Every Sunday afternoon was golden. The athletes played only for love of the game. And the stands were always full of Baltimore fans -- the best sports fans in the world.
That's pretty much the rose-colored view of "Gone But Not Forgotten II," another nostalgia-rama from Maryland Public Television. "Gone II," which airs at 8 tonight on Channels 22 and 67, revisits Maryland sports franchises and leagues from the 1930s to the '50s.
Baltimore Sun columnist Dan Rodricks narrates the program. It's important for readers to know that I consider Rodricks a friend. I BTC think that if friends review work of friends or colleagues, the reader should know of the relationship.
Not that "Gone II" calls for much reviewing. It's the Maryland sports version of a feel-good, can't-miss TV package that local stations around the country have been producing for years.
The formula: Hit the film and video archives, pull pictures from past events for which viewers are likely to have warm feelings, and write a script that celebrates those moments as a great and golden time.
Who wants to criticize a show that's mainly interested in making people feel good about their community and its shared memory of sports teams and palaces from the past?
Some of the places that "Gone II" revisits are: Old Oriole Park, the Coliseum, an airport raceway in Cumberland, the Jimmy Foxx memorial in Sudlersville on the Eastern Shore, and, of course, Memorial Stadium.
The teams and leagues include: the old Baltimore Orioles of the International League, the Baltimore Elite Giants of the Negro League, the Eastern Shore League, the Baltimore Orioles of the American League and, naturally, the Baltimore Colts of the National Football League.
Not surprisingly, many of the hour's best moments come during the time spent with the Colts in the late 1950s. There's lots of talk about the drive-ins opened by Colts' stars Gino Marchetti and Alan Ameche, with former patrons recounting the delights of "Gino's fifteen-o's," the name of the 15-cent hamburger at Gino's, according to this report.
In the end, "Gone II" is a video scrapbook. Some of the pictures are out of focus, and there isn't any discernible ordering principle to what's included and what's left out. Some segments, like the one of the Elite Giants, raise more questions than they answer.
But turning the pages tonight with MPT and revisiting Maryland's sports teams past will leave many viewers with a warm glow, a sense of place and a feeling of belonging.