Pitarresi: World Series still a big deal

 

Well, we have a World Series.

 

That’s a good thing. The Rays’ 4-2 victory tonight squares things at 1-1 and also proves these teams are very close … although the Phillies seem to be better at leaving people on base.

 

I was laughing the other night when I heard someone on a very loud and depressing national sports talk radio show saying that no one cared about a Philadelphia-Tampa Bay World Series. I care. I’d care even if it was Milwaukee and Texas, I think. The World Series always means something, no matter who is playing.

 

I guess the first World Series I really remember was 1955, when the Brooklyn Dodgers won their only title. I think I wanted the Yankees to win, but it didn’t’ really bother me that they didn’t. I don’t remember crying, anyway.

 

Those were the days of daytime baseball. Very often, the teachers would have the game on the radio, all the kids would listen – I mean all of them – and not very much work got done. When school got out at 3 p.m., we’d all race home to watch the rest of the game on our 12-inch black and white televisions. I lived about 100 yards from school in a straight line, but you’d have to jump a couple of backyard fences to cut it down to that distance. I remember doing that, and after a while Yogi Berra jumping into Don Larsen’s arms after the perfect game in the 1956 World Series.

 

It was a big deal. The World Series always is a big deal. Maybe not as big a deal as it was back then, but still big enough. I’m enjoying it.