Why I Love Night Baseball....A blog for my father...

Growing up, my Pop worked midnights, or the over-night shift. That meant a few things for me at my house growing up. Since he worked at night, he got home in the morning. in the summer when we were not in school, that meant being quiet during the day. Pops would sleep while us and the rest of the world...eeerrr....house at least was up and awake. This was not a big deal, because as kids, we would be outside playing baseball, wiffleball, or any sports of all sorts. If we were not outside playing we were sitting in front of the TV watching the Cubs.

During the summer, we didn't really have a set bedtime, but when it got closer to the time of the year when school would start, we would have to go to bed at an earlier time....a more "normal, school night " time.
We didn't have AC growing up, we didn't have a lot of things...we had all we needed and some of what we wanted. Since there was no AC, we had window fans. My bedroom shared a wall with my folks room, which means that we had windows very close to each other. Since Pop worked nights, he would get up shortly after we went to bed. As he was getting ready for work, he would have on the radio, WGN to be precise, and in the summer, when the Cubs would be on the west coast, the games would be on as he was getting ready for work. His window would be opened, my window would be opened, and we would listen to the games.....together, but not really.

As I got older, I still loved to listen to the west coast games at night, in my bedroom with my windows opened. It was sometimes hot, sometimes humid, but always a good time. I don't remember if the Cubs won or not, but it didn't really matter. It was always a good game, a good time. It was something that made me think of my pops.

A few years ago my Mom got sick and was in the hospital in Peoria for a while. Whenever I had a chance, Id go there and usually drive back when it was night time and listening to the Cubs games helped me get through those hard times.

Even now, I will on occasion, go to my pops to watch a night game. If i don't watch the the game, I will without fail, have the cubs game on my radio, with the windows opened, listening, and remembering.....and smiling.