Memories of the long ago

It was last night I stumbled onto a movie that has caused me to get up in the very early hours remembering some of the thoughts of the nostalgia of my early days. It was about baseball and I was drawn back to the days when  thoughts of a career in the national game were on my mind. You know, some kids want to be firemen, soldiers or pilots. I wanted to be a ball player. At a very early age I was permitted to get on a street car which carried me to our old Offerman stadium in Buffalo N.Y. where I could sit in the bleachers and   watch the Buffalo Bison'  home run hitter, Ollie Carnegie, knock a horse hide ball over the distant fence or watch Greg Mulleavey turn a doube play. I was deeply impacted of what might come to pass in those days  and this movie stirred my mind. Beauty McGowan used to play center field and he had such a flawless running stride that his nick name was so fitting. Yes, at that age, I knew each player, his batting average and maybe, what chewing tobacco was his favorite. I was really into the game and not only for the local team but my memory was also about many other players in the Major Leagues. I was a baseball nut! The movie had to do with a high school science teacher who doubled as the baseball coach of a mediocre team  and in a peak of anger challenged them to do better. He had a reputation of being able to throw a ball at a very high speed - throwing the cheese, as it was sometimes called, and his team returned the challenge that they would try harder if he would agree to a tryout for a authentic baseball team. His age had already put him almost over the hill, certainly past the age of a rookie and thus the name of the movie, "The Rookie". So there I was with the dawn beginning to break and me  deep in my memories of days gone by. I had to get up and put my thoughts on paper for sleep had fled and left me wide awake. In the final days of the movie his team had won the district championship and he was bound to attempt a tryout. In the conclusion he had become a relief pitcher for a major league team and was called to show his "heat" by striking out the hitter for the opposing team. The result was successful and he became a local hero. The movie had other poignant interests like his divorced father who had not been interested in his son's exploits or having to take his three children to the major league tryout and the ignominy of needing to change the babies dirty diaper as he was being called to the mound. The film went far into the night and while I was able to fall asleep, when I awakened, the movie reel of my mind was activated and here I am. Was I ever a really good ball player? Not really, but that doesn't stop a childs mindset of what he would like to be. However a war came along and any dreams were set aside. The irony of all the above is that this was the third time I had seen the movie but  we should all acknowledge that the dreams of long ago may never come to pass nevertheless they still reside in our memories and will be there for a long as we live. May those recollections never leave us or be dismissed for they are a part of what we are today. They are a part of the  days of long ago - our childhood, where dream and memories are forever.