Boys of Summer Book - Entry #106

You can see the complete film "Boys of Summer" for free by clicking here. 

Aug. 20, 2004 - Dad 

San Francisco, CA 

We are off on our last leg of our tour, the 850 mile return trip to the Bay Area. We allow two days so it's not too strenuous.

Our last ball game is in San Francisco at SBC Park. A beautiful park in a beautiful city. We had a small group which I think reflected the amount of energy we had left. But all of a sudden it was over. I was very tired and a bit disoriented and happy to have someone as young and energetic as Bob to complete the project.

Bob, I don't think I have ever thanked you for the experience of a life time. It was great to watch you grow and to just spend time with you. I thank you and I love you very much.

Aug. 20, 2004 - Bob

San Francisco, CA

SBC is beautiful. We parked in one of the lots across the footbridge and were able to tailgate with a good group of friends. It was weird being home in a way. Very matter of fact. Very much a feeling of, “well of course you made it” when so many times on the road it felt like anything BUT matter of fact. 

But here we are. Game #30.

We got interviewed by the local NBC affiliate’s, Vernon Glenn (“Mr. Involvement”). At one point after we’d reeled off answers we’d gotten quite used to answering, he said, “You guys really know what you’re doing.” After twenty-nine other parks and a good deal of media (and we were thankful for every last question!), yeah, we did have an idea of what we were doing. It was nice for me to see how comfortable dad had become in front of the camera. In Phoenix, at our first MLB game Dad was quite up tight. But now, he’s an “old” pro. 

It was great to share the game and the stadium with my Bella as she’d never been to a game at SBC. Dad and I had both been before, but not together. As we looked over the Bay, I was reminded of the beauty and the majesty of the place I am fortunate enough to call home, even though I haven’t lived here for quite some time. 

Park Number 30 (of 30), PacBell Park

San Francisco 7, New York Mets 3

 WP: N. Lowry (3-0)   LP: S. Trachsel (10-10) 

Oakland 9, Tampa Bay 5

Boys of Summer Book - Entry #90

You can see the complete film "Boys of Summer" for free by clicking here. 

100% proceeds go to the Michael J Fox Foundation. 

July 29, 2004 - Bob
Minneapolis, MN

We arrived at the YOPC after the long drive. I was initially distracted as our plans for tomorrow’s Chicago Cubs game were very much in limbo after seemingly being squared away just yesterday.

We were warmly welcomed, receiving hugs from some folks we knew like Mike O’Leary, Mary Ann Sprinkle and Jack Hungelman. We were given the opportunity to tell our story to everyone. Afterward, I led everyone in singing a round of “Take me out to the ballgame”.

Just like everywhere else, the magic started happening as we started listening.

Graphic Artist Alan Rabinowitz was diagnosed with PD in June of 1999. 

BC:
Alan, you grew up as a--

AR:
I grew up in Brooklyn, New York. And I was taught as a little kid that the Dodgers were the best team and the Yankees were the enemy.

BC:
And when were you born?

AR:
1951 in Brooklyn. The same year that Mr. Thompson hit the home run over Branca, “The shot heard ‘round the world.”

BC:
And how did that call go?

AR:
"The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant! The Giants win the Pennant!" At any rate my first baseball game that I was supposed to go to I was about five years old. It got rained out. And the next year the Dodgers moved out of Brooklyn. Then I became a Mets fan. I could never root for the Yankees. I could never, ever -- they were the other guys. They were from the Bronx, we were from Brooklyn. Pterodactyls still fly through the skies of the Bronx. So I became a Mets fan. As bad as they were, they were still our team. We’d go to the Polo Grounds or out to Shea and they were bad but it was fun.

Then it was the summer of ‘69 which was...unbelievable. Or as we used to say back in the neighborhood, (with heavy Brooklyn accent) “Unbelievable!” And it was one of my three favorite baseball memories. The other one was the ‘91 Braves.

