Love old newspaper clippings

As a former newspaper sports reporter, I enjoy reading articles from the past.

I for one will hate it when newspapers are gone for good and we are certainly heading that way with the Internet taking over as the big source for up-to-the-minute new stories. I still enjoy my cup of coffee and my daily newspaper every morning. But I have to admit if I'm up early enough, I can turn on my laptop or press a button on my smart phone and presto everything newsworthy which will be in my driveway in say four or five hours is already available through other sources. Still, I love looking at a good newspaper and especially a well-written sports page.

Maybe it's because I know first hand all the work that went into getting that particular paper or sports page into print. A teammate of mine, 83-year-old Brad Tolson, handed me the sports section from a Long Beach, Ca., paper earlier this week when I showed up in the dugout to visit my buddies on the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) baseball team at Udall Park.

The sports page was from a Wednesday addition of a newspaper called the Independent. The issue date: Aug. 27, 1958. On that particular date, Tolson, and another teammate of mine, Ron Kwart, who's now a chipper 79 years of age,  were in Long Beach competing in the International Softball Congress World Fastpitch Tournament. Tolson and Kwart played for a Tucson team and were eliminated in two games, but the elimination game was a real barn-burner, a 1-0 loss to a Texas team, and the results and a recap of the game were splattered in the center section of the Long Beach paper's sports section.

The box score recorded the Tucson team with just three hits -- two by Kwart and one by Tolson. Dave Harris, the top fast pitch hurler in Tucson during that era, took the loss. As I surveyed the rest of the sports page, I discovered that  the Dodgers' Sandy Koufax had lost the day before to Don Newcombe and the Cincinnati Redlegs, 6-4.

The starting lineup for the Dodgers that particular day included Junior Gilliam, John Roseboro, Duke Snider, Carl Furillo, Norm Larker, Gil Hodges, Charlie Neal and Don Zimmer. Some guy named Frank Robinson had a key double for Cincinnati to help win the game for the Redlegs. Another box score showed Robin Roberts winning his 14th game of the year in Chicago as the Phillies beat the Cubbies, 10-3, while over in Washington, D.C., Early Wynn pitched a seven-hitter and drove in two runs in a 5-2 White Sox win over the Senators.

As for advertisements, you could buy a King Edward cigar for 6 cents or get your breaks done at Brake King in Long Beach for  $9. 50.

I could go on. And now you see why I love the old newspaper clippings.