[Eugene Church]

MY LIFE IN 1953
EC's Full of Glee in '53

EC needs to update the real baseball world of 1953... can't forget about my beloved Southern Association featuring two of my favorite teams of all-time... the Mobile Bears and the New Orleans Pelicans... my love of sports was partially inspired by following them in the Mobile Press-Register and the New Orleans Times-Picayune and listening to their broadcasts on WABB and WTPS... Jack Bitterman did the Bears' play-by-play and the Old Redhead, Ted Andrews, did the Pelicans... also by listening to the St. Louis Cardinals and Stan Musial on KMOX radio at night and reading about them in the newspaper and The Sporting News... and most of all, I thank my cousin Charles Darby... when I was 10 years old, he would take me to his baseball games on Sundays... he was 18 years old and a star pitcher for the Monumental Red Sox in the Florence city league... I would count his strikeouts and keep track of the game score... I remember one game he struck out 18 batters... cousin Charles could have played pro baseball, I think... because of these influences I sho 'nuff fell in love with baseball and sports.

Neither the Bears, nor the Pelicans are doing well in the first month of play... Mobile (16-20) is in last place, but only 6 games back of the top team Birmingham (21-13)... New Orleans (17-20) is a little bit better, trailing by 5 and a half games... looking at their lineups, it looks like a long season for both of them... both the Bears and Pels look like second division teams in '53... EC is not impressed with the talent on the teams this year... we'll have to see how it comes out in September... still have a lot of games to play.

Checking on my Cardinals (14-11) in the National League... they are doing alright, but looking at their lineup, I don't think they can beat the Dodgers (16-12)... they never did much in the 50s, much to my dismay... kind of looks like the Whiz Kids of Philadelphia (17-8) and the Milwaukee Braves (16-9) will top them, too... but I'm positive it will the dastardly Dodgers that will go up against the Yanks in the '53 World Series come October... ah... those were the days when we only had 16 teams and only two of them made the playoffs... now that is EC's kind of baseball... those were the simple days... 30 teams are too much for me to follow.... way too much.

Take a quick quiz: how many first names do you know for the starting pitchers in today's National and American League games?... and let me know how you did.

Uh, oh, EC doesn't know the first name of Martin, the Philadelphia Athletics' starter... but I do know the rest... even Shea for the Washington Senators.

I'm sure the power-packed and legendary Yankees (19-9) will win the American League in '53... don't remember who their main competition was that year... probably the Red Sox (16-12), followed by the Indians (15-11) and the White Sox (19-13)... we'll check again in September and see how good EC's memory is.