I moved to Atlanta in ‘79 and saw even more bad baseball for a number of years. ‘Til the ‘91 season when the Braves coalesced and became “The Braves”. It was great. Everyone was doing the Tomahawk Chop. My son was two years old, he was doing the Tomahawk Chop. I remember doing it when we lost in the ‘91 playoffs. Lonnie Smith got deked out by Chuck Knoblauch in game seven of the World Series. Zero to Zero, Terry Pendelton hits one deep to the corner I said, “Lonnie Smith’s gonna score!” He gets deked, winds up on third and we can’t bring the run in.

But, the next year, 1992, game seven of the NLCS, the Pirates are up two-zip going to the bottom of the ninth. The Braves come up. They get one run back. Then there’s two outs. The bases are loaded and up comes Francisco Cabrera, who was the third string catcher. And I’m standing in the living room saying, “Come on, Frankie! Come on, Frankie!” On a two and one count, he slaps one past the short stop and out to Barry Bonds in left. The tying run comes in. Then Sid Bream, the slowest man in baseball, who was on second base, comes tearing down the basepath like a runaway locomotive and sliiiiiides. And if his foot was a half-inch shorter he would have been out. The ball comes. Their catcher, LeValier, tries to tag him. Sid’s foot touches the corner of the base. Braves win. Or as Skip Carey said, “Braves Win! Braves Win! Braves Win!”

I’m sitting in my living room and I think everybody in my neighborhood heard me go, “ALL RIGHT!” I woke my kid up. “What’s wrong, Daddy? What’s wrong?” I said, “The Braves won!” He said, “Oh.” He’s a big baseball fan, but he was also about three years old at the time and too tired to deal with it.

BC:
Were there in repercussions from your wife?

AR:
She said, “Do you have to yell so loud? The neighbors are going to hear you.” And I said, “But the Braves won! Sid Bream -- my man!” Francisco Cabrera could have run for Congress in Georgia and won. He could have. It was incredible.

BC:
Tell me about your artwork and why you do it.

AR:
Well I call this digitography. What I do is I take existing imagery and I manipulate them in the computer using Photoshop Elements. And what got me started doing it was, my son’s Bar Mitzvah a couple of years ago, my wife is into genealogy and she wanted to do a family tree. And we had all these old family photographs and I said, let me mess around with these in Photoshop. It turned out great.

About the same time, the PD was getting worse and I fell into depression, I had insomnia. I couldn’t focus for work. I was a writer and I was missing deadlines. I was up and I swore I would not stay up all night watching television. I was up and I was trying to write. And I was on the computer anyway, so I said let me see what will happen if I start to mess around with some of these photos. And that’s what happened. I started playing with photos and I do this and that, add them together and get “that”.

 

Boys of Summer Book - Entry #83.2

You can see the complete film "Boys of Summer" for free by clicking here. 

100% proceeds go to the Michael J Fox Foundation. 

On the subway, going to see the Mets:

RC:
What is the best stadium you’ve seen so far and why?

DC:
Fenway, because it was so simple and natural.

RC:
What did you think about meeting those young ladies at the gas station last night?

DC:
It was like a dream. I’m still kind of blinking and wondering if it really happened. They were so full of life and so full of the journey they were on -- kind of a similar journey. It was remarkable.

RC:
You said the other day that there are too many coincidences.

DC:
There was another example of it. There have been a number of them along the way and I’m constantly surprised with how closely they align themselves with what we’re doing. And how compatible they are. It seems extraordinary.

RC:
So does that change any belief systems you had? Has this trip changed any of your belief systems about anything?

DC:
I think about compassion and...people are more compassionate than I would have expected. And when they’re allowed to be, they’re more thoughtful.

RC:
What do you mean “when they’re allowed to be”?

DC:
Well, it’s opening up to them. Inviting them into your world.

RC:
So this trip has forced you to open yourself up more?

