Price Clan on the Diamond...Priceless

It all started 55 years ago.

 A 10-year-old boy donned a baseball uniform and nervously walked to his position on the field. Stenciled across his jersey were the words: Pima Sheriffs, the sponsor of one of the many teams that summer which participated in the mid-town Randolph Park Little League.

And so it began on that hot summer day in Tucson, the start of the Price family's obsession with baseball. Of course that boy was yours truly, all glove and no hit Danny Price. That's right. I could catch everything, but putting wood on the ball as a 10 year old just wasn't my thing. I couldn't hit my way out of a paper bag. I remember batting eighth, walking a lot, stealing bases, and sliding, of course.

Oh yea. I loved to slide. Feet first, head first, hook slide, you name it. But hit, no way. That would come a few years later. Now fast forward from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, and you would find my two sons, Michael and Daniel, sending walls of dirt to the outfield as they ran and slid their way around the bases on a Little League team, on a beautiful, balmy summer day on the outskirts of Denver, Colorado.

They hit better than the old man. And they could field and throw with the best of them. Then came the year 2000 and my oldest grandson, Daniel, pitched and hit his way to stardom on his Colorado Little League team in a small, quiet town called Parachute, just 25 miles east of Grand Junction.

Daniel, now 18, had to give up the game this spring after being hit in the head during a high school game. He finished the season as the team manager and hopes to return to the playing field next year.

The doctors will more than likely make that call. It was a scary moment for the Price family. And now, let's fast forward to June, 2010.

It is another hot, summer day in Tucson. Another day for Little League teams to hit the playing field. And yet, another member of the Price clan suits up and takes the field. This time it is grandson Jadon Price -- pitcher, shortstop and center fielder for the Thornydale Little League Orioles.

Grandpa is now on the sidelines, pushing 65 years of age, and his son, my goodness, will hit the age of 46 in late November, and is the assistant coach of the playoff-bound Orioles. Jadon is batting .426 and is a sure bet to make the All Stars, which will extend his sixth season in organized baseball into July.

It is a sure bet that in the year 2025 a few more ball players from the Price clan will hit the field. And it is a sure bet that they'll all hit better than than their Great Grandpa Dan.