The Alternative

My friend
    I was 10 years old and under the covers with my transistor radio; my folks thought I was asleep. When they looked, they saw a lump under those covers but I was really at the game. Vin Scully had taken me there. Vinny's retirement makes us remember all he has done for us. Transistor radios filled in the blanks at the game and away.
    When TV went digital a few years ago we decided we'd had enough. We'd planned our lives around getting in for the news and sat like zombies through hours of trash in order to see a couple minutes of TV worth watching. TV was worse than shaving or smoking; eliminate a lifetime of it and we could be happy and productive for another ten or twenty years.
    Instead of being mesmerized a la George Orwell, we worked, looked at birds, read, talked to each other; stuff like that. Now the TVs are smaller, and everywhere. Out in public we see people dining together looking at their “devices.” Is Big Brother in there commanding them to believe... “War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.” ?
    Now we are thinking of getting a TV antenna, for baseball. Upon moving to Iowa I adopted the Cubs as my team because I root for the underdog, Chicago has blues, and it's close. Now the Cubs are on a tear and the Dodgers aren't bad. I continue to think baseball represents life better than any sport. Pick a reason, but I think it is because there is no clock, there are limitless opportunities for those with ambition, and no one to blame but yourself.
    I've read several articles about Vinny lately that mentioned the transistor radio, after years of believing I was the only one. Could it be that all those sleepy students were pretending to be asleep so they could listen to the Dodger game? Sorta illustrates the value of revisionist history, doesn't it?
    Scully is the only living man I've known longer than my barber. He started with the Dodgers the year I was born, 1950. He moved with them from Brooklyn to Los Angeles in 1957. He will call his last game Sunday afternoon with perennial rival, the Giants, who moved from New York to San Francisco that same year. Can you imagine having the same job for 67 years?
    Do you think Vin Scully always had everything fall into place for a perfect job? No. But he made it right for himself and we all profited from his effort to please himself through his job to bring this game to our ears. He stuck with it for 67 years. Thank you, Mr. Scully.
    The recent death of superstar prospect, Jose Fernandez, makes it all the more moving that Vinny has given so much and also that so much is at stake. Fernandez defected from communist Cuba on his third try. He saved his mother's life when she fell off the boat. He was jailed after his first two attempted flights to freedom.
    Another player sparked a parting commentary this year by Vin Scully, as a tiny rebuke to the leftist drivel coming from most other celebrities. Hernan Perez was up to bat for the Brewers (love that name).
    Scully mused of how Perez might think of the conditions he faces here compared to his home in Venezuela: “Socialism failing to work as it always does, this time in Venezuela. You talk about giving everybody something free and all of a sudden there's no food to eat. And who do you think is the richest person in Venezuela? The daughter of Hugo Chavez. Hello. Anyway, Oh and Two.” 
    Any comments on these articles are welcome through a letter to the paper or to 4selfgovernment@gmail.com. My blog might interest you as well: www.alternativebyfritz.com