1976

17 Oct 1976, Sun The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

Well, until this very day in 2023, I believed the town in Massachusetts where the Patriots play was spelled "Foxboro," and it often is. Actually, though, it's "Foxborough," and, in my 1976 pretend, I'm planning to be there for tomorrow night's Jets-Patriots game. 

On today, Oct. 17, 1976, however, fake me is hanging out in my Holiday Inn room in Worcester, flipping through the (fantastic!) Sunday Boston Globe and watching (glorious!) television. We've got the Week 6 of the NFL, Game 2 of the World Series and/or a highly promising made-for-TV movie to check out.

 

Of course, supper is looking pretty promising, too. We'll definitely be taking a break this evening from Borbon, Barbeau et al., to make a trip downstairs to the ol' Persian Room to eat.

1976

My word, I adore newspapers. If I had lived in Philadelphia today in 1976, there's about a 101-percent chance that this page would've already been taped to my bedroom wall in advance of tonight's game ...

13 Jul 1976, Tue The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Newspapers.com

1976

 Being an A's fan is always kind of weird.

19 Jun 1976, Sat The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) Newspapers.com

1976

18 May 1976, Tue Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

This really did become huge, huge news in my world. It's going to lead to my portraying Howard "Mr. C" Cunningham in a Concord Elementary third-grade play, which is the kind of thing that will really stunt a kid.

1976

Here are Verne Lundquist and Byron Nelson to get us ready for the Byron Nelson Golf Classic at Preston Trail Golf Club, which starts Thursday, May 6, 1976, in Dallas.

This tournament probably won't merit any too much flow in the comments, but I couldn't let those two clips get by without commemoration here. 

1976

MLB76 Update: Tim Hosley is an A again, and here's the cartoon that The Oakland Tribune published today in 1976 (Thursday, April 22) after the Tigers won the series finale yesterday. I'm not sure that I totally understand it--"Curtains For the A's," maybe? But they're 6-5 and only a half game out of first in the American League West.

22 Apr 1976, Thu Oakland Tribune (Oakland, California) Newspapers.com

1976

I just can't quit thinking about Tim Hosley and Randy Hundley.

There have been moments in the last few days of 2023 when I've been among here-and-now people in my actual scope of meaning and, sometimes, actual sphere of influence with whom I've been actually talking and interacting with in actual Madisonville, Kentucky. And then I find myself losing bead on conversation because my head is drifting back to Tim Hosley and Randy Hundley and imagining this sunny Tuesday afternoon in Chicago, the ups and downs of their histories and prehistories, Vince Lloyd and Jerry Morales, South Carolina and Virginia, the Chicago Tribune and WGN, the A's and the Padres, proms and fantasy camps, Hawaii and Palatine, Spartanburg and Williard Schmidt.

Why am I so stupid?

The Cubs on April 13, 1976, brought back Hundley as a backup catcher and demoted Hosley, a backup catcher. Hundley's signing was announced and celebrated during Chicago's home opener of that season, against the Mets. I'm not sure whether Hosley's demotion was executed before, during or after Hosley's pinch-hit popout in the Cubs' victory.

I'm not certain, but I might have had these actual pieces of cardboard since I was 7. I'm 54 now. It's not rare, but it's a curious thing to carry these things all of the places I've carried them for this many years. Sometimes I fancy myself a cell-memory descendant of Andrew or the Numbers writer, and it's just written in heart to count and to note, and so it's best that I just recognize and adhere. Mostly, though, I just wonder, why am I so stupid? And adhere.

I think it could be a heck of an interesting book or a pretty movie, Tim Hosley and Randy Hundley on the Sunny Afternoon of April 13, 1976, in Chicago, Illinois, United States of America. But I doubt I will write either one of those today because baseball doesn't stop and I've moved on to April 15, 1976, for Minnesota at New York (A) in the first-ever game at newly renovated Yankee Stadium (the old one at East 161st Street and River Avenue). 

15 Apr 1976, Thu Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com

16 Apr 1976, Fri Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com
The New York Daily News reported in this 1976 morning's editions that the Yankees had been thinking about trading Ron Guidry to the Royals for Tony Solaita, and it sounds like they would've done it but Kansas City backed out on the deal!

15 Apr 1976, Thu Daily News (New York, New York) Newspapers.com