SI.com's "Things We Miss in Baseball."

4. Dave Winfield begs to disagree.

6. You parked four blocks from Tiger Stadium and you're worried about your car? You should've been happy to make it with all of your limbs.

 

The star on the 600 level tunnel at the Vet where Willie Stargell once hit a home run.
The feeling of adventure when you "traded up" your seats at a game.
Seeing the batter step out of the box as a jet passed over Shea.

 

The nuns who parked cars at the Grace Street convent in full habit wearing plastic Cubs batting helmets.

First time we parked there back in the 70s it was donation only. My dad reached into his wallet and all he had was a $20. Back then $5 would have been plenty. He couldn't bring himself to ask for change.

 

I still do that all the time. (Not at Dodger Stadium, though you can sneak down the stairwell from the top deck to the reserve level. But just about everywhere else.)

 

I miss Skip Caray doing Georgia Power commercials saying things like "Dave from Smyrna is the Braves No. 1 fan," because they gave me the chance to crack up coworkers by doing a dead-on impersonation substituting in little South Ga. hick towns they'd never heard of.

I hope Skip is in heaven, because if he went to hell it will consist of him doing having to explain the infield fly rule to callers on an eternal pregame show.

 

I still have a pile of Mazeroskis. Big -- sized like the old school Life magazines.

Jayson Stark and Ringolsby did a lot of writing for those, but weren't bylined in the team reports.

 

When we were kids the Bulova Tower was always the place to meet if we got lost at the Ex. I'm sure it served that purpose for plenty of others too.

One thing I loved at the Ex was that bar outside (think it was on the Lakeshore side) that you could get stuck in at before going in. Can't rermember the name of it and it wasn't a big joint but it was a must stop before Jays and Argo games and concerts.

 

Another thing I miss: Kiner's Korner on WOR.

Ralph is in his 80s now and has slowed down considerably. But when I grew up in the early 80s, he was fun to listen to (his occasional strange one-liners not withstanding).

 

How Joe G. and Berra could share so many of the same origin facets and turn out so differently is one of the great mysteries of life.

God bless Yogi.

The other guy?

Uhhhhhhhhh . . . not so much.

 

Joe G is not a bad guy.
Yogi is one of the greatest people who ever walked this planet

 

The funny part is you grow up on Joe telling those cornball G-rated "Baseball Is A Funny Game" stories. Then you meet him, get the real baseball stories and it's a jolt to hear the tales of drunkeness and debauchery coming from Mr. Gee Whiz.

 

Isn't Garagiola the guy who said about Dickie Thon: "That kid is really screwed up." And this was before Thon was beaned.