In 1965, the Los Angeles Dodgers won the World Series over the Twins, four games to three, as Sandy Koufax pitched three games to lead Walter Alston's club to the title.
I was nine years old that summer and loved going to Dodger games with my mom and aunt, sitting in the 75-cent left field bleachers.
Koufax didn't pitch Game One because it was Yom Kippur, but lost Game Two to put the Dodgers in a hole.
The Dodgers rallied for a win in Game Three behind Claude Osteen and Game Four behind Don Drysdale.
Koufax pitched a gem for a win in Game Five, but the Twins evened the series in Game Six with a win over Osteen.
That set up a Game Seven showdown between Koufax and Jim Kaat in Bloomington's Metropolitan Stadium where Koufax, pitching on two days rest, pitched a complete game shutout three-hitter for a 2-0 championship victory with Sweet Lou Johnson hitting a solo homer and Ron Fairly driving in Wes Parker with an insurance run.
So now some 54 years later I am sitting behind home plate watching the Blue Wahoos lose to the Mississippi Braves on a night when the highlights were the Roach Race and a report on the Elvis at the snack bar.
A local exterminator sponsors the Roach Race, which involves a horde of kids chasing a guy in a roach costume from the right field foul line to the left field foul line. One kid almost caught the roach.
Then there's the Elvis. The Elvis is a deep-fried banana with peanut butter. The guy behind me talked about getting one and when he came back he was a little disappointed.
He said, "it wasn't what I had hoped it would be."
Ya gotta love baseball.
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