It is that time of the month when we highlight a project I am working on and this week it is a
photo book for my son – a book featuring pictures of most of the baseball teams he played for from the
time he started t-ball to his last college team that competed in the first round of the College World Series.
I am careful to say most because I know I don’t have pictures of all the teams or even of him in the the
uniform of all the teams he played for. I do have a collection of hats, that some would consider
impressive.
No, he never got to play professional baseball but he did play a lot, I know there were a couple of
summers he logged over 100 games and with the length of the Manitoba summer that means at least a
game a day.
My son who is early in his 4th decade is the beginning of the generation that will easily the most
photographed in the history of the world. It will most likely be the generation that has the least photos as
well because while they record everything on their phone they do nothing to save the pictures. I plead
guilty to having taken several thousand pictures and having only printed a few when it was necessary.
I fear that his generation is going to grow old and have nothing to show their children or
grandchildren from the time they were young. To put that in perspective How important is that picture of
your grandfather? For me I have one picture of each of my grandfathers and the one of my maternal
grandfather has him surrounded by folds of white silk looking very stiff. Yes they took pictures of people
in the their coffins at that time.
So I think it important that I engage in this project not for my son, he does not really care (though
he might someday) but for his children or grandchildren, So I am going to put together a book of pics of
baseball as he played it. It was a very important part of his life, there will be some stories and some
mention of the fellows he played with and the coaches he had. It is not a history of baseball but a
collection of memories and those will only grow in value.
We have pictures because someone took the time to take them a generation or two ago, and it
seems to me it will be a generation or two from now very quickly.
