I did my civic duty last night

I did my civic duty last night October 26, 2016

That is, I watched the Cubs play their first World Series game since 1945.

And I have to admit, I was bored.  Yes, I know, when people profess lack of interest in baseball, others say, “that’s a sign of our national decline, and of Americans’ declining attention span.”

Of course, in my defense, I’m not a native Chicagoan, and my childhood memories of baseball involve the Detroit Tigers.  Or, more specifically, involve Dad and my brother watching the games on summer evenings.  There was no air conditioning, so the doorwall (I think that’s a local term — never heard it here) was open and crickets were chirping (no cicadas!), and Al Kaline‘s voice was in the background.  “It’s a line drive to center field!” — don’t know why, but that’s the line that sticks in my head.  (And according to the wikipedia link, Kaline was color commentary, so that wouldn’t have been his voice.)  And it seems to me that the way games are broadcast must have changed — perhaps in the 70s and 80s, they were still broadcasting much as they would have done for the radio, with actual play-by-play (as is still the case for hockey, if I’m not mistaken).  Last night’s game seemed much quieter, presumably because it was assumed that anyone could just look at the graphic on the screen to see the status.

Did you watch it?  Readers, are you baseball fans who look forward to October?


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