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

I never heard a thrown ball make that sound before. The ball seemed to accelerate as it came close; an accelerating, impossibly fast pitch that made the noises of hornets and snakes.

At carefree times in early boyhood I chose to believe that life was a kind of ball game, but with a mix of years and perception I learned better.

The world is never again as it was before anyone you love has ever died; never so innocent, never so fixed, never so gentle, never so pliant to your will. But these are afterthoughts. Generations vie and the young recover swiftly, or believe they do.