Playing Catch

This picture was taken at the home at 718 Flora St. in the backyard.  Grant would have been 10 years old at the time because the coaches had started teaching him to be a catcher.  He would practice every night after dad would get home from work.  Interestingly though, they never had him play catcher.  After practicing for it the coach had him pitch.  That was not a pretty sight because he pitched his first game at the age of 10 against those Chino boys and they knocked him around pretty good.  That year his team came in last place.  Dad took over the coaching after that and for the next two years the team came in second place behind John Denney's team.  Side note - John Denney went on to become a major league pitcher in baseball and one year won the Sy Young award.

The other story to tell in this picture is the sheet of board nailed onto the house.  Dad would nail plywood onto the house to give Grant something to throw at.  If he threw at the house it started to break the siding so this way they just had to replace the plywood ever so often.  Grant spent hours throwing the baseball and became a very good pitcher.