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Five Scoops of Bosco
By Allen Bacon, The Daily Bosco
On Monday afternoon I found myself at my favorite cafe next to John Wayne Airport in South Orange County eating lunch, gazing at the planes take off to points beyond my immediate world and watching the National League Divisional Series Baseball Game between the Nationals and the Cardinals as it was beamed from St. Louis.
As I was watching the game, I realized that there was something very familiar with this scene. At first I couldn't quite put my finger on it but then I realized this was very much like 1968.
I was eight years old in 1968 and in the third grade at Richman Elementary School in my hometown of Fullerton, CA. In those days Post Season Baseball was played exclusively in the day light. It was the World Series and every class room in the school had a Black and White TV and most of the cool teachers had the World Series on.
That year the Detroit Tigers were playing the St. Louis Cardinals.
I remember when they played in St. Louis because the old Busch Stadium had these arches and the sunlight would cast shadows from the arches which made Bob Gibson's fastball, as if it wasn't intimidating enough, even more menacing to the Tiger hitters.
And there it was on Monday...it was a new Busch Stadium, but there were the arches in the sun light, the big Arch of St. Louis looking down on the field, the natural freshly cut grass and baseball in the day time. The fall weather was brisk. The fans and the players wore jackets and huddled against the cold, drank hot coffee or chocolate, blowing on their hands, and the Cardinals were playing a team from a city that used to be in the American League.
The Cardinals and the team from Washington looked very much like they did in 1968. Their uniforms have not changed much since the late 60's or since the early 20th Century for that matter.
If you're a baseball fan, this time of the year is the best.
Today there will be a baseball quadruple header beginning in Washington DC at 10 AM PT.... the first time a Postseason baseball game has been played there since 1933.
I have always loved Postseason baseball in the daytime. This goes back to when I was a kid.
I would sneak looks at the game that my teachers would turn on for us. At lunch I would run home, a five minute jaunt down the street and while I was eating a sandwich and milk and cookies I would watch the World Series from my parents black and white TV and then go back to school and try to watch parts of the end of the games between my lessons.
In 1969 though I made a fatal error. I tried to fake illness so I could stay home from school and watch the Mets and the Orioles in game Three of the World Series. My only problem was that I never hardly got sick that year, so my mom, knew exactly what was going on when I pulled up ill during the World Series.... she was wise to me.
So as I threw in a couple of fake coughs underneath the covers of my bed and I patiently waited for the game to come on when I would go into the living room and lay on the couch to watch the game. But she beat me to the punch and told me that since I was so ill, that I better stay in bed and sleep and there would be no TV watching that day.
So like the Miracle Mets of 1969 I made a remarkable comeback and was at school the very next day where I could watch the game from the class room and at lunch.
The only thing I still am having a hard time adjusting to is the fact that the Baseball playoffs on television are not accessible to everybody. The first round of games are on TBS, a cable station, so if you're not a subscriber and pay the fee, you can't watch the game.
Don't get me wrong, the TBS announcers are good and I enjoy the coverage, but still, the national past time should be accessible to everyone.
You would think that almost fifty years later that the radio would be obsolete, but he ESPN Radio network coverage is better than ever and I enjoy listening on the drive home or as I work from home.
Now only if the networks had Curt Gowdy, Jim Simpson and Tony Kubek.
Then we would be all set.
Link and listen to ESPN Radio Coverage today beginning at 10 AM PT via the Bosco Sports Radio links.
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