The Slice: On the radio, it was always a home run

Many Slice readers treasure memories of listening to baseball on the radio.

Dan Masters grew up with Vin Scully broadcasting Los Angeles Dodgers games in the ’60s.

Marilyn Frei listened to Dodgers games back when the team was still in Brooklyn.

Rick Hobbs remembers hearing Red Sox games in 1967, a season when Boston went to the World Series.

Some even recalled the era when broadcasters who weren’t actually in attendance at the game would re-create the event for listening audiences – the play-by-play informed by telegraphed accounts.

A few of these memories are special in large part because of loved ones who shared the experience.

Alan Howard’s grandfather listened to Milwaukee Braves games. And Howard happened to be visiting him on the day in 1959 when Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Harvey Haddix had a perfect game going through 12 innings but lost to the Braves in the 13th.

“Sitting there on the edge of my grandfather’s bed and listening to one of the best baseball games ever played can’t be too shabby,” wrote Howard.

Johnny Erp’s story is a little different.

He was in a forward base camp up near the so-called demilitarized zone in Vietnam. He and others listened to an Armed Forces Radio broadcast of the New York Mets winning the World Series in 1969.

Erp recalled an ensuing celebration involving automatic weapons fire (including tracer rounds) and flares lighting up the dark sky.

That prompted a call from an agitated superior in a position to the rear. What was going on up there?

Erp laughed when remembering how a soldier who didn’t identify himself answered, “The Mets won the World Series, man.”

So anyway, one of Erp’s relatives was at the deciding game in Shea Stadium. This person got one of the countless chunks of turf gouged from the playing field. That sod souvenir was mailed to Vietnam.

By the time it got to Erp, the grass looked dead. But he put the turf in the ground and watered it relentlessly. And it snapped back to life right there in the middle of the war.

“I wonder if it’s still there,” said Erp.

Today’s Slice question: How many Slice readers wore miniskirts in the ’60s?