Baseball and TV

I was well into baseball by the time TV came around.  I listened intently to the radio broadcasts of the Tigers, the Detroit Tigers, my all time favorite team.  But then in 1954 baseball took an ominous turn.  It was being televised but we had no TV.

The Octoberfest of baseball began but now it could be seen and not just heard.  Kids at school had television but not us.  Not my best friends either.  We weren’t rich enough to have one.  The solution stared us in the face as we ran home past the new business i town; The TV Center.  Kilpela’s furniture was selling them, you could get one at Sears and Vertin’s Department store had them too.  But only the TV Center had them on and in the big front windows.

Three fuzzy channels, CBS from Duluth, NBC from Green Bay, and the clearest one finally from Marquette, Michigan some 60 crow flying miles away.  But, on these sunny fall days only one channel mattered to me.  The World Series was being televised, in black and white, live for all to see.

We wee kids were mesmerized by the live action between the Cleveland Indians and the New York Giants.  We stopped by on our run home from school at the TV Center’s “big 23 inch screen” inside facing the sidewalk.  We stayed until the game was over.  We just had to.

The iconic catch by Willie Mays off the bat of a former Tiger slugger Vic Wertz  I was sure was a home run in the old Polo Grounds stunned all those watching.  All those who have seen it later are still amazed.  But I, we, had seen it live.  No instant replay.  Just an amazing memory from live TV.  I was hooked.  I didn’t just read about it or just hear about but I actually saw it.  I was just ten years old.

As time went by the “Game of the Week” with Dizzy Dean and Joe Garigiola as the color commentators kept me focused on the game.  Later, Mel Allen did a half hour show before the game called “This week in Baseball” with all the highlights of the week.  It couldn’t get any better than this.

In September of 1956 we got our own TV.  A used on, 17 inch, black and white, $40.00.  My dad did not want to put holes in the roof where most antennas were installed so we put one up from the ground up. Forty feet high.  I was a climber as was my dad so I really helped put this one up.  TV bonded us a little.  I watched Johnny Podres beat the Yankees in Game Seven, for the Dodgers’ first ever World Series championship.  The Bums from  Flatbush did it.  Again I saw it live this time on our own TV.  Life really was good.

The Edge of Night crept into my Mom and Dad’s fascination so supper was a few minutes late until that was over.  Then came the sixties with all the westerns.  I recall there were 26 western shows per week before the police shows took a big chunk of network time.  My favorite was of course Gunsmoke.  It was still running 26 years later.  Have Gun Will Travel came right afterwards, with a chess knight on the lonesome hired gun’s calling card.  Palladin.  Remember him?

To this day I primarily watch only sports on TV.  Live TV.  The end is unknown. I’m hooked on the unknown.  Baseball still fascinates me with it’s many intrigues.  College sports, Lions football, PGA Golf, and my beloved Detroit Tigers make up my TV.

The first, the old, the original fascination still, fascinates.