Don't look now, fellow grouches, but have you noticed how some words have simply disappeared from the English language, or at least from our everyday conversations. And not just that they have disappeared, but that they have done so seemingly without anyone noticing. We can all think of and expound on examples of these if we just put our minds to it. But there is one word in particular that has been on my mind the past few days. It is a word that used to be a prominent fixture this particular time of year (October)in the sporting world. If you haven't guessed by now, the gg is talking about the word "pennant." Is anyone out there besides the old gg been around long enough to remember when the champions of the American League and the National League in Major League Baseball were said to have won the "pennant?" Who can ever forget the headline in every East Coast newspaper on the morning after that infamous October 3 day in 1951 when the legendary Bobby Thompson hit his legendary game-winning home run off the bat of the hapless Ralph Branca of the Brooklyn Dodgers -- "Giants Win Pennant!" Sadly, today's sports writers are too young to have experienced the excitement of that day and what, indeed, was the contribution to baseball lore of that moment that allowed the upstart Giants to overcome a 13 game deficit on the last day of the 1951 season to win the "pennant." Yes, the PENNANT. No, today, we are informed that "the Nationals (Washington, DC) have won the National League Championship Series." Let's say it again -- the "National League Championship Series." And after tonight, perhaps we will be told by these same writers that "the Astros (Houston) have won the "American League Championship Series." I have not read one report or heard one sports talking head mention the word "pennant." It is as though that word has evaporated from our baseball lexicon. What next, the gg wants to know -- will we be told that the Nationals or the Astros have won the "Major League Championship?" Will the words "World Series" be the next to join the terms "pennant" and "Texas Leaguer" (used to describe a pop-up into the short outfield just beyond the infield) in the junkyard of baseball terminology? The gg deeply misses the word "pennant." This time of year, I long for it. It's a short word, easy to spell and easy to pronounce. It is readily identifiable in the minds of everyone who can remember what baseball was like in those halcyon days and years when there were only 8 teams in each league and there were no playoffs. The gg enjoys the modern-day playoffs as much as the next grouch, but I still wonder why they can't still refer to the prize of winning the League championship the "pennant." Why can't we preserve that one remnant from a sport that once was our "national pasttime?" After this week, I plan
to rattle every professed sports fan I know under the age of about 60 with this question: "Who won the pennant this year?"
gg
