For those of you who feel inclined to read on, this page contains more than you'd probably ever wanted to know about me, but if you're curious enough to continue, here it is, plus you can read my blog at http://rockylaber.blogspot.com.

I live in Oakland with my wife Mary Ann (here's my 2003 valentine) and our 2 children Natalie and Eric. For a while there Natalie (who attends Montclair Elementary School) loved singing along with the West Side Story soundtrack, we got away with turning it up real loud when Mary Ann wasn't home. These days we spend more time practicing piano and pitching, she's one of the many bright young stars of the Oakland Shooting Stars, a girls 8 and under team I coach with 2 other dads in the Oakland Girls Softball League. I enjoy coaching kids a great deal, and am proud to say that last year's team ran away with our division championship. Eric (6), finished his stint at Skyline Preschool and now attends Montclair where he resides as Bionicle and Yu-Gi-Oh authority.

Many years have passed since I've owned a dog. Largely because (and I do mean largely) few dogs could compare with my golden retreiver Lester. And much in the way that fine wine gets better with age, the passage of time contributes to his legendary reputation.

One of my hobbies is playing music, I'm a bassist (electric) and formerly guitarist (but only when forced). A group I used to play with had an annual gig that has been most memorable. The Tour de Farce is a costumed bicycle ride/pub crawl that passes through a dozen or so of San Francisco's watering holes. We were the house band for about 5 years at this annual event where we played a mixture of songs covering rock, blues, r&b, country & western, even a little Mancini on occasion.

More recently I've been playing with a group of folks that met playing on the SF to Alameda ferry on the last Friday of each month. Try to picture the San Francisco waterfront as a backdrop; food, drink, a crowd of east bay commuters marking the end of another month. Darlene Langston has the crowd in the palm of her hand, and women chime in knowingly when she's tearing it up on Dr. Feelgood! We're known as the Bob Claire Orchestra, named for our good friend, patron and bon vivant. I liked calling our group The Dee-tet, other names we've gone by include EB5, and Commuter Triangle. In June 2001 we had an opportunity to record a few songs, you can check out the MP3s online. With more on the way, I have photos of Darlene, Michael and myself in the studio.

Viewers of this site may make the assumption that I'm somewhat of a baseball fan, and it's quite true. The first major league game I attended was around '66 at Candlestick, soon thereafter my dad was taking us regularly to see the A's. It was 2 seasons before I actually witnessed an Oakland victory, but I have vivid memories of those days when a big league team was new to the east bay. I have a few pieces of baseball memorabilia, and memories of others that I've let slip through my hands (the latter category would include a number of World Series programs from the A's dynasty years in the 70's). The one I hope to take to the grave with me (figuratively, that is) is an autographed ball. When I was 8 years old, Oakland got a major league franchise. A friend of my dad's, affectionately known as Danny the Bandit (used cars), was a distant relation by marriage to Mickey Mantle. On his last trip through Oakland as a player, Danny must have got Mickey oiled enough to sign a bunch of balls, including one for my brother and one for me. Unfortunately for Mark, we immediately started playing catch with his, it wasn't long before the signature was scuffed off by the cement in our back yard. I managed to keep mine in decent shape, and later got it signed by Reggie Jackson when he made an appearance at Grutman's in 1971. I remember him making some comment appreciative of the value of having a personalized Mickey Mantle autograph, so he signed the other side of the ball in similar fashion. Later I got Rich Gossage (then of the White Sox) and Manny Trillo to sign it, I now keep it in a plastic case. I don't really care about how much money it could be worth, I kind of hope it's not worth anything except to me. I've also managed to hang onto my ticket stub from game 4 of the 1989 World Series and a foul ball off the bat of Jose Canseco.

One of my favorite years was 1989, for a variety of reasons. That year I had such a great time playing softball, sending moonshots over the "green monster" (it's just a cyclone fence) in left field at Grove Field in Berkeley. They put up an additional net at the top because the neighbors objected to the bombardment of 12" white projectiles into their front yards. That was also the year the A's beat the Giants in the Earthquake Series. I went to game 4 (the clincher) which was played the night before my birthday. I'd been hoping for a World Series game to be played on October 29 since I was a kid, not until Loma Prieta did it's thing was I able to not only come close to seeing it actually happen, but with my team winning it all as an extra bonus.