Lorraine Salem Tufts
My fondest memory of Jimmy (I always called him Jimmy )was when we were children playing at Situ and Jiddu Salem's house on Tiedeman Road, Brooklyn, Ohio. Not just climbing up the Bing cherry tree and eating cherries all afternoon or playing cards in the evening after dinner with the cousins. It was baseball with Jimmy that i remember best about him.
Jimmy loved baseball and so did I. My father Bill Salem was a very good baseball player and he loved hitting balls to us in the outfield. My dad always told me i was very good at playing baseball and i believed him. Jimmy let me know just how good i was on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. I was at bat and he pitched me his fast ball and no matter how hard i tried i could not hit the ball. If i remember correctly it was the smaller hardball not a softball. I learned that day that the people who play hardball have a much tougher ball to address with the bat and that is real baseball. Jimmy taught me that! I admired Jimmy's great ability to play the game we loved so well.
In lieu of flowers or a tree because i I love St. Jude's Childrens Research Hospital also, I will make a Memorial Donation in the name of James M. Salem.
