1946 - I REMEMBER

Today, driving home from a morning "mission" my mind got to wandering.  I was listening to the radio of course, and of a sudden, I remembered a time in my life when automobiles didn't have standard equipment radios.  The buyer of the vehicle had to buy the radio.  They were not inexpensive.  A new car was maybe an $800.00 dollar purchase and the radio at the time was around $75.00.  A real luxury.  

Along with that, I moved on to one of the great experiences of my childhood life.  I was coming home from a fishing expedition with my three uncles, brothers to my father.  We had been fishing in the morning and now were heading back home toward the end of the afternoon. On the way the radio was playing so that we could hear the play-by-play description of the seventh game of the World Series.  It was a very special series that year because the Boston Red Sox were engaged in the World Series.  We lived in the western part of Massachusetts. My uncles were all Red Sox fans.  My father and I were Braves fans.  

As I was basking in the memory of the game, I enjoyed remembering that in those days there were 16 major league teams.  I enjoyed remembering the distribution of their locations.
Boston - 2; New York - 3; Philadelphia - 2; Chicago - 2; St. Louis - 2; Washington, DC, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and Detroit, one each.

Anyway, the score is now tied at 3 apiece.  Second half of the 8th and St. Louis gets a man on first. His name is engraved on the brains of every baseball fan in the state of Massachusetts, one, Enos Slaughter.  It all happened so quickly.  Slaughter breaks for second and  the hitter swings and drills one into left center field.  The regular centerfielder, Dom DiMaggio had to be replaced by Leon Culberson because of a pulled hamstring.  Now Slaughter is already around second and steaming ahead at break-neck speed with absolutely no intention of stopping at third.  Culberson gets lackadaisical and sloppy while Slaughter has pulled out all the stops.  The throw from the substitute centerfielder is late and short and Slaughter scores from first, spit, sweat and a cloud of dust at home plate.  My uncles are stunned, shouting semi-swears (I'm only 9 years old) and stating that what happened to Dom was the curse that made this happen.  Well, as everyone in the galaxy knows, the Red Sox did not recover and that is why the picture at the top of this article is of the Cardinals. 

Surely there is someone in the audience who has a memory of this event. It should also be mentioned that back then each team played 154 games and the Word Series were finished by the third or fourth week of September.

As for me, I have come a long way since then.  Now I don't even know who the participants in the World Series are from year to year.  The Braves are no longer in Boston and Bickford, Spahn and Sain are gone.  So has my interest.  But the memories are great.  

No, I did not have to check this out at Wikipedia.