Our vacant lot

Our vacant lot ball field was located at the corner of Clark and Highland Boulevard. We didn't know or care who the lot belonged to when we erected a small backstop to keep the pitched ball off the busy Highland Blvd. We did know that if a fouled ball headed over the fence in right field, we might as well kiss that ball goodbye. The bulldog in that yard liked to watch us play ball mostly because he liked to chase balls and not give them back. We even tried bits of dog food to lure the ball from Buster's jowls. Didn't work.

(I know: Buster sounds like The Beast from the movie Sandlot. Believe me, that movie was a case of art imitating life!)

To solve the problem of the missing ball, we often rode our bikes down to the San Antonio Missions Baseball Park. Michael said it was the best place in all the world to find baseballs. He was the oldest among us, so we welcomed his wisdom. He was right!

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