my favorite baseball guy

Warren freaking Spahn -- from back when I was a kid. 


Wish I still had my old baseball cards. I would sit on the porch in lost summers, shuffling through those rectangular wonders, for hours. The uniforms, the poses, the statistics on the backs of the cards. The suggestion of unknown cities, great feats -- all kinds of vague stuff.

And going to Howard's Newsstand once a week to buy three or four packs of cards! Opening them slowly with held breath. If you got a card you didn't have -- especially one you really wanted -- the moment was like a religious experience, the very air taking on a soft glow and your toes going numb.