Gammons: Legacy of a young fan can remind us of the power and meaning of baseball
From Peter Gammons at The Athletic on November 27, 2018:
The last time I saw Christina-Taylor Green, in 2010, she was eight years old and at the ballpark home of the Brewster Whitecaps. Her father John, a highly respected scout with the Dodgers, came to the Cape every summer. John’s father Dallas, after whom John and Roxanna Green named their son, remains a treasured baseball legend. Christina was her grandfather’s love.
Summer after summer, Christina attended the Brewster Whitecaps morning baseball camps. In the league, the coaches and players hold camps, and the players, 19- and 20-year-olds hoping that the following June they will hit the draft lottery, for their summer jobs make small money teaching the game they love to kids from five on up. Go to a game in Yarmouth-Dennis and there are adults who volunteer stories about the unforgettable impact players (most often mentioned are Buster Posey, in 2007, and Chris Sale, in 2009) had on their children. Or go to Orleans, and hear tales of the left side of the infield in 1993, Nomar Garciaparra and Aaron Boone, or Bourne, in 2006, and Mitch Moreland.
Christina was exceptionally athletic, smart, outgoing, energetic. She was the only girl to play on her Canyon Del Oro Little League team. Her father thinks she was a natural for politics, as when she was eight years old, she had mastered the art of talking with others, not to them. That last time I talked with her — she had no idea who I was, she just loved meeting people around baseball fields and sharing her joy — she promised she would someday be either the first woman to play in the major leagues (as a second baseman, of course) or she would be a member of the United States Congress, like her Tucson, Ariz. Representative, Gabrielle Giffords.
Read the full article here (subscription required): https://theathletic.com/678661/2018/11/27/gammons-the-legacy-of-a-young-baseball-fan-can-remind-us-of-the-power-and-meaning-of-the-sport/
Originally published: November 29, 2018. Last Updated: November 29, 2018.