Medium Cool is a weekly series related to popular culture, mostly film, TV, and books, with some music and games thrown in. We hope it’s a welcome break from the anger, hate, and idiocy we see almost daily from the other side in the political sphere.
Arguments welcomed, opinions respected, fools un-suffered. We’re here every Sunday at 7 pm.
Seeing as this is a holiday, at least for some of us, that makes me think about family. Earlier this week, I saw a couple of comments about baseball, and there was talk about going to games when we were little. Let’s combine the two and talk about sports when we were growing up. Growing up in Chicago, I loved going to games with my Dad. White Sox, of course! Not that other team. :-)
So let’s share some memories. Did you go to baseball games with your brother, shoot hoops with your dad, play in a soccer league?
Sports and culture, anything goes.
Abnormal Hiker
did i beat Baud!?
SiubhanDuinne
My dad and I played a lot of Scrabble. Does that count?
WaterGirl
@SiubhanDuinne: It’s Medium Cool, the rules are loose. :-)
So, sure!
mrmoshpotato
😱 “That other team” won today. And those southsiders got Tigered thrice. Also, go Dodgers! (Playing the Cards tonight.)
HumboldtBlue
@SiubhanDuinne:
Only if there were tantrums, board throwing, angry scenes about challenging a word, gotta have some physicality and drama for it to be sport.
Speaking of sports, I posted this downstairs. We Phillies fans get a bad rap for being the best fan base in all sports, and sure, we would have booed Jesus if he dropped the cross (thanks Bob Uecker) but that doesn’t mean we ain’t the best, as this kid proves.
Baud
@Abnormal Hiker:
You’re taking the sports topic a little too seriously.
JCJ
I had a brother with muscular dystrophy who was five years older than myself. My parents had little money but they had cable TV and eventually bought a color TV so he could watch the Cubs. He was crushed when they collapsed at the end of the ’69 season and finished second to the Mets. He died when he was 17 in 1973. I watched the Cubs clinch their division in ’84 with my mother and we both had tears in our eyes.
My dad was such a Purdue basketball fan he would keep score of every game. Seeing the Boilers win today to go to the Final Four for the first time since I was a Freshman in 1980 made me think of him.
cope
I was usually last or next to last to be picked for football/baseball/basketball pretty much through high school.
When I went off to college, I promised myself to get good at a sport. My roommate was a soccer stud and told me to come out for the team. i played all through college earning a varsity letter my senior year. I continued playing in grad school and then rec leagues until my early 30s when I destroyed my left ACL playing in a coed rec league.
During my 28 year teaching career, I was an assistant boys varsity soccer coach for 27 of them. I also coached various club teams my son played on.
My story as a fan of various sports is considerable longer and more convoluted so I will leave it at that (go Liverpool).
Pete Downunder
Back in the 50’s growing up in NYC we had three local teams. The Brooklyn Dodgers (formerly the Trolly Dodgers), the Giants ( who played at the polo grounds) and the Yankees. We had a divided family – mom was a Dodger fan, dad a Giant fan and I supported the Yankees because in those days they rarely lost. My mom was crushed when the Dodgers fled to LA, my dad was disappointed when the Giants left for SF, but my Yankees stayed true to NY
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
I grew up in Grand Rapids, MI and went to a couple of games at the old Tigers Stadium, which was a gem. Never understood why it didn’t get the same love as Wrigley and Fenway. IMO it was better than Fenway if only because it didn’t have a gimmick for a left field.
But I grew up on the NW side of the city near Valley Field, which was where local business sponsored semi-pro teams played. When I was in earlier elementary school I only vaguely understood the difference between the Tigers and the Sullivan’s Carpet or Polynesian Pools teams (those two were always vying for the league championship).
It was fun to see baseball outdoors close to home rather than a three hour drive away. The stadium looked a lot like the one they filmed Bull Durham at (what a great movie by the way) without the billboards in the outfield.
A couple of not baseball but sports – saw the Harlem Globe Trotters once when they came to town. I thought they were a hoot.
Also liked going to Grand Rapids Owls hockey games at Stadium Arena – they were our minor league hockey team back in the 70s. I saw my first live concert at that arena – Camper Van Beethoven one their Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart tour. Fun show. Still have the T Shirt.
Jim Appleton
I grew up in Berkeley in the 60s and 70s (HI Tom Levinson!).
My dad took us to at least a couple of Giants games per year in the era of Willie Mays, McCovey, Juan Marichal, Dave Kingman …
Not to mention opposing players at that time — Hank Aaron, Willie Stargel, Joe Torre …
As with my bit denser exposure to live opera in the same period (Pavarotti, Domingo, Sherrill Milnes …, all in their absolute prime), I wasn’t a huge baseball fan, but appreciated that these were legends doing their best, and it was clearly very good.
Both were formative for me in a way that I cherish, and make a point of thanking my parents.
bk
Coached my son in soccer for several years. Played golf with my dad and now with my son.
japa21
My Dad used to take me and my older brother to Sox games as well. One day he caught a home run hit by Jungle Jim Rivera. Raven might recall that name. Anyway, after the game he went by the locker room to have Rivera sign it for my brother (he was always my Dad’s favorite). At first Rivera refused, but then one of his teammates shamed him into signing it. My brother protected that ball until one day decided he didn’t have any other baseballs around to play a game. Nobody knows what happened to it.
