1. Welcome to SportsJournalists.com, a friendly forum for discussing all things sports and journalism.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register for a free account to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Access to private conversations with other members.
    • Fewer ads.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Your Earliest Sports Memory

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

  1. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    A lot of very early memories. One of my earliest memories is of seeing Dr. J play for the Nets in his ABA days, when I was 5 or 6. I grew up really close to the Nassau Colliseum, and was way into the Islanders teams of the late 70s. I went to a lot of hockey games, but my interest in the sport waned as I got older. My knowledge now could fill a thimble. For football, my first game was at Shea Stadium, when I was 10. This'll out me to anyone who knows me: My friend's dad was trying to indoctrinate me into a Jets fan, but I liked the Patriots' uniforms, and besides they won the game 19-17. I remember one of the Jets/Patriots games the following year very well. The Pats pasted them 56-3. Steve Grogan and Stanley Morgan had career days and I officially jumped on the bandwagon, becoming the only kid in a several hundred mile radius rooting for a team from New England.

    Fondest memories were baseball. I saw my first Yankees game in the renovated Yankee Stadium, in 1976, when I was 8. I remember Chris Chambliss' playoff HR that year, and the World Series championships the next two years. My dad still reminds me of the game we went to in 1977, in which we got there super early and were waiting outside to get in for batting practice and I got into an argument with a drunk over who was better, George Brett or Graig Nettles. As usual, I was wrong, and the drunk was right. Another cool thing was that my dad taught me how to keep score at my first game, and we did it at every game. I still have all of my old scorecards (and yearbooks) from when I was a kid. Baseball may be the only thing my dad did exactly right.
     
  2. JR

    JR Well-Known Member

    Well, that's just plain mean.
     
  3. donnie23

    donnie23 Member

    A tie between two that feel around the same time in my past ...

    Sitting at my babysitter's table at age 5 and getting to stay up late watching Rangers games on her little black-and-white TV in the kitchen ... my god, what a treat that was. I think I knew the rules of hockey as well as any American kindergartener ever could.

    Around the same time, I remember my grandfather pulling me out of daycare early because he'd scored tickets right behind the plate for a midweek clash of the titans between the Yankees and Kansas City. Nevermind the fact that it was pouring rain -- come hell or this very high water, he was taking his grandson to his first Yankees game. I so clearly remember sitting under the overhang, behind the net, waiting out the rain with my grandfather and about 50 other people in the whole damn stadium.

    I love sports. Anything that keeps the memory of my long since departed grandfather that close to me on a moment's notice is awesome.
     
  4. Bubbler

    Bubbler Well-Known Member

    Was that the game where I scored six goals -- one with each leg, one my head, one off a free kick, one off a corner and one of my crotch?

    Was that the time when Franz Beckenbauer called me Der Bessere Kaiser (the better Kaiser), George Best flew over from Belfast and slipped me one of his "birds", and then-Brazilian soccer star Socrates proudly declared me as Pornoditecles because my mad 11U right fullbacking skillz evoked intelligence (Socrates), sex appeal (Aphrodite), but the sex appeal was so profound he added the porno prefix to get my name right?

    Or was it the one where I looked like a schlep in my bright yellow No. 6 "Mustangs" early 80s mesh jersey, complete with ironed on "Bubbler" on the front?
     
  5. Captain_Kirk

    Captain_Kirk Well-Known Member

    As a player:

    Playing for the championship of our soccer league. Incredibly windy day, where the wind blew straight from one goal to the other, pretty much keeping play in the one end of the field the entire time. We had the wind at our back the first half, and I scored our only goal. We figured we were in big trouble leading only 1-0 and now facing going into the wind. Somehow, we held on and won it 1-0.

    First at bat at baseball ever. Got hit in the back. Never did really like playing baseball.

    As a spectator:

    Some forty years later, these are so vivid, I can almost put myself back into that place and time. Big sports fan early--asked my dad to write down every team name from the 4 major sports. I recall how I thought 76ers was such a funny name.

    For whatever reason, I had this huge fascination for NY teams and players, despite growing up in St Louis. I can remember one Christmas where I got a complete Joe Namath uniform--pants, jersey, helmet, shoulder pads--the whole deal. Still one of my favorite Christmas presents of all time.

