Sox vs. Cards: Old Time Ball reigns as teams from two best baseball towns in America meet in Fall Classic * Boston now has chance to exorcise Ghosts of '46 and '67.

The '67 Impossible Dream season long has held a central place in my baseball imagination. Back then, the mob carried Lonborg from the field. (Today, one talk-radio caller comments, they'd light him on fire. Sadly apt.)

Related reveries: On Tony C and what might have been * On the old White Fuel sign and the mystic chords of memory * On a Fenway pilgrimage

* * *

The music of the day is Western Swing in keeping with the Redbirds' hillbilly antecedents * Here are "Texas Playboy Rag" and "Keep Knockin' But You Can't Come In" by Bob Wills * A German page offers a selection of songs by the Light Crust Doughboys and others. I would rename the entry by Milton Brown and his Brownies "Easy Ridin' Papi."

Via Corbis: Dizzy Dean on sousaphone * In pith helmet * With the Gashouse Gang

The Deadball Era gives Pepper Martin his due. In this photo, Pepper gives it the old pepper, with wife Ruby.

* * *

Interesting to note the boost in ratings Fox got from the Sox' success.

Unfortunately, the network's execrable approach to broadcasting the games reportedly will continue:

Don't look for any changes in how Fox presents the game; if you don't like multiple replays, close-ups and crowd shots, well, that's too bad.

"I was watching a World Series game on (ESPN) Classic the other day where the director stayed on a shot from behind the pitcher for 21 seconds," [Fox Sports executive producer Ed] Goren said. "I thought that was a little boring."

If so, this viewer has boredom envy: I don't want to see up the pitcher's nostrils. I don't want to see a dozen anxious fans wearing their rally-caps inside out between every pitch for the last three innings. I actually would like to see plays as they take place, not replays of all previous plays set to Metallica. I don't want an extended cutaway to Scooter the Peter Puck-like cartoon baseball or Al Leiter in the booth explaining the dynamics of a slider when the pitcher on the field is actually pitching. I don't want to watch ads until the very millisecond after the first pitch of the inning is thrown.

What I wouldn't give for game coverage that stayed with a shot from behind a pitcher for 21 seconds.

* * *

It's a great weekend all around if you're a New England sports fan, with not only the World Series but also Notre Dame-BC football and the Head of the Charles on tap, on tap being the operative phrase.

* * *

Steve the Llama Butcher notes this Monday, Oct. 25, is St. Crispin's Day, the 589th anniversary of Agincourt falling between scheduled starts by Schilling and Pedro.

The brother martyrs St. Crispin and St. Crispian are the patrons of glove makers and leather workers, and their shrine was ornamented by St. Eligius, namesake of the Boston hospital in St. Elsewhere. This bodes well, one would think, for Boston fielders.

Don't, by the way, get Llama Butcher Steve started on "The Curse."