Spahn and Sain and Pray for Rain

John's story about the Giants took me back to the hot summer days of my childhood when my favorite past time was baseball. In those days my team was the Braves --Boston and then Milwaukee. The best escape from the heat around our house for a little kid was the shade underneath our back porch. The floor of the porch was about 3 or 4 feet above the ground so there was plenty of room to play under there so there we would gather and listen to the radio if a baseball game was on and if none was we would make up our own game using whatever was handy and our imaginations to put on a game of baseball. Didn't have to be anyone else there; if it was just me I could be both teams and name off the players of most National League teams or if were the world series it would be against the hated Yankeees. Me being part Indian my team was always the Braves. Back then the Braves had the best pitchers around with stars like Oklahoman Warren Spahn and his team mates Lou Burdette, Johnny Sain, and Bob Buhl. I don't remember who the announcer was but he often would say "Spahn and Sain and pray for rain" and the Braves would keep on winning. ( For you non-fans, back then pitchers needed at least a couple of days of rest before they pitched again so if Warren Spahn pitched on Monday, Johnny Sain would pitch the next and then if it happened to rain on Wednesday then Spahn would be ready again on Thursday, don't you see? Me myself being a catcher my favorite Brave was Dale Crandel the Braves All-Star Catcher. At first Base there was Joe Adcock. The Braves had a second baseman but I can't think of who it was today. At short was Johny Logan and on Third was the great Eddie Matthews who later would be the Braves Manager. A couple of the outfielders were Henry Aaron (the best ever) and Bobby Thompson and I'm sure there was another guy too. With the 3 Cagle boys, the Duncan brothers, The Taylors, Jim Blaylock and his cousin Snooks and Me, Wayne and Homer, we had our own little neighborhood team. You could find us almost any summer day playing make up games or "work up" or maybe just "burn-out" but in our own minds were as good as those guys on the radio and we were having fun and doing so without any adult supervision and rarely any harsh words or scuffles. You don't see much of that with boys now-a-days . Oh, you can drive by the park and there will be teams out there but they are all dressed up in fancy uniforms and there are more parents around than players and I guess that is not a bad thing, but it wasn't that way back in the fifties on the far west-side in Heavener. Well, I'm done; better go mow the yard before it gets too hot for me so I can get back inside the house under the air conditioner.