With baseball back in full swing (see what I did there?), I always find myself in the opening month or so letting my mind drift to Saturday afternoons the syndicated This Week in Baseball would air. The ESPN of its time, along with ABC’s Wide World of Sports, TWiB was a half hour (22 minutes with the commercials) corralling of Major League Baseball highlights. Always coming with the hope your favorite team would make the cut in Mel Allen’s wrap-ups and feeling deflated for a few minutes when they didn’t.

Mel Allen was always good for snappy banter, especially in his preludes, accompanied by the iconic, popping instrumental, “Jet Set,” by Mike Vickers. The shows always following Allen’s shadow with the string and horn glory ride of John Scott’s “Gathering Crowds,” accompanied by a montage of legendary plays from the times.

TWiB ran from 1997 to 1998, and it already feels like a time capsule. Well, it is a time capsule, 27 years since the program ended. The game has changed much (and for the better) but nothing remains as heroic in sound as that triumphant march through TWiB’s fadeout. The opening and closing music being my constant earworms at any given point in the year. I miss kneeling on the floor at my dad’s apartment on Saturdays after we’d visited my grandparents and sometimes hitting a tavern called Hertsch’s. TWiB was as much as my life as cartoons, pro wrestling and comic books.

“TWIB” Intro: “Jet Set,” by Mike Vickers

Closing Credits: “Gathering Crowds,” by John Scott

“TWIB” Intro and Closing Credits Music in Their Entireties: