Game Six

As I drove back and forth to Minneapolis to the Social Venture Partner International convention, I listened to "Game Six" by Mark Frost. Considered by ESPN as the number one "best" baseball game in history - on Oct. 21, 1975 the Cincinnati Reds played the Boston Red Socks leading the series 3-2.

I was watching the game in Swing Hall (Miami of Ohio) with Wayne Walder (the Cincinnati fanatic) and Andrew Chesley (the Boston fanatic) and a host of other college guys.  Famous for many reasons - number of relief pitchers; seesaw battle; defensive catchs and outs; and Carlton Fisk walk away homerun - the game was an epic battle of two historic teams steeped in baseball tradition. 

I decided to rewatch game 6 and 7 to re-experience the action.  While interesting, it was "flat".  Why?  Was it the non HD image and "pong" like computer graphics?  Was it the fact the outcome was known?  Was it I had just listened pitch by pitch to the 11 CD audio book?  Was it that I was not with the college guys of 1975?  Was it just the slow nature of the baseball game in today's fast pace world?  Was it the conflict of actual details vs what the mind had chosen to remember?

Recapturing the details of memories is like grasping for gnat in thin air- you think you've captured it briefly only to open your hand to see nothing.  Constant efforts are futile and frustrating. Yet the events surrounding the memory trigger the desire to re-experience every detail.