By the time this makes it to general public, baseball's World Series will have already started. Weather permitting, the first pitch was thrown Wednesday night as the Yankees and the Phillies square off for the title.

For me, in my status as an "old guy," the Series isn't about who's playing in it anymore. Especially since I figure my guys - the Rangers - aren't gonna make it in my lifetime.

No, the Series to me is about sparking memories. See? There I go sounding like an old man.

I guess my memories are kind of cliche. I don't remember who was playing, but I do remember sticking one of those little, rectangular transitor radios (my mind is telling me it was a creamy tan color, for some reason) in my shirt pocket and being thankful that the weather was cool enough for a jacket.

And I picked a jacket that had a big collar so I could run the earphone (remember those that were totally plastic-white and kinda looked like a miniature hearing aid?) from shirt pocket up to my ear ... and conceal nearly all of the wiring with the jacket ... and most of the wiring going up the side of my neck with the collar.

It was cool cruising the halls between classes while listening to the game (remember, in those days they still played a lot of games during the day instead of at night).

And being able to do something in the classroom that I really, really enjoyed? That was awesome.

Of course, I had to be careful.

It would be my turn to answer a question during class. I'd have to hear the question with one ear, while hearing the baseball announcer in the other ear ... and keeping the ear with the earphone in it, turned aways from the teacher so it wouldn't be seen.

Then, I'd have to consider the question in my mind while trying to turn off those thoughts of "get a hit, get a hit, get a hit" and ignore the ball game for a few minutes.

And trying to give the answer ... to talk out loud while someone else was talking into your ear and into your head ... and not mess up?

That was an art form.

Nowadays (a famous "old man" word), the games are nearly always all played at night to get more viewers and make more money.

But, for me, it'll always be about a transistor radio and an earphone.