Seeking the Sublime in the Everyday

 A recent clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle was a four letter word for Red Rose.   The answer is...Pete!     Pete Rose of the Cincinnati Reds.  Arthur says he wouldn't have gotten that. The Times puzzle reminds you that words can have wildly disparate meanings.  Like, "diamond" can be about baseball or jewelry.  You have to keep an open mind.  It can be mind boggling.   That's true when I think about Pete himself.   Pete Rose, "Charlie Hustle." He's an extraordinary baseball player with phenomenal stats;  he was a  switch hitter   and is still the all-time MLB leader in   hits   (4,256), games played (3,562),   at-bats (14,053), singles (3,215), and   outs   (10,328). [1]   He won three   World Series , three   batting titles , one   Most Valuable Player Award , two   Gold Gloves , and the   Rookie of the Year Award , and also made 17   All-Star ...

FIFTY YEARS AGO THIS WEEK On October 16, 1969,  The Mets won the World Series  and I was there.  I'd like to say I was in my baby carriage but I was at my job in midtown, watching tons of shredded papers fall from office windows.  those were the days when you could open windows. But first, a little family history.  In the months before I was born my mother stayed with her in-laws while Dad finished his semester at Babson College. Everyday Mom and MomMom would go to the ball game; to the Bronx to see the Yankees or to the Polo Grounds to see the Giants. I had always thought we were exclusively Yankee fans but look at this picture of Alan, aged five.  That's a Giants uniform--he wore it every day. I don't know how Mom ever got it off him to wash it. Here he is with our grandfather, PopPop Brown.  You still can't see the writing, but the orange and black socks are the clue.  This is definitely a Giant's uniform.  ...

The Evolution of Inspiration I showed this drawing to my second grade students and one girl said, “She’s the Baseball Queen, and she saves all the home run balls.” And I said, “Eureka!” The woman is the sculpture, “Memory”, who sits at Broadway and 106th Street in the memorial to  Isidore and Ida Strauss who went down with the Titanic. The baseball players? For months, vague ideas had been swirling in my head, centered on the great American Pastime. In my neighborhood there was Dads and Daughters softball.  Several men gathered on Saturday mornings with their daughters to help the girls develop their skills and build confidence on the field.  The girls had other ideas, twirling, looking at the sky, practicing cartwheels--anything but batting and fielding. I thought there was a story there, but I didn’t know what.  Girls and baseball, feeling left out, the sense of longing; a baseball stew bubbled in my head. ThenI learned Leonardo DaVinci’s last words...

Why do I draw Baseball? Why Baseball?  I once said to my brother, Alan, “Did you love baseball for itself or for all the time you spent with Dad?”  His answer was, “It was all so wonderful, why choose?” That’s a typical answer from my family, one that left me wanting. Wanting what? Baseball infused my life--the constant sound of the game on the radio or TV, the never ending games of catch in our yard and even in the living room. But baseball wasn’t for me. I didn’t like standing in the hot sun with people yelling and throwing things at me.  I have no interest in sitting through a whole game but I do like to watch on TV where I can see a beautiful play again and again on the replay. It’s not the game itself, it's the mystique.  There’s something about boys. I remember the moment when I was very little and realized I would grow up to be a woman like my mother, not a man like Daddy. I wasn’t disappointed but I wasn’t thrilled either.  It was more like...w...