My mom’s father, my grandfather, in his North Carolina accent, used to ask me nearly every time I saw him.
“You still hittin’ that ball?!?!”
He knew my brother took extensive time to groom me in the game of baseball as soon as I could walk. So he recognized early on that my passion for the game only grew with time. So when he passed away during the offseason nearing midnight into Dec. 23, 1997, it was tough. I could no longer answer his question with a baseball career update.
He passed away in the same hospital where the legendary Negro League player, Buck Leonard, would pass away less than a month sooner.