Wednesday, October 1, 2014

Sports!

My all time favorite past time, whether watching on tv, playing in the back yard, the blood-sweat-tears-and-cheers, and my first love, of course is, SPORTS!

Like what several kids my age did was to re-enact their favorite plays from watching them on tv. Whether it was 'the catch,' 'the drive,' Flutie's hail mary, Gibson's walk-off home run, toe tap grabs, call-your-shots, flea-flickers, 3/4 buzzer beater shots, last second heaves, Gretsky goals and fist pumps, robbing home runs, triple plays, celebrations and so on and on and on, you name it, these were what we lived for. We were truly gifted athletes. Ha!

Sports didn't seem like such a business back then, we really believed all those athlete's played for the love of playing the game and for the fans.  I feel fortunate enough to have gotten to see some, in my opinion, of the all-time greats play. Magic, Bird, Jordan. Tiger. Griffey. Jeter. Ripkin (as he broke the streak.) Montana. Marino. Barry Sanders. Mike Tyson. In their primes, they seemed God-like, kings of the sports world. All seemed genuine and true. Heck, even Jack Nicklaus, Pete Rose, Jabar, McEnroe and Nolan Ryan later on in their careers were great to watch. Unfortunately some fell from grace later in their careers, but I try not to remember those times.

Nintendo wasn't popular for us yet. Back yards could be virtually any sport. We used barns and garages for basketball hoops and 'courts.' Winters we did what we could. Threw footballs and baseballs back and forth over the house. Loved those things! Later on, in high school we got cars. I remember about a 2 year stretch were we would take our cars to the basketball courts at the bottom of what is now Starr Elementary and play ball until it got dark, then turn the lights on our cars until somebody's lights burned out and we'd have to jump their car back up. Don't get me wrong, I had a blast playing Nintendo growing up when it did come out, but would normally keep that for rainy days or nights. Haven't really played any video game in about 20 years now. Some of you will remember the Techmo Bowl 'Championships' we would have at various friends houses. We were dorks, but that was fun anyway!

Growing up I knew basically nothing about hockey. Still really don't understand it very well, but I really do enjoy watching it from time to time and they are amazing athlete's with unreal hand-eye coordination. Soccer I knew less about and said years ago there was no way my kid would ever play it. Now, my son plays soccer, lol,, but hey if he likes it then that's what is important. He loves most sports, and really enjoys playing baseball and playing catch. It's an awesome feeling watching him grow.

I don't really have any point to this post. It was fun to write, think back and reminisce about the past.         Of course things are different now. Time, family, work (daddy day care:) and other personal things people do. In sports itself times are different now. My opinion is Tiger is washed up, screwed up his life by what happened. Of course he's still a mega-millionaire. Then there is steroids or I would have listed more players earlier. Don't want to get into domestic abuse or stuff like drunk driving of professionals here, just not acceptable. Mike Tyson is a comedian?

Of course I'm sure most of you know I love me some Wisconsin sports. Packers are clear #1 for me as I remember as a kid not watching tv after church in our living room because we had like 6 channels and no way I'd watch the vikings, so I would go to my room and try and use my bunny ears to find the Packer game, even with horrible reception, but sometimes it would work. Either way I would listen to the radio and tune into the Green and Gold - normally lose lol - but to listen to players like Lynn Dickey, James Lofton and Paul Coffman and later on the Majik Man before we ended up getting satellite and then moved to college for "Bert" Favre's games, when they actually started getting better. That Super Bowl Run a few years back was amazing.
It's probably a toss up between the Brewers and the Badgers. Tough decision there because the Badgers have multiple teams and absolutely love watching them, particularly B-ball and Football.
What a strange year for the Brew-crew. Team was in first place most of the season, but just couldn't hang on. Ryan Braun has sure turned himself into a joke. Unfortunate. I do like the Twins, and really
happy they got a beautiful stadium that is close and fun to go to games there. Sarah and I are going to the Packers game in what is it TCF Bank stadium? in November and can't wait for that.

Like I said, this was just fun to write about. Could probably go on for hours about my sports memories through the years, but then I'd sound like my Dad ;-)

Happy thoughts, let me know yours!

What a ride for the MLB's San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals. Both are unreal, I think I'm cheering the the Royals. As a Brewer fan I 'should' choose the NL, but for years they played them before the switched leagues.

-Cheek

Go Pack Go!!

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