Layer8Problem
I couldn’t throw a ball accurately, thanks to a combination of my lack of fine motor control and astigmatism. Sports rules seemed arbitrary. So not so big on the sports and I ended up in cross-country and swimming, much more amenable to my insular nature.
However, I did like Ted Lasso, which turned out to be sports-related. Go figure.
Abnormal Hiker
@Baud: It’s impossible to outwit Baud!
NotMax
Sports (or, for the British contingent, sport) forever been terra incognito for yours truly.
Meanwhile, a pinch of Buster Keaton. ;)
HumboldtBlue
And for some totally excellent sporting news, NC State is leading Duke by 12 with 40 seconds to go!
mrmoshpotato
@HumboldtBlue: That’s a great video!
And the Phils have the best mascot in the Majors.
NotMax
@cope
One of the first things I instituted upon rising to become Head Counselor at a summer camp was a policy that when it came to choosing up sides, campers picked last (on both teams) were the ones who did the choosing the next time.
JCJ
@HumboldtBlue: Duke is evil
mrmoshpotato
Good on ya, NC State!
HumboldtBlue
@mrmoshpotato:
Damn skippy!
@JCJ:
Evil losers today!
TheOtherHank
I coached both my sons in AYSO soccer for a total of 8 years. One of the big AYSO values is “everybody plays”. Every kid has to play at least half the game. But given the size of the teams, it was possible to play a couple of your better kids for the whole game and let the not so good kids play for only 2 quarters. I never did that. I always tried to maximize the time on the field for every kid. If you played 3 quarters this week, you play 2 quarters next week. I made a point of telling the parents that that was what I was going to do. All their kids were there because the wanted to play, not watch the gifted athletes run around. We didn’t win as many games as we might have, but that’s not why I was there.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@JCJ:
Arguably, Duke has the most douches per capita of any fan base in sports. Okay, there’s stiff competition in that category so it’s somewhat up for debate.
I remember the biggest overall dooshes I encountered out of grad school back in DC first starting my career with Club Fed were all Doook grads. They had to “settle” for a gubmint job because there were none other to be had during the echoes of the Reagan/Volker Recession.
Jharp
Circa 1970- 1971 my Dad took us to a Cleveland Indians game.
Bases loaded with cleanup hitter Tony Horton at bat.
Foul ball to the upper deck. Dad caught the ball.
Next pitch.
A grand slam home run.
Dangerman
Someplace, Coach Valvano is smiling. Not only FF but taking out Duke to get there.
Coach V’s Espy speech is deservedly famous (and if you have never seen it, find it, especially if you are down).
What is not well known is Coach V was sick as SHIT and they were worried he would be a no show; yes, he showed them!
Seriously, if you don’t know the speech, go watch it. Box of tissues if you are having dust issues.
ETA: Roundball fan unrequired.
TheOtherHank
Back in the olden days we lived in Saint Paul, Minnesota. While we were there the Northern League started up (a single A baseball league that wasn’t part of any of the major league farm leagues). The Saint Paul Saints played at a stadium about a mile from our apartment so we’d walk over and watch games fairly often. One season Daryl Strawberry (in the midst of his cocaine issues) played for the Saints. About half way through the season he got called up by the Yankees to play DH.
Melancholy Jaques
First big heartbreak of my life was realizing sometime between 7th – 9th grade that I would never be any good at sports. I tried them all: baseball, football, basketball, and hockey. Just didn’t have the knack.
I stayed a fan, though, most consistently of baseball. Love most sports movies, even the completely unrealistic and cheesy ones. That might be because I was no good at sports.
Almost Retired
My two boys were born and raised in a quaint little village that lacked an NFL team during their youth. So when my Mom remarried and moved to Kansas, they became rabid Chiefs fans – thanks to my stepfather. Taylor Swift was probably in Middle School at the time. Every other year we’d fly to Kansas City to hit a game with the Grandparents.
My stepfather later died, but my now adult boys go back on their own to hang with Grandma and overpay for Chiefs tickets. The shared love of the Chiefs formed a lasting inter-generational bond with the Grands that cut out the middle generation (uh….me).
Eventually our village suddenly found itself with not one, but two NFL teams, and with a flashy new stadium ten miles away. No change in allegiance. They only go to SoFi in order to see the Chiefs demolish the prodigal sons teams that recently came home.
I grew up as sort of a Vikings fan, but I only said that if asked about a favorite team. That seemed more polite than “honestly, I don’t give a shit.”
neldob
I coached girls soccer for a kids league. I got very into being as excellent a coach as I could. Played soccer pre-Title 9 and in various women’s leagues. Some of the funnest fun I’ve ever had. Also tennis. My children still bap a ball around. Not enough running in baseball for me.
mrmoshpotato
Michigan vs Michigan State men’s ice hockey 1-1 9:32 to go in the 2nd.
TheOtherHank
I swim (slowly, oh so slowly) on a masters swim team. Every once in a while at morning practice I get to share a lane with an actual Olympic swimmer. One of the other people on the team swam for Turkey in the ’84 Olympics.
neldob
@Melancholy Jaques: I love sports movies! The Jamaican Bob Sled Team, The Mighty Ducks are 2 I like.
