Ryno

That's Ryne Sandberg in his Spartanburg Phillies uniform in 1979. The honorable Mr. Sandberg just happens to be the greatest second baseman to ever play the game of baseball - for those of you who were wondering. It's a bad image of what appears to be an old newspaper photo and I know you're not going to complain about it because it took me several months to find it.

Ryno was my favorite baseball player as I was growing up. Wanting to be just like him, I played second base and wore his number 23 on every jersey I played in. Eventually I realized I would not be a Hall of Famer like him because apparently you have to actually be good to play past little league and I, sadly, was not.

Sandberg was signed with Philadelphia and played single A ball here in lovely Spartanburg for a year before moving on and eventually ending up with the Chicago Cubs. But when he was a mere ten minutes from my house I was only seven and had no idea who he was. So instead of telling a riveting story about how he and I played catch after a game in the Beacon parking lot, I have to settle for sharing that blurry and pixelated photo.

Sorry this has nothing to do with art. Just consider this your liberal arts education for the week.