On Bandini with Dumb-Ass Joe
One of the few positives that came out of the painful departure of Tim's father was a small amount of money that was left after Tino wasted away from cancer. They never had a lot of cash in reserve at the time. The house on Oklahoma street was probably the life's work of Faustino who boxed and then did a series of jobs around SoCal including bartending, supervising newspaper vending and teaching a few lessons about the sport of kings. Tim adored his Dad and when he had to watch him fade away it left a scar that never healed. The Old Man was larger than life and had lots of gritty life experience. There is much more to say about the Balderamas but that is for another story. This is about 1966, the year after we graduated from Pius and Timo and I were playing on a church league team over at South Gate High School. He was the best player while I tried to keep from getting in his way. However, Tim, Paul and I made for a formidable 3-on 3 team and we were not...