Margie Sabathia-Lanier, asleep in bed after working the graveyard shift as a phone operator at Travis Air Force Base, was awakened by a knock on the bedroom door.
“Are you awake?” asked her only child, C. C.
He was 16 years old, an age where patience — and the appreciation of uninterrupted sleep — has not often fully developed. He also had an important message for her.
“Mama, I’m going to make it to the major leagues,” C. C. said. “And when I do, I’ll never forget Vallejo.”
As she recounted that moment, Margie was sitting behind the first-base dugout at O.