Last Updated on April 3, 2023
Phil Benzil will review Opening Day: 50-for-50 by Michael Ortman [Los Angeles, CA: Mindstar Media, 2022] on Tuesday, April 18, 2023 at 7 PM in the Auditorium.
This cleverly-designed memoir is organized around 50 consecutive Opening Days of baseball, attended by the author. He describes the day as “a rite of spring as winter fades away, hope and optimism abound and all teams are tied for first place.” Information about each game and ball park will capture the interest of avid fans, but the book is more than a sports chronicle. The annual events are presented as milestones
in the game of baseball, the life of the author and the social history of the country. Although his father was not a baseball fan, he enjoyed large events and took his nine-year-old son to Opening Day of the Washington Senators on April 6, 1970.The young Ortman’s passion for the game was ignited and continues to be expressed in his writing.
Drama pervades the inside stories of teams, players and franchises. The lives and actions of many players, including Curt Flood and Brooks Robinson, highlight the historical context in which the sport resides.
Significant to local residents is the inclusion of Memorial Stadium and Orioles Park at Camden Yards among the six stadiums, three cities and five home teams included in these stories. Readers are treated to an interesting, lively and nostalgic journey.
Author Michael Ortman is an executive in sports management and television. A graduate of Notre Dame, he first wrote about sports for the college newspaper The Observer.
Resident Phil Benzil is an active contributor to community life at Charlestown and a host of Sports Nuts on Channel 972.