Greetings from the beach. My beach book this summer is Mike Lupica's The Big Field - a book targeted at teenage boys. I, however, love those kinds of sports books and I enjoy Lupica. He was one of my favorite sports writers back in the day when he wrote for the NY Post (the only good thing about the Post).

I played baseball and softball when I was young. In high school (maybe it was junior high) we had some softball for girls but by then I wasn't much of a team player or popular so didn't play much. In my twenties I played one season for a corporate league and would have been picked for MVP (so I was told) except that I didn't actually work for the company. The next year they cracked down on ringers like me and required that players actually worked for the company they were representing. That was OK by me because I wasn't interested in the corporate world or team playing. I still loved the game and loved watching but was OK with not playing.

As a teenager it was the Jewish Community Center that saved my life. First, it gave me access to a wonderful pool where I could swim my laps. There was nothing so calming or good in my life as swimming laps: stroke, breathe, flutter kick. Nothing to gain but the end of the pool, turn around and come back. I took some classes. I even took lifesaving although I never got the certificate because I could never find the cinder block on the bottom of the pool. Still I learned basic lifesaving skills and would know what to do if someone was drowning, unless of course you were at the bottom looking like a cinderblock.

So in New York when I stopped playing softball I joined the YWCA at 50th and Lex. I swam three days a week on my lunch hour until I moved to New Mexico where I took up fishing and hiking. I gave up fishing but continued with hiking until I hit my fifties. In Albany I joined the Jewish Community Center and swam. So my favorite activities for myself were swimming and hiking - solitary activities. I know, you're not supposed to hike alone but I've never been so good with rules. I did spend several summers with the Appalachian Trail crew building pontoon bridges, stone staircases and relocating trails. That was a team activity but only lasted one week per summer.

The closest I came to a team sport was boxing. I took it up in my fifties. Boxing a team sport? I always had a partner who pushed me and who I pushed to do our best, strongest workouts. There was a crew of four of us who became good friends. (We still are even though I live 1,000 miles away. We have a bond borne of teamwork.

Maybe I'm getting better and can do team sports now - except my favorite exercise is still swimming. I do play golf so I have a few friends I golf with once in awhile - otherwise I go it alone.

Team player? Still, not so much. However, progress not perfection. I spend time with my partner, with my friends and can open up a little more than I once did. And it's all OK. I am who I am.