My brother and I were new to the neighborhood, fresh off a move from San Diego, when we saw a group of kids who were our age playing Wiffle ball a few houses down.
A few rocks marked the bases. There was no fence to hit homers, but plenty of space to play across the multiple backyards.
That was my introduction to Minnesota at 7 years old.
A couple of decades later, baseball remains at the forefront of my life. After a decade away from the winters, and five-plus seasons covering the Reds for the Cincinnati Enquirer, I'm returning to Minnesota to cover the Twins for the Star Tribune and joining Phil Miller on the beat.
It was baseball that led me to some of my best friends over the years, including one who gladly let my brother and me join the neighborhood Wiffle ball game. My dad is a longtime baseball columnist for USA Today, so in some ways, baseball is the family business.
Through my dad, I always felt a close connection to the sport. I often heard him talking on the phone with Peter Gammons, someone I watched regularly on ESPN's "Baseball Tonight." Greg Anderson, Barry Bonds' infamous trainer, was actually the first person to show me how to lift weights. Almost all my spring breaks in college were trips to Arizona to visit my dad and watch spring training games for a week.
My first job in sports was an internship with a minor league baseball team in Peoria, Ill. Long hours, some late-night tarp pulls and a great introduction to professional baseball. The first time I walked into a bar was when Greg Maddux, then a Cubs consultant who visited their minor league teams, invited a few people to join him after a game one night (no ID is required when you walk in with a Hall of Famer).
Baseball has a funny way of bringing things full circle. When I was in the seventh grade, my mom entered me in a drawing to ask a question to a Twins player on the Fox Sports pregame show. I picked LaTroy Hawkins, who technically became the first pro athlete I ever interviewed. I asked him who he would invite to dinner if he could invite any three people (Fergie Jenkins was his first answer) and afterward he gave me my first tour of an MLB clubhouse.
