The "Homerun That Never Was" Story

It was an ordinary day. We are playing in the quarter-finals of the 1959 New Era Tournament. I'm playing for the Grandview Heights midget baseball team this year. We have played a total of 39 games this summer and are hoping for two more after this game. I played for the Schick midget-midget team and the Young Republicans Jr. Midget team, but I am finally playing with friends from my own school. I enjoyed the other two teams because they had some of the best players from the county on them, but I thoroughly enjoyed playing this year with friends from my own high school. I played third base and pitcher this year and ended the year batting .374, second on the team. Third on the team in RBIs as well, but also third on the team in errors. Oh well, still a successful season. Today we are taking on Saint Anthony's Midget Team in the New Era Tournament. This tournament is sponsored by the local newspaper and is for teams that have won their league divisions during the regular season. Pitching for us tonight is a fellow by the name of George Healeyand for St. Anthony, a player by the name of Don Sourbaugh. Last year Don was one of my teammates on the Young Republicans and he helped us win the State Jr. Midget title as well as the North-Eastern US Jr. Midget Title. We each scored a run in the second inning and in the fourth inning to make the score 2-2. No one scored in the 5th and final inning, sending the game into extra innings. St. Anthony's scored two runs in the 6th inning on four straight singles, bringing our team to the bat in the bottom of the inning, losing by two runs. Our team made two quick outs before Donnie walked two batters, bringing George H. to the plate. He followed with a triple down the left field line. We were playing on our home field at Schaeffer Elementary school and the outfield has no fence. George gave it a ride and came in to third base standing. Bob Beitzel, our coach held him at third. Now it was my turn to bat. Bob has me batting clean-up tonight and I hope I don't disappoint him. Bob looked at me and pointed to the outfield. Yeah right, I thought to myself. Well, Donnie put one right down the middle. A fastball, and he can really bring it. I was swinging at the first pitch no matter where it was. I knew from last year that he liked to get ahead in the count and was going to put the first pitch over the plate. Made great contact and drove it well over the centerfielder's head. We had won and advanced to the Semi-Finals of the tournament. One of my biggest thrills in baseball as I reached first base and saw everyone running towards me to jump on me. My only disappointment .......... I only had 1 homerun all season and this surely would have been another. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.