These were the days when baseball was America’s favorite sport or past time. People listened at work, home, the grocery store, or office to their favorite team on the radio. People walked around with an earphone and transistor radio wherever they went. Games on TV were watched whenever possible with the same enthusiasm as football is watched today. Color TV was new; and only a small percentage of people had one in their homes. Our TV was an old black and white that needed a butter knife, slipped behind the station tuner knob, to see the picture.
All the kids in the neighborhood traded baseball cards looking for Giants players with Willie Mays being the prize card to own. I never saw a Willie Mays card but I did have a few others that are lost and memories of them, forgotten long ago. Cereal boxes had baseball cards printed on the back that you cut out. They were printed on grey card board; and not considered a true baseball card. When I went to the store I would search the cereal boxes for my favorite players. One day when I went to the store with my Aunt, I looked at the back of the boxes for that one special card of Willie Mays; and there it was printed on the back of a box of Post Grape Nuts. Not a real Willie Mays baseball card, but a card never-the-less. However, there was a problem. Grape nuts were hard as rocks; and impossible for my aunt to chew. What were a few broken teeth compared to a treasure as great as this? My Aunt gave in knowing that she was going to suffer eating rocks for a week. Of course, being a kid I did not appreciate what she did for me; and I still remember her sitting at the table grinding away one painful bite after another. This selfless act helped to make that summer one I will always remember.
The summer of 1962 was a neck and neck race between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants for the National League pennant. The Giants and Dodgers were and still are fierce rivals. The Dodgers had a song sung by Danny Kaye broadcast everywhere on the radio; and played a lot in the San Francisco bay area. You can here the song here. It runs about five minutes; and is pretty funny. Of course, the Giants came up with their own song, “Bye Bye Baby”. You can hear it here .
By the end of the season the Giants and Dodgers were tied for first place in the National League. Back then there were no playoffs unless there was a tie for first place. The National League race came down to a three game playoff between the two teams. Everywhere you went people talked abut the upcoming playoff. Dodger pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, the great shortstop and base stealer Maury Wills, and powerhouses Frank Howard and Duke Snider were respected and feared by Giants fans. Ultimately, the Giants won the playoff in Los Angeles; and headed home to play the New York Yankees in the World Series.
To Be Continued
