Bench Number Five ~ The Earth is a Baseball

These are some notes I wrote about creating a Johnny Bench painting:
 
The earth is a baseball
with Riverfront on top.
A cup in a sea of sky
…or a compass.
And there
At homeplate
Bench sits
Like a north star
Listening for the pitch
with an eye on all four corners
of the globe.
 
Then I made it:
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    Baseball is a favorite sport of mine because unlike other ball games I can think of whose goal is to run to one opposing side or the other, baseball’s aim is come full circle.

    I remember seeing Johnny Bench get inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame. - - It was in the summer of 1989 when I was still a student and had moved back to my Mom & Dad's home after a traumatic experience away at college; and I decided to join my parents for the trip.

    My Mom & Dad, who always traveled together following all they loved, wouldn't have missed the historic baseball day for the world as their lifelong loyalty to the hometown team could not be beat.

    I keep and treasure great memories of that drive to Cooperstown and miss all my travels with my parents who have been watching over us and our dreams from heaven for nearly two decades now. - -  In my heart, this painting is dedicated to them.


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* A New Piece Coming Next:  My Wire to Wire Summer of 1990.  

** More blogging about the historic *Riverfront Stadium*

*** Find some of my baseball art for sale at The Cincinnati Reds Hall of Fame & Museum ( as well as in my Etsy shop. )

**** For more *Big Red Machine* blogs see my old "Colorful Success" and “Pieces in The National Bobblehead Hall of Fame and Museum”

…as well as "The Timeless Charlie Hustle & The Geometry of a Rose" which I created a year ago in March of 2017.

***** Blog links: "My Wire-to-Wire Summer with Twelve Stars and A Piece of American History"
and  "Hope Springs Eternal" and "Paint It Black"
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   A picture of me during the height of the back-to-back World Series Champion “Big Red Machine” years  ( …intent upon climbing Cincinnati's King's Island amusement park's Eiffel Tower. )
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