Description

We're coming to you a few hours early this week, and for good reason!

Later today, about 10 p.m. Alaska Daylight Saving Time, the annual Midnight Sun Game will be played in Fairbanks. Just as it has every year since 1906 (the result of a bar bet, go figure:-) baseball will be played on the Summer Solstice in Fairbanks without the aid of artificial lighting. This year, the Alaska Goldpanners host the Michigan Monarchs.

In this episode we speak with a pair of long-time observers of the Midnight Sun Game and all things Alaska Baseball League: Bob Eley, former sports writer and sports editor at the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, and Lew Freedman, former sports writer and sports editor at the Anchorage Daily News. Freedman is also the author of Diamonds in the Rough: Baseball Stories from Alaska.

During our time with Bob and Lew learn a bit about their history as sports fans (Bob saw the L.A. Dodgers play in the L.A. Coliseum as a youngster and Lew, a Bostonian, was an unabashed Ted Williams fan) and the myriad things witnessed on the baseball diamonds in Alaska:

• Setting the infield dirt on fire at Fairbanks' Growden Park to dry it out in order to play the Midnight Sun Game.
• The evolution and devolution of the college summer baseball leagues.
• Name dropping Hall of Famers Randy Johnson, Tom Seaver, and Dave Winfield, all of whom played in the ABL.
• How last year's League MVPs, Aaron Judge and Paul Goldschmidt, were both ABL products.
• How three generations of Boone's (Ray, Bob, and Aaron and Bret) have all been involved in the ABL.

Here's a YouTube of a wobbly recording of the "Alaska Flag" song at the 2007 Midnight Sun Game.

And no game at Growden Park would be complete without a playing of the Beat Farmers' "Happy Boy" which really needs to be heard to be appreciated.

If you're interested in checking out the action, most games are posted on the Goldpanners YouTube channel here a day or two after completion.