You can learn a lot from baseball researcher and author Alan Cohen.
Initially, he reached me through this blog. He’s in the home stretch of writing a fascinating baseball history book.
I spotted, via Facebook, one of his victories.
Someone found him on LinkedIn. Her dad had played in the “Esquire All-American Boys” game, a precursor of the Hearst Sandlot Classic.
See what the supporter included with the message. That’s her father with a noted coach:
Yes, that’s Babe Ruth, circa 1945.
Moral? Don’t be shy. Don’t be silent.
Don’t spend all your time talking about the weather, your ailments, religion or politics. Share a passion. You write to former players?
Of course, slip in a call to action. A request. “If you EVER have any tips or ideas…”
Then, don’t count the misses. Only the hits.
If the world doesn’t know about your hobby, how can anyone ever help you?
Thanks you for including this story. I keep hunting down folks and you never know. Here is a recent adventure. After the Hearst Games stopped in 1965, the Greater new York Sandlot Athletic Alliance continued games through 1970 between the Yankee Juniors and Met Juniors, chosen from the best sandlot players in the New York Metropolitan area. In 1969, the game was played at Yankee Stadium. The MVP was catcher John Wagner. I caught up with him at a function in Connecticut. John went to Iona College but never played professionally. His pitcher on the other hand achieved a measure of success. Indeed, he was the featured speaker at the event in West Hartford, CT. Wagner and his pitcher were together from Little League through College. The pitcher wound up with the Kansas City Royals – a fellow by the name of Dennis Leonard.