Scout211
As a kid, I loved to play all kinds of sports. I competed in golf and tennis for the local city championships and played volleyball, badminton and tennis in high school. But since Title IX hadn’t passed yet, my high school didn’t have sports teams for girls. The sports I did play were intramural and occasionally we did compete with other schools but they were called “play days” and we had to provide all of our own equipment and get rides with parents. But even then I loved it.
The law was too late for me, but what an amazing and wonderful law creating countless opportunities for girls and young women in sports. It was a big change in sports culture in the US and girls and women have thrived because of it.
Oh, and Go Hawkeyes! Beat LSU!
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Melancholy Jaques:
One thing I learned outta high school that “sports” was so narrowly defined as to exclude people who might otherwise find something they were good at.
I turned out to be an outstanding intramural broomball player in college. Okay, not something that really translates into talking about “good at sports”.
But then I discovered I was an even better long distance runner when in my early 30s and attending the USMC Command & Staff College as a civilian. One of my classmates, British Royal Marine who fought in the Faklands, wanted to run the Marine Corps Marathon so I agreed to train with him. That led to ultramarathoning and I’ve got a wall full of plaques of winning ultra overall and in my age group.
The older I got, all the “good at sports” jocks in HS were fat and in ill health and I can still run at 50K in under 4.5 hours at 62.
Again, back in our day, “sports” were so narrowly defined that it excluded people who would have benefited physically and mentally into their adult lives from something other than football, baseball, basketball, etc.
Ken
On the theme of sports and culture, there’s the “Art But Make It Sports” bluesky account.
Otherwise I got nothing, never having been into sports as a kid.
Raven
It’s my life. I ran the sports programs at the Urbana Park District for six years, my old man was a teacher and coach in Chicago and LA. I ended up changing careers when I was 50 but never have shaken the sports jones.
Raven
When I was about 5 my old man was the football and basketball coach at North Chicago. He was also the director of special services at Great Lakes Naval Training Center (he was also a “mustang “, enlisted destroyer sailor in WW2 who took a commission after he graduated from Illinois. I was the batboy for the Great Lakes Baseball team. https://flic.kr/p/2jniUKN
mrmoshpotato
Oh, speaking of sports, to Hell with that damn Pump It Up song.
piratedan
I appreciated how Sport was a conduit into seeing your parents as people and a great way to instill life lessons like teamwork, effort and pragmatism. Coaching other people’s kids allowed insight into how many people try and live their lives thru their kids at opportunities missed. I have mixed emotions about sports in general because of how we glorify our gladiators on the field of play and also how those people are exploited by being placed on pedestals, sacrificing their bodies for our entertainment and dealing with radical fandom that demands loyalty to the players when ownership rarely returns said same.
As a player, there was nothing more satisfying than watching your team win, no matter if you were 18 or 18, because you did it together.
TheOtherHank
I’m being really chatty for this topic, but things keep occurring to me.
The high school my sons attended (I think it’s a district, or maybe it’s a California thing) has at least one “no cut” sport every season. I think that’s really great. If a kid wants to be on a team (admittedly not the big sports like football, baseball, etc) they can be a 3-sport athlete for their entire high school career. It is high school, so there’s no guarantee of actually playing, but they can be on the team.
My sons swam on the local club swim team starting when they were seven or eight, so by the time they got to high school they were ready to swim varsity all four years. But swimming was one of the no-cut sports so every year there were kids who had to learn to flip-turn, dive, swim butterfly, etc. It was really cool to watch these kids go from belly flopping their starts and struggling to finish a 200 yard race to actually being competitive by the end of the season.
prostratedragon
Got the Bulls on the tube now. When Dr. J(ekyll) shows up, as the first half so ar, they’re a lot of fun to watch.
Never was particularly good at ball sports, poor vision I guess, though I did have some speed and hops. But enjoe watching them, even hockey when in person; in person with decent seats always better. Saw UM hockey one night when WMU absolutely creamed them — 8-2 I think — but it was still exciting.
Will root for Sox and Cubs, but real allegiances are to Yankees (Hilary is not the only one from out here), Bulls, and Bears.
Scout211
That’s so cool! You should have that photo enhanced somehow. You are the little guy on the right in the first row? They gave you a uniform, too. That must have been so special for you.
Ruckus
@Melancholy Jaques:
I was pretty good at basketball, and except for my height I might have had a chance.
OK that’s BS, I was better than many but not anywhere near good enough possibly because I’m around 6 inches too short. But basketball was the sport I liked most. Went to a Dodgers game with dad once, it just never did for me what basketball did.
What Have The Romans Ever Done for Us?
@Dangerman: …your family, your religion and the Green Bay Packers!
Hungry Joe
My father took me to my first Major League Baseball game: The 1957 World Series, Milwaukee Braves vs. NY Yankees. Lew Burdette beat Mickey Mantle and the Yankees 1-0. All I remember about the game is the green, green grass and staring at my hero, Hank Aaron. Many years later I learned that one of my colleagues at the newspaper (former journalist here) was also at that game. He’d been ten; I was seven.
My clearest memory is the train trip to and from Milwaukee. We had a sleeper! We ate in the dining car! LOVED it.
