By the time I was ten, playing baseball got to be like eating vegetables or taking out the garbage. So when I was fourteen I started refusing. Can you believe that? An American boy refusing to play catch with his father.

Why fourteeen?

That's when I read "The Boat Rocker", by Terence Mann.

Oh, God.

Never played catch with him again.

You see? That's the kind of crap people are always trying to lay on me. It's not my fault you wouldn't play catch with your father!