Old School

For some weird reason (having to do largely with contractual obligations from national networks with options on various games) the Rangers baseball game wasn't televised locally yesterday. Of the 162 games they play each season, 160 are televised.

Well, I finished my Saturday chores (when you own a home, there's always something you should be doing, right?) and then got to visit with a former student at an in-town reception they had for an out-of-town wedding (highlight: the bride's brother became ill & couldn't attend the wedding--didn't catch the entire story--so one of the groomsmen held a laptop and they Skyped the wedding so he could see everything and everybody could see him).

And, since there's always something I should be doing I tuned the radio to the baseball game in two rooms while I did some more somethings.

It was tremendously enjoyable, too.

When I was a kid and televised sports weren't available except for the MLB Game of the Week, and same for football's two Sunday offerings (and, well, Monday Night Football, too...but my dad would only let me watch the first half of that before he scurried me off to bed), I'd listen to the Braves radio broadcasts when I had time and would arrange my life on Saturdays to get near a radio to hear the Auburn Tigers each week.

And yesterday kind of took me back. If you've ever compared the radio version of an event and the televised version of the same event, well, they're two different things entirely. Yesterday, the Texas announcer Eric Nadel described the uniforms in detail so great he actually said their caps were blue with the white "t" outlined in red with the red button on the top. He described Josh Hamilton's home run in such a way that you can hear the excitement build. It kind of sounded like this...

...Hamilton, batting from the left side of the plate, taps his cleats and digs into the batter's box.
...he awaits the 2-2 offering from Justin Duchscherer.
...Duchscherer winds and delivers...
(crack of the bat in the background)
...swung on AND THERE IS A DRIVE...
...DEEP LEFT FIELD...
...HIGH...
...AND GONE!!!...
...a three-run opposite-field blast by Hamilton gives the Rangers a 6-2 lead and even the Oakland fans are murmuring about how far that ball traveled...
...outfielder Matt Murton took about three strides back and stopped to admire the work of the Rangers center fielder...
...WOW...
...what a shot.

It went on like this for about three hours.

And it was a nice way to spend an afternoon. Using your imagination and gettin' stuff done.

I'll have to see if I can't find more times to do that.