My father also saw a game in the 1948 World Series: Cleveland Indians vs. Boston Braves, in Cleveland. Satchel Paige pitched an inning or two — his only World Series appearance. I still have the rain check. (That was the torn-off portion of the ticket you kept in case the game got rained out.) EBay says I could get $75 for it, but that ain’t gonna happen.
Paul in Jacksonville
@cope: YNWA!
peter
Growing up north of Milwaukee in the early/mid-60s meant that we had the Braves with Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Joe Torre, and others; and we had the Lombardi-era Packers. We went to plenty of Braves games (I still have an autographed Hank Aaron baseball card). But the real highlight was excursions up to Green Bay in the late summer to watch the Packers practice. We’d get to the practice field before the team ran from the locker room, so we were in good position to get autographs, ask questions, etc. (No cellphone selfies in 1965-1967!)
It didn’t last long. Braves left for Atlanta in 1966; Lombardi retired as Packers coach after the 1967 season and the team sucked until I stopped caring. But those were magical years.
realbtl
My dad was a closet gearhead so I started on sportscar and motorcycle racing in SoCal in the late 50s/early 60s. Passed it on to daughter and grandson.
Raven
@Scout211: yea and when my old man sent it to me he pointed out I was on the wrong knee!
Villago Delenda Est
I went to Ducks football with my dad, the very first game in Autzen Stadium. I took my mom and dad to Seahawks and Mariners games. Took my sister to a Seahawks 49ers matchup, Joe Montana did his magic in the last five minutes and my sister was happy. I would have gone to the Oregon/Washington football game in 1985 with my mom, dad, and sister, but duty called and whisked me off to Arkansas of all places for a deployment.
NotMax
Futurist painter Umberto Boccioni’s “Dynamism of a Soccer Player” seems like it would fit in here.
Over six feet high and six feet wide, multiple times more impressive in person than an online picture conveys.
Jim Appleton
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Nice. Thank you.
Raven
@realbtl: My sis had a friend who’s dad was a drag racer and I got to go to the pits at Lions in Long Beach. The stories of the original California racers out on the flats is great. They’d drive over the mountains, take the fenders and hoods off and race! Many of them were WW2 vets who learned mechanical skills during the war.
Jim Appleton
Test
Josie
I was librarian at a junior high when Title IX went into effect. Since none of the coaches wanted to deal with girls’ sports, one of the English teachers and I took on the task of organizing the girls into a track team. At junior high age, most boys have not reached their full potential. The coaches and the boys were very upset to find that many of our girls could run faster and jump further and higher than the boys. The girls were thrilled.
ETA: The girls were really good distance runners.
Jim Appleton
Test
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Nice.
Ruckus
@realbtl:
I worked part time for 20 yrs in motorcycle racing at the main sanctioning body and then full time for 10 yrs.
I also raced a few years, have a couple trophies, was OK but never had the desire to risk the next level.
Hungry Joe
@peter: I have Warren Spahn’s autograph … somewhere. Got it at a spring training game. Joe Torre’s, too, on the same scoresheet. As he signed, Spahnie smiled and said, “My goodness, why would anyone want MY authograph?” Years later, in his late 40s, Spahn was pitching in some Mexican league. A reporter caught up with him and asked him why. Spahn gave the answer a million-plus kids would understand: “I like to pitch.”
Geminid
@peter: My earliest sports memories were of the 1957 Braves, the team that won the World Series. We had just moved from Huntsville, Alabama to Milwaukee (my parents were from Wisconsin). Besides “Hammering Henry” Aaron and Eddie Mathews, there was Del Crandall behind the plate and “Big Joe” Adcock at first base. Warren Spahn was their pitching ace, along with Lew “Just Spitballin’ Here” Burdette.
Jim Appleton
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Nice.
Ajabu
if it doesn’t include a basketball I’m not interested.
when we lived in Sacramento, we were big Kings fans (bump into the players locally all the time) When we came back to the states from St. Croix. We reverted to my original heroes, LA Lakers. And they just won tonight again!!!
Scout211
Wow! That must have been memorable for the two of you. And then to have some of the girls run faster than some of the boys. Sweet!
cope
@Paul in Jacksonville: Good win today and then the sweet Man City/Arsenal draw…
peter
@Geminid: I have a 1958 Braves pennant. It was left behind in the house my parents bought when we moved to the Milwaukee area. I’ve kept it since then, wishing it were a year earlier. Still NL champions in 1958, but not World champions as in 1957.
Hungry Joe
@Geminid: Covington in left, Bruton in center, Logan at short, Shoendienst at second, Adcock at first. Buhl was another great starter, McMahon the main reliever. And both the starting and backup catchers were named Del (Crandall and Rice)! SUCH a great team.
Kelly
I’ve never worked hard at a sport where someone is keeping score. I’m still hiking, kayaking, rafting and cross country skiing. Thousands of miles self propelled in the great outdoors. A bit of Oregon mountaineering and rock climbing way back in the 1970’s. I enjoy TV shows, movies and books on these topics.
mrmoshpotato
@Hungry Joe:
Nice. Looks like it’s 29 hours from NYC to Chicago these days.
Hungry Joe
@mrmoshpotato: This was from Evansville, Indiana. The Braves had a minor-league team there. Every kid in my school was either a Braves fan or an outcast.
