THE WIZARD

A good friend of mine from high school used to own a baseball card shop.

From him I received two life size cardboard standees or stand ups of baseball players Frank Thomas and Ozzie Smith. When we moved to AZ, our son inherited them.

Recently our youngest grandson turned 6. He had a spy birthday party where even the invitations followed the theme. They have a huge woods, thick with large trees, undergrowth, a creek, downed trees and branches. A thicket.

The two standees were placed deep in the woods where the boys played spies and hunted for them in one birthday party activity.

After the party, our son forgot to retrieve the baseball players who remained in the woods for a few days.

One day, a friend from their church was watching the kids while both parents worked. As they were playing outside, he thought to himself, "There's a Black guy in the woods staring at me."

Not to alarm the kids, he re-directed them to another part of the yard for play while he went to investigate. "Yup, he's still there. Just staring at me," he thought to himself.

Upon closer inspection, he said, again to himself, "It's Ozzie Smith looking at me!"

I know he got a good laugh out of it, and knowing Chuck, I'm sure he's re-told the story as only he could. And I hope he took The Wizard of Oz and Frank back to the basement where they belong.