DC:
Oh definitely. And it was interesting in Minneapolis meeting with the Parkinsonians, Jack said more than once that the disease tends to cause him to pull himself into his circle of comfort. And he was thankful we were having the event we were having because it was something he wouldn’t normally do. And of course we’re doing something that I wouldn’t normally do -- much larger than a trip to the ballpark. It’s a trip around the country. It’s a natural thing when your abilities are becoming less to find comfort in the familiar but it’s also...it’ll end up...maybe that’s what John Trudeau meant when he said “Don’t let the disease eat you.”

RC:
So are you still thinking about that a little bit?

DC:
Oh sure. That’s one of the ones that resonates. There’s less I can do about the physical part. There’s more I can do with the mental part. That’s to keep the thought process going and to take care of myself, but not limit myself.

RC:
Gary had some good takes -- our friend from the lake in Minnesota. His level of activity -- he’s almost hyperactive and he’s been diagnosed for 15 years and has some pretty serious dyskinesia and yet his creativity and how prolific he is are astounding.

DC:
I have a hard time imagining what he’d be like if he were not a Parkinsonian. He probably would have built a castle or something -- I don’t know.

RC:
He might anyway.

DC:
I don’t see how he could be any more active. That’s just very heartening.

RC:
What were your thoughts at the Field of Dreams when you walked in?

DC:
I was surprised at how unartificial it was. The corn got to me more than anything else. The house, the backstop, I couldn’t smell it, but it looked like it smelled right. It didn’t look like a set and of course it was a set and now it’s something else. I have an idea of a set being something that has a front side you photograph and a backside you don’t. You could photograph any side of this and it was very real.

RC:
Contrast your thoughts of when we first discussed the project to where the project is now -- in terms of your thought of it’s success.

DC:
It’s kind of like filling in a blank page. We started with an outline and now there’s lots of textures and colors. So there’s an awful lot more to it. The things that we’ve already discussed that I couldn't’ have anticipated and many more. And then the thing I’ve said before is the biggest surprise is the people. Baseball is -- we saw a great game last night for instance -- but the richness of the trip is coming from meeting, talking to the people of all kinds -- not just Parkinsonians. Those girls last night, for instance. And Paulette just so you know, we didn’t touch them.

RC:
Yeah Paulette and Annamaria. They touched us. But we couldn’t do anything about that. But we didn’t touch them.

Park Number 18 (of 30) 

Shea Stadium
Atlanta 4, New York Mets 3
 WP: M. Hampton (6-8)   LP: S. Trachsel (9-7)

Oak 9, Tex 2

Boys of Summer Book - Entry #83.1

You can see the complete film "Boys of Summer" for free by clicking here. 

100% proceeds go to the Michael J Fox Foundation. 

Robert’s Rant on the Jake

RC:
All right, the ticket situation is resolved. We got our tickets on the inside (of Jacob’s Field) after making a few phone calls. Earlier, as I was waiting in line (to try to get our tickets), there are three windows available for the will-call. So I’m waiting in line for any of the three windows to open up. I’m the only person in line. (I’ve been waiting a while and I’m a bit irritated as I’ve already gotten the run around. This is my second time here.) Then a few other people come up and start to line up next to me and I tell them, excuse me, I’m in line here so I could make sure which ever window opened first I’d be able to go there as I’d been waiting the longest. Some people were kind of here and there with that, saying to me, “are you in this line or are you not”. I respond “Yes I am. I’m waiting for any of these windows to open up.”

And then a lady from the Indians staff comes up and starts to put people into other lines and I said, “Excuse me I’m waiting.” And she said, “Well you need to pick a line.” And I said, “Well, if I pick a line and one of these people goes in front of me to another window that opens that I didn’t pick, then just because I picked the wrong line now I’m going be waiting longer than the person who showed up after me. So if I have one line, that feeds all three windows, it ensures the person who got there first would be the first one to be helped”. And she said, “Yeah but there’s three lines”. Which I enjoyed.

