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

A-freakin'-men. I have no allegiance to the Dodgers, but I've been to just about every major league and spring training complex there is, and Dodgertown is the closest thing to magic. I can't believe they left.

 

It was of course magical, as a kid, to pull in the final innings of a Cardinals game on KMOX or a Reds game on (for me) WHAS in Louisville before I went to bed, but like the old "Home Run Derby" show (No. 2 on the list), it's a false nostalgia that is better in our memories than it ever was in reality.

I still listen to as many games on the radio now as I did when I was a kid -- only now, I can actually hear them, and I can listen to ALL of them, every day. It's far superior, and I don't miss the static of far-away KMOX growing up in the South at all.

I do, however, miss many of the old announcers. RIP Jack and Harry and Skip and Nuxie and Mel Allen (on "This Week Innnn Base-Ball").

 

This one also stood out:

I'm pretty sure I read this exact same paragraph in The Sporting News in about 1916, minus the reference to eight-tracks.

Those "great facial hair features of yesteryear" had, you know, disappeared for about 70 years before the Swinging A's brought them back in the 1960s.

 

Nice call on the "false nostalgia", Buck.

Home Run Derby originally aired in, what? 1960? Other than its revival on ESPN in the late 80s, was it ever in syndication beyond its original run? It's not like a whole generation sat there in front of the TV set every week glued to a new episode.

On top of that, while it has a lot of legends of its time, IT'S NOT THAT GREAT OF A SHOW! There, I said it.

And to be fair, the piece of nostalgia from "my" era -- the Baseball Bunch -- is equally over-celebrated and a crappy show too.

The only baseball show I have any nostalgia for are the TWIBs from the first decade or so of its run. That was must-see TV. Hell, the end credits alone were worth the price of admission.

 

Oh, and this one:

Somebody needs a history lesson about the Earl of Baltimore. Weaver's index cards in the dugout were legendary (a false legend, as it turns out):

http://www.baltimoresun.com/sports/orioles/bal-sp.os5020aug20,0,2370837.story

 

One thing I know I will miss in baseball.

Also loved the A's old white coaches caps.

 

Awesome, A_QB. Those Mariners hats are the best.

[/pallister, whereverthefuck he is]

 

A baseball executive who I got to know well over the years was the catcher in most of the episodes of Home Run Derby. They paid him like five bucks an episode. Still, it was a pretty cool distinction.

 

I miss the grungy, anti-family friendly feeling you would get walking around Cleveland Municipal Stadium in the late 80s, early 90s.

 

Kind of like the dirty, smelly bathrooms at Shea Stadium.