Afternoon Baseball

A post-season version.

October 2007 is particularly filled with nostalgia.
It's 80 years since talkies debuted, in the form of Al Jolson's "The Jazz Singer."
Some have nostalgia for Che Guevara, though I'm not quite sure why. He T-shirts well, that's for sure.
There's the 50th anniversaries of the Dodgers and Giants spurning New York for Los Angeles -- the former greeted by this rather cold-hearted New York piece. There's Sputnik's launch, the impetus for much of American history despite being a Soviet achievement. In baseball, the now-recently deceased Lew Burdette finished off a three-win Series against the Yankees.

Baseball, of course, is about October, much as in America, October may be about baseball. And yes, with the Yankees out of the mix, it's easier to slip into nostalgia, like when Joe Torre and George Steinbrenner meeting wasn't awkward. But it's not just that.

October 16 years ago was the time of my first visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame, during the greatest World Series up until then (Twins-Braves). The last-to-first matchup -- one franchise having experienced success recently but still a neophyte, and the other on its third city of futility punctuated by moments of triumph, newly armed with a trio of young aces. Kirby Puckett defined clutch (and the myth of exercise), and Jack Morris said, no one's winning this thing but me, and did so for 10 innings.

October, personally, was also championship season when I ran cross country. My post-season opened a window into how I view baseball's. I felt a tug of identity more toward what was actually my team rather than to what I claimed to be my team.

October 2001 was a month of forgetting everything but baseball for so many. It also brought was really is the greatest Series, even in a Yankee loss.

Obviously, for others, October 2004 is the wave of euphoria sweeping away nearly a century in the desert. Were there any actual Chicago White Sox fans, 2005 would be the same for them.

40 years ago was Bob Gibson, another man who needed little help dominating a series, breaking the Red Sox just as he broke the Yankees three years earlier. Of course, it sounds even better when the legendary Roger Angell tells of it (and other things).

30 years ago, Reggie Jackson became famous for all time.

20 years ago, artificial turf had its heyday and the first Series with no road victories.

10 years ago, well, let's not ask Cleveland about that.

I could go on and on. But the point is looking back has its qualities. It lets us recall the good times, find a starting point to create what will become nostalgia in good time.

For a bit of non-baseball nostalgia, and to pitch a TV show, how about Danica McKellar, aka Winnie of "The Wonder Years," back on "How I Met Your Mother,".
The show is underrated and underwatched, and she's underrated and underutilized. Let's fix this, Hollywood and America.