Time Travel, Baseball & Reading

Good books bring back great memories.

One of the wonderful benefits of reading is that in many instances books can help one travel in time. Not just in the sense that they take you back through the content captured within their pages, but that holding, smelling and re-reading special books can take one back to different points in their own personal history.

There was a period in my life when I worked for the local Triple-A minor league baseball team, and at the same time both of my sons played Little League baseball, Naturally, at this time I was very much in love with America's past time, especially the positive role it played in our lives. During that time, my kids and I took a few camping trips to the Cooperstown, NY, region (as well as to Williamsport, Pennsylvania, home of the Little League World Series) to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame. We also spent hours rummaging through local used book stores for nearly any kind of baseball-themed book to voraciously read. They liked the pictures and I enjoyed the historical stories... and pictures, too.

While moving some things around the house this weekend in anticipation of having our hardwood floors refinished, I came across a number of the tomes I had forgotten were in my possession. Many more than I had remembered dealt with baseball, and given that the baseball playoffs have just begun (though my fantasy season ended in a second place finish), I began thumbing through these books once again.

And travelling back in time.