A childhood memory

I'm going to deviate from my regular blogging a second. 

Ever hear a song and get transported to another time or place?  Clint Black sings in "State of Mind":

Ain't it funny how a melody can bring back a memory
Take you to another place in time
Completely change your state of mind

I've had this happen to me a few times in my life, usually when driving north to go to deer camp.  My dad's dad used to bring me up north as a teenager and he'd listen to country music, which I grew to like.  Now when I'm going up there if I kick on country music I sometimes feel like I'm in my grandpa's F-150 heading to Baldwin.  Those experiences aren't the point of my writing today, just to say it's happened before.

The other day I was at work and had my iPad playing music quietly in the background.  "Centerfield" by John Fogerty started playing.  I was half listening until they got to the part where he says "I'm ready to play, today" - the couple of claps that happen between play and today instantly (and only momentarily) took me back to Tiger Stadium with my mom's dad. 

I vividly remember going with my maternal grandpa on bus trips to see the Tigers at Tiger Stadium.  They were retiree bus trips so with the exception of a few grandchildren it was mostly older people.  They may have been retirees from Rapistan, where he retired from but I'm not 100% sure.  I have stubs for 7 different dates from 1988-1991, although there may have been more games.  There are so many things about these trips that I remember, like Johnny Grubb hitting a home run off my seat when we were in the bathroom because my grandpa hated him and decided his at bat would be a good one to go to the bathroom, my grandpa's brother's grandson getting a ball that Cecil Fielder hit because he was in the corner of right field chasing a pigeon, etc. 

The song though.......I remember getting to the stadium early and walking out from the concourse to watch batting practice.  The sound of the crack of the bat and the "smack" of the ball into the player's gloves as they played catch were amazing but that song always seemed to be playing as we walked out and saw the field for the first time.  The "claps" that I referred to earlier echoed through the whole stadium and literally would give me chills.  My grandpa instilled such a love of baseball in me and that auditory memory will stay with me until the day I die.  I'd give anything to experience it just once more but Comerica Park (although a fine ballpark) will never compare and I don't have my grandpa to take me.