Posted June 20 - I’m a collector of autographed baseballs. It’s an eclectic collection. Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, most of the Dodgers 18 Rookies of the Year. A ball signed by Corey Seager (2016 NL ROY) and his parents. Not all the signatures are baseball players. I have a ball signed by Jim Nabors who sang “Back Home Again In Indiana” at the Indy 500 for many years and helped me feel connected to home during the decade we lived in Southern California.

Some are distinctively Manchester. I have a ball signed by Trevor Kimm ’15 after he hit two home runs in a spring game in Myrtle Beach, S.C. Another is signed by Gene Likens ’57 who came to Manchester from the tiny town of Sidney to play baseball and went on to discover the existence of acid rain in North America.

My most recent acquisition is a team ball – a baseball signed by all the members of a particular team. In this case, the team is Manchester’s 2018-19 A Cappella Choir. Their spring tour took them through Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, including a stop at the Field of Dreams near Dyersville, Iowa. While there, they bought and signed a baseball, which director Debra Lynn presented to me this month.

Like any good team ball, some of the signatures are crisp: Nolan McBride, Erin Clanton, Amira Siddiqui. Others, well, not so much. And like the other keepsake autographed baseballs that I have, it has found a place of honor on a shelf in my office. Thank you, Debra and members of the A Cappella choir!