Friday, June 20, 2008

The Old Ballgame

When I'm away from home, I occasionally like to watch baseball at a corner pub. Last night after work, I went to a place with a big plasma screen. No sound but I was happy to watch in a distracted way from a far corner with my burger. Red Sox vs. Tigers. I hadn't realized they were playing. After one inning, I noticed it was daylight and there was hardly anyone in the stands-well I thought middle of summer, stays light late, the Tigers had a disappointing start so maybe they don't draw much.

Then I noticed the graphics looked a little odd- cheap and primitive even but I wasn't paying that much attention. Then I noticed, while the players looked vaguely familiar, they didn't really look like the current Sox - where was Manny Ramirez? I know they called up a lot of young guys but these guys looked old and a lot had bushy moustaches.

The answer of course was Manny was in middle school and this was a replay of an apparent classic April 1988 meeting featuring Doyle Alexander vs. Bruce Hurst. Finally focusing on the names on the back of the Tiger jerseys (the Sox didn't have this), I saw Trammell and Knight and Lemon and recognized Wade Boggs and then I knew why these guys were familiar.

They really should note when they run an old game. Sports fans are only so aware,. Only took me until fourth inning to figure it out. The Tigers were up 5-2 when I left. Wonder how it came out.

1 Comments:

Blogger Irene Done said...

That's pretty hilarious. A few years ago, I tuned into a Mariners game -- a live one -- and had been watching for 2 or 3 innings when the announcers started talking about how fun it was to have a Turn Back the Clock game and see the old uniforms. (Old for Mariners = 80s)

I had to do a big Scooby Doo "Huh?" The players were wearing old uniforms all right -- the ones they wore when I was growing up so everything looked completely normal to me. Even though I watch a fair amount of baseball, it didn't register that these weren't the current uniforms. It's funny how what you watch when you're young stays with you forever. And yeah: sports fans are only so aware.

6:27 AM, June 21, 2008  

Post a Comment

<< Home

web page hit counter