This is the best we can be....

Opening day, high school baseball, endless blue sky, comforting warmth after winter, pitchers and batters, fly balls and line drives. Heroes and errors. Strike outs, dropped balls and safe slides at home.

That's Morgan at bat, he's captain of his Brooklyn Friends School team, like Ripton was last year. The game was beautiful. The promises of youth, life without time. The field also held a hole for me, like a movie missing an actor. Ripton has been playing third or first base the past four seasons for Brooklyn Friends.

Some updates... Carlos has hurt his right hand at the base of his thumb. Clay Snellgrove--who played Minor League ball for the Padres for four years, up to Triple A, then played in the Frontier League for two years, including winning the batting title (Carlos is trying out in the Frontier League)--has been speaking with Carlos about getting ready, helping make introductions, consulting on baseball realities. Clay is now an author (The Ball Player) and runs a Bases Loaded, a baseball and softball school for kids.

Carlos went to Dr. Warren Hammerschlag, an old friend, a hand surgeon, an orthopedic specialist - Warren saw Carlos today through the goodness of his heart. Warren, THANK YOU !

Carlos' hand hurts. Nothing definitive yet. He'll tape it up and keep batting.

Tryouts start May 1

and America...