No game is as verbal as baseball; baseball spreads twenty minutes of action across three hours of a day. - Roger Kahn

He bore the burden of a pioneer and the weight made him strong. If one can be certain of anything in baseball, it is that we shall not look upon his like again.

That morning began with wind and hairy clouds. It was late March and the day rose brisk and uncertain, with gusts suggesting January and flashes of sun promising June. In every way, a season of change had come.

In the intimacy of Ebbets Field it was a short trip from the grandstand to the fantasy you were in the game.