Fouling Off Pitches

ther than the tried and true cliches we hear from baseball players these days during post-game interviews, add, "I got a pitch in my zone" or "I stayed within my zone." In other words, he didn't swing at crap. He got a good pitch and he turned it into a hit. But, you know, it doesn't always work out like that even when we get a good pitch to hit.

The other day I met with a former executive director of a large city Junior Achievement (JA) branch. Above all others, this is the group I want to pick up Hooey Savvy because they specialize in financial literacy programs and already serve 4 million students in the U.S. every year. In other words, I dug in and figured I'd get a BP fastball that I'd smack out of the park. What I got was chin music.

I learned that JA creates its own materials, ie, its own books and programs on financial literacy. I also learned that local branches must buy these materials from headquarters and that these materials form the foundation off which the branches work. The branches can use materials that do not originate from headquarters, but only as supplemental material. In addition, I learned that JA is a big bureaucracy and only reviews the materials for specific grades once every three to six years.

For as thick in the head as I am, the prospect of getting dusted by JA for the next few years sounds about as much fun as a Nolan Ryan headlock beat down.

On the fridge I keep the following quote: "It's not that I'm so smart, it's just that I stay with problems longer" (Einstein). Consider Einstein the Paul O'Neill or the Johnny Damon of physics - fouling off pitch after pitch, staying alive, grinding down the pitcher, till he got one in his zone he could drive.

Which is where I am with Hooey. I've fouled off a few good pitches and I may have to foul off a few more. But the deeper I get in the at bat the better a feel I get for what's coming.

In other news, I am close to agreeing with an illustrator to ink up Cookie-Wise Pablo - the 32 page picture book version. She'll need a couple months, but hey, it might just be ready for the 2012 holiday season. Also, thanks to John Odell at the National Baseball Hall of Fame I have some leads on vendor and usher jackets from back in the day for The Boston Squeeze. Of the photos John and the Hall of Fame's photo department provided, this is my favorite.