I was in a hospital in Arizona for much of the week, visiting an ailing older brother who’s about to turn 80 and has been bed-bound for a couple of months.
Bill Shaughnessy was a strong, small-town baseball player in Central Massachusetts, Groton High School’s starting right fielder as a seventh-grader in 1960. By 1968, he was good enough to play outfield for Orleans in the Cape Cod League.
In 1955, one of his first Little League teammates was Boston Globe/ESPN baseball writing legend Peter Gammons. I spent a day with Gammons in our Groton hometown a couple of weeks ago. He’s 81, has a new book out (“It’s All About The Players”), and also has encountered significant health issues in recent years.
It was Gammons and my big brother who passed their love of the game down to me all those years ago. Being with them while these outstanding 2026 playoffs unfold reminds me why baseball will always be the greatest game and why it’s so important — particularly to our older population.
Read Dan Shaughnessy's column at BostonGlobe.com/Sports. | 
