Play-by-play with Cardinal Nation

Oct. 19, 2006

Dear Patty,

During the regular season, the St. Louis Cardinals games were broadcast only by radio when I was a lad. With Harry Caray doing the play-by-play, radio was enough.

He sounded as if he were summoning the cigarette-soaked bombast from his navel, and he had a signature way of calling a round-tripper. "It might be. It could be. It is .... A home run."

"Holy cow!" was the exclamation point he put on a good defensive play or timely hit.

I was hardly listening alone. Far into the magical summer nights Cardinals fans throughout the lower Midwest and South tuned into those broadcasts in their homes and cars. Countless boys and girls turned their transistor radios down low and in their dark beds listened for the sound of bat on ball and the roaring crowd, Cardinal Nation rooting for Bob Gibson, Lou Brock, Ken Boyer, Tim McCarver, Ray Sadecki, Dick Groat, Julian Javier, Curt Flood and Bill White.

My friend Randy sometimes mimicked Harry Caray's delivery as we listened. We talked as if we knew each one even though we'd only seen their pictures in the newspaper and knew of their exploits through the airwaves. Gibby was a feared pitcher, Boyer a rock at third base, McCarver the Memphis natural behind the plate, the bald Groat a slick fielder, and Curt Flood roamed centerfield daring anyone to hit one into his territory.

We knew nothing of salaries, agents, Hollywood girlfriends or drunken scenes in hotel lobbies. For all we knew the players had no lives except on the field.

These images relied heavily on public relations and our innocence, but they lived in our imaginations. The world of sport and the world in general could use a little innocence and a lot more imagination right now.

Rumi says:

"The world is a mountain

and our acts are shouts

which echo back to us."

The Cardinals beat the New York Yankees in the 1964 World Series. The Yankees weren't yet quite as despised back then as they are now. Mickey Mantle was still playing and Yogi Berra was still managing.

We watched the games on TVs set up in the classrooms of teachers who were baseball fans, and most were. We cheered and groaned. It was like being allowed to watch a presidential inauguration at school, but exciting.

Instead of imagining Groat pirouetting at second base, we got to watch him. Ken Boyer hit a grand slam home run to win one of the games. Bob Gibson pitched three of the games, unheard of these days, and won the MVP.

Harry Caray moved on Chicago where he became a legend for singing a very human version of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" during the seventh-inning stretch at Cubs games.

Tonight the Cardinals play the New York Mets for the National League pennant and the right to play the Detroit Tigers in the World Series beginning Saturday. New legends are on the verge of being born in the minds of a new generation of baseball fans.

Holy cow.

Love, Sam

Sam Blackwell is managing editor of the Southeast Missourian.