Ruckus
@Josie:
A lot of boys never realized that generally females mature physically sooner than many men. And if you are my age a lot of us (male and female) got diseases that stunted our growth. I did. I also know 4 of 4 women that had polio. 2 of them are my age. 1 of them lives in the complex I do, 1 of them I went to school grades K-12 and as she walked into our 10th year HS reunion I thought she might flip off everyone. No one wanted to really be her friend because all we knew was it either disabled you or killed you. The other 2 friend’s mothers had iron lungs in their front rooms.
NotMax
Topical music interlude.
Follow the bouncing ball — Tinker to Evers to Chance.
;)
JML
First MLB game dad took me to, Earl Weaver got thrown out. LOL
I played sports as a kid, quit baseball for soccer because I was probably better at it and the cliques and nonsense in freakin’ little league were INSANE. at 12. Loved soccer, played all the way through HS and refereed for 10 years as well. But every time I think about putting on the shirt again, I hear a new story about how crazy youth sports have gotten…
Still love going to live sports and got into a ticket pool for baseball tickets a few years ago, which has been a great way to get good seats and a limited number of games for a reasonable price. I watch a lot on tv; it’s one of the best things to have going when I work out (ugh, I need to work out more) or read a book.
There’s a lot of terrible stuff with sports…but a lot of amazing stuff too. It’s one of the few things left in our culture that can unify people across income, political, racial, gender, and generational lines. (and divide them again too, of course)
Melancholy Jaques
@comrade scotts agenda of rage:
Agree. I wish I had been exposed to tennis when I was a kid. I’m not saying I’d be good at it, just good enough to make it a regular, physical activity. I tried golf several times. Didn’t like it. Didn’t want to be good at it
I was always pretty good at shooting pool.
mrmoshpotato
@Hungry Joe: Oh. Assumed NY because of the Yankees.
JeffH
I grew up going to Phillies games since they had the brilliant idea of a “Sunday season ticket” package. Every home Sunday game and since they were almost always afternoon games they were great for families and there were all sorts of promotions designed to make it a destination for families with young kids. Pretty much guaranteed I’d be a fan for life.
I also got recruited for the basketball team at my undergraduate school, despite not actually playing. The admissions office had neglected to mention that it was as the team manager and stats keeper that I had been involved with my high school team. The assistant coach who called me was very surprised when I burst out laughing and explained what my role had been. But he followed up it with “Actually we need someone to work the table for our games. You interested?” So I had a college job as the guy at the table keeping the official scorebook for games.
SpaceUnit
SNL Opening Day Skit
citizen dave
I grew up in the 1960s/70s when baseball was still #1 king sport, and enjoyed playing it and being a fan. We lived 3 hours from Detroit, Cincinnati and Chicago, so would go to a game or two in the summer. Often doubleheaders–more bang for the buck. Loved Tiger Stadium and made a pilgrimage there in the final year–got some infield dirt to take home (end of a road stand, they let fans walk around the infield after the game). Also made a pilgrimage to Comiskey Park in its last year. Great ballparks.
One game that is in our family’s memory is this July 1970 game when 33 year old Braves’ Orlando Cepeda had a career game at Wrigley: (per NY Times archive):
CHICAGO, July 26 (AP)— Orlando Cepeda cracked three successive home runs, including a grand slam, and drove in seven runs today to power the Atlanta Braves to an 8‐3 victory over the Chicago Cubs in the first game of a double header.
Now, about those “pee troughs” at Wrigley. Those probably deserve their own thread…
p.a.
I played organized sports and hated them. I played sandlot sports and loved them. I sucked at them all.
mrmoshpotato
Holy buckets! Two Michigan goals 12 seconds apart.
Ixnay
@TheOtherHank: Good job. That’s the way to do it. My dad would approve. Get every kid in the game.
HumboldtBlue
One of the best traditions in sport is relatively unknown.
Each year, the Minnesota High School All Hockey Hair team is selected. Absolute gem of a tradition, the flow on these kids is to die for.
Melancholy Jaques
Sports and culture anything goes?
I have been sick all this week. Massive head cold, sinus flowing like Mississippi for most of the week, now down to coughing fits that leave me dizzy. Saw a doctor. He said take Nyquil, ride it out. That’s what I’d do. So that’s what I’m doing.
Anyway, what this means is that I’ve seen way too much TV this week. And one thing that jumped out to me is that the Velvet Underground song I’ll be your mirror is being used in a commercial. That’s like rock n roll blasphemy. Would that have happened if Lou Reed was still alive? I’d like to think no, but heroes are hard to find.
The other observation, not a prediction, is that Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese could be the Bird and Magic of the WNBA in the hugely expanding the audience sense of Bird and Magic.
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
Sports in a nutshell.
David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch
@Scout211:
@Josie:
Now it’s Madness (photo)
mrmoshpotato
@citizen dave: I wanna say I went to a game or two at the old Comiskey as a kid. I do remember a summer camp trip in the upper deck (nosebleed seats). I still remember how steep the upper deck was.
Haha! Michigan Stadium used to have a men’s room where we were just pissing on a wall that had water running down it.
David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch
@JeffH:
Were you old enough to booo Dick Allen or were you of the Phillie Phanatic era?
