Still Looking Up To Mike Scioscia

Jim Breen, Mike Scioscia, and Shaun Breen There comes a time when most of us realize we’re not going to make the Major Leagues. Some of us might try softball as a replacement, but we soon find out that it doesn’t match the excitement of baseball. So we return to the ‘home version’ that we grew up playing in our backyard — wiffleball.

Watching the MLB playoffs, I’m reminded of these childhood times, and wonder if that’s how my interest in wiffleball was formed. Back then, I looked up to players like Mike Scioscia (left), and although I’m a lot taller now, I look up to him even more.

In the years before I started school, I was lucky enough to travel to Vero Beach, Florida each winter with my parents and attended Dodgers spring training. I got to meet Steve Garvey, Tommy Lasorda, Mike Scioscia, and many other Dodgers.

I’ve mentioned before how former MLB pitcher Neil Allen struck me out playing beach wiffleball. While I never got to play wiffleball with the Dodgers, they posed for photos, signed autographs, and spent time talking with my parents and me. This really helped make an impression. I was hooked.

Although many of the Dodgers are no longer involved with baseball, Mike Scioscia is trying to manage the Los Angeles Angels to the American League pennant. And he’s done a heck of a job pulling his team together after the loss of pitcher Nick Adenhart. While I tend to root for the Minnesota Twins, I’m temporarily cheering for Mike Scioscia, Torii Hunter, and the Angels. It’s the best story of the postseason.

The Dodgers helped get me interested in baseball, and kept me a fan over the years. I’m convinced that getting involved with baseball and wiffleball at an early age goes a long way to keeping us baseball and wiffleball fans as adults.

Note: This photo was taken by a UPI photographer in February 1981 and was in newspapers all over the country. I’m pretty sure if Mike Scioscia saw this today, he’d still remember it.