World Series Memories

I don't always pay close attention to the World Series, but I'm always aware of it.  Let's be honest--the World Series isn't always as interesting as this year's is.  Often the teams seem mismatched from the beginning.  Often the Series goes exactly as predicted. 

My spouse played baseball as a child and always regretted that he didn't continue to play as he went through middle school and high school.  So he watches the game differently.

One year we listened to the game.  We were traveling to Jacksonville, and we listened to the game on the radio.  I had trouble visualizing what was happening.  At one point, my spouse said he almost preferred the radio to the TV.

My earliest memory of the World Series is from 1980.  I was old enough to take my sister trick-or-treating.  My maternal grandparents were visiting.  My grandfather watched the World Series, even when he could have been celebrating Halloween.

I have since met many people who would arrange their social lives around baseball.  Their numbers get fewer, as other sports have taken cultural priority.

I remember the year that Boston got into the Series after a long dry streak.  I had students skip our evening class to watch the game.

In the autumn of 1992, I was finishing my Ph.D., but I was entering the stretch where many students get bogged down:  Comprehensive Exams and the dissertation.  That autumn, the Atlanta Braves, which had once been not much better than some Little League teams (according to my sneering spouse) began to change their fortunes.  I tried not to see any one game as a sign and get spooked. 

I have been alive long enough to see many teams that once were the losingest teams in baseball become World Series champs--and sometimes go back again (hello Marlins).  I know that it's simplistic to see this idea as a metaphor for larger life.  But in years like this one, the metaphor is irresistible.

If I had more time, I might write more about that.  But my spin instructor has put together a special ride for us--it's not only World Series time, but Halloween!