UncleEbeneezer
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: Have you seen the fantastic sketch Bomani Jones did of Duke on Game Theory? It’s really great.
Mousebumples
Late to the thread, but I was reminiscing about an Opening Day experience with my grandma at Miller Park over 10 years ago.
Opening Day was on Good Friday, and my grandma was a devout Catholic – so the traditional brat tailgate was out. She talked to the meat department at her local grocer to get tips on how to grill salmon and asparagus – and it was delicious!
She was a big sports fan, and Brewer fan, and I’m glad to have had that memory of her, with her, to remember.
(on a different but related topic, she also loved Easter, so she’s been on my mind this weekend)
prostratedragon
A rivalry is born in Minneapolis:
109 Bulls — Timberwolves 101 for a season series sweep.
trollhattan
Dad took me fishing and plinking at targets with a .22 at a gravel pit off I-90. Had zero interest in team sports, and bro and I kind of stumbled across those ourselves.
I learned more about sports being a sportsdad than a lifetime of watching sports on teevee, previously. e.g., would know jack squat about soccer w/o years and years as sidelines sportsdad wondering WTF “offsides” might be.
Now have become the biggest WoSo fan.
Meanwhile, kid the only has parlayed her soccer conditioning into a D1 runner’s career, so off to track and XC meets we go. By gawd, I’m going to miss it all.
Slapshot my favorite spots movie even if I never watch hockey.
HumboldtBlue
@Mousebumples:
Lovely story.
citizen dave
@mrmoshpotato: I have a few photos–one of Cleveland Indians Player-Manager Frank Robinson walking around pre-game, of Comiskey with the bizarre configuration of astroturf infield and natural grass outfield. Go figure.
I know that Angel Reese/Caitlin Clark prediction makes the rounds, but this December 2023 ESPN ranking has Reese as the #11 best player.
RevRick
@Pete Downunder: The Brooklyn Dodgers are part of the reason that I am who I am today. My older brother loved to root for winners: the Yankees, the Celtics, and the Canadiens, which just offended my sensibilities. Meanwhile, the Dodgers had the nickname The Bums, and besides Jackie Robinson lived in my hometown of Stamford, so I fell in love with the Boys of Summer.
I still keep interest in their fortunes, but now living in the Philly metro area, I have to root for the Fightin’s, as well as the 6ers and the Eagles.
But those are tenuous loyalties since I don’t actually go to the games. What I do enjoy is college basketball, in large part because I played a lot of pickup games with my buddies in high school, but also because I find the pace of baseball and football kind of dull.
And having grown up in Connecticut, I have developed a deep affinity for UConn basketball (both women’s and men’s).
Timill
@RevRick:
Living in Tennessee has not caused me to drop the Patriots and the Red Sox, though I have adopted the Vols.
In other news, from back in my childhood in East Anglia I am happy to see that Ipswich Town are (currently) leading the Championship. Not that I could name any member of the team…
Ben Cisco
Papa Cisco took my Cub Scout troop to Shea to watch Hank Aaron and the Braves play the Mets. Great day.
We spent a lot of time watching basketball games. Mama Cisco too; she watches to this day and got to see the Tide make the Final Four last night.
As for me personally, I played in high school, then intramural leagues in college and the Air Force until I wrecked my ankle.
Timill
Also: for baseball fans: if you have T-Mobile you can get a season of mlb.tv for free for the next couple of days. This won’t help if you live in your team’s catchment area, of course…
JeffH
@David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch: Very much of the Phanatic era. I may have seen Allen play one or two games during his return to the team in the mid-70s, but for the most part my memories are from 77-78 onwards.
Ben Cisco
@Timill: I was stationed at Bentwaters/Woodbridge in the early 90s. Really dug the area.
HumboldtBlue
@JeffH:
Same with me. I started paying closer attention to the world in 1976, the Bicentennial year and for a kid who liked history, particularly American history of that era, it was the best summer of all.
FelonyGovt
I didn’t watch baseball with my dad growing up, maybe because girls didn’t do that much back then, but I remember him telling me how the Dodgers had such loyal fans in Brooklyn (where we lived) and turned their backs on us to move to LA. I hate the Dodgers to this day, even though I eventually moved to LA myself!
Then a few years later, I caught Mets fever during their improbable 1969 playoff run, and I’ve been cursed by being a Mets fan ever since.
wjca
My Dad was very athletic. As in, he spent several years (pre WW II) in the Cubs farm system. But when the athletic gene skipped my generation, he never pushed us to follow his dream.
My starkest sports memory is my uncle taking me to an SF Giants game. (They were still playing at Seals Stadium.) Uncle was an alcoholic, and drank a fair amount of beer during the game. The drive home across the Bay Bridge was one of the scariest moments of my life. Amazing that we made it without a major crash.
hueyplong
@wjca: Seals Stadium? I’m envious. Has to have been 1958 or 1959.
(I’ll take a pass on the drive home part.)
HumboldtBlue
@FelonyGovt:
LOL Mets!
Meet the Mets: 2023 Edition
wjca
@hueyplong: I find it interesting that, after years in the abomination that was Candlestick, they’re back in a stadium not that far from Seals Stadium was.
NotMax
Repeating from the past.
At one time ice baseball was a thing. Played with a red ball.
