What is this thing with Saudi Arabia? It's like Saudi Arabia is the most powerful country in the world. One prince gets picked up for rape and then let off, his cousin gets caught with two tons of drugs apparently meant for "ISIS". Those Saudi dudes are always crashing their cars in Beverly Hills. And there was that escort of the bin Laden family out of the country on Sept. 12th. Somebody, explain what the United States is afraid of? Oil will get cut off? Or something else?

Whatever...since, as I've said before, the global power game is just that, a game, let's talk about something culturally important to some of us. The World Series! I'm rooting for the Mets so I'm hoping they win all three of the games at Shea Stadium! I enjoy living in the past, just for fun. When I chat with my Angel fan friends I amuse myself, maybe even some of them too, by calling the opposing manager some wrong name. Like if the Angels are playing the Tigers I'll call Detroit's manager "Sparky". Or Seattle's manager "Lou". Thus, "Shea Stadium". For any of you in Philadelphia, if the World Series were being played there I'd call the field "Connie Mack Stadium". I bet they blew that up 35 years ago.

Ok..the World Series! The Fall Classic! The Boys of Summer playing in The Almost Winter! It wasn't always like that. I remember sitting around the radio in the first few days of October as the Series ended. There was usually one teacher who'd let us bring in a transistor so we could hear Mel Allen describe Moose Skowron's at-bat. Because, you know, they used to play baseball in the daytime.

The World Series is a place where good players who aren't all that well known can become legends. And by legends I mean something like what happened in 1956. Don Larsen was a pitcher for the New York Yankees who had a decent season but still was considered the fourth best starting pitcher on his team. Thanks to a couple of errors in the 2nd inning of the 2nd game he gave up 6 runs to the Dodgers and was taken out. But he got another chance in Game 5 and was so good that the game itself has a name, "Don Larsen's Perfect Game". Larsen ended is career having lost more games than he won (thanks to a horrific 1954 season) but if you mention his name to a baseball fan they'll talk about that game on October 8th, 1956.

This was popular that year

Much like how Don Larsen was one of the "other" Yankees on a team that had Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and Whitey Ford, so too Gene Tenace of the Oakland A's, a .225 hitter in the 1972 season, was not much in the mind of the public as the Series vs. Cincinnati began. His teammates Reggie Jackson, Joe Rudi, Catfish Hunter and Vida Blue were expected to be the stars if Oakland won. But Tenace hit 2 homeruns in the first game, another couple in the rest of the Series and then drove in a couple of runs in the 7th and final game. In a statistical oddity Tenace drove in 9 runs for the entire Series and nobody else on his team drove in more than 1.

Chuck Berry had his worst song ever at #1. I'd rather post this, by The Main Ingredient

My first glove, an Al Rosen model, was tiny compared to what they've got now but even mine was big and better constructed by what they used in the 1930s (which were even bigger than the ones at the turn of the previous century). The 1934 Series, for example, had tons of errors. The losing Detroit Tigers made 5 in just the first game. I've read that it's the series that Pepper Martin, of the St. Louis Cardinals, "ran wild on the basepaths". Well...he stole a total of 2 bases. I guess he must have taken an extra base on a single or something. Or maybe I'm confusing it with 1931, when he stole 5 bases. In any case that Cardinal team of those years had a reputation of being "characters" with names like "Pepper" or "Dizzy" or "Daffy" or "Ducky". St. Louis had lost the 1928 series, pre-Pepper, Dizzy et al, when the Yankees beat them...using only 3 pitchers. That's unheard of now. The winner of this year's Game 2, Johnny Cueto, pitched the first complete game in the World Series since 1991. But back then it was common. Anyway the Cardinals retooled and won a bunch of championships through the '30s and early '40s.

In honor of the 1931 St. Louis Cardinals here's Bing Crosby, backed by Gus Arheim and his Orchestra, with a hit of the day

To wrap up this baseball trip, I have to mention the Miracle Mets of 1969. It was like a dream. They'd been so bad since forever. They'd started up in 1962 and were just horrible compared to the rest of the league. And then somehow they were the best. I believe they finished by winning 41 of their last 50 games and then continued winning in the post-season. Tommy Agee, Cleon Jones, Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Donn Clendenon...those are magical names for any Mets fan. What a summer that was! The Moon landing, Woodstock, the Miracle Mets.

The #2 song that week

I understand that today's players are fairly unsavory. They're probably right-wingers, probably pumped up with hard to detect drugs. Looking at players of today and comparing them with players from the late 1970s is stunning. Still, it's baseball, the World Series and I care more about it than I do about the Republican debate or whether Hillary is blaming Bernie for something he didn't say. I can grasp the concept better than the geopolitical ...was going to say "chess" but it's more like the aptly named card game, war, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria...huff puff...we're at war with 147 countries? Perhaps I read that wrong. When I compare what's going on with the card game I mean it's as pointless. There's no skill, no thinking involved. And we're the world's best at it!

Crikey...I just read CNN's "winners and losers" of the Republican debate. Shut up! Just shut up! Unbelievable. When I was growing up I believed that the smartest people would be in positions of power and authority. They'd be intelligent and sensible. Instead we've got military clowns who must be about 6 years old mentally, who think of the world as some kind of cops and robbers, cowboys and injuns, bang bang playground. We've got the media staffed by the dumbest graduates of the most mediocre schools of journalism. We've got slick con men and women playing the roles of President, Senators, Governors. No wonder I keep posting music and such!

Oh, and Happy Belated Birthday, Stock Market Crash of 1929! (Oct. 24th)