"for love of the game"

One of the two athletic endeavors I enjoyed during my adventurous youth was bicycle racing.
The other, was baseball.

Little league, Babe Ruth league, a dubious flirtation with double-A ball, pick-up games wherever I could find them and finally, corporate ball.

I love the game.

There was never anything more sublime than anticipating the start of a game at my position in center field at the end of a summer day as dusk fell into night and the stadium lights came on.

Anyway, not long ago I drove a friend out to Northside Drive, here in town, for her annual visit to WomanKind. I knew full well she'd be an hour or so and I also knew that right next door to that colorful complex of doctor's, accountant's and insurance offices was the Clayton Sterling/Rosa Hernandez Complex of 4 baseball diamonds and 1 softball field. But I'd never really scoped it out so, knowing I'd have a little time to kill that afternoon, I took the opportunity.

Now, I've played on sandlots, public park diamonds, in minor league stadiums and even on the roof of a 20 story building in mid-town Manhattan. (a corporate league thing)

I even got out at center field at the old Yankee Stadium a time or two (the house that Ruth built); not as a player of course but goddamn, was that place a cathedral!

My point is, I've seen a few ball parks in my time and I think, that for younger ball players, these 5 diamonds are real gems.

Say what you like about our city government, we've gotta give them credit for creating and maintaining these ball-fields and managing the leagues, programs and clinics for very nearly 800 aspiring major leaguers from the ages of 9 - 16.

Kudos Key West!