Every year my brother Jeff and I travel to Cooperstown to see our friends Jeff and Brad.

Peter Nash of the rap group "3rd Bass" (like me, a member of SABR) is an expert on early 20th century baseball and has recreated a turn-of-the-century bar in Boston ("Third Base") that currently resides in Boston. He produced a documentary that included my brother's song Tessie.

I am an avid 19th century baseball researcher, statistician and computer game designer. I am also an avid professional hockey, basketball and football researcher, statistician and computer game designer. I have been told that I have a photographic memory, but I can't remember who said it.

With Theo Epstein of the Boston Red Sox who always performs at (and supports) my brother Jeff's and Peter Gammons' Hot Stove Cool Music concert. Theo coordinates the Hot Stove Fenway Sessions for his Foundation To Be Named Later. Whenever I get a chance to talk to him we talk about our favorite bands: Pearl Jam, Neil Young or the Who.

With baseball expert and legend Peter Gammons.

With my brothers Jeff and James. My brother Joe is not pictured here.

High School Year Book Photo: My scoop-of-ice-cream-gone-bad haircut.

While I was enjoying my Little Friskies, my brother James had a run-in with the ever-invasive paparazzi.

In a rowboat at Flaherty's Pond in Green Harbor with my brother Jeff and cousin Ed Browne while my brother James goes in the drink. Our pet ducks Lenny and Ralph are in the background.

At my Shangri-La Brant Rock.

At my Mass UFO Show with Matt Moniz and Andrew Lake in 2008.

Meeting Ben Franklin (Bill Meikle) in 2005.

With the my brother Jeff at his farewell party at McGreevys in Boston, a bar/baseball museum owned by Peter Nash of the rap group "3rd Bass" and Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys. Jeff wrote the Royal Rooters song "Tessie" for the Dropkick Murphys and the Boston Red Sox.

With the 2004 Boston Red Sox World Series Trophy

With the 2007 Boston Red Sox World Series Trophy

With the Boston Celtics 17th N.B.A. Championship Trophy

With the Stanley Cup

May 3, 2008: We won our second game and remain undefeated. I went 2 for 3 with a sacrifice fly and 2 RBI.

(The Quest To Hit .900) July 12th, 2008: We are nearing the halfway point of the 2008 Westwood Over-30 Men's League and so far, we are off to a lousy start. We can't buy a break. We've had 20 different guys come in to play. It is a long season that runs from April through September. I wanted to step down as manager, but I was talked out of it. We'll see. As I type this, we are 2 games below .500 as a team. I'm leading the team (and the league I guess) in hitting at an .875 clip (21 for 24) with 10 RBI - and I've sat myself on the bench so that others could play! I get pissed when guys complain about not playing. Last year I hit .667 (20 for 30) and sat myself on the bench so that other guys could get in. Now that was a sacrifice! This year? It's all about the best players playing. I've decided to insert myself into the starting lineup and bat 3rd. I've had a string of 16 straight hits (16 for 16), so for 47 years old, I can still swing the bat really well. If I go 6 for 6 over the next 2 games, I'll be hitting .900 - which is my goal. If I do get to .900, I'll retire from organized softball (for good) after that game.

(The Quest To Hit .900) July 24th, 2008 - NEWS FLASH: The hitting streak is over!!! I singled in my first at bat last night to drive my consecutive hit streak to 17 (and raised my batting average to .888) before lining out to the right fielder in the 3rd. 17 straight hits in 17 at bats - hey, I'm real proud of that mark. Not bad for an old, blind, fat guy with two bum knees....Damn!! I came within .012 of hitting .900!!! After that out, my first since May 8th, I had a 2-run single in the 5th (which turned out to be the game winning RBI) before we were rained out. So my new streak is 1 straight hit and I am hitting a sizzling .852 (23 for 27) and - as a team - we are now 8 wins and 7 losses.

August 6th, 2008: I'm slumping and not feeling good at the plate. I've gone 2 for 4 over the last games and I'm now hitting .808 (25 for 31). We won a game and lost a game in that time, so we are now 9 and 8 going into tonight's game.

August 7th, 2008: We had a 6-1 lead going into the 5th and lost 10-9. Our record is 9 up and 9 down. I went 3 for 4 with 2 RBI and my batting average dropped. I'm now hitting at an even .800 clip (28 for 35)

August 10th, 2008: Our pitcher had a no-hitter going into the 5th inning and we cruised 14-3. I made my first error this year (I play first base) in the 5th inning, which turned into two unearned runs. I was 3 for 3, and moved my batting average up to .818 (31 for 38) when I had a meaningless at bat in the pouring rain in the top of the 7th and bounced out hard to first. I ended up 3 for 4 on the night (with 3 RBI and a sacrifice fly) and my batting average FELL to .795 (31 for 39). We won big as our record moved to 10 wins and 9 losses and tied us for third place.

