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June 17, 2012
"My Dad -- he loved the baseball game."
My mind drifts back to the game wafting out of the crummy AM transistor radio on a lazy summer afternoon while my fathermowed the nasty brown patch of grass he kept in front of our house. We'd sit together occasionally for a short moment in the shade of the big pine on cheap lawnchairs made from aluminum tubing and nasty fibrous strapping that cut into your legs. Ken Coleman's voice would wash over us, the polyglot names of each of the batters would come in their turn, and Dad would wordlessly give me a sip of his beer right from the cold, steel can. -- Sippican Cottage: Spahn And Sain And Pray For Rain
Posted by gerardvanderleun at June 17, 2012 7:13 AM. This is an entry on the sideblog of American Digest: Check it out.
Your Say
My dad loved the game, too, only for us the Great Good Place was Connie Mack Stadium rather than Fenway Pahhhk. Dad never lived to see Veterans Stadium, let alone The Bank, and he died 16 years short of the East Coast version of the Cubs finally winning the Series in 1980. I have memories of listening to games on the my dad's portable radio in the back yard while we finished up yard work on a summer evening. Afterward he would crack open a cold one on the back steps with Mac (the next-door neighbor) and gripe about "the stinkin' Phils." I like to think that St. Peter threw open the Pearly Gates right away when my dad showed up, on the grounds that being a Phillies fan was a lifetime penance (still is, but I digress).
Posted by: PA Cat at June 17, 2012 1:40 PM
In all fairness, the Braves stank too, when they were in Boston.
And 1967 was the year Yaz won the triple crown and the Sox went to the World Series.
Posted by: Fat Man at June 18, 2012 10:57 AM
And 1967 was the year Yaz won the triple crown and the Sox went to the World Series.
I remember that Series-- I was a sophomore at a college in western Massachusetts, my geography professor was a rabid Sox fan, and the college chaplain requested prayers for Yaz. It actually helped to be a Phillies fan in those circumstances because one could sympathize with the Fenway Faithful without becoming one of them.
Posted by: PA Cat at June 18, 2012 11:58 AM