What was the first baseball game you ever attended? I think I found mine. It happened some time in 1985. It was a sunny, summer Saturday afternoon. We didn't keep the ticket stub from that game, so all I have were the fuzzy memories of Comiskey Park, the 1982-86 uniforms, and the fact that Oscar Gamble's uniform number was 0.
Based on that sloppy detective work ... I think I found that game: a 6-3 loss to the California Angels on June 22, 1985. A game that just happened to be the NBC Game of the Week:
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Some guy decided to upload a bunch of complete baseball games to YouTube. The games are great background noise. Plus, they allow you to spend three hours at Comiskey Park - in a virtual sense. You feel like you are there.
You also get to see Harry Caray and Jimmy Piersall in their element as White Sox broadcasters. Here are the Sox and Baltimore Orioles on April 23, 1981:
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The Jerry Reinsdorf/Eddie Einhorn era had just started, and Harry talks to the new owners during the "10th Inning" postgame show.
We move ahead to June 11, 1981. Baseball was about to go on strike, and Harry spends the game talking to Einhorn about the progress of negotiations in New York.
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In the bottom of the eighth inning, Harry and Jimmy talk about how they will play in Milwaukee the next day -- if there is no strike. Piersall notes that Brewers owner Bud Selig "tried to get me fired."
"He's still a car salesman. Used!"
It's nice to see (and hear) Harry Caray as the legendary broadcaster and not the Will Ferrell caricature. He was a pretty savvy operator who knew his audience. He was also second to Bill Veeck in the art of self-promotion. Case in point? His disco-tinged version of "Take Me Out to the Ballgame."
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According to Richard Roeper's book "Sox and the City," it was a cheapie knock off single that was produced in a recording studio in Fort Wayne, Ind., in the summer of 1978.
Speaking of White Sox broadcasters, here are the Red Sox and Minnesota Twins in September of 1967. You get to see Ken Harrelson, baseball player:
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If your memories of Comiskey Park stretch back to the 1960s, '70s, or early '80s, the old baseball broadcasts should bring back some pleasant memories. If you came of age in the 1990s, here's a chance to watch the past live and breathe once again.