Extra! Extra! Read All About It

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I've always loved newspapers. In fact, one of my father's main aggravations with me as I grew up was that I always took the paper before he had the chance to read it. I also remember him telling my mother that we didn't really connect because:

"All he wants to do is read."

Did you ever see the show The Middle? The youngest kid is always reading, and is always getting yelled at for it.

But read I do.

And the more newspapers the better. The Buffalo News, The New York Post and USA Today are three staples of every day life now. I also go with the New York Times and the Boston Herald like every other day or so.

And not the electronic versions if I can help it! Let me hold the paper, let me fold it to the story I want, let me scan it, fold it, and read it again later! Save our newspapers!!!!

And why bring all of this up today?

Well, my sister delivered me the 27-Time World Champion Yankees history via all of the old New York Times newspaper clippings.

She was excited to give me the gift because she knew how much I'd enjoy it.

She wasn't wrong.

Last night I read the newspaper account of Babe Ruth being sold to the Yankees on down to Jeter collecting his 3,000th hit last season.

So much cool stuff.

Like seeing how the writing had changed. Like reading about Ruth's outrageous salary demands; he wanted $20,000 per season.

Like seeing the price of shirts - 2 silk shirts for $1.15.

Like reliving the 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000 winners. Seeing Reggie come aboard. Feeling what I felt when Mattingly went over 230 hits for the season.

Reading about how the Yanks blasted the overmatched, sort of pathetic Phillies of 2009.

It was all in there.

Read all about it, indeed.

And then there's the other thing:

As I read the news of the day and how important it all seemed to that writer, I was hit with the realization that it all passes.

One generation hands off to the next. Warts and all. Accolades and all. We are just mere specks of the universal horizon. Even Babe Ruth, or Mickey Mantle. There's a time to shine and a time to move out of the way for the next big guy coming through.

Perhaps I'm reading too much into it.

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