Oyd to Youth

	The field has features that can be found in today's new stadiums.  In the back yard of a
friends house was home plate. The fence surrounded the yard with many obstacles.  The backstop was
an old wooden fence that was not always complete.  When a ball be it wiffle or baseball
was tossed outside of the strike zone the fence sometimes was unable to complete the job of
keeping the ball in the yard.  Missing boards would often cause interruptions in play.  
The youths would have to scurry around the back and tiptoe through rubbish, consisting of bushes, 
trees, and sometimes the infamous pricker pushes.  
	First base was a mere area in a line of hedges.  If you were anywhere in the area you
 were considered safe.
	Second base was in the middle of the yard directly behind the pitchers mound.
	The pitchers mound consisted of an actual rubber piece of a pitchers mound.
	Third base was a board to on the left side of the field circumvented by a board on each
side having been removed due to weather, rot, or more than likely rough child�s play.
	The outfielf. Today's parks contain things like swimming pools and big gloves
(Bank One Ballbark in Arizona).  This outfield of dreams had a swimming pool in the power alley in deep
right center.  A pricker bush with a sinkhole was in dead center gives tradition of the infamous
Wrigley Field Ivey. The left field wall consisted of the wooden fence that encompassed the backstop
and third base.  To hit the ball out in a game meant a long stoppage in play as the youths
were forced to retrieve the ball from the neighboring alleyway.  
	In the right field, in the outfield of dreams, the quintessential single greatest
spectacle in all of baseball�the Plywood Monster (Fenway's Green Monster in Boston) stood.
 Your typical wood shed in represented the
wall in right field.  If the ball was hit off the right field wall there is a good chance that
batter would be limited to only a single.  
	The field was not free of modern advertising as one would think.  A 1978 Chrevrolet
Station Wagon stood preceding the plywood monster.  A hit into the automobile would result
in a ground rule double.  The dimensions of the outfield (as compared by today�s standards) :
		Right field down the line : 320
		Left field down the line  : 300
		Left Center               : 375
		Center field              : 375
		Centerfield (ivy prickers): 410
		Right Center (pool shoot) : 460
		Right (plywood monster)   : 320
                  House behind the pool     : 520
(Note: Splash homeruns into the pool only counted for one run)
          Shot into the ivy resulted in a ground rule double.
          Only one shot was hit to dead center field that hit the Jeep in 
the driveway estimated at 575.

Notable icons who pitched: Jack Fu Man Chu McDowell, Roger  �the rocket� Clemens, 
Gregg Olson �with the infamous Bender�  Gregg Maddux.
	Icon hitters: Barry �us� Bonds, Mark McGwire, Kevin Mitchell, Jose Canseco, 
Jerome �juice� Walton, Ken Griffey Jr, Andre �the Hawk/Skweakie Knees� Dawson.