Monday, October 24, 2016

Getting My Wish

I got my wish!  (Doesn't happen often..)

How about that for a World Series?  Two teams with a whole lot of history and not much postseason success for a whole lotta years.  Lots and lots.    

Saturday night, in the midst of watching college pigskin I occasionally switched over to FS1 to see if the Cubs would finally break the curse.  Then, when the bottom of the 8th turned into the top of the 9th I grabbed my tried-and-true-and-getting-real-old-but-still-works-usually Radio Shack super sensitive AM/FW/SW radio and tuned it to WSCR, the Cubs' flagship station.  (At night, particularly this time of year, I get all four of Chicago's blowtorch stations very clear here in western Kansas.)  I knew, barring a collapse in the 9th, this would be historic and I preferred to hear the Chicago-based announcers rather than Joe Buck and company.  So...sitting in my recliner with the radio tuned correctly and the TV muted I quickly realized I got the audio of what was happening at Wrigley Field a good 30 seconds before I saw the corresponding video on TV.  Hearing the radio call of that double play made me glad I took the time to enjoy Ancient Modulation.  

Way to go Cubbies!!  

Now, how about a brain-teaser?  (Or memory check.)  

Can you name all of the MLB teams that existed in 1945?  

Well, I'll start with the National League:

1)  Chicago Cubs
2)  New York Giants
3)  Brooklyn Dodgers
4)  Philadelphia Phillies
5)  Pittsburgh Pirates
6)  Cincinnati Reds
7)  St. Louis Cardinals
8)  Boston Braves  (I'm guessing they had not yet moved to Milwaukee)

Now let's try the American League:

1)  New York Yankees
2)  Boston Red Sox
3)  Chicago White Sox
4)  Cleveland Indians
5)  Detroit Tigers
6)  Washington Senators
7)  Philadelphia Athletics  (as with the Braves I figure this team had not yet moved to Kansas City)
8)  ????

I struggled a little with numbers 6 and 7.  As you can see I'm stumped on the last one.  Took a visit to the encyclopedia as I knew the leagues wouldn't have a dissimilar number of teams.  

The St. Louis Browns.  

No wonder I hit the brick wall.  Not a team I recall from any baseball-related texts I read back in the day.  

They still exist, by the way.  New city, new name.  

The Baltimore Orioles!

Fun, huh? 


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