Remembering an all-star game highlight

The great thing about baseball’s all-star game is that the competition resembles actual baseball. Unlike the farcical exhibitions in football, hockey and (to a slightly lesser degree) basketball, baseball’s all-star game isn’t some warped version of the sport.

One memorable moment from these annual National League vs. American League matchups took place during the television broadcast of the 1968 game at Houston’s Astrodome.

Houston, as you might recall, was a leading center for innovative cardiac surgery at that time.

Anyway, American League first baseman Harmon Killebrew (born in Idaho) hurt himself while doing the splits to make a defensive play. He went down and stayed down.

The announcers referred to him probably having suffered a groin injury.

Now we all know that while it actually refers to the web of muscle and connective tissue where the legs join the torso, some people — sports announcers included — say “groin” and mean “genitals.”

So as trainers and medical staff attended to the injured Killebrew out on the field, a broadcast microphone picked up the sound of a fan shouting a suggestion.

“Give him a transplant!”

I thought my brother would never stop laughing.