Tehanu
My dad had zero interest in sports and my gym teachers were, to be kind, overworked in our very crowded high school, so I had almost no experience with or interest in any kind of athletics. I mean, I knew who Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays were — you can’t avoid knowing something about baseball if you grow up in the US — but that was about it until I met my husband, a lifelong fan of baseball, basketball, football, & track. Through him I got interested in track first, and then about 25 years ago actually interested in baseball, as opposed to tagging along to a game occasionally and paying very little attention to it. And we also have been deeply into sumo, though not for the last 2 or 3 years because our cable company dropped the Japanese channel that carried it. I think the greatest thing in sports I ever saw, on TV, alas, not in person, was Jonathan Edwards breaking the world record in the triple jump, simply the most perfect physical action you could imagine. And I have one personal memory of being in Zurich in, um, 1987 I think for the Weltklasse meet and Sergeiy Bubka was in line next to me at a bank; I touched him on the arm to indicate that he could move up and it felt exactly like touching a dolphin, which I had done at the Monterey Aquarium once: the same kind of compressed power in the muscle.
hueyplong
@wjca: Not too far.
Giants led the league by 2 games with 8 to play in ’59 but went 1-7 in those contests. The contractor said Candlestick would be ready for the Series but it clearly wouldn’t have been.
Instead of WS games at (approx) 22,000 seat Seals Stadium, the Dodgers hosted WS games at the (approx) 90,000 seat Coliseum
Captain C
Baseball is my number one sport. My first game was at the age of 4; my mom and dad took me to a Cards-Cubs game in St. Louis on a family vacation. My first Mets game was at the age of 5–September of 1976. They beat the Pirates 6-2, Tom Seaver pitched, and Dave Kingman and Ed Kranepool hit home runs. I’ve been a Mets fan ever since, and have seen several dozen games at Shea and Citi. Also when I was a kid, we went to a Yankee game in which the opponents (the Rangers, IIRC) hit back-to-back inside the park home runs, which I think is a feat rarer than perfect games or unassisted triple plays. I’ve been to several other parks (including seeing the Yakult Swallows play the Yokohama Stars at Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo, also a couple games at Fenway) and seen numerous minor league games, including the Brooklyn Cyclones winning their league title in 2019. I played little league ball, and was a pretty good Wade Boggs/Tony Gwynn (but with even less power) hitter.
Soccer is probably my second favorite sport. I saw many of the original Cosmos games, including my first in 1977 in which Pele played and which they won 8-2 (which screwed up my expectations for soccer scores for years); we also had season tickets in 1978. Actually went to the Soccer Bowl in 1979, but that was the only year out of six (’77-’82) that the Cosmos didn’t make it; I think the Vancouver Whitecaps beat the Tampa Bay Rowdies. I managed to see a number of the Cosmos 2.0 games in the ’10s, including the one in which Raul scored his last professional goal. Since the Cosmos have suffered from a critical existence failure for most of my life, Ajax is my #1 team when they’re not around. I played some rec league as a kid and enjoyed it.
I played (American) football for two years in junior high, enjoyed the hell out of it, and wasn’t much good. The second year, the team I was on went 10-0 and won our league; we were so dominant that I and the other 2nd and 3rd stringers got to play a bunch as most of our games were put away by halftime. That team went on to win their level of NJ state championship their senior year, by which time I had not played for years. I’ve been to several Cardinals games (from when I lived in AZ) and also 4 (IIRC) New Jersey Generals games back in the old USFL days. I have a theory that Herschel Walker did his brain no favors with his hard-nosed running style getting 400-500 touches per year with the Generals (and the rest of his career too, but they really ran him hard). I like both the Giants and Jets in the NFL; the fandoms have a rivalry but the teams only play each other once every four years, and I can recall about three games in my lifetime between them that had any sort of playoff ramifications for either team, let alone both, and I figure I this way I have two teams that might have a decent year, um, I’ll come in again.
A few others that I’ve watched/enjoyed over the years: I played Ultimate (frisbee) in high school and college on club teams. I had fun despite not being that good, and also learned that I really don’t like playing sports that involve a lot of running (which I should have known by then, but…). I got really into college hockey in my college years, as both my schools had fun hockey teams and free admission with your student ID. As I’m a terrible skater, I never played hockey, but in college we had intramural broomball, basically similar to hockey played with sticks that looked like brooms with most of the straw cut off, bigger bouncier balls instead of pucks, and larger goals. The game was played on a skated-over (eg. after hockey practice) rink, so we ran around on ice, but had some purchase as it hadn’t been smoothed over with a Zamboni.
CaseyL
I was never any good at playing team sports, but in college I discovered fencing and for about a year did that. Foil and epee; don’t think I got as far as sabre. What is interesting to me all these years later is how the basic foot and body positions for fencing are so similar to the ones for ballet and modern dance. It’s all about balance, and being able to move in any direction quickly and smoothly.
As for watching: my family had Miami Dolphin season tickets for two or three years, including their glorious undefeated year. We were up in the nosebleed section, but all that meant was we had to yell louder. (There was one fellow who had seats a few seats over and one or two rows down from us, and BOY could he scream.) Mom would cook up an enormous batch of oven-fried chicken wings every game day to take with us: we became quite popular with the folks seated around us.
