Sam’s Blog

Athletic BIO:

Well, as far back as I can remember I’ve been involved in some sort of athletics.  My first experience in playing organized ball was when I was about 8 years old.  I played for a Little League team in Sharpsburg, PA.  Afterwards I moved to East Liberty where I continued to play Little League ball out of the Shady Side Boys Club at Mellon Field.  In the interim the neighborhood boys and I built a ball field on the old Stanton Heights Golf Course.  When not playing organized ball, we would get together on this field and play other neighborhood teams; Garfield, Morningside, Larimer etc.  I graduated from Roger’s School in 1962 and tried out that summer for Peabody High School’s Baseball Team, coached by my baseball mentor, Mr. Norman Frey, a fellow who just passed recently.  I made the cut and started playing center field as a freshman at Peabody in the spring of 1963. During that time I also played football, volleyball, basketball, and swam for Peabody.

Following High School I joined the Army and shipped out to Germany, where I was introduced to playing fast pitch softball and successfully managed to start for the Wurzburg Barracks Softball Team for 2 years.  The team went on to win the USARA Championship those two years.  Returning home from Europe, I was recruited by E.L. Wigand Co to play ball for their team in the USSSA Softball League and the East End Hawks in the Greater Pittsburgh League.  The East End Hawks became so successful locally that the team qualified several years in a row for the World Championships in Oklahoma, New York, Florida, and Long Island. 

After a few more years I was raising a family: one boy, Sammy, and two girls, Lisa Marie and Christine Ann. I needed to attend to their needs because they where all involved in some type of sports; baseball, softball and volleyball among them. I quit playing for the Wigands and shared my childrens’ athletic experiences and helped coach their teams.  Our team, the East End Hawks, moved to Class A, one level below Pro, and competed with teams that some of you may remember.  They included Jim’s Sport Shop, who represented Pittsburgh the Pro League Eastern Region, Hunts Tavern, from Etna, always a great rival, and BYMC from Brooklyn, and more. 

At this point I’m at the age of 32.  Traveling out of state was becoming more and more difficult for the family and in the last 5 years our team recruited younger and very talented ball players.  I could see that their contribution to the team enhanced the team’s competitiveness.  I always said that when I knew the time was right I would “hang them up,” a term for when a ball player has decided that his or her time has come to quit playing.  With all this new talent and me coming to terms that I was a 32 year-old shortstop who just wasn’t moving as well as they did anymore, I hung them up at the age of 33.

And this leads me into my cycling bio, and my next post.

Personal BIO:

I want to start by sharing that this is my first blog.  My reason for investing in this medium is to hopefully influence or at least give some hope to those of you who are my age of 60 yrs.  I want to reach out to those readers who are 50 to 70 years of age.

So, I’m a male- 60 years old, born in Pittsburgh, PA in 1948.  I’m in reasonably good health but have experienced some setbacks with surgery throughout my life: knee, lower back (twice), kidney, appendix, stomach, shoulder, lithotripsy for kidney stones and cranial nerve… and I’m sure I forgot something.  I have always been involved in some form of athletics, and I believe that being athletic is the reason I have been able to recover physically form the aforementioned setbacks (which in no way insinuates that my physical achievements to date cannot be met through committing oneself to becoming a more active senior person.)

This leads me into my athletic bio, and my next post.