LOOKING BACK

Summer nights in the early 60s when I was just a kid,
and the Tacoma Giants graced the playing field
of the new Cheney Stadium in my home town,
you could find me glued to the old maroon red
plastic plug-in Philco radio in the kitchen,
listening to the riveting play-by-play
of Don Hill, Voice of the Giants.

The games started at 7:30, and most nights
they were over just before my 10:00 bedtime.
But some nights the games ran long,
and I was sent off to bed before the end.

In the darkness, under the covers,
I pressed my little white and grey plastic
transistor radio between my ear and pillow
so I could continue to listen to the game.
I had to keep the volume low, so no one
in the room I shared would be bothered by it.
If I was too tired, I’d fall asleep
before the game was over,
and wake in the middle of the night
to find nothing but silence on the radio,
as KTAC 850 AM had signed off until morning.

Half a century later I no longer live in Tacoma.
The Giants are now the Rainiers,
ironically the name of the Seattle team
that was our biggest rival in the days when
I spent my nights listening on the radio.

I hear that Cheney Stadium has just been
refurbished, and I wonder if I would even
recognize it after all these years. Maybe it’s best
to just keep it frozen in time in my memories,
along with those summer nights under the covers
listening to Don Hill, long gone to broadcasting heaven,
where there are no commercials to announce,
the home team always wins, and everyone
is listening to him on their transistor radios.