I Don't Have Cable

This could be the year. My two favorite teams in baseball are the Phillies and the Red Sox. This could be the year they play each other (I almost don't want to type this) in the...you know what? I'm not going to say it. The Phillies have been on Fox (Phox?)for the National League Championship Series and the Red Sox have been, inexplicably, on TBS for the American League Championship Series. Are you telling me someone decided it would be good for baseball to put the ALCS on a little know channel in the boondocks of cable television?

Let's get this straight. It's not that I can't afford cable, it's just that I think it's stupid to pay for television. The only time I really regret the decision is in July when the Tour de France is on Versus. Until now. I feel like half my dream has been banished to a veritable barbarian hinterland.

Then I remembered that on clear nights, I have been able to get WEEI out of Boston, the voice of Red Sox Nation. No such luck! But, I did find a station out of Chicago, WMVP, which was broadcasting the game as an ESPN affiliate. So I hunkered down next to the radio, grabbed a book and harkened back to a fabulous era of radio and baseball.

When I was a kid, my Uncle Charlie used to listen to every Phillies game on a tiny transistor radio, smoking Pall Mall's in the kitchen while my brother and I shucked corn. It was a fun way to follow a game, drifting lazily in and out of the game (conversely, last night's Dice-K nailbiter did not allow for much drifting) and I was right back there last night. There's a side of me that wishes it were reversed, so I could catch the incomparable Harry Kalas on radio.