The Sox bring back a memory or two

Last night, I am watching Comcast SportsNet on channel 44 which has a Bears show. You get to see Lovie Smith's Wednesday press conference and stuff like that. Right in the middle of the injury report, the screen changes to a special bulletin. Special bulletin on channel 44? This isn't a news station....

Oh. The White Sox just won the World Series. That's nice.

I am not a baseball fan. It's a boring game. I prefer fast paced sports like football and basketball. The only thing worse than watching baseball on TV is watching golf. Still, I switched over to Fox just in time to see them replay the final out of the game. Sox players were hugging and highfiving. It has been 88 years so I can understand the joy. In fact, as I sat there my thoughts drifted to one person who really should have been there.

My grandpa.

My two main memories of my grandpa are of him playing poker at his kitchen table and of him sitting in his recliner watching baseball and smoking a cigar, a scent I don't mind only because it always reminds me of my grandpa. When you first walked from the front hall into my grandparents' house, you immediately saw that recliner. It was Grandpa's chair. If you sat in it, you had to move when he returned. At some point during my life he got a new one that was heated and vibrated. He really enjoyed showing me how it worked. Of course, I thought it was the coolest chair ever. Directly in front of the chair, against the far wall, was the TV. It was one of those big floor TVs that no one has anymore. It was really a piece of furniture all by itself. Grandpa had a direct line of sight to the TV from his chair. I have no doubt that he arranged that.

He is the only grandpa I remember as my mom's dad died when I was just a little kid. What I remember about my grandpa was his affection. At a time when men didn't really show much affection - my father didn't, for instance - grandpa didn't mind giving a hug or kiss. I remember his big honest smile. And boy did he love watching baseball. Unfortunately, more often than not, they played badly and he was muttering choice words about various players or umpires. And that's why I wish he could have been around to see the Sox win it all. I can picture the joy that would have been on his face when they won.

I was trying to figure out if Grandpa would have been around for the last time the Sox won the Series. I know my grandma was born in 1909 and I think Grandpa was 8 years younger than she was. (She claimed she didn't want to marry such a young guy but her parents forced her.) Therefore, he would have been born in 1917.

Hey, that's the same year the Sox won the World Series last time.

I miss you, Grandpa.