August 11th, 2008: Batting 2nd in the lineup as the DH in another steady drizzle, I singled in the first inning to move my batting average back to an even .800 (32 for 40). I lined hard to the pitcher (and nearly took his head off) in my second at bat and then had a two-run single in the 6th. I've a feeling that I won't see .800 again this season as I went 2 for 3 with 2 runs and 2 RBI. I am now 33 for 42 as my average has dropped to .786, but hey, we shut the buggers out 8-0 and our record moved to two games above .500 (11 wins and 9 losses) for the first time this season. That win also gave us sole possession of third place.

August 13th, 2008: Suffering from food poisoning or a "flash flu", I was useless in a doubleheader. We blew out the first team 12-4 and then lost a heart-breaker 16-14 when our rightfielder dropped a game-ending, game-winning flyball that allowed the opposing team to escape with a lucky win. We finished as the third seed in the playoff (we draw the 6th seed) with a record of 12 wins and 10 losses. I was 1 for 4 during the doubleheader and swung like crap. I had three hard grounders to first and a two-run single. I finished the regular season at .739 (34 for 46) with 21 RBI. Despite two knees that are absolutely killing me, I had my best offensive season in 31 years of organized softball. I've finally learned to hit by only "swinging hard at strikes".

The Playoffs (Preliminary Round) - August 25th, 2008 - Game 1: We got smoked tonight. They overwhelmed us 14 to 2. They got 5 in the first and 6 in the second. The game was over before it began. We almost made as many errors as the Bush Administration. We only mustered 6 hits and made 8 errors. I played poorly. I went 1 for 3. I singled to center in the 2nd, bounced out to first in the 5th and lined to left in the 7th. The strange thing about hitting is that a streak can turn into a slump overnight, and I am in one, going 2 for 7 over the last 3 games. I've got nothing in my swing. The pop is gone. I was ripping the ball all year and now I'm swinging a noodle. Both of my knees are swollen and I can't drive the ball. I also dropped a throw to first. I have not done that since I was in Little League. It was dark, and subsequently there was a 30 minute delay while we waited for the lights to come on, but there was no excuse. We play next on August 27th. If we lose we are done for the year. If we win, we play September 2nd. This team that we played has jacked-up, tatooed guys that look like like they did hard time. They played us tough in the regular season, but we swept them 16-12, 7-5 and 4-3. We do get our superstar shortstop back tonight, but our team captain is still overseas.

August 27th, 2008 - Game 2 of the Preliminary Round of the Playoffs: We were the visiting team and tallied twice in the top half of the first inning. Their big firstbaseman hit a 3-run homerun in the home half of the first and then they got an unearned run in the second to take a 4-2 lead. In the top of the fourth we racked up 6 runs, added one in the 5th and cruised to a 9-5 victory to tie the series up. Our shortstop made a spectacular diving catch in the outfield to end the game. I found a new knee brace and it seemed to help. I made some nice stretches at first on some bang-bang groundouts. Offensively, I singled to right in the first, lined to right in the third, singled to right in the fourth and singled to right in the 7th to go 3 for 4 on the night. I had a courtesy runner inserted for me as I batted second behind our 5-tooler. I'm hitting only .571 in the playoffs (4 for 7) and our season stretches into September with Game 3 coming after the holiday on Monday.

September 2nd, 2008: If we won tonight, we get to play a double-header tomorrow to begin the semi-finals. Didn't happen. We got smoked. They had some jacked-up gorillas who CRUSHED the ball. We got smoked 19-9. I lined to right in the first and had an RBI single to left in the 4th. I finished 5 for 9 in the playoffs (.555). It was my best hitting season of my career. Now I need to get these cranky knees checked out. If you know any players that want to play ball with us next year, have them write to me at johnhorrigan@hotmail.com. No beginners please. I'll check back next year..........

I am an accomplished amateur astronomer who can identify dozens of naked-eye constellations, stars, meteor showers, messier objects, satellites, space stations, space shuttles, Hubble Space Telescope and planets. I have glimpsed over a dozen comets in my life and several solar and lunar eclipses. I have studied the history of apparitions of comets, eclipses and meteor showers through recorded time. A 30-year subscriber to Sky and Telescope Magazine, I began attending lectures at the Harvard Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in 1977 and I have been honored to meet Frank Drake, Jill Tarter, Frank Shoemaker, Paul Horowitz, David Levy, Carl Sagan and Geoff Marcy. I have travelled to Mount Wilson Observatory, Greenbank Radio Telescope in West Virginia and the Very Large Array radio telescopes in Socorro, New Mexico.

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