Baseball with Grandpa (s)

I have now lost both of my grandfathers, I suppose that is expected for someone of my age.
One passed in 1996, the other just back in 2010.
I was closer to one than the other, but both of them loved baseball.
One was just a baseball fan (only boxing had any other interest), the other liked football and basketball as well.

One would regale me with tales of the game of the '40s, '50s, and '60s, the other would stick to the "charms" of my beloved Cleveland Indians.
One rooted for the Indians, the other the Orioles, but both were the type of fan that was camped in front of the TV every night that games were televised in the day of mostly road games that were televised and home games meant radio on the big front porch in Ohio or the small screened back porch with a chair and a small couch shoved into it in Maryland.
One watched the Wahoos on WUAB-43 from Cleveland, the other the Birds on WMAR 2 out of Baltimore.
One would talk about the common team that we shared, the other tolerated my rooting against the Orioles (unless they were playing the Yankees) and never held it against me.
One made sure that every year that I visited that a Cleveland Indians pocket schedule was waiting for me to show me that he was thinking of me, the other passed me down battered Red Man chewing tobacco cards from the early '50s, since Pap was always a heavy tobacco chewer.

Both were able to pass on a love of the game to a child that already loved it, almost to the detriment of himself.
I loved both of those men for the gift that they gave me- the gift of time.
Time spent with me watching baseball whether once a year in Ohio or the regular visits to my grandfather just down the road.
Not the street,road-streets were for cities or towns, not the road, which ended in Pike in my rural area.
I didn't actually play baseball with either, that job was left to this man to improve my game, but I always was able to talk and watch the game with them.

I so fondly remember just hanging out with them and watching games, swigging RC Cola with one and my preferred 7UP with the other.
One always took me to the A&W root beer stand for coneys and chicken sandwiches to take back and watch the game, while the other always popped popcorn that he grew himself on the stove.
Both had distinctive and easy to imitate voices that were voiced in a good-natured fashion.
Those imitations actually helped keep their voices clearer in my memory from a time that did not have access to keeping those voices alive on record.

As much as I love being able to live in a time that enables my words to be read by anyone that cares in an instant and able to see any game that I want as long as I can afford to pay for it, there was a special feeling to see whatever you could see because things were so limited.
Other than ABC's Monday Night Baseball and NBC's Saturday Game of the Week, the only option was the local teams' road games and nothing was more looked forward to than the Orioles trips to Texas (pre-1979) and Cleveland (post-79) for the chance to see those teams on TV.
It was a big deal in a time that made it tough to be a fan of the team that was far away unless you were a fan of a more national team such as the Yankees.

I remember telling my grandfather in Ohio that I was going to call him from the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium when I saw the Indians against the Brewers with a friend in 1982.
I did so from a less than clean phone booth at the less than sanitary Cleveland Muni and he never forgot that as it usually got brought up in every visit that I had with him.

I am not a grandfather yet and I have my doubts on how important I will be in my future grandchildren's lives, but I do hope that I can pass along my love of the game to someone down the road and create the type of fond memories of me that are similar to what I have of my grandfathers.
No matter how that turns out, I will always have fond memories of two men that have departed out of our world and shared their love of the game with me......

Photo Credits: Chris Creamers sports logo page.....