With the realization that box scores for spring training usually aren’t published for minor league baseball we find ourselves reaching, looking, seeking information with a ferver that many of us haven’t felt in years. The internet, the baseball fans glorious wealth of data, has made it easy on us. Add in 200 more channels on TV, XM radio and DirecTV’s sports package and there really isn’t anyone longing for sports info.
I get a glint of this feeling when listening to the Ironpig’s Radio Network during away games and tracking through the online gameday application to keep myself content until the next homegame.
Think back 20 or so years ago. We had 3-5 channels on the TV (Depending on which direction the antenna was pointing) and newspapers gave standings and box scores. For me, we had Phillies coverage and Channel 17 had Phillies games broadcast. What if you weren’t a Phillies fan? You only had one chance to see your team play and that was the NBC game of the week on Saturday afternoon. Not too many options.
Baseball cards. How far have they come along and I am delighted to see that they are getting back to their roots in terms of value. In the hayday of collecting, I remember entire shopping malls lined with vendors and displays. I couldn’t have enough time or money to walk the mall and get more than one unopened pack of cards. The before school cards trades, deals arbitrated by Margo the lunch lady and an always present and current baseball card price guide led to many blockbuster trades that make the Ryan Howard/Albert Pujols trade seem insignificant. And the cards themselves. I studied those cards, the stats, the teams, the annual and career numbers, even the corny comments that Topps put on each card.
The Baseball Digest, Almanac and anything published that you could get your hands on was read, re-read and studied at every opportunity. I had a whole table in the basement dedicated to my baseball studies. If I spent half as much time studying schoolwork as I did baseball I would be working for NASA right now.
This morning, as my quest to find minor league box scores at spring training came to a screeching halt, I got that same craving for information that captivated me so many years ago.
29 Days…
Another classic baseball personality, Max Patkin, had his glory years during my childhood. I remember seeing the Clown Prince of Baseball at the Reading Phillies in the mid 80’s. Even then he all over the field entertaining the fans. He passed away in 1999. We have seen his heir to the title, Myron Noodleman, at Coca Cola Park but he just doesn’t compare to Patkin.
noisenation.mlblogs.com 