The good Sisters of St. Francis were baseball fans. And every fall our classrooms at St. Mary’s were filled with the sounds of the World Series being broadcast on a radio that was strategically positioned to allow the good Sister and her classroom to catch every sound of the game that plays so well on the radio … while still attempting to teach a class.
I remember the World Series of 1950 and the beating that the Philadelphia Phillies and their ace, Robin Roberts, took at the hands of the New York Yankees. I can hear the rhythm of the game, but unfortunately, remember very little about the class being taught.
I’ll not attempt to list all the stats of Robin Roberts, one of my boyhood heroes. Sports Illustrated (SI.com) has a beautifully written tribute article by Joe Posnanski detailing Roberts’ accomplishments on the pitching mound. I urge my baseball friends to read this article. He was a throwback from the deadball era – a pitcher that finished what he started, and a hero to Philadelphia Philly fans.
Roberts was the ace of the 1950 Philadelphia Philly team known as the “Whiz Kids.” He began a string of six straight years where he started 37-plus games and finished 20 or more each year – an incredible pitching feat in any era.
DiMaggio, Williams, Spahn, Mantle, Reese, Robinson, Hodges, Furillo, Reiser, Campanella … and Roberts – all boyhood heroes whose accomplishments still live in my mind on the radio.
