I watched it in black and white at 11...in living color at 65

I was 11 years old, a wide-eyed young boy, who thought there was nothing better in life than to grab my glove, my bat and my ball, hop on my bike and head for the park. The only thing that came close was to sit in front of our black and white Zenith or Curtis Mathes television set (don't hold me to which came first in our family, I just can't remember) and watch the Game of the Week, or better yet, the World Series.

And now you know where I'm going with this.

There I sat, in 1956, not on the sofa, but on the floor, three feet away from the tube, as I watched the New York Yankees' Don Larsen hurl a perfect game against my favorite team, the Brooklyn Dodgers in the World Series. Fast forward 54 years and I just saw it again, yesterday afternoon, another no-hitter -- not a perfect game -- but the second no-hitter ever thrown in postseason play. This time, I saw it in living color, in HD, on my Vizio. Every pitch from the 7th inning on seemed to jump out right at me...and no, I was not three feet away this time, but maybe 20 feet away, sitting in my favorite chair with my feet dangling over the coffee table.

The Philadelphia Phillies' Roy Halladay was perfect in my book, despite one lone walk to the Cincinnati Reds' Jay Bruce --it was just downright perfection. It's close to impossible to throw a no-hitter in any league, much less two in the same season (as Halladay has done). The only thing harder that I can think of: it is hitting a baseball.

At 65 years of age, I'm still trying to hit that pea, that piece of cowhide...that little dart that's coming at you, which moves left or right...up or down at speeds up to 100 mph (well, in my league 55 to 60 at the most). I'm sure you old timers out there get my drift. Hitting a baseball has been and always will be the hardest thing to accomplish in sports. No matter what league you're in, if you fail two out of three times you step to the plate, you're an all star at 1 for 3....a hefty .333 batting average. Hats off to Mr. Halladay and to all those major league players that step to the plate every day and fail one out of three times. They make it look easy when they rip the ball up the middle for a hit.

Believe me...it is not that easy!