"You spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time." --Jim Bouton
"I started off as a very very bad baseball player at about seven years old. I could barely throw, I could barely run. I could not make the worst team in the league, but I thought I was great.
We were playing in a little league park in the middle of the day, and I actually hit a home run, and it dawned on me I had gotten better. I became mesmerized by it, maybe because I wasn’t any good at it at first." |
Mark’s love of the game started as a kid on the West Side of Dayton, when he and his friends would spend their summers playing baseball from early morning until dark, pausing only for ‘a sandwich and a Coke’.
Mark continued to play and improve into adulthood, ultimately receiving an offer to try-out for the Phillies in the mid-1970s.
He went on to pitch at Reds Dream Week 1986; played FB and _____ in seven Men's Senior Baseball League Championship Tournaments 1990--2015, (five times taking the team to the Win and "The Ring"). He was named MVP three times (199__, 199__ and 199__.)
A turbulent return flight from the 20_____ Arizona MSBL tournament provided the inspiration for his novel Last at Bat.
He is a life-long Reds fan; continues batting practice on a regular basis, and co-hosts the Ohio Baseball Weekly show on Monday nights during the season on ultimatesportstalk.com.
Mark continued to play and improve into adulthood, ultimately receiving an offer to try-out for the Phillies in the mid-1970s.
He went on to pitch at Reds Dream Week 1986; played FB and _____ in seven Men's Senior Baseball League Championship Tournaments 1990--2015, (five times taking the team to the Win and "The Ring"). He was named MVP three times (199__, 199__ and 199__.)
A turbulent return flight from the 20_____ Arizona MSBL tournament provided the inspiration for his novel Last at Bat.
He is a life-long Reds fan; continues batting practice on a regular basis, and co-hosts the Ohio Baseball Weekly show on Monday nights during the season on ultimatesportstalk.com.