Cardinals, Pirates, LA, Oh My

   

I don’t watch baseball that much anymore.  But I watched and listened to all that I could in the 60’s.  Right now, the Pirates and the Cardinals are playing for the right to go on to the ALGS.  I had several teams that I rooted for in those days, and Pittsburgh and St. Louis were two of those teams.  Among the reasons were that both teams had a player from the Boise Valley, where I grew up.  Vern Law pitched for the Pirates, and in 1960, the year they beat the Yankees in the World Series, he won the Cy Young award and also won 2 games in that seven-game series.  Larry Jackson pitched several years for the Cardinals before being traded to the Cubs, where he won 24 games in 1966 and finished 2^nd in the Cy Young voting to a guy named Sandy Koufax.  I followed baseball almost religiously, and I remember Pirate names on the world champion 1960 team like Smokey Burgess, Bill Mazeroski, Dick Groat, Don Hoak, Bill Virdin, Bob Skinner, Dick Stuart, Elroy Face, Harvey Haddix, and, of course Roberto Clemente. 

In the mid-sixties I became more of a Cardinal fan, even after Jackson left St. Louis for Chicago.  Dick Groat was traded to St. Louis, where he played shortstop.  I chose number 24 as my number one year in baseball because that was his number and he was my favorite player.  Groat, along with Bill White at first base, Julian Javier at second, and Ken Boyer at third were the starting infield for the National League one year.  Curt Flood, Lou Brock, Mike Shannon, Tim McCarver, and, of course, the original “Mr.” October Bob Gibson were on those teams.

I was never a huge Dodger fan in those days, but I vividly recall 50 years ago this month watching them sweep the Yankees in 4 games to win the ’63 World Series.  Pitchers Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Johnny Podres, buried the Yankees.

So who am I rooting for in this game tonight?  Like a lot of folks I’d love to see the Pirates go on, since they made the post season for the first time in 22 years, and haven’t been in the World Series since the “We are Family” Pirates of 1979.  On the other hand, the Cardinal uniforms are just the coolest of all time. 

One of the reasons I don’t watch too much baseball is that the games start way to late in the eastern time zone.  So I’ll find out in the morning who won.