Dennis McCroskey and Harry Wade have been able to live out a baseball player's dream come true. They have played baseball covering the four corners of the earth... well,, maybe three and a half. The pair met in Vero Beach, Florida at a Dodger Fantasy Camp in 1988. Between them they have played in over 50 fantasy camps, but they've also played some serious ball; Harry with the Las Vegas Dodgers, and two-time champions in the Inland Empire MSBL. and Dennis with the 1994 champion Black Sox and the 3 time champion Dragons in the Redwood Empire MSBL and Champions in the Best of the West over 40 Classic twice and the Cal Cup.

They have played ball in Orlando, New Orleans, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Cooperstown, Santa Cruz, Fresno, San Diego, Woodland, Hawaii and Phoenix. Outside the US. they have played in the Virgin Islands, Canada, Mexico, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, China, Switzerland, Cuba and Russia. (They were scheduled to play the Cuban National Team in Havana, but the political climate has canceled that trip.) They have bartered with black marketers on Arbat Street, near the Kremlin, bungy jumped in Queenstown, New Zealand, leaned on the leaning tower of Pisa, snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef, fed iguanas pool side in Manzanillo, Mexico, taken in the bizarre sights on Bourbon Street, lost numerous golf balls playing the cliff side course on St. Thomas, V.I., drank Molson's and Moosehead with the best of them in Toronto, Canada, and hit a grand slam home run out of Doubleday Field in Cooperstown (well, that was just Wade but that's another story). They've had vodka and caviar in Moscow, scampi and calamari in Anzio, Kangaroo and crocodile in Alice Springs, Shark and Paella in Manzanillo, fungee in St. Thomas, Cajun style mudbugs in New Orleans and dog meat in Korea (well, that was just Wade and that too is another story).  They've eaten fish eyes in Beijing, boogies to hard rock in China, smoked some great cigars and drank lots of mojitos in Cuba.

They have played against the Auburn Orioles in Sydney, who were managed by Craig Shipley (former infielder with the San Diego Padres) and the Anzio ball club, whose pitcher, Espy Espinoza is the brother of Alvaro Espinoza of the Cleveland Indians. They beat the Red Army team and lost to the Moscow Red Devils and Tiraspol Giants. They swept New Zealand, closed the pubs in Queenstown, woke the mayor, drank all his beer and left at four in the morning. The mayor called in sick the next day.  They played former members of the China national teams as well as many former players from the Cuban baseball leagues including Hector Oliveras, who holds the record for the highest batting average in Cuba.  They've faced the winning pitcher from the gold medal olympic team in Atlanta and lots more.

Dennis, who still plays with a knee brace as a reminder of a collision at third base with a Mauri Indian base runner in Auckland, New Zealand, has taken pitching tips from Juan Marischal, Robin Roberts, Ralph Branca, Johnny Podres, Bob Gibson, Hoyt Wilhelm, Catfish Hunter, Claude Osteen, Johnny Podres, Ralph Branca, Ron Perranowski, Clem Labine, Warren Spahn, Preacher Roe, Bob Feller, Burt Hooton, Blue Moon Odem, Gaylord Perry and the late Don Drysdale. They have both received hitting instruction from Duke Snider, Ernie Banks, Frank Robinson, Steve Garvey, Dusty Baker, Reggie Smith, Frank Howard, Willie Stargell, Pee Wee Reese, Billy Williams, Ted Williams and Harmon Killebrew, as well as having the great privilege of sitting with the late Roy Campanella, and talking about the old Negro Leagues. ... And they have passed it on: Dennis teaching the curveball and slider to the Aussies and Russkies; Harry showing aborigine children how to hit a ball off a tee, and the kiwis how to sit on a curve ball.

In all these places, with different climates, customs and food, the one common denominator was wonderful people whose love of baseball is almost cultish. win or lose, the friendship, hospitality, and baseball camaraderie at the end of each game is something neither Dennis nor Harry will ever forget. So if you're ever playing the Russians and the center fielder sneaks in to pick a runner off second base, or you get fooled by a curve ball that starts at your ear and ends at your knee, you've got "Kilroy" to thank ...in the personae of Wade and McCroskey.

Where next? Japan, Greece, France, Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, Italy, Panama, Costa Rica, Brazil, Norway, Mylasia or ???