I just wanted to reach out to all of my baseball brothers and let you know that my treasured time with the Capital District Men's Senior Baseball League has come to an end. Age, and some recent health issues, have helped put some life priorities in perspective, and Cindi and I decided it was time to move closer to family in northern Vermont. We are closing on a new home in Colchester on Aug. 25 and things are going to be a bit crazy in the next six weeks. We have been in our home in Bennington for 47 years and with children (and five grandchildren) in northern Vermont and Canada, we will be within 30 minutes of both, as well as closer to the Montreal airport for a direct flight to Vancouver.

There is no way to describe in a few words what this league has meant to me and how many friendships have been built and nurtured over the 19 years I have played. I cherish them all and feel so grateful to have had the opportunity to suit up with -- and against -- all of you. Baseball is a game I have loved since the first day I played catch with my Dad.''

Jim Bouton, the ex-Major League pitcher and author of the controversial book ''Ball Four'' summed up my truest feelings for this game when he said, ''A ballplayer spends a good piece of his life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time.'' And thanks to Mike Hart, who recruited Bouton to pitch for the Peppers in a game at the Satellite Field several years ago, I can tell my great-grandchildren someday that I hit a grand slam off of a guy who won a World Series game for the New York Yankees.

I'm going to try and make a game or two before heading north, but if I don't see you, thanks for the memories, and all the fun we had making them.