There was a couple from Lynn who had a hunting lodge a couple of miles up the road from where I grew up outside a very small town in central NH. They became friends of the family and were childless and they asked if I wanted to go back to Lynn with them when the weekend ended. "What would you like to do while you're visiting?" "Go to a baseball game!" So. late on the Thursday morning, I was told there was someone at the front door waiting for me. He was standing there with both hands behind his back..."Pick a hand." I did and it had tickets to that afternoon's game. Then he handed me what was in his other hand...a box with a baseball in it. It took a great deal of effort no to show my disappointment once I saw that it was not autographed by the Red Sox but by the opposing team, the Indians. In what seemed like no time, I found myself sitting in the third row directly behind home plate, looking at the netting in front of me and over me, wondering why I brought my baseball glove but I turned my attention to the scorecard and learned that I could keep score. It turned out that the person who brought me to the game worked at GE in Lynn with the brother of Cleveland's catcher, Jim Hegan and the baseball I still have was autographed by Larry Doby, Bob Feller, Early Wynn, Bob Lemon, and manager Al Lopez: all later elected to the Hall of Fame. Some many years later, I met Jim Hegan's sone, Mike, at a SABR convention and passed the story on to him. And that was the beginning of a life that has led to seeing games in 150 major and minor league parks and a love of the game's stats.
