The Story
I love baseball. I love the Boston Red Sox. And, I love my family!
In 1989, when my daughters were young, my wife and I went to the movie theater and saw Field of Dreams, a wonderful movie about a man who loved baseball, who loved his family and who built a baseball park in his cornfield.
Three weeks, after I saw that movie, I was in my car driving down the road and I had a dream. I imagined building a baseball park in my basement.
It wasn’t going to be any baseball park. It was going to be a lot like Fenway Park, where the Red Sox play baseball. But I also thought I could invent a game in the baseball park. I wanted the game to be fun. I wanted the game to be exciting. I decided that I would call the game Funway BallTM and the baseball park, Funway Park!
The following weekend, I went down into my basement, found a big wooden board and smaller boards too. I started to build Funway Park. I bought some glue and some green paint.
I thought about the rules and how to hit the ball. Where could I find a little baseball bat? I thought about who the players would be. I wondered about how the players would make outs, hits and walks.
In the local toy store, I found little plastic baseball players and little toy cars. I found little plastic balls. I still wondered how I was going to hit the ball. I thought that maybe I should try to find those little baseball bats.
But then I thought that I could hit the ball by flicking it with my finger. I wondered, “What could I flick the balls into?” Soon after that, I saw fishnets in the fish store. I bought a bunch of them.
I wondered, “What could I put the balls on so I could I flick them?” I had an idea! I went to my golf bag and got a bunch of golf tees.
I built Funway Park. I put the fishnets in the park. I put up five golf tees. When I was ready, I placed one of the balls on top of one of the tees. I flicked the ball with my finger and the ball went into a fishnet!
At that moment, I knew what a hit would be. Different fishnets became different hits – singles, doubles, triples and home runs. The home runs were the biggest and the longest hits!
In Funway Park, I put down grass and bases and foul poles. At the toyshop, I found more little cars, little people and park benches.
One day, I walked into the hobby shop and found little baseball players – two teams, one red and one blue!
I wrote up rules for outs and errors and hits. Little boys and girls and even grownups now had rules to play Funway BallTM in Funway Park.
Funway BallTM can now be played in other parks as well, in Elysian Fields, in Metropolitan Grounds, Rozy Yards, in Aduro Stadium and in Partnership Park!
Funway BallTM in a fun game. It’s exciting, it’s special and it’s my dream come true.
I created a baseball game in a baseball park I built in my basement. I did it because I love baseball. I did it because I love my family.