Hank Blalock and my little All-Star

In an earlier post written to describe the number 9, I made a passing reference to Hank Blalock, a baseball player who wore #9 for the Texas Rangers. I promised to tell the story of Blalock and his importance to me, and haven’t gotten around to that since. But since I wound up at number

Has it really been eight years?

I remember the weekend before it happened. I was in Albuquerque with my family for the annual balloon festival. I had been there before, but it was different that time. The Cubs had advanced in the playoffs, and I could taste the World Series. It seemed inevitable. A couple of games in the Marlins series