I happened to wake up at 1:30 in the morning and decided instead of trying to go back to sleep I would just get up and check email. That got me to thinking about how I used to deal with middle of the night sleep issues in my youth. I think now that my generation may be the last of the real rock radio generation. I always had a radio by my bed and it was often tuned to WLS in Chicago with John Records Landecker spinning the hits. Now, I grew up in the deep south as they say up nawth. But, I also grew up in the era of the AM radio giants. I would get tuned into WLS because at night they allowed certain stations in the nation to crank up the signal. I remember going to school the next day and hearing my friends talk about listening to Chicago the night before.
If you were cool then you listened to the radio once the adults were in bed. It was a habit I kept throughout my twenties and into my thirties. I would listen to talk and news stations like KMOX in Saint Louis and also a Cleveland station and a New Orleans station. I was rocked to sleep by the sounds and voices coming out of the radio. I was then woken the next morning by the sounds of the local Gadsden, Alabama stations signing on. When I heard WGAD in Gadsden sign on then I knew I had made the journey and was now safely back home.
I don't know why but the sounds of people talking in the distance has always soothed me. When I was a kid I would be in bed and hearing the adults in the living room talking softly would help me drift off to sleep.
Another trick I had to help me sleep was naming Allstar baseball teams in my head. Some people counted sheep or so I hear. I counted the pitching staff and roster of my all star teams. First the national league and then the American.
So, here I am and it's now two o:clock in the morning. I'm not sixteen anymore and it's a long way from the 1970"s until the twenty first century. But, just for fun and not using google I'm going to see what my sixty something year old brain matter has rattling around in it. I'm not going to do the present day lineups. I'm going to try and do the allstar teams I would have done to sleep if this were still around the early to mid seventies. Then I might post this blog and go to bed.
The National League:
Manager:Sparky Anderson: Reds
First base: Tony Perez: Reds
Second Base: Bud Harrelson: Mets
Short Stop: Maury Wills: Dodgers
Third Base: Pete Rose: Reds
Catcher: Johnny Bench: Reds
Pitcher: Tom Seaver: Mets, Phil Niekro: Braves, Steve Carlton: Phillies, Don Sutton: Dodgers.
Relievers: Clay Carol: Reds, Pat Jarvis: Braves,
Left Field: Willie Stargell Pirates
Center Field: Roberto Clemente Pirates
Right Field Hank Aaron Braves
American League:
First Base: Al Kaline: Tigers
Second Base: Frank Cash: Tigers
Short Stop: Campy Campaneris A's
Third Base Sal Bando A's
Catcher: Bill Freehan Tigers
Pitcher: Jim Palmer Orioles, Vida Blue A's, Mickey Lolich Tigers, Dave Mcnally Orioles.
Relief Pitchers: Bill Lee Red Sox, Mel Stottlemyer Yankees,
Now back then I would have named managers and back up's and more pitchers. I would have had more players and my starters would have been different and certainly I have left off many players due to the intervening years and trying to remember on the spur of the moment a long ago era of sports.
But, anyway at the end of that I would find sleep somewhere and drift off. I'll check this for accuracy in the morning but right now for fun and because I'm getting sleepy I'm going to sign off for now. I'm sure my favorite Atlanta Brave of all time Hank Aaron hit the game winning homer for the national league somewhere in the night. You can read about it in tomorrows version of the "Braves Box" in my old hometown Gadsden Times somewhere between July 1972 and July 1975. Goodnight for now Sports Fans.
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