I have always had a fascination for the sport of baseball. This fascination started for me as a young boy growing up in the 50's. It all began by playing ball with the other boys in the neighborhood. It was pretty simple then, just playing catch and hitting a ball with a bat. Initially, it was a frustrating thing for me because I happen to be left handed, and at that time everyone else was right handed. Since I didn't have my own glove, I had to borrow one from the other kids, which meant that after some struggles I found that I needed to wear the glove backwards. This worked out ok, but I eventually realized that I needed my own glove. That meant that I would have to ask my parents for a baseball glove.
Now my parents were relatively new immigrants from Sweden and no concept of what baseball was. Add that together with the fact that they, like most immigrants at the time, were dirt poor and just trying to feed and clothe 7 kids, the odds were that my getting a baseball glove were pretty slim. I was finally able to convince them that redeeming the books of Green Stamps they had acquired could get me a baseball glove. When I went to redeem the stamps for a baseball glove, I again was faced with the uniqueness of being left handed. It seemed that the only glove they had for a left handed person was a funny looking thing that was used by a first baseman. It kind of looked like a lobster claw, but even that was better than nothing, so I was now the proud owner of a baseball glove.
