If you're reading this you're a sports fan and know all about ESPN's college "GameDay."  It's not my cup o' tea (that outdoor-set, with its screaming fans, really red-lines my annoying-meter), but the name, that works just fine.

So for purposes of this baseball piece, just flip that title and make it DayGame World Series 2013.  That's my dream, anyway.

It's been over a quarter-century since baseball fans were treated to a World Series game in the sun.  It was 1984.  Sparky Anderson's terrific Tigers club took on the network-favored Padres in San Diego's first fall classic (DET 4-1).

That was also the year Chicago's Northsiders were re-born.  Ryne Sandberg (MVP), Rick Sutcliffe (CY) and Harry Caray (WGN) led the parade at Wrigleyville as the Cubs cruised to their first crown (division) and post-season appearance in nearly 40 years.

Those were the days before expanded playoffs as the Padres & Cubs would decide the NL flag in a best-of-five series.  The problem, as MLB and the network saw it, was that the Bruins didn't play night games in 1984.  That year wouldn't come until '88.  Chicago's presence in the PS may've been a national thrill for everyone outside St. Louis but threw a big monkey-wrench into baseball's trend toward night broadcasts.  So what would any self-respecting greedmeister do but pull the old switch-a-roo and give night-suited San Diego home-field advantage (Chicago had the NL's best record).

The Cubs took the first two in the Chicago sunshine by lopsided margins as the visitors looked over-matched.  When the series shifted to California, the plucky Padres, led by superman Steve Garvey, overcame deficits in all three night contests and got their ticket punched to the fall classic.

The day-time World Series game is a mystery to younger fans.  Older fans might recall, not just the games themselves, but the celebratory mood that began to build quickly after rising in the morning in anticipation of a typical 2:00 pm (?) opening pitch.

To put it in terms for those unfamiliar with a World Series day-game, let's say, it's not as great as having a date with a real looker (who actually likes you back), but more fun than, say, leading your fantasy league for the week.

The World Series day-game I remember best was the one I attended with my brother Kev in 1982 at old, wide-open Milwaukee County Stadium between the Brewers and St. Louis Cardinals.  It was game 5 and Milwaukee owner Bud Selig must've over-sold seats because we were packed into those bleachers like sardines.  We didn't care.  It was a chilly but gloriously sunny October day, we drank beer, ate dogs, smoked a few cigs back then and the Brew Crew pulled it out late to take a 3-2 lead in the Series.  The peerless Bruce Sutter would prove the difference-maker as the Cards took the classic match in seven.

You don't need an MBA to understand why the League made the World Series an exclusively nighttime affair: more viewers, higher ratings, bigger fees, more sales, lots o' loot for the Suits.

But I wonder.  I wonder if MLB turned just one game outta' the Series into a day-game, during a weekday, if it might be so unusual, such good an excuse to skip school and cut work early, so red, white & blue Americana that it might start a new (or revive an old) tradition and actually make some healthy moolah for the cufflink crowd.

And not to worry, night owls.  MLB can still keep airing most games after dinner, when they run until midnight or later, fans start snoozing on the couch and the rest have hit-the-hay before the last out is called and commercial is aired.  Whoopee!

The way it stands, MLB needs something new, something fresh that's not just aimed at kids (home run derby), something to give it an edge, a boost over our national obsession with everything football.  It's an obsession that fuels Favre fanaticism, Tebowmania, replacement-ref rage and needs a good swift kick in those shiny Nike pants.

It's a dream I have.

"We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun (Jacks / Brel-McKuen)."

Steven Keys