Eric C. Gray

Andy Berger’s story is about going to his first game with his Cub Scout troop. His story was also the inspiration for the book.  At a game one day, I asked my wife Lynn, daughter Rachel, and friend Cheryl, about their favorite games.  I then went and made a list of my six or so favorites, no stories, just a list, and emailed a request to about thirty friends.  I included Andy,  primarily to bust his chops, knowing that he liked baseball LESS than anyone I knew.  He sent me his story.  Now, to be honest, there is more to his story than what is in the book, but Andy is a private person and I wouldn’t tell all of it, because I don’t imagine he would want me to do so.  BUT, because of what I knew,  his story moved me so much that I immediately knew what I had to do, which was to write this book.  I subsequently received similar stories that are far more emotional than this one, but as I said, I knew more and this was the first, the catalyst for this project.

A couple of years later, Andy came over to my home to watch a game on television.  It was great for me…I had the chance to listen to myself talk baseball for three solid hours; Andy left with a splitting headache, saying he had no idea that the game was so complicated and wanting to know if I could be a scout.  Andy subsequently went to a San Jose Giants Single A game with me, and then graduated to a San Francisco Giants game.  I know it is the last game he went to, and I am quite certain he has never turned on the television to watch one…but he sure gave me a project that changed my life, probably far more than I changed his.