The year was 1979. After my first season as a professional baseball player in the Detroit organization, in 1978, I went to spring training in Lakeland, Fla. in ’79 hoping to move up the ladder to the organization’s advanced Class-A club in the Florida State League. That team was the Lakeland Tigers, so making the leap would at least mean I was “already there” once spring training ended. I had a number of buddies from ’78 there with me, including Roy Dixon and Dan O’Connor who had spent the previous summer with me in Paintsville, Ky., playing for those pesky Paintsville Hilanders.

I did make the Lakeland team, but as you’ll read in “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” it didn’t go as well as I’d hoped and planned. For some reason, I was paid real money to play baseball but I rarely got to play. I had six entire at-bats in about 10 weeks. But, I was there with some terrific teammates who were on their way to the Major Leagues and who were really great guys. The best player on that team was probably Howard Johnson, and we got along great, but the best guy was Howie Bailey, a lefty pitcher who would make it to Detroit a few years later.

Howie and I hit it off right away, and he helped keep me sane while I scratched my head trying to figure out why I was relegated to the bench night after night. We kept each other entertained and motivated, and every now and then we’d head out on an off-night to have a beer or two at a local establishment. We became good friends.

The last time I saw Howie was the summer of 1982, when I was scouting for the Toronto Blue Jays and he was in Triple-A for the Tigers, at Evansville in the American Association. I had summer coverage of that league and Howie and his roomies were gracious enough to have me over to their apartment for lunch one day. Then we lost track of each other.

Today, 35 years later, we reconnected. The internet is a marvelous thing.

I know this is a horrible photo, taken with an old Polaroid in ’79, but the print itself is actually much worse than this. I did all I could to lighten it up and make it presentable, but it’s still pretty lousy. This is Howie and me on the field at Marchant Stadium in Lakeland before a game. He clearly wasn’t as eager to get into his uniform as I was.

I was thinking about Howie lately because he’s in the book. Over the last few years, I had scanned the Web for any sign of him and always come up blank (other than baseball cards and stats) but today I Googled him again and saw his photo on a website for his company, called Buy Right. They are a packaging supply company in Grandville, Mich., which is not too far from where he grew up in Grand Haven.

I fired off an email to the main info address at Buy Right and heard back from my old teammate in mere minutes. Connection reestablished. Social media and the internet can be such a good thing.

After his career was over, according to the interwebs, he became an expert skeet shooter and was actually inducted into the Skeet Shooting Hall of Fame. So how ’bout that!

UPDATE: After trading emails and phone numbers, my phone just rang and the screen said “Howie Bailey.” The last 20 minutes have been 90% laughter. Great to talk to another ex-teammate. And, what a good dude.

Roy Dixon is a guy I’d also really like to reconnect with. Of all the guys I played with who I considered to be solidly good friends, and who shared my own skewed and screwy sense of humor, Roy was one of the best. He was a lanky outfield from North Carolina State, but I’ve never been able to find him on the Web. If anyone knows Roy Dixon, tell him I said hello.

As for “Bats, Balls, & Burnouts” we continue to move along toward having a full proof of the entire book within the next week or so. That will be a huge moment, to use my best understatement. Once I have that in my hands, I have three pages full of notes about corrections I want to make, so I’ll do that first. Then, I’ll start over again on the first page and read it straight through. Here’s hoping it’s actually coherent. Once we sign off on everything, it will be a matter of a few more weeks before it’s available for purchase, both in printed and digital versions. I think you can trust me to keep you updated on that as the days fly by. If I can remember. Something about a book, right? I wonder if it will be any good. Someone will have to tell me after it’s out.

And, since I’ve been making a habit of posting photos that were in the first huge pile of possible pics for the book but then didn’t make the cut, here’s another nostalgic one for you. I’m sure many of you remember Shasta the cat, my little buddy for 16 years, and if you do then you clearly remember Pond Cam and the hockey rink Neighbor Dave would carve into the pond every winter. This photo addresses all those topics at once. I miss that view, and I miss my little buddy, too. He was a great cat, and do you know where I got him when he was just six weeks old? He adopted me at the Humane Society shelter in Topeka, when I was the GM at Heartland Park in 1991, which was my first job in drag racing. He was “all ears” at that age. And a biter, too. But he “matured” into a wonderful companion.

As for my current feline buddies, they are both “back in bed” after having slept in until 11:00 a.m. At that point, they asked for treats as a reward for their slumbers before they both retreated to their favorite spots to charge those batteries again. Buster is on his cat condo in the master bedroom and Boofus is in his little hut by the fireplace. Tough life.

And now we have time for one more photo that didn’t quite make the cut. Spring training is in full swing right now, and for many years it was a requirement that John Fink and I would meet in Fort Myers after the Gainesville race, to see a Twins game at Hammond Stadium. I’m on a bit of a travel moratorium right now, saving money for when I’m going to really need it when the book is out and I’ll need to be jetting all over the country, and it hit me the other day that going to a Spring Training game in Florida isn’t really a bonus or an optional “take it or leave it” type of thing. It’s kind of necessary.

For me, as is clearly spelled out in the book, Spring Training was always a very special time, starting when I was a young kid and we traveled from St. Louis to St. Petersburg by train! Then, as I got a little older I graduated to spending a week there every year (with some school books and assignments) and I’d get to be a batboy for whatever clubs my dad was managing.

As an adult, after I finally had my chance to attend Spring Training as a player, it was always great to escape the winter and get down to Florida whenever I could. Those years with the Finkster reinforced that feeling a lot, and he and I always had a great day in the sunshine, rooting for the Twins.

We need to do this again, next year. Are ya listening Johnny?

And, how about the just completed World Baseball Classic? Every four years it gets a little better and a little more intense. This version was the best yet, and not because the USA finally won the the thing. The crowds were great, the play was fantastic, and the players were absolutely passionate. It’s not yet at the level of a World Cup or Olympics, but it’s getting there fast. Last night’s championship game, USA vs Puerto Rico, was played at Dodger Stadium in front of a bipartisan crowd that never stopped singing, cheering, and banging on drums. It was really special. And, yeah, it was cool to see the USA get the trophy.

I’ll wrap this up with a question I’ve gotten from at least two dozen readers in the last few weeks. They ask “When will you be back out at the races again?”

As you know, the answer to that question is tied to the actual progress of getting the book produced and published. So, looking at the NHRA Mello Yello schedule and estimating when we might have books to actually sell to people, I’d think Topeka would be not just a long-shot, but also a surprise. Everything would have to go exactly right for me to have books by then. But… Topeka is not a terrifically expensive race to attend, so that’s one I might just go to in order to do some pre-release publicity.

Then, you have Epping, Englishtown, and Bristol in June and those are some expensive races to travel to, so we’ll have to see. By that time, though, I should have the book available everywhere and we’ll be launching a PR blitz to get the word out. Time is ticking fast. It’ll be here sooner than you think. Gosh, I hope that’s true…

So, there we go. After 35 years I’ve reconnected with Howie Bailey. Roy Dixon, you’re next.

Bob Wilber, at your service with plenty of additional tales to tell.