Last night I cried tears of joy.<\/p>\n
I was driving home from the office after staying until well past seven because of publication deadlines, and I was well into Pennsylvania when I realized — there’s a Nationals game on the radio!<\/p>\n
Two months ago, a Harrisburg radio station announced they were dropping Phillies broadcasts in favor of Nationals broadcasts<\/a>. This news excited me — I love the Nationals radio team of Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler — and I found that I could receive the station on the road from (roughly) Glen Rock to my apartment.<\/p>\n So, five miles from my apartment I tuned into 96.5, and I heard it.<\/p>\n The mellifluous tones of Charlie Slowes.<\/p>\n The road suddenly became blurry. Tears of joy.<\/p>\n Charlie and Dave. On the radio. In Pennsyltucky.<\/p>\n I'm listening to the Nationals game on Harrisburg's 96.5. I literally cried tears of joy when I heard Charlie & Dave on my radio @NatsRadio<\/a><\/p>\n — Allyn Gibson (@allyngibson) April 9, 2015<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I got home in time for the bottom of the first, and hearing Charlie and Dave call the game brought back fond memories.<\/p>\n Television is nice and lovely and all, but if you can’t see a game in person, the way to “see” the game is on the radio. Baseball is literate, a sport made for words. Ring Lardner knew this. Michael Bishop knew this; Brittle Innings<\/i> is magnificent. W.P. Kinsella knows this; Shoeless Joe<\/i> and The Iowa Baseball Confederacy<\/i> are simply magical. I wrote a baseball short story myself<\/a>, and I know this, too.<\/p>\n I heard Ryan Zimmerman smash the two run homer, and I wanted to shout “Zim!” at the top of my lungs, but that would have been rude to my neighbors. Instead, I jumped, and I bashed my hand into the ceiling, as the ceilings in my apartment are quite low. I obviously wasn’t thinking.<\/p>\n As I worked on documents for the office throughout the evening, I had the radio on. Charlie and Dave switched off each inning, and I felt like my old friends were back with me once more. Oh, I’ve never met them, but I used to listen to them often when I lived in Randallstown. I remember where I was when I heard Charlie’s call of Jayson Werth’s walk-off home run in game 4 of the 2012 NLDS, the one that kept the Nationals’ season alive for one more game. (Specifically, I was in my Beetle, about a mile from home. I spent the last mile screaming my head off.)<\/p>\n Here’s that radio call, by the way.<\/p>\n\n