But I always feel guilty. So to alleviate that guilt, I'm going to leave something really cool. Below, you'll find a video of the original broadcast of game three of the 1982 World Series. For all of the young kids out there who don't know, that was the Willie McGee game. If you want to know why we love Willie so much, watch this game.
Actually, the reason we love Willie is because he was such a humble and decent person. Yes, he was an outstanding ballplayer. Yes, he won two batting titles and an MVP while playing a Gold Glove center field. A great ballplayer. But you could tell the man cared about the game and his craft and his simple human decency was always apparent. Everybody just loves Willie and you'll never hear a bad word said about the man in St. Louis.
I was at the last game the man every played in the big leagues and that's one my favorite baseball memories. Everyone in Busch Stadium, again and again, rising as one to applaud Willie McGee, not because of his exploits on the field - respected as they were - but because of the man he was off the field. No one ever represented the Cardinals and St. Louis better than Willie McGee.
So here's game three of the 82 series and I'll be back next Monday with more St. Louis Civil War baseball stuff.
This is a good game. Besides Willie's exploits, which included two home runs and two outstanding defensive plays in the field, you got the great and slightly insane Joaquin Andujar going against the great and slightly insane Pete Vuckovich. In the seventh, Ted Simmons (my favorite ballplayer of all-time) hits a line drive off of Andujar's knee and, I swear, Andujar looked like he was going to die. They had to carry him off the field. But he was One Tough Dominican and came back to start - and win - game 7. And if I think about it, I might post that game some time this week.
I loved the 1982 World Series and, until the 2011 series, it was absolutely my favorite. It was my first of seven - eight if you count 1968 when I was like six months old - and you always remember your first. I'll check and see how many games I can find from the series and put them up for fun. It was a great series.
And, while I'm thinking about it, congrats to Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine, the Big Hurt, TLR, Bobby Cox, and Joe Torre. That's a hell of a Hall of Fame class and I got great stories about all of those guys. But I'll save those for another day. See ya in a week.