My first sports love

I'll start with a little history about myself, seeing this is my first blog post...ever.

I didn't grow up in a home where sports were watched often. My father's favorite sport of choice was boxing. I however didn't share his love of the sport. I eventually grew to like boxing. Watching boxing on lazy Sunday afternoons left me with good memories. HBO/Showtime title matches on Saturday nights were a lot of fun, but then this thing called Pay Per-View came along and put a serious dent into how much boxing was able to be watched.

I tried to watch football and basketball but neither made much sense to me. I understood the obvious parts of each game, I just didn't understand the finer points to each sport.

I was probably about five years old when I made an attempt to watch a Jets game. I thought I could like the Jets based upon their team name and colors. Glad I wised up to not picking my teams on such things such as names and colors. My one night of being a Jets fan was my last football experience for many years. 

A few more years passed by and I wound up falling deeply in love with America's pastime(I believe the NFL holds this title now). I can still say I love baseball...but maybe it's more love of memories and players no longer in the game or alive. Baseball gave me a desire to read, and read I did. My favorite books were about some of the greatest players to ever play the game.

One of my favorite players was Ty Cobb, The Georgia Peach.

In my opinion, Ty Cobb was and still is the greatest hitter to ever play the game. He was known for being a mean, intense, a fighter, physically fighting players, umpires and fans. Cobb was one of the first millionaires in baseball, investing in General Electric and Coca Cola. He used his wealth to care for players who were down on their luck or in need.

Mickey Mantle was another of my favorite players. I read two books about Mickey, my favorite of the two books was about the summer of 1956 when he won the Triple Crown.

This young, charismatic, powerful switch hitter from Oklahoma was one of the most beloved players of his time and still today. Sadly Mickey suffered from alcoholism. I'm not a big person to play the "what if game" but I do wonder what if Mickey took care of his body. Mickey did hurt one of his knees early in his career and had countless nights of drinking and partying with his buddy Whitey Ford.

Before we had ESPN at my parent's house there was a sports channel that gave scores and small write ups on players. I would read the scores and write ups all day, over and over. I was so into the statistics of the players. I would comb over my baseball cards like a greedy Ebenezer Scrooge did his money inside his accounting house.

To close this first post up I'll share some short versions of good memories, baseball memories.

-Playing Little League, winning the game ball on May 14, 1985 for a game winning catch at second base.
-Car rides to Detroit to watch the Tigers.
-The cartoon Tiger video after a Tigers' win
- Listening to Ernie Harwell call games on the radio for the Tigers. I loved how he called a third strike on people, “Strike three called, he stood there like the house by the side of the road.”
- My grandpa Jim telling me about how his teacher would allow the class to listen to the Tigers' World Series games in the classroom.
- My grandpa also telling me about meeting Marv Owen of the Tigers in a hardware store in Detroit.

I know this first post didn't quite match up with the title of my blog, I wouldn't have felt right skipping past it. Sadly with all the drama in baseball, steroids, the all star game tie in 2002 and the strike pushed me away. I've regained my love of the game but it will never be as it was. I have recently been able to make some great new baseball memories with a very handsome, kind and loving kid, I'm so proud to call son.

I love this little guy so much! It's so fun to see him progressing with each new season!




Future posts may vary from time to time but for the most part I'll focus on football and my love of FANTASY FOOTBALL!!!