Yay . . . I guess.
This is the third time in five years that the Giants have won the World Series.
Who knew?
I certainly didn't.
Honestly, the last time I remember watching a game of the World Series was when the Giants were playing the A's and there was a major earthquake.
I wrote about that yesterday, but it bears mentioning twice.
Especially since half my audience doesn't read the football blog anyway.
Also, watching games on the telly, I learned that they are now keeping track of the pitch count for every pitcher who takes the mound during the game. I'm sure that's an important statistic, but not one I've ever been aware of.
Also, they switch pitchers out a lot.
I don't remember that happening so much in 1989.
I remember a pitcher would be on the mound for like seven or eight innings and then if there was a hint of fatigue, some big scary guy would come out to finish the game.
Closing pitchers always seemed to have the most amazing facial hair.
Anyway, I got all nostalgic about that particular year. The year the A's beat the Giants in the World Series, so I typed 1989 into my brower and hit enter.
Normally if you do that for any particular year the first thing that comes up is websites that list all the interesting things that happened during that year.
But try doing that with 1989 right now and all you'll get is the new Taylor Swift album "1989"
Miss Swift is clearly more interesting right now than the Battle of the Bay, Michael Keaton's Batman, or the piano man insisting that it wasn't actually him that started the fire.
Miss Swift's album title is a reference to the year she was born. Which means she's 25 years old and is now elligible for a reduced premium on her car insurance bills. Of course, that also means she can't mooch off of her parents Health Benefits any longer so it's a bit of a wash.
I turned 13 in 1989. Right in the middle of middle school. I definitely sported a mullet, albums that year I listened to over and over were U2's Joshua Tree and Richard Marx's "Right Here Waiting"
It wasn't all fun and games though. I had my first kiss, but was dumped a day later. George Bush Sr. was the new president and I was still 365 days from being able to swim without adult supervision.
So yeah . . . times were tough.
I wrote my first short story that year. Something about a spooky guy on a train.
The only thing I really remember about that story is that I had the main character in a bar and he ordered a drink "straight-up on the rocks"
I remember my father had to correct me by letting me know that straight up meant without ice, and on the rocks meant with ice. But . . . he continued . . . how would I know that?
How would I know?
In my social studies class the year before we did an informal study of the 1988 election where the teacher had us bring in newsclippings, ads, or articles relating to one candidate or another. at the end of the month (October 1988) the teacher sorted the piles of print between the candidates and ended up with the very specific number that there were 75 articles for Dukakis and 56 articles for Bush.
I don't know why I remember those numbers exactly.
But based on the count, my teacher predicted with reasonable assurance that Dukakis was going to win based on his larger percentage of media attention.
I remember finding that very cynical at the time, even though I didn't really know what cynical meant.
Either way, she was wrong.
I wonder where she is now, and how she feels about Super PACs.
Anyway, 1989 was also the first debut of The Simpsons.
Awe yeah.
Gosh, I remember some kids in my school being slightly shocked that I was able to watch it.
It was that subversive.
Now I let my nine year old play Call of Duty and think nothing of it. In fact, I'm pretty sure that him and his buddies have been sneaking onto their iPads and looking at pictures of naked girls.
We didn't have naked girls back then.
But we did have Peggy Bundy. And that was so much, so much better.
1989 was the year I read Ender's Game. It was the year I started playing guitar. It was the year I got my first mountain bike (A Trek with automatic Shimano gear shifters which was stolen eight months later at my highschool). I didn't smoke, I didn't drink, I played a lot of Tetris, my favorite candy bar was 'Big Hunk' cause it lasted a long time and there was a lot of it.
I was still at that age where mixing sodas in your Super Big Gulp cup was a cool thing to do.
I had a paper route at one point, which lasted exactly one month.
I was not aware that I was responsible for collections and I think I gave up knocking on doors after two or three dog barks and took the $7.49 that I made that month and considered it a lesson learned.
I think that that also began my life long hatred of getting out of bed.
Maybe my sour faced cranky don't you dare touch me attitude before 9:37am isn't because of genetics. Maybe it was getting screwed by the Contra Costa Times.
Some scars never heal.
1989 is kind of hard to pin down. it was pre-Internet, pre-Clinton, pre-Reality TV, pre-Grunge, pre-cellphones, pre-NineEleven, the last little bit of the cold war when we started worrying about the Japanese taking over, but at least another decade before the chinese bought so much of our consumer debt. Everyone was fighting over oil. Go figure.
But a gallon of gas was .97 cents.
A quarter of a century is a long time ago . . . I guess.
I do remember, most of all, the feeling that I was destined for great things. I had no idea what, but I was pretty sure that awesome was bound to happen eventually.
I still feel that way, so I guess 25 years isn't as much a distant past as it is an earlier wave.
With that note, it's an important reminder that the "Wave" was cool at Candlestick in 1989.
It is not cool at AT&T Park now.
For some reason.
No comments:
Post a Comment