Los Angeles, California. Baseball has always been my favorite sport. Growing up in New York in the fifties and sixties as a part of the post WWII “Baby-Boomer” generation was magical. Most of those years there were 3 big league teams in the city. The Giants, Dodgers and Yankees who dominated baseball.
It was just a normal thing to see one of your teams in the World Series. From 1949 until 1964 there was a NY team in the fall classic, most of those years there were two teams from NY playing each other. During that stretch only 1959 saw a series without a team from NY, albeit the now Los Angeles Dodgers. Trust me, there were many Brooklyn fans rooting for the Dodgers that year.
Jackie Robinson stealing home in 1956 WS.
There were no night games and sometimes we would get lucky when a teacher would let us listen to a game on the radio in class. The first night game wouldn’t come until Oct. 13, 1971 in Game 4 in Pittsburgh when the Orioles faced the Roberto Clemente Pirates. It would usher in a new way for fans to enjoy this game. Now we could sit and watch the game on TV with our Dads after a catch in the back yard and dinner. Yes, I and many other kids were definitely spoiled living in NY back then.
Today we watch baseball differently. There is the steady talk by broadcasters during the game. Interviews in the dugout as the game is being played and a constant cornucopia of sometimes useless information about launch angles, exit velocities and spin rates. But the one thing that stays the same is the enthusiasm of the fans.
Image Credit: Houston Astros/Major League Baseball
Be it 1956 watching Don Larson throw his perfect game or 2022 seeing the Phillies take the powerful Astros to a game 6, there is and always will be something special about the World Series. But for my generation today’s game will never match the stretch of NY teams in the World Series that we saw. The Yankees were in the series 12 of those 16 years. Winning 9 times with 5 in a row from 1949 to 1953!
All of this is why me and may other “Boomers” love this game. Call us spoiled or call us lucky but never call us ungrateful for living through that special time in NY.
