The new AT&T U-Verse commercials are quite clever, depicting teenagers or even younger explaining to pre-teens just how lucky they have it to be able to move the cable receiver anywhere wirelessly.
"Why, back in my day (a mere year or less ago)," one of the teens proclaims, "we had to watch a movie in the living room and only in the living room."
Those ads cause me to remember back in the day, which happens to be more than a mere year or two, when my beloved St. Louis Cardinals were seen rarely and more often heard.
There weren't the likes of networks that carried almost the entire season, home and away, like today. In fact, back in my day, the only way you saw the Cardinals from my neck of the woods was if they happened to be the game of the week on Saturday or possibly on Monday Night Baseball.
My woes would deminish somewhat as cable television came along. Then, you could check the schedules of the Chicago Cubs and the Atlanta Braves and catch a game or series that way.
Back in my day the games were rare and would mean readjusting your schedule to see the birds on the bat.
However, back in my day, you could, and still can, listen to Cardinal's baseball on the radio from just about anywhere in the country. St. Louis' flagship station KMOX could be heard from the halls of Montezuma to the hills of Tripoli! Jack Buck and Mike Shannon became an integral part of my growing up days, sharing play-by-play, statistics and even a little fatherly advice along the way.
Even after growing up and getting married and moving to Kansas City, where they block incoming radio signals that carried Cardinal's baseball, I could still slip away to the car late at night and catch a couple of innings of the Redbirds on the west coast.
It made me a better and more-educated baseball fan. I listened intently, never considering multi-tasking. Why, today, my son watches the games with me and at the same time is texting who knows how many friends, checking his Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Twitter, email and probably a dozen more social medias I'm not even aware of!
Back in my day we studied the game, focused on situational hitting and learned every possible stat that was made available to us. Kids today don't know how good they have it.. Back in my day!!
