When Tim was a tiny little boy, a *baby* even, I bought Tim a 24 inch baseball bat.  It looks like it is a wood bat, but it is foam with a hard core of some sort.  It has been a big part of Tim’s life for most of his life.

He used it when I taught him how to hit off of a tee:

He used it when he was so short the grass clippings at the park were knee high:

He used it when he was 2 years old, didn’t hold the bat properly (hands switched), but retired his tee and demanded pitched balls after seeing that my softball team didn’t use a tee:

He used it when I first tied a ball-on-a-string to the swing set:

He used it on vacation at the beach with his cousins:

He used it on road trips (shown here in Boston)…

…and he used it at the ballpark (shown here at FirstEnergy Stadium (Reading Phillies)).

He called it his “white bat,” and he used it everywhere and anytime.  He learned to hit a baseball with that wonderful little “white bat.”

But a couple weeks ago, he broke it.

Here he is posing with his most trusted piece of lumber for the final time:

From a baseball point of view, it was one of the best investments I’ve ever made.  Tim’s white bat will be missed…as it hangs in its new resting place on the wall of my home office.

And so starts a new era:  the SECOND white bat era.  Hopefully it will be just as great as the original.

As we enter this new era, we also enter the final stages of the baseball season.  Only four weeks to go, and four more games for me and Tim.  Next up, the Orioles at Yankee Stadium this Saturday, September 12th.