44 Days to Opening Day

Opening Day 2008 for the Timber Rattlers is April 3. That is 44 days from today. This off-season, the countdown will be based on books. Each day between now and Opening Day 2008, I will pick a random book out of my library and excerpt a passage off the page number corresponding with the number of days remaining to the first pitch of the new season. I will try not to repeat a book during the countdown.

Today’s book was an obvious choice with 44 days until the first game of the season. It’s I Had a Hammer by Hank Aaron with Lonnie Wheeler and it's about a time the Braves sent a scout to Eau Claire.

Around the end of June, one of the Braves top scouts, Billy Southworth, came to watch us play. I thought I made a pretty good account of myself when he was there, but I was surprised to read in the local paper that, when he was asked about the best prospects on the team, the only players he mentioned was a first baseman named Dick Enquist. [Wes] Covington and I were practically tearing up the league at the time. I’m not sure what the strategy was – things happened to black ballplayers that I still can’t explain – but for some reason, he didn’t want to single us out in the newspaper even though he knew we were the best players. I’m sure of this, because I’ve seen the report that he filed about me. He wrote, “For a baby-face kid of 18 years his playing ability is outstanding. I will see the remaining games but will send in the report now, ‘cause regardless of what happens tonight, it won’t change my mind in the least about this boy’s ability.”

Put today’s excerpt in a baseball context.