keeping score

My dad taught me how to chart a baseball game, play-by-play, at Wrigley Field.  With lunch in a brown paper bag, we would arrive at the right field bleachers during batting practice, intent on catching a souvenir.  Twenty minutes before the first pitch, I had my pencil and scorecard ready when the public address announcer went through the starting line-ups. 

The summer leading into my freshman year of high school we attended a game at Comiskey Park, compliments of the White Sox.  My sister scored two tickets for straight A’s, while mine were for perfect attendance.  The scorecard was different from the one I had become familiar with at the Cubs games.  There were no columns to tally runs batted in or errors.  I pointed this out to my dad and he suggested I write a letter to Bill Veeck, the owner of the team.  He said that Mr. Veeck was accessible to the fans and that he even had his home phone number listed in directory assistance.

My handwritten letter was mailed and not given much thought.  Until I received this reply.

Thursday night at the Sox game, my friend Mark agreed to play Events in Scott’s Sox History.  “Name something that took place on this date 35 years ago?”  His first guess was Disco Demolition.  As he correctly guessed the Bill Veeck letter, his second try, he grinned, raising his eyebrows.  Mark was aware that I took Mr. Veeck at his word, and although there has been a new owner for the past 30 years, I recently mailed a letter with nine ideas and received a follow-up phone call.  I’m not going to list all of them, but I can say that when Ladies Day is reinstated or you have a chance to pay to be recorded, trying to hit a home run, you’ll know who to thank.

If you’re keeping score, you can see that my response average in SOL is 1.000.  

You are, but your scorecard has no column for totaling responses to Sox Owner Letters?

About these ads