'Growing Up Brooklyn Baseball'

Billy Joel's NY 'State of Mind' and
You Tube Video Tribute to the Brooklyn Dodgers

The Duke of Flatbush
I come to these pages approaching my 60th year on this planet in a life that is too short.

But if there has been one constant that has trespassed my life it is Baseball, from Little League in Little Neck, Long Island to National Fantasy Baseball Championships in Las Vegas.

I started playing Calico's All Star Baseball with a spinner and cardboard cards at the same time I was playing kick the can on the streets of Kew Gardens, New York.

I played stickball in concrete yards and softball in summer camps in Rock Hill, New York.

I have hurt every bone in my body diving for balls, sliding into bases, and crashing into fences to 'make the play' and win the game.

Baseball has been my addiction. Thank goodness I chose one that was healthy. As a criminal defense attorney, I have seen too many that destroyed people. Mine enhanced my life, from my days at Los Angeles Dodger Baseball fantasy camps to my days as a radio sports reporter and announcer.

I have got to play the game and interview the stars. I have got to live the passion of the life that I have loved. Even owned a baseball card shop for a while, trading and selling cards I kept and collected as a kid. Would have made more money if I was more a seller and investor than a collector. But hey, I got a 1952 Bowman Mickey Mantle in a safety deposit box somewhere.

So I bring to these pages baseball and its history, my passion for the game, and my enthusiasm for the sport. That knowledge has enabled me to live the life vicariously on the computer as a general manager, drafting teams and selecting players. I wish I had been as successful running some of my businesses as I have been at playing fantasy baseball :-)

Anyway, hopefully this blog will be an insight into my thinking on baseball as the 2009 season commences. I would have applied to the MLB network but who the hell wants to spend the baseball season at a studio in Connecticut? Though I think Al Leiter will be successful at it.

So with some fantasy baseball analysis, and a collection of some old columns I dig up and put online for posterity, here is the new blog for 2009. Let's get it started. My enemies are waiting to make fun of my predictions, now recorded forever.

That is not me in the picture. It is Duke Snider. He was my hero. Still is. That is how I grew up with the nickname Duke, which I am claiming again for this blog.