The starting lineups included five future Hall of Famers: Mays and Cepeda for the Giants, and Pee Wee Reese, Duke Snider and Don Drysdale for the Dodgers.The two legendary New York teams moved to California just in time for a young Hawaiian kid to catch Giants (and 49ers) live broadcasts on his new Sony transistor radio. Lon Simmons’ gravelly voice became as distinctive and familiar as President Kennedy’s Boston accent.
Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Al Kaline, Stan Musial, Sandy Koufax, Maury Wills, Tom Seaver…the list of baseball greats from my childhood goes on and on. Perhaps radio forced us to use our imaginations to make these players seem larger than life or perhaps events and people are made bigger when we’re small, but whatever the reasons the Giants of yesteryear, unlike the Giants of today, were worthy of their name. © 2008 Stephen Yuen
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