"Bunnyfriend"... It Was A Great Place To Grow Up And Learn The Game.

Dedicated to all those who remembered the old Bunny Friend, like Rusty Staub, David Mares, Billy Mares, Ronnie Quick, Benny Dupre, Firmin Simms and a host of other players.

When I was a kid, a long time ago, I'd take seven cents of my twenty five cents and catch the Franklin Avenue bus and then, transfer over on the Galvez bus to play baseball, all summer long until I went to high school. It was a great place to grow up and learn the game. I was always proud of the park I played baseball for. We always performed well at all the local tournaments. After practice, I'd sometimes get invited to hang in the projects to play, usually kid created games like line ball or roof baseball.

Bunny Friend Park, located in the ninth ward in New Orleans, Louisiana, is named in honor of Joseph E. Friend and Ida Weis Friend's son, Bunny, who died at age 18. Ida donated $4,000 to a fund to create a playground in memory of her son, and the fund grew into more than $10,000. She also donated a block of land to the city between Gallier and Desire streets. The playground established there was named Bunny Friend Park, and two of the the streets bordering the playground were later officially designated North Bunny Friend and South Bunny Friend.

In the early nineties, visiting from SoCal, I decided to drive by the old playground even though the "demographics" had severely changed. I just needed to connect with my New Orleans past. I drove around the circumference of the park to take some photos, never getting out of the car.

When I came to a stop light at the corner of Galvez and Desire Street, I stopped, only momentarily. I felt a vibe and there were too many folks hanging at the corners. I looked both ways before making a left onto Galvez against the red light.

That park was and still is called, " Bunnyfriend," where yesterday, sixteen people were injured by gang gun play.

So sad...

Copyright 2015/ Ben Bensen III

Ben Abadie... Rest in Peace and Thanks!

Bernard E. Ben Abadie Jr. Obituary: View Bernard Abadie's Obituary by The Times-Picayune

This is the man that got me a "scholarship" to go to Redemptorist H.S. to play baseball and football. He was good friends with my father as both had ball careers interrupted by WWII.  I met his daughter, Liz, at Hines Elementary Summer camp where, as ten year olds, we spent two summers staying out of our parents hair. Every now and then, I'd see her at American Sporting Goods where a cranky, but nice old dude named, "Monk" use to tease us. As a kid, he sort of reminded me of Popeye.

In the late fifties and early sixties, my dad used to frequent Ben's sporting goods store on Harrison Avenue to purchase equipment. I was like a kid in a... uh, sporting goods store! Baseballs and softballs individually wrapped in tissue paper in its own separate box. Catcher's mitts, four fingered Rawlings infield gloves, wool uniforms and fitted, woolen baseball caps not only stacked neatly on the shelves, but also bought and brought home where I could sample each aspect of the game. I use to love to sift through a box of a dozen Louisville Sluggers. It smelled so... so baseball like and the sound of wooden bats rattling in the box was too much to ignore! When my dad would bring the bats home, he would individually take each bat out of the box and burn a "X" across the bat's knob with a hot ice pick to distinguish his bats from other teams.

When my dad stopped playing and coaching baseball, basketball and touch football, our pilgrimages to Ben's store slowly dwindled and I didn't see him or Liz until I was a freshman in high school. The Abadies were but one of many "pillars" of the Irish Channel... and there were so many of them there.

I was a sophomore, when in biology class, I noticed a beautiful brown-eyed girl sitting two rows from me paying attention to the teacher. I was not. Little did I know then that this "biological classmate" was the cousin of my childhood, summer school friend and that the man who got me into Redemptorist was her uncle.

Pretty small world, huh? Even more coincidental was that the girl I was first smitten with and had a high school dating relationship that everyone called, "Mission Impossible," would eventually become my wife!

 So, thanks Mr. Ben Abadie for all you were and all you did for me!

Copyright 2012/ Ben Bensen III

TJ... A chip off the ole' Chumps!

Congrats to my nephew, TJ, for making the 2010 All-District AllStars in his junior year. Tony worked hard to accomplish this. He began the baseball season on an off note, when the previous coach placed him in left field and wouldn't let him bat. His dad finally persuaded Tony to ask the coach if he could sit and talk w...ith him. When he coach obliged, Tony asked him if he could have a shot at playing his usual and best position of shortstop. The coach said no at first but then let him play for one game. He did so well, really showed the coach what he can do as a shortstop, so much so, that he switched the players for the rest of the season! He let Tony play his shortstop position and the sophomore that was playing shortstop played left field for the rest of the season! Tony also excelled throughout the season in his batting and has really grown as a player throughout the past year, so congratulations, dude!