Can we go back to Bob Skinner for a minute? He was the manager of the Phillies during that magical moment when my awareness of baseball morphed from indifference of an incomprehensible adult ritual to a quasi-religious fervor. I was 10. To this day, I had no idea that Skinner was once a player or that he managed the Phillies to 31 games under .500 in two seasons. I only knew that he was the manager of My First Tean and every game, win or lose, was a celebration of the perfection of baseball. The only sin was not running hard on a routine ground ball.
No doubt I am over-romanticizing things ā looking back on the past can be like looking through the wrong end of a telescope and believing it represents some kind of clarity. While I was of course sad to hear of Bob Skinner's passing, it also brought back some treasured memories and smiles. RIP.
