagues:
CSBL [1951 - "Casey Stengel Baseball League" - commissioner]
LDBL [1966 - "League of Dreams Baseball League"]
BML [1971 - "Billy Martin Winter League"]
BOTL [2003 - "Better APBA Old Timers League"]
WMSL [2003 - "White Mountain Summer League"]
I am competitive, although "building a dynasty" is not nearly as important as a friendly league with strong camaraderie. I frown on guys who only want to win" and thus often brag about how good their teams are... winners should be humble and show respect for he game.