About That Almost Perfect Game I Saw Back in '83-- Part 4: Do You Mention a Perfect Game During It

Back in April of 1983, I was at old Comiskey Park in Chicago on a very cool night and watching the White Sox play the Detroit Tigers.  A buddy and I had bought a White Sox twenty ticket plan and got tickets to twenty Sox games throughout the season.  The best thing about the plan was that we were guaranteed seats at the1983 All Star game which was played at Comiskey.  I think we paid around $100 each for the plan.

As usual, my buddy and I had parked in Bridgeport, just to the west of Comiskey and stopped at a bar for some food and drinks before walking to the park.  We got to our seats and settled in for some Friday night baseball.

Milt Wilcox was pitching for Detroit and the White Sox batters were being set down with regularity while Detroit was building up to a 6-0 lead.  As a matter of fact, by the end of the seventh inning the Sox had not gotten a hit or walk, nor had any reached on an error.  Could this be that rarest of the rare?

Of course, neither my Buddy or I said anything about it.  In baseball you just don't talk about no-hitters or perfect games while they ae underway.  It just isn't done by real fans.  It is especially true with announcers.  

Dan Holmes, a big Tiger fan, said that before Wilcox pitched to the Sox in the 8th inning, that the screen on his TV back in Detroit where he was watching the game ran the line score and announcer George Kell said:  "The Tigers have 13 hits tonight -- 13 more than the White Sox."

--RoadCox

TEENAGERS AND CATS:  You rarely see a cat walking outside of the house with an adult human being, and it can be safely said that no teenager in his or her right mind wants to be seen in public with his or her parents.

Thirty Years Ago: B-Ball Scoring, Secret Santa and Columbia House

Just looking back at my journal for Dec. 5-7, 1983.

I was keeping score at 7th and 8th grade boys and girls basketball games just about every day after school as I was the official scorer and ran the clock.

Our superintendent came up with the idea for "White Alerts" when we had the possibility of a snowstorm which we had today. This allowed teachers to leave at the same time students did.

I got my Secret Santa, Marcy.

Dec. 7, 1983, we had a fire drill at 2:40 PM and we all had to go out in the cold. Both Magee Middle School girls teams lost to Woodland.

"When I returned home, I found that my records (albums) had arrived from Columbia House, all 13 of them. I now need to buy 7 more records at around $11 apiece. That will come to $85 for 20 albums, not a bad deal considering most sale records now cost $6.99."

Anybody remember Columbia House and BMG (and I think they had another name before becoming BMG) Records? I sure always enjoyed looking at the ads for these companies and the pamphlets you'd get every month/4 weeks. The only problem was getting the featured album if you forgot to return the letter saying you didn't want it.

I still have a few/many of  those featured albums.

--Collecting Those Albums. --RoadDog

Jerry Hairston: The Guy Who Broke Up the Perfect Game All Those Years Ago

Closing out that perfect game for 26 outs that Milt Wilcox of the Detroit Tigers was pitching back 30 years ago, April 15, 1983 with some information on the guy who messed it all up, Jerry Hairston.

I went into his history and then found that he is a member of a Major League Baseball family, with two of his sons playing with the Cubs and Dodgers this year.  And, his father also played one year at the major league level.

Jerry Hairston was born in 1952 and spent 14 years in the majors playing mostly for the Chicago White Sox.  From 1978-1980, he played in the Mexican League, where he met his wife.  His lifetime batting average was .258 and he hit 30 homers, used primarily as a pinch hitter.

His best year was 1983, when he appeared in 101 games, had 126 at bats, 5 home runs and 37 hits for a .294 batting average.

He was pinch hitter excellent for the White Sox and manager Tony LaRussa made great use of that ability in that year when the Sox went to their first post season since the World Series in 1959.

Quite the Pinch Hitter, But WHY Did He Have to Get THAT HIT!!!??  --RoadDog


TOO PUNNY:  What does a clock do when it's hungry?  It goes back four seconds.  (These are getting bad.)

Ten At 1983

This past Tuesday, Bob Stroud went back to 1983 on his Ten At Ten show on WDRV, Chicago's Drive.

This was a big year for me and I did a whole lot of listening as my deejay business was really taking off.  I had spent 1982 deejaying at places that had their own equipment and learning the trade.  I now had my own equipment and was getting paid a whole lot more.

Here are the songs he played:

TWILIGHT ZONE--  Golden Earring
MODERN LOVE--  David Bowie
SUNDAY BLOODY SUNDAY--  U2
I WANT A NEW DRUG--  Huey Lewis & the News-- Was that RnR or what?
BANG THE DRUM ALL DAY--  Todd Rundgren--  One of the all-time great party starters.  Jonathan Brandmeier sure played it a lot on WLUP.

FOOLIN'--  Def Leppard
ON THE DARK SIDE--  John Cafferty & the Beaver Brown Band--  From the movie "Eddie and the Cruisers"
BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE--  Talking Heads
TENDER IS THE NIGHT--  Jackson Browne
GIMME ALL YOUR LOVIN'--  ZZ Top-- The only one without a beard was named Beard.

A Great Year.  --RoadDog

Flashback to 1983

I'm listening to WXRT's Saturday Morning Flashback right now. Every Saturday, host Wendy Rice takes you back to one year from the late 60s to early double 0s. You get the music and lots of information.

Some songs to bring back some memories:

BANG ON THE DRUMS-- Todd Rundgren
BURNING DOWN THE HOUSE-- Talking Heads
SYNCHRONICITY 2-- Police
LET'S DANCE-- David Bowie
MAJOR TOM-- Peter Schilling

PINK HOUSES-- John Mellancamp
COME DANCING-- Kinks
RADIO FREE EUROPE-- REM
IN A BIG COUNTRY-- Big Country
BLISTER IN THE SUN-- Violent Femmes

NEW YEAR'S DAY-- U2
SWEET DREAMS-- Eurythmics

Notable Deaths:

The two bears: George Hallas and Paul Bryant
Tennessee Williams
Michael Conrad-- Hill Street Blue's roll call Sergeant Esterhaus
Arthur Godfrey
Slim Pickens
Carolyn Jones-- Better-known as Morticia Addams
William Demorest-- Uncle Charlie
Buster Crabbe-- Good old Flash.

Also, US forces invaded Grenada.

Saturday Morning Flashback is on WXRT 93.1 FM in Chicago from 8 am to noon. It streams live.

Have You Had Your '83 for Today? --RoadDog


MUSINGS FROM A CONFUSED MIND: They told me I was gullible and I believed them.