We baby boomers aren't babies anymore.

And even though I'm turning 50 this year (much later this year), I subscribe to my sister's theory that we have to grow older, but don't have to grow old.

Time has a habit of standing still in my eyes, though the sports world certainly hasn't.

Because when I was a kid ...

• There was no Monday Night Football. It started when I was 13. NFLgames were only played on Sunday afternoons, with one network televising the NFLat 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. and another network televising the AFL.

The Immaculate Reception happened when I was 15. We were huddled around the radio listening to that Raiders-Steelers playoff game because the game was blacked out in the Pittsburgh area.

• The National Hockey League had only six teams. I was 10 when the Pittsburgh Penguins franchise was born — and the then-Civic Arena was just a baby.

• The Pittsburgh Pipers won the ABAchampionship when I was 10, then went away. They were reborn as the Pittsburgh Condors — I was a huge John Brisker fan — before they went away, too.

• Aluminum bats weren't even used in softball, let alone baseball. Of course, you could afford to replace a broken wooden bat in those days.

Drive a couple of nails through a broken bat and you could get another summer out of it, anyway.

• Major League Baseball consisted of two 10-team leagues with no playoffs. I was 11 when the Detroit Tigers rallied from a three games to one deficit to beat the Cardinals in the last pre-playoff era World Series.

Detroit's Al Kaline, an eventual Hall of Famer, turned down a $100,000 contract offer that year, saying he wasn't worth that kind of money.

• World Series games were played during the afternoon. I was 14 when the first World Series game was played at night: Game 4 of the 1971 Series in Pittsburgh, which I attended.

• I was 17 when the American League introduced the designated hitter rule.

• The NCAAbasketball tournament was all about who would finish second to UCLA.

• There was no shot clock in college basketball. I loved the North Carolina four-corners strategy because nobody could stop it — except a rule change.

• There was no 3-point shot in the NBA, let alone in high school basketball. The NBAtook the 3-point shot concept from the defunct ABA. I wish it had taken its red, white and blue basketball, too.

• Bump-and-run coverage was perfectly legal in the NFL. Today's young fans have never heard of the term.

• I was 15 when Curt Flood challenged baseball's reserve clause, paving the way for free agency. If the Phillies weren't so bad back then, Flood might have never made that challenge.

• I collected baseball cards of Barry Bonds', Jason Kendall's and Ken Griffey Jr.'s

fathers.• Sandy Alomar Jr.'s dad was the leadoff hitter on my APBAboard baseball game team.Geez, I'm old.