DC:
The world’s not perfect.

RC:
It’s not about it being perfect. There’s a simple solution and it’s not being used for some reason.

DC:
That’s because the world’s not perfect.

RC:
Anything else?

DC:
That’s it.

Park Number 17 (of 30), Jacobs Field

Cleveland 4, Kansas City 3
 WP: M. Miller (3-1)   LP: S. Sullivan (3-3)

Oak 6, Tex 2

July 25, 2004 - DAD
Max V. Shaul State Park, NY

We stop for gas in the middle of the night in the mountains of Pennsylvania. I return to the car and find Bob interviewing five young ladies – recent college graduates who are returning from a cross country trip.  They are all baseball fans so Bob leads them in an energetic version of "Take me out to the Ballgame."  We wish each other a safe trip and say goodbye. 

Later we would wonder if we dreamed the whole thing up – I’m not sure.  We arrive at Bob’s friend from Caesars Palace, Jen, who shares a two bedroom, one bath apartment in Queens, at about 6 a.m. We blow up the mattress and sleep on the kitchen floor until about 10 a.m. 

Breakfast is at Burger King across the street where there was some shouting by a couple of unhappy customers. We are just one block from the subway that will take us to Shea Stadium. Bob is able to get us media passes so we get a real good look at the facilities.  We watch a very exciting game between the Mets and the Braves.

After the game, we take the train back to where the Explorer has been parked for 12 hours and find it untouched. We load up and drive 160 miles to Albany after a brief stop at Yankee Stadium to shoot some video we missed the first time through. We stop at the Kinko’s in Albany for an hour and a half then are off to find a campsite. Our direction is west towards Cooperstown, where we find "Max V. Shaul" State Park shortly after midnight.  We set up camp and are sleeping in record time.

Boys of Summer book Entry #58

July 7/8 (late night) - Bob
Philadelphia, PA

Just got back from the Phillies game and can’t say enough wonderful things about the Phills and the people who helped set all this up. Man, we roll into town, have a BEAUTIFUL room waiting for us, take the subway (right around the corner from the hotel) to the game, have an AWESOME crowd waiting for us, hear some excellent stories, eat some wonderful food, get these great hats and throwback jerseys (like, WHOA!, wool jerseys), sit through a 90 minute rain delay, get a tour of the “hall of fame” for Citizen Bank Ballpark (a history of the greats in Philadelphia professional baseball), then get to our seats just in time for the start of the game. Wow.

Now the game itself -- DRILL CITY. We saw another stinker, with the Mets drubbing the Phills, 10-1. The ballpark is GORGEOUS. Underrated, to the extreme, in my opinion. From the excellent out-of-town scoreboard (in stark contrast to Camden Yards), to the sound system at a reasonable level (as opposed to the ear-shattering levels in Arlington), to the design and layout of the field (the bullpens being stacked in right center had a great look to it) I didn’t see anything I didn’t like about the park. The staff, too, were excellent to us.

Right now it probably edges Minute Maid Park by just a bit -- and that’s no knock on the staff at Minute Maid -- they were top notch (just like the staff here). If I had seen Minute Maid with it’s roof off, it might be a dead heat, but for now, Citizen Bank’s the winner of “favorite ballpark” (totally unexpected).

I love the feel of taking the subway to the game, too. There was just something altogether “right” about our whole experience here. Philadelphia is a city that I didn’t care much for in my two brief visits before. This experience changes that. Driving in along the wharf and seeing the Benjamin Franklin bridge, which is reminiscent in design of the Golden Gate Bridge (save for the silver color of this one), I was reminded of San Francisco (a benchmark of a great city) in a very positive way.

Many cheers and thanks to Philadelphia.

Park Number Eight (of 30) at Citizens Bank Park

New York Mets 10, Philadelphia 1
WP: S. Trachsel (9-6)   LP: B. Myers (5-6)

A’s pummeled again by Red Sox, 11-3. This is a recording -- beep.