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Your Earliest Sports Memory

Discussion in 'Anything goes' started by 21, Jan 25, 2007.

  1. Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell

    Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell Active Member

    Watching Bubbler play youth soccer circa 1982.
     
  2. cranberry

    cranberry Well-Known Member

    A couple stand out:

    First one is from 1961, when I was three. My brothers and I are running circles around the living room, all dressed in Yankees uniforms with numbers (my older brother was No. 7, I was No. 8 and my younger brother No. 9), and sliding into a throw pillow from the couch. This all took place during a Yankees game on television and our play was punctuated by an occasional "That a boy, Mick!" with my father jumping from his comfy chair.

    The second is probably a year later, 1962, when we went to our first game at the new Shea Stadium. I believe we got tickets from a (Bordens?) milk carton promotion and we were sitting high in the upper deck in right field. The Mets played the Colt .45s and it was Elsie the Cow Night which involved players taking part in a cow-milking contest. The funniest part was that my mom wouldn't let us stand during the national anthem because she was afraid we'd fall and tumble all the way down Shea's steep upper deck.
     
  3. John

    John Well-Known Member

    Two stand out, both when I was about five.

    Dad giving tennis lessons after work on our court. I'd play ballboy and refill the hopper.

    Listening to the Braves on the radio with my grandfather.
     
  4. Flying Headbutt

    Flying Headbutt Moderator Staff Member

    Earliest memory is playing wiffle ball with my dad in the street as a real little kid. We lived on a cul de sac in that neighborhood, at least I guess that's what they're called now, and thus didn't exactly have to worry about traffic. Also went to Tidewater Tides games and watched my dad playing in his company softball games.

    First memory on tv was Super Bowl XX. Bears Pats.
     
  5. da el g

    da el g Member

    ABA All Star Game In Greensboro, NC
     
  6. ink-stained wretch

    ink-stained wretch Active Member

    It was '54 or '55 when Willie Mays returned to MannyApples for an exhibition game against the hometown Millers, the Giants AAA team. Where my dad got tickets is a well-kept family secret. First at bat, Mays puts it over the batters eye in centerfield into the parking lot. Nobody sat down for five minutes. Taught me a lot about joyous celebrations.

    Six years later at the Yugoslav National Home — upstairs of Pennys — in Ely watching the original miracle on ice. Most of the fellows had played hockey against the Christian brothers. By the second period, the mood had switch from "I hope the Russkis pound those a*holes from Baudette" to "Look at us kick some Commie butt." Taught me a lot about fans.
     
  7. outofplace

    outofplace Well-Known Member

    dreunc, I'm assuming markvid didn't realize you are a Pirates fan and that you were sharing his pain.

    I was going to ask if that was the first moment you could remember or the first you hoped to forget.

    And you were only five when that happened? Damn, you're making me feel old. I watched that with about 30 other people crammed into the production room in my college newspaper's office.

    I can't hate Bonds for that. He carried that team into the playoffs. I doubt that would have even been a .500 ballclub without him. Now hating Jose Lind (six errors a y ear and then he gacks one in the 9th inning of game seven ?!?) and Boom Boom Belinda....
     
  8. andyouare?

    andyouare? Guest

    I watched the US play Portugal in the 2002 World Cup from Japan. Because of the time difference I had to set my alarm to 5 a.m.

    Great game.
     
  9. NDub

    NDub Guest

    Super Bowl XXIV (Jan. 29, 1990) - 49ers 55, Broncos 10

    It's a vague memory, just two days after my 7th birthday. I remember sitting like two feet from the TV and watching Jerry Rice have a huge game. I now know Montana was the star - tossing five TDs - and Rice caught three. But I remember Rice on a relatively long TD catch. Dunno why, but that's the most vivid memory. Looking at the box score right now, I see it was two 38 yard receptions.

    My most vivid memory was watching Barry Sanders just a few years later run left, right, back, forward, left, left, right and straight ahead again on nearly every play. Sadly, I've been a hooked Lions fan ever since.
     
  10. Double J

    Double J Active Member

    Greg Neeld, right? And you should try to get your hands on a book about the old Dixie Arena Gardens. I may actually have mentioned this to you before.

    I have vague memories of sitting with my older brothers and our dad while "Hockey Night in Canada" was on. I would always make everyone stand up while the national anthem was being sung. :) I also know that I was often taken by my parents and older siblings to watch local lacrosse and junior hockey games.

    But my first distinct memory of a game and an outcome was in 1978, when Lanny McDonald scored in overtime to beat the New York Islanders in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup quarter-finals. I was eight years old and thus began a mostly thankless life as a fan of the Toronto Maple Laughs Make Believes Maple Leafs. :-\
     
  11. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    Going to my first Leafs game way, way, way, back. Probably around 1962. Leafs and Canadiens and since all the games on TV then were in black and white, I remember how vivid the colours were when my dad and I walked up the ramp at MLG to take our seats in the Blues. Next to the birth of my sons, the closest thing I've ever had to a religious experience.

    Leafs won 3-2--yup, still remember that--and Davie Keon was awarded a penalty shot (real rarity back then) against Jacques Plante. He banged it off the crossbar.
     
  12. Huggy

    Huggy Well-Known Member

    I remember my first Leafs game. I was seven and I went to a game against the Canadiens with the old man. Will never forget how white the ice looked. Game was a 2-2 tie and I remember they had a ceremony for Paul Henderson for his heroics in the Canada-Russia series.
     
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