Extra Innings

Extra Innings. My sister Rita recently posted a  picture of Tom and her at a Phillies game and along with that marathon 18 inning World Series game last night I was reminded once again how much I miss him. He would have watched that entire game.

It also reminded me of another Tom baseball story. Uncle Tom, our grandmother’s brother Tom Keegan, lived around the corner from us when we were growing up and he would take me and Tom to afternoon Phillies games. We did this with him for a few years when we were kids before we started going to games on our own during our high school years. Me and Tom would walk around the corner to the Seymour Street house where Uncle Tom lived with his wife Aunt Pauline and his sisters Aunt Mary and Aunt Frances. Aunt Mary would usually pack us a sandwich and a piece of fruit although we always wanted a ballpark hot dog. We would walk down the street to Germantown Avenue and catch the 23 trolley to Lehigh Avenue and then over to Connie Mack Stadium. We would often sit in the outfield bleachers which was fine especially if Stan Musial or Willie Mays were playing. Tom would obsessively keep score. After the game we would get off the trolley but instead of walking back down Seymour Street Uncle Tom would take us over to Gallagher’s taproom. He would sit us at the bar with a couple of sodas while he had a couple more beers and we played the jukebox. We were coached by Uncle Tom to come home and say “extra innings” to the Aunts when asked how the game went. (Of course they knew where we were that last hour) Years later Tom and I would often refer to staying out too late or having too much to drink as “extra innings”. 

Tom was somewhere last night enjoying all those extra innings.