BROOKLYN REGULARS AGAIN BEAT ROOKIES; Robbie Uses Six Pitchers in NineInning Game--RoseberryStars at Bat.

Special to The New York Times.

March 3, 1922, Friday

Section: Sports, Page 17, 413 words

My Grandfather was drafted to play for the Brooklyn Dodgers as a catcher. Pretty amazing for a small town boy (Boonton, NJ was VERY small in the early 1900's). They wanted him to have surgery for a trick knee before signing him though, and surgery back then on a knee wasn't such a good thing. He opted not to have the surgery and didn't get signed. The Roseberry above? His older brother John. My Grandfather came from a large Irish protestant family who was very talented in many ways. The brothers played ball REALLY well. The whole family was extremely talented when it came to music, they used to play quite a bit as a family. It's fun to see the genes trickle down. My cousin Sam got the freckles and music talent. My Uncle Art was full of malarkey, evidently quite a bit like his father. My Mom was very athletic for a girl.

Funny thing with genes is that sometimes talents skip a generation or two. I was starting to think that baseball wasn't going to by Dylan's thing. It just didn't move fast enough for him. They would put him in short stop because he has a great throw and he'd get bored waiting. And start to kick the dirt. And if the kid at bat really couldn't hit he'd even bend down to play with the dirt. Well, this year is machine pitch ball and Dylan asked if he could try catcher. Our coach is a pretty open kind of guy and said sure. Now, I think most of this had to do with all the cool catcher stuff. Giant mask, big glove, loads of pads. However, Dylan crouched down and did not flinch once as the balls came rocketing in at him. Thwack. Ball in his glove. Drop it, re-focus, thwack. Another ball. Dylan was in his grove and on the money. Mike said at the end of practice Dylan said "hey coach, let em rip". Coach fired 12 fast shots one after another and he caught 11 of them. catch-drop-refocus-catch-drop-refocus. It's the perfect position for Dylan - it's fast moving (even if the kids aren't hitting) and he doesn't fear the ball.

I told my Mom the story on one of my drives home from work and I could just see her smile through the phone. She said she thought her Dad would be smiling down on Dylan from heaven. I think so too.