My first ball glove...a Lew Burdette Model

When I was a young lad about all I wanted to do was play baseball. I couldn't imagine that there was anything that could be more gratifying than playing baseball for a living and that was my dream. The only problem with a dream like this... my talent level lagged sorely behind my dreams. Unfortunately, my Field of Dreams turned into an office and a computer and a life of being just an old engineer. I fancy that some day, like the old ballplayers walking into the corn, I'll just fade off into a maze of cubicles.

I will have to admit that this old engineer has been very lucky over the years to have made so many friends in the academic world, in industry, in the military and with other government agencies. My travels have filled numerous chapters of a life that, in retrospect, was pretty darn good, even though I didn't wind up playing Major League Baseball.

Occasionally, something I see, hear or read will now trigger a memory of a long ago business trip or of some specific friend from out of the past. Recently, I saw an advertisement for a company that I had some business with back in the early 90's and recalled some trips that I had taken to Raleigh, North Carolina.

During this time, I was working on some problems with a couple of decoy cartridges and my boss was another old West Point grad, Bill Chancellor. He was a great guy to work for and I really hated to see him leave Crane. Bill had a couple of decoys that were experiencing some high failure rates and he offered me the opportunity to troubleshoot the problems, redesign the necessary subcomponents and to validate the changes. It was a fun and challenging job that kept me quite busy and on the road for a good period of time. As a result of some of my troubleshooting, I became involved with some very interesting people at the Research Triangle Park outside of Raleigh.

RTP is an exciting place where daily interaction occurs between the government, industry and academia. In the worlds in which we live and work in, it is an odd occurrence when you can witness true collaborative efforts conducted as partners by educators, researchers, and businessmen. My time at RTP was a rich and rewarding experience that provided me access to some of the most intelligent and hard working people I have ever known.

During one of my trips to RTP, I called an old friend from my Army days, who was at that time, teaching at the University of North Carolina. We agreed on a mutually available time to meet for dinner and he instructed me to meet him in front of the Frank Porter Graham Student Union. Unfortunately, a family problem caused him to postpone our dinner engagement until a couple of days later, so I took the opportunity to walk through the Union. It was a magnificent facility and from what I have heard they have expanded it since I last saw it. I was surprised when I stopped and read the plaque honoring the person for whom this building was named.

Frank Porter Graham was a former President of UNC and for a short period of time a United States Senator from North Carolina. That's a fairly impressive resume but I had never heard of the man until I visited the campus. However, along about that time, I had become acquainted with the legend of his brother. His brother was a family doctor for about 50 years in the town of Chisholm, Minnesota. In his younger years he was a baseball player and even got called up by John McGraw to play for the New York Giants. He played 1 ½ innings in the Major Leagues but never got the chance to bat. That is until he found his Field of Dreams.

The author, W.P. Kinsella, wrote about Archibald Wright Graham in his 1982 novel, 'Shoeless Joe'. A few years later, this book was made into the movie, 'Field of Dreams' and Burt Lancaster played the role of Dr. Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham.

"Well, you know I... I never got to bat in the major leagues. I would have liked to have had that chance. Just once. To stare down a big league pitcher. To stare him down, and just as he goes into his windup, wink. Make him think you know something he doesn't. That's what I wish for. Chance to squint at a sky so blue that it hurts your eyes just to look at it. To feel the tingling in your arm as you connect with the ball. To run the bases - stretch a double into a triple, and flop face-first into third, wrap your arms around the bag. That's my wish, Ray Kinsella. That's my wish. And is there enough magic out there in the moonlight to make this dream come true?" - Dr. Archibald 'Moonlight' Graham, Field of Dreams.