    Also, liked Tom Terrific and the Mets. One Sunday during the summer of '69 (no apologies to Bryan Adams), had a bunch of family over at my house, and my dad asks me in front of everyone who's going to win the World Series. I say 'the Mets'. Laughs all around, not surprising considering I'm in two-time defending NL champs country. Well.....

    Summer turns to fall. I remember going with my Dad to my Grandpa's house and seeing a bit of Game 1 on the tube--if I recall correctly, I saw Don Buford homer to lead off the game for the Orioles. Don't recall any of the rest of the series, but do remember getting a congratulatory telegram (yes, telegram, you youngsters) from my aunt after they won. My sports prognostication/betting career has been all downhill from there.

    First game I really remember watching was the Canadiens/Black Hawks Stanley Cup when Tony Esposito let in a goal from half ice that pretty much tore the hearts out of the Black Hawks--for that series and as it turns out, beyond.
     
  6. The Big Ragu

    The Big Ragu Moderator Staff Member

    Yeah, but you already knew I'm a bastid.
     
  7. sportschick

    sportschick Active Member

    I remember watching Wimbledon with my mother when I was 6. She was a massive Chrissie/Martina fan, which wore off on me. I seem to remember them playing each other that year (1981), but that could be me inventing something.

    I remember watching the Miracle on Ice game with my parents. I don't really remember the game, but more the excitement coming from my parents.

    I remember lots of trips with my biological father to see the Houston Astros, and his inability to buy tickets when Nolan Ryan was pitching.
     
  8. Buck

    Buck Well-Known Member

    Chambliss' pennant-winning home run in 1976.
    I was 6.
    Later that school year, I won 10 cents on the Super Bowl. Soft pretezels at St. Bridget's cost 10 cents during recess. That was my first bet.
     
  9. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Here's one that I doubt anyone will replicate:

    1987 MLB All-Star Game. Steve Bedrosian and Dan Plesac stand out to me, for some reason. Juan Samuel, too. And the fact that it went 13 innings. (That game probably subconsciously turned me into a fan of pitchers' duels, too. :))

    My parents taped it for me on the VCR. I was 5. And just about every day for the rest of the summer, I'd wake up long before them (usually around 6:30 a.m.), sneak downstairs, put the tape in, turn the sound down real low (so I wouldn't wake them up, of course) and plant myself real, real close to the TV, and act out the game in my head. When the sun came up (and my parents woke up), I'd go outside and set up a baseball diamond in our back yard, and act out the game with my plastic bat and a tennis ball. Didn't take long before I memorized which players were lefties and which were righties, and started trying to switch-hit when Ozzie Smith's turn at bat came up.
     
  10. Mine came in the summer of 1979. My family made the two-hour trek to see the Reds host the Pirates. Reds won the game 2-1 on a homer by Johnny Bench in the bottom of the ninth, but that's not the most memorable part.

    After the game, my dad dragged my 8-year old self away from our seats, down a bunch of stairs and through a dark tunnel. Suddenly, I look up and we are right outside the Reds locker room.

    A bunch of Reds filed out a few minutes later. George Foster, Dan Driessen, Dave Concepcion, and some others. I watched them all file by because I only wanted the autograph of Joe Morgan, my favorite player, He never came out. (he might have left before we got there).

    It was still pretty neat being an arm's length from the players. Too bad my son won't have that kind of access now.
     
  11. shockey

    shockey Active Member

    this is another thread that unifies us all. no matter how old or where we are.

    my live seminal moment was a memorial day doubleheader, 1968. my dad takes me to yankee stadium. upper deck, where we always sat. what a sight coming out to see the field from up there.

    game 1, the mick goes 5-for-5 with two homers. a real blast from the past. he sits in game 2 -- he couldn't play both ends of a doubleheader then -- but was on deck to pinch hit when the game ended. dad and i stayed 'til the end in case the mick would hit again.

    awesome. i still have the game 1 scorecard i kept. haven't seen it forever. buried in a box somewhere.

    (please, friends, don't ruin this thread by suggesting that so is mick)
     
  12. buckweaver

    buckweaver Active Member

    Memory serves you well, shockey. :)

    Here's a blast from your past: <a href="http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/B05301NYA1968.htm">box score and PBP</a> from May 30, 1968, Game 1 at Yankee Stadium.

    And FWIW, those were Mick's 523rd and 524th career home runs. http://www.baseball-reference.com/pi/event_hr.cgi?n1=mantlmi01&type=b
     
Draft saved Draft deleted

Share This Page