All in the family

Let me introduce myself: I'm John Dorhauer - not that this should mean anything to anyone outside of the Dorhauer clan.
I don't tell you who I am hoping that you will say, "Oh, THAT John Dorhauer." I tell you because for me my love of baseball is all about family.

I'm the son of a man from whom my greatest pleasures came with a baseball glove attached to my arm. That would be true whether we were playing catch in the backyard, whether he was watching me wear the same tools of ignorance that he wore as a young man, or whether I was sitting next to him in the last few rows at Busch Stadium waiting for Lou Brock or Ted Simmons to hit one to me.

And I'm the proud father of two boys whose own childhood includes the kinds of rituals that produce a deep and abiding love and appreciation for this greatest of games. From the time the two were photographed on their first birthday in a Cardinal jersey that my uncle gave to me when I was a year old, (here is my picture wearing that beloved uniform, dreaming every child's dream)



to the time I would begin again in earnest my collection of baseball cards on the day of John's birth, (here we are in a recent picture before his graduation from college - egads, how the years roll by)



to the time John would catch his first baseball in the playpen, to the time Adam, at two years of age, rifled a wiffleball back at my head, (here we are, his birthday present this year being one final trip to Yankee Stadium)



to the trip the three of us would take with their uncle that would see us in 14 cities in two weeks watching a baseball game in a different city every night (including Cooperstown - our first of three such trips so far) - baseball would be at the core of our relationships.

Out story is not unlike that of many, if not most, fathers and sons in America. We love the game, and we have studied it and discussed it from every possible angle. My father and my two sons are active in a Fantasy league that has been running now for the last 12 years, and there is nothing more meaningful in the Dorhauer clan than to carry home in March the three foot trophy given to the league champ. I have 5 brothers, and we are all a part of the league and we are all very competitive and we all want that trophy very badly.

We are fans, and we are analysts, and we are amateur historians. We read The Hardball Times religiously. We are constant consumers of the information put out by the Baseball Reference Website. John is already contributing to a website his own fantasy ruminations (www.behindtheplatefantasy.com) I am a subscriber to SABR. I don't have a conversation with my son, my brothers, my father without baseball being a part of it. I have ten editions of the Baseball Encyclopedia, which I use to get me through the long nights of winter. I'm counting the hours both to Jan. 1 - when the MLB channel graces the airwaves and to B=Feb. 12 when pitchers and catchers report - many of them right here in Phoenix where I now reside.

3-D baseball is our effort to contribute. While '3-D' refers to the three Dorhauer men who will be contributing, it also signifies our desire to cover baseball from every possible dimension. We will write about anything and everything baseball. Some of it will be analysis for fantasy fans. Some of it will be stories told about baseball in and from the Dorhauer repertoire. Some of it will be commentary on games played during the coming season. Some of it will be sharing with you pieces of history that have captured our hearts. Some of it will be the art of argument - defending our positions on the arguments that are the bread and butter of every fan of baseball: Ted Williams is the best pure hitter the game has ever seen; Walter Johnson was a better pitcher than Roger Clemens; Bud Selig is the worst commish the game has ever seen - you get the idea.

We hope you enjoy this.

I know we will.