This happened:

Not long ago, I was seated at dinner across from a college-aged pitcher. Making small talk’s not my thing, but I gave it a go. I asked him what he was studying. “History,” he said, between bites of food. “Interesting! What era of history is your specialty?” Maybe I was the first to ever ask him that. When you’re a pitcher, people are probably more interested in your fastball than in your class schedule. He thought for a moment and finally he said, “I like studying war.”

Welp.

I told him that I liked history, too, and that I often wrote about baseball history.

His eyes briefly grew big. And then he said, “Wow. I didn’t know you could do that.”

Then he went back to his dinner and that was the end of that.

I’m pretty sure he didn’t realize baseball even had a history worth knowing.

But it is worth knowing. Baseball’s long history provides a unique reflection of who we are as a nation, as a culture, as a society.

And, there’s plenty of baseball history right here in Virginia.

Join me, The Baseball Bloggess, on Monday, September 30 at the Orange County Historical Society in downtown Orange, Virginia. I’ll be talking about – what else? – baseball history …

160 Games: The Lost Ballplayers of Orange

I could talk about Babe Ruth all day … but you’ve heard plenty about him already.

Hi.

Instead, on September 30, I’ll be talking about some of the Babe’s contemporaries – three big leaguers from the ’teens and ’twenties, each with a unique tie to Orange.

Here.

The players — Marvin Goodwin, Douglas Neff, and Jim Sullivan — are part of my ongoing Virginia-Born Project … visiting the birthplace of every Virginia-born big leaguer.

Their stories might not be as big as the Babe’s, their careers not as storied … but I’m convinced every ballplayer has an interesting tale to tell.

And, does one of them have a tie to the long-long-long ago Baltimore Orioles?

Why, yes, one of them certainly does. 😊

The event is free and there will be snacks. Snacks!

(I should have led with the snacks, eh?)

C’mon … we’ll have fun!

Monday, September 30, 2019  

7:00 p.m. Social Time & Light Refreshments  |   7:30 p.m. Program Begins

Wear your favorite team’s ball cap!

Orange County Historical Society

130 Caroline Street, Orange, Virginia

(Parking is available on Caroline Street, Brookings Street, or in spots by the nearby James Madison Museum and St. Thomas Church. Do not park behind the old James Madison Inn.)

I hope to see you. (And, if you don’t see me much on here in the next few weeks, you’ll know I’m nose-deep in some very old and very interesting box scores.)