To "Johnnie Bench" - From My 4th Grade Teacher Hero

All of us have that childhood teacher that stood out, left a lifetime impression on us. It's no coincidence that mine was Ms. Knudsen, my 4th grade teacher at South Hialeah Elementary in 1970. You see Ms. Knudsen knew I was a big baseball fan and a little boy who was passionate about his favorite team, the Cincinnati Reds. It's practically all I talked about during show and tell time in class. I was also a good student, completed my work on time and was always very respectful. In mid October that year after watching the Baltimore Orioles go up on my Reds 2-0 over the weekend in the World Series, I returned to school on Monday, pleading with Ms. Knudsen to let me hear the Series on my transistor AM-FM radio when it resumed Tuesday afternoon during school hours. Ms. Knudsen made a deal with me, that not only could I not refuse, but was eager to make good on. She told me if I finished my classwork on time, without recklessly rushing through it, she would let me sit next to her with earphones plugged into my pocket antenna radio to listen to Game 3 before class let out. For the next three days, I was the envy of the class, providing updates on the play-by-play to any classmate that was interested. Even Ms. Knudsen would occasionally ask me for the game's score. Unfortunately, I didn't have much to cheer about, as the Orioles dominated my Reds beating them in five games. But there was Wednesday afternoon in Game 4 when the Reds won their only game of the Series, with a clutch home run by Pete Rose and a late game single by Johnny Bench. That afternoon, I raised my arms in victory and so did the rest of the class. Just a few months later at the beginning of the new year, our family's new home in a different part of town was ready for move in and I was headed for a new school. On the Friday of my last week, Ms. Knudsen surprised me with a going away present that I've kept for 51 years. The original royal blue school construction paper she created it on, is now more of a pale lime pastel, but I can clearly still read her goodbye message and the names of all of my classmates. For Ms. Knudsen, I was Johnny Bench, one of the best players to wear the Reds uniform and to ever play the game.