Nostalgia for Playoff Season Box Scores

[FromVAtoLA]

I was just scrolling through several box scores on my phone to see how the playoff standings were shaping up with a few days left in the season. That reminded me of when I was a kid and would wake up early this time of year to check the box scores and the standings in the morning newspaper. And, because I grew up in Virginia, I would often get so frustrated with the west coast games and the games that went late into extra innings. Those games would miss the publishing window.

So, day-old stats and standings would be mixed with two-day old stats, and I was left wondering about the latest news on the pennant races. I would quickly switch on the local news with the hopes that they would have some good updates on the sports segment which usually started at 21-past and 51-past the hour.

I also remembered how my local paper only ran the complete batting and pitching stats on Sundays. During this time of year, I would save that page and with a pencil and calculator try to figure out where players were going land at the end of the season based on each day's box score.

Getting old is weird. All of this is on my phone now...in real-time. It's so amazing and so much better; yet, there's some sense of nostalgia for how much I enjoyed baseball during my formative years when I would sit at the kitchen counter with a bowl of sugary cereal and my ink-smudged fingers would guide me through the season.

[philliesfan]

I remember those days. Especially when I was involved; and still am, in fantasy baseball.

I would only buy the late edition of the Phila. Daily News because they did have the West Coast box scores.

And before computers, we calculated our Fantasy League standing by hand based on the Tuesday and Wednesday editions of the USA Today because they published the up to date NL stats and AL stats on those two days.

Yes how things have changed. Everything you need is via internet in real-time now.

Bob

[GasHouseGang]

Related to that, I remember watching “This Week In Baseball” every weekend to see that week’s baseball highlights.

[philliesfan]

I remember TWIB. And remember the screaming baseball.....a rundown of the home runs that day.

[Balticfox]

We didn't get newspaper delivery in my school days so the first thing I did in the mornings was tune onto the radio which gave the sports scores in a no nonsense fashion twice per hour.

Sometime later in the day I'd trek to the library one block away to pour over the previous day's box scores and standings. My local London Free Press newspaper would carry the box scores for West Coast or late games as far as they had them, e.g. fifth inning. We'd always buy the big Saturday London Free Press whose Night Final edition woould not only carry partial box scores from games that had started in the afternoon but would carry partial Western Fair harness racing results from that afternoon!

Those were the days! Admittedly though getting sports scores/results these days is easier/better with the internet.

[ALBB]

and back in the day.. The Sporting News !

back pages had ALL the full box scores of ALL the games !