It took only until the second inning of the World Series opener for
Tom Seaver to deliver his annual plug for Fairbanks and the Alaska Goldpanners on national television Tuesday night.
Seaver, who played for the Goldpanners in
1964 and
1965 and now pitches for the Cincinnati Reds, brought up references to his playing days here while broadcasting the Los Angeles-New York contest for NBC-TV with Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek
With one out and one on in the second,
Graig Nettles, another ex-Goldpanner, came to bat and Seaver and Garagiola engaged in the following conversation:
Seaver: "I've known Graig for 15 years. I played with Graig in Alaska."
Garagiola: "Baseball in Alaska? Tell me about it."
Seaver: "They have a summer college baseball league up there. We played in Fairbanks, Alaska."
Garagiola: "How long's the season? Six months with the snow?"
Seaver: "We started one game at 11:30 at night - the
Midnight Sun Game... We've got some ex-Alaska Goldpanners here!"
It was the second consecutive year Seaver has commented on his Alaska League days while broadcasting the World Series.