Hurray... it's Opening Day! The only thing that would make this day better is if I could actually watch the Cards/Reds game. Maybe one day I will be able to afford cable/MLB TV... sigh. But I have discovered Gameday with audio... $20 for every MLB game, all season long? Oh my goodness! I certainly miss being able to watch the Cards, or listening to the play by play on KMOX. And let's be real, 1120 AM is still what I think of when I think radio games (though the Cards broadcast on 550 AM KTRS now), just like I want to switch stations to KPLR-11 rather than KSDK-5 for the TV broadcasts. Those recent changes, having happened so close to my move away from Saint Louis, haven't really stuck in my mind.
I loved listening to Jack Buck give the play by play... it wasn't for very long that I was able to enjoy his voice, but it still sends shivers down my spine to hear his voice. But the voice that sounds like baseball to me is Mike Shannon. Hey, fun fact! Mike Shannon went to Mizzou in 1957 and played football for Frank Broyles, who came to coach for Arkansas the next season.
When we first moved to Saint Louis, I would often spend the afternoons watching the Cards on KPLR. This was in 1995. Joe Torre's last season as manager in the 314. It was his last season because the Cardinals were terrible. I know people can hate on Tony La Russa when they get frustrated with the team, but I remember that 1995 team, I remember the blatant crassness and the terrible baseball. And in 1996? We clinched the Central Division Pennant. I like Tony's style of management, I like the quality players who have come through St. Louis, in part because they also like Tony's management style. And despite the recent revelations by Mark McGwire, I am incredibly excited about this season of baseball for St. Louis. I'm not turning a blind eye to what is obviously a serious problem inside of MLB, or to La Russa's past problems. But for fourteen sometimes wonderful, sometimes painful, sometimes infuriating seasons, I'm glad La Russa is back for a fifteenth.
Baseball is a glorious, heartbreaking game. Unlike many other sports that feature time limits and clocks, baseball is slow sport because time is not a factor. This is one reason why so many people hate it, but for me, it is one reason why I love it. Nothing is better than a hot summers night, maybe with a beer in hand, maybe lying in the grass, or bed, or driving around St. Louis, listening to Mike Shannon's voice, and feeling like time has slowed down. The game is simple (mostly). The moment is simple. Life is simple. It's beautiful.
3 comments:
Few things brings me the intense nostalgic feelings of childhood quite like memories of listening to Jack Buck call a Cardinal's game while lounging by a breezy open window on a lazy Summer evening. Even though I don't follow baseball closely AT ALL, I will always be a Cards fan at heart just because of those memories. :)
P.S. I was so sad when the Cards moved from KTRS to KMOX. Something just seem WRONG, you know? :P
I think I disliked the move to KTRS the most because I knew that I could hear KMOX all the way into Oklahoma, and did growing up, and that made it okay for me to say that I was a Cards fan my whole life, even if I hadn't been in the STL area. I don't think I can get KTRS outside of STL.
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