WHITBY FREE PRESS1 Page 15 hockey. . . bowling Bose bsum Equi*prment Spring has many sounds, and famil- iaramong them is the cry of "Play BallI" and the crackof a bat. For many Whitby boys these sounds will take on added meaning this season as they make their debut in organized baseball in the Tee- bal program for boys who will be 8- years -old by July Ist. One of the features of baseball i s that the onl y equipment a boy needs is a g l ove. Bats, balls and ail catcher's equipment including mitts are supplied W.M.B.A. The Association offers a word to parents whose boys will be registering on April 22 or 29, because each year wel i-meaning parents rush out to bu y t h e i'r budding Rusty Staub hi s first baseballI glove and very often make the wrong choice. Baseball gloves and m i t t s are of three basic types and the official rules of baseball are quite ex- pi icit about the construction, size and use of each. Regardiess of variations f r o m m odel to model, they are catch- e r 1 s m itts, first basemen's mitts, or f i ng e r g l oves worn by pitchers, in- fielders or outfielders. The W. M. B. A. suppl iesmitts for the catchers, although a ladmight purchase on e for backyard practice or pick-up games. The common problem which oc- curs each 'year is when a boy shows up fo r his first practice with a spanking, "A Gentie Pat... V i s iting Woifsburg, West Germany 1 ately, imet wi th fourteen young Canad- ians (18-22) for dinner in the old "Hoff- man von Fall1ersleben" inn. These young men are part of the 1labor force of Volks- w a g e n w erk and 1live in Wolfsburg for six months to a year. it was enjoyabl e to spend a few hour s w i th them and listen to their different views. Most of them found it difficult at first to look after themselves and keep o r d er in t h e i r b elongings. Then the i anguage barrier presented problems of unexpected proportions. The work and particularly the pay in the factory were very satisfactory to most of them, al- though a few found assembly-line work monotonous, as can be expected. AI i of them agreed that this exper- ience is worthwhile and has given their i i ve s new directions. Upon their ret- urn to Canada they plan, either to re- turntoschool, or to pursue a jobwhich had shaped up dur ing their absence from C anada. Again others plan to take ad- vantage of the technical education pro- gram offered by Volkdswagenwerk Wolf- s b u r g a m on g many other educational improvementschemes, and, after grad- ua tion within 1-2 years, hope to serve as bilingual Fiel d-Service-Represen- ta tives in' English speaking countries, Canada perhaps. Thes e youn g people seemed tohave be en e v erywhere in Europe, visiting relatives in England, Scotland and Ireland, Holland, Germany, Spain and Au s t r ia. One of them, Tom Hartmann ne w f i r st b a seman's mitt, commonly c a i led a "trapper ", which he can only use if he plays that position, which isn't always possible. The f i n g e r glove is the type which should be bought for boys who are just star t i ng their diamond careers. For more advanced boys, models become more specialized such as having closed webs for pitchers to hide the ball bet- terduringdelivery, or shorter fingers for infielders to enable them to pick up groundballs easier. But for the rookie these features are unimportant. Ac c o r ding to W. M.B. A. coaches, another common fault is having a glove so 1 a r ge the boy loses control and the glove twists on his hand when he makes the ca tch , and so large he loses ali "feel" and of ten has to look into the g i o v e to see if he has actually caught the ball. Natural ly, the other extreme of pro- viding a boy with aglove of almost "toy " size should be avoided. As in any s p o r t, proper equipment is important, so choose a baseball g I ove with care - who knows some day itmay rest in the sacred halls of the Ba sebal Hall of Fame and Museum in C o o p e rstown, New York, wi th an in- s c r iption reading "first glove of. . .. ". "M by lISE ESCHENLOHR from Scarborough, was accepted by the W o I f sburg Hockey League and spends his weekends travelling with his team for games in Bremen, Hamburg, Berl in etc. Others are invited frequently into W o 1lf sburg families where they mingle with young German people. Wolfsburg is surrounded by vast for- ests, maintained like parks with wild "S.Ports Harold Greer, whose col- umns from Queen's Park ap- pear regularly in Canadian dailies with a circulation of well. over 1,006,000, has be- gun writing a weekly col- umn aimed particularly at readers of Ontario's commu- nity press. Mr. Greer's first column appears elsewhere in this week's paper. Reader res- ponse will determine wIe- ther the feature will become a regular occupant of our columns. A native of Hamilton, Mr. Greer attended McMaster Un- iversity and the University of Toronto. He joined the Toronto Star in 1946 as a general reporter. By 1949 he had become Parliamentary correspondent for The Star in Ottawa. He remained with the Star's Ottawa bureau until 1954 when he was transfer- red to Washington, a base from which he covered both the United States and the United Nations for Canada's biggest daily. In 1959 he left The Star for The Globe and Mail where he was an editorial and special assignments wri- ter winning two Bowater citations for distinguished journalism. . In 1963 he joined the Cana- dian Broadcasting Corpora- tion as a television editor- writer, concentrating his ef- forts on Toronto File, a Chan- nel 6 public affairs program. Mr. Greer began coven.ng Queen's Park in 1965 with the Montreal Star. Besides the Montreal Star, his col- umns now appear in the Vancouver Sun, Ottawa Cit- izen, Winnipeg Free Press, Calgary Herald, Halifax Chro- nicle - Herald, London Free Press, Windsor Star, Kingstan Whig - Standard, Brockville Recorder and Times, Kitch- ener-Waterloo Record, Brant- ford Expositor, St. Cather- ines Standard and Victoria (B.C.) Times. 1ife and beautiful 1lakes. One can wander for hours and can watch birds and deer. S o m e t i m e s , chatting school ci asses march by, having a nature study on the "N a t u re-I n s t ruction-Paths", estab- lished for this purpose. Further in the f o r e s t s one meets only an occasional jogger, absolving his daily miles in running shoes, or an elderly gentleman, i n a loden-coat and green hat, accom- paniedby his dachsund. So, if you like such a vacation, do go to Wolfsburg, a modern bustling town in a beautiful set- tingwith a brand new theatre, art cen- t r e s and ver y modern school s which j u s t i f y a v i s i t in themselves. Good qu ar ters at a reasonable price, such as the "Hoffmann von Fallersleben" H o t e 1 are availabl e, and, if you want to see the I a r g est car-producing fac- tory under one roof in the world where the 15th million beetie is rolling off the 1 i n e t h i s week, visit the plant. More than 5, 000 vehicles are built there daily. You may meet some of our Canadian boys there, much to their delight, or as one boy puts it: "Having visitors from Canada who really care, gives us a m u ch better sense of belonging here. " AnotherCanadian, employed in the Up- h o I s t e r y D epartment of the factory s a i d: I"You know when I work wi th the upholstery material in cars for export to Canada, I give a gentle pat to every outfit." So w h en you board your VW, keep inmind that a young Canadian may have been instrumental in its manufacturing. E D ITOR'S NOTE: Mrs. Eschenlohr is a retired high school teacher living in Whitby. Dunbarton Radio & Television Ltd. 1327 Harwood Ave. N., Ajax. 942-5880 AUTHORiZED-FACTORY SERVICE Depot for Fleetwood We Seli Stereo Albums At the Low Cost of 2. 99 each TOP ARTISTS such as Anne Murray - many others. Queen's Park Columnist to write for Weeklies