Those weekly games were the few times we all did something together that didn’t end with shouted arguments (probably because we took out our argumentation on the game), so I remember them very fondly. I also remember going to school on Mondays and everyone – including the teachers – being too hoarse to speak.
currawong
This will be, to use a sporting analogy, a bit from left field as I grew up in the UK and now live in Australia.
My first love is football, known as soccer to most of you. My Dad took me to my first match at Carrow Road to see Norwich City for my 11th birthday and I’ve been addicted since. Norwich have spent most of my lifetime in either the top tier of English football, then Division 1, now the Premier League or in Division 2, now the Championship (the old names were a lot easier to understand). I’m sure a lot of you will have been introduced to lower league football through ‘Welcome to Wrexham’. Yes I still watch their highlights to see how they’re going.
I’m very proud of my club, the Canaries, and the work they do in the community. They were highly commended for a video they made on mental health last year, I’d highly recommend you watch it, especially in the light of JC’s recent posts. Living in Australia, and due to the fact their games are played in the middle of the Australian night, I tend to watch the highlights which the club post after every game.
If you’re going to adopt an English soccer club, why not one from the lower leagues? They need all the support they can get and whilst the highs are few and far between, the feelings can be intense. Here’s s video I saw the other day of an American guy who supports Wimbledon FC. Look at the passion of the fans and the joy of a big win.
Finally, being an Australian as well, I would highly recommend a watch of the movie ‘The Club‘ from 1980 about Australian Rules Football, an Australian classic.
Paul in Jacksonville
@cope: Couldn’t have been any better than it was. I hope we don’t play down to Sheffield’s level on Thursday.
wjca
My sense is that different sports fit different media.
Football is a TV game. You simply cannot get a clear view of what’s happening from the stands. And you miss too much just listening on radio.
In contrast, basketball is an in-person game. On TV, you can’t see the whole court, so you miss critical details as play unfolds. And radio descriptions are, frankly, hopeless.
Baseball, on the other hand, is a radio game. In person, things tend to drag. And TV doesn’t add much. But you can listen to a radio broadcast while doing something else, and still keep up with what’s happening. In college, I found it ideal while working problem sets: do a problem, something happens, do the next problem, something happens, etc. There was a rhythm to it.
AM in NC
@comrade scotts agenda of rage: This Tar Heel totally concurs. I am so excited for State! When I was at Carolina, the NC State students I met were generally nice engineer types, but the Duke people were, almost to a person, ASSHOLES.
Maybe it’s the public/private divide? Maybe they all wanted to go to an Ivy and have a chip on their shoulders? Whatever the reason, it is noticeable and noted that Dook has a shockingly high proportion of douches.
TerryC
In the fall of 1998 my kids’ babysitter took me disc golfing, after I heard about it from my kids all late summer. With the first throw the hairs on my neck and arms stood up and I had an epiphany that THIS was IT!
26 years later my wife and son and I each have world titles and two of my three kids are married to disc golfers they met and then married on a course! This is the largest, friendliest social group in the world right now. New friends guaranteed within minutes of arriving near a course anywhere. Some of my best times have been exploring the woods looking to design or build a new course, which my son and I have now done 15+ times!
Prescott Cactus
@TerryC:
Way cool ! I’ve never had a brush with disc golfing. Interesting.
UncleEbeneezer
Grew up with all the tennis majors (French Open, Wimbledon, US Open) on tv for hours as my parents watched McEnroe/Borg, Evert/Navratilova etc. We also regularly went to the tennis courts down the street to hit. While my parents hit together, I would take a ball and go hit against the school gymnasium wall. That’s how I started playing and loving tennis roughly 40 years ago. I took a break from it in my teens and college (when I was mostly focussed on playing music) then resumed playing in my late 20’s and now am a coach. Culturally, we’ve had some great tennis art in recent years with King Richard and Battle of the Sexes, two of the best tennis movies ever. And the Amazon series Red Oaks is pretty solid too. The new movie starring Zendaya looks kinda terrible but fun. If you ever saw the movie The Squid & The Whale there is a great scene where the parents get overly competitive during a tennis match. That was my parents. Complete with constant bickering, anger, resentment etc., on the courts. Unfortunately I inherited a lot of that hyper-competitiveness and it is something I always have to work on to keep from losing the fun of the game and taking it too seriously.
Paul in KY
Went to a few Cincinnati Reds games back in the heyday of The Big Red Machine. Very exciting. Never got to sit in the blue seats, though (grumble).
Paul in KY
@JCJ: I was there in Rupp Arena back in 1980 when Purdue (with Joe Barry Carroll) clinched their spot.
Paul in KY
@Dangerman: Coach V was a treasure, but if Houston hadn’t played one of their worst games of year & Coach Lewis making boneheaded decisions (keeping Drexler in game in 1st half with 3 fouls?!?!), they’d have been runner-up.
Coach V running around looking for someone to hug was great, I must say.
Paul in KY
@cope: The ref just let Arsenal foul and foul and foul.
Paul in KY
My favourite childhood sport was basketball. Being very generous about my abilities, I would say I was a 5’4″ Jeff Ruland type. Excellent rebounder for my size. Good fouler too. Made sure you didn’t make the basket.
Played a little club Ultimate in college. Wasn’t any good at it.