I recently noted my 60th anniversary as a baseball fan. I learned the game at school recess when I was eight, back in spring 1957, and I quickly thereafter started following MLB coverage in the papers.

I was hooked immediately. I love history, but my daughters like to joke that I don't have to read as much history, because I can now remember it! From the early years, say 1957-1961: I still remember the 1957 World Series and its "shoe-polish" hit batsman incident. I remember the shock of reading that the Dodgers and Giants were leaving New York. When I started following MLB, there were 16 teams only a few of which were ever competitive. There were 154-game schedules, no playoffs except the World Series, no DH, and lots of complete games by pitchers. People treated Ruth's 714 as so stratospheric it could never be even remotely approached (Ignoring the face that Ted Williams would've hit around 700 + except for his war service.)

There was no cable TV, so the only games I saw in my Georgia home were the Saturday game with Dizzy Dean, and those games were nearly always Yankee games. The few black players were stars or super-stars, because they wouldn't hire average MLB players who weren't white.

I wonder if other GUU members have distant memories like mine?