04/20/24
June 14, 2020
SportsFilter: The Sunday Huddle:
A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.
I'm with you on the time traveling Howard. In our present situation, when the way life was just 8 months ago seems so different and removed, to go back decades is more intense than ever.
I came across game 7 of the 1981 Celtics Sixers Conference Final series and was spellbound amidst a flood of memories. I wasn't a resident of the Northeast at that point and wasn't sure who I wanted to win. I love how the game was played at that time and how it was staged and broadcast. Because there's no stupid music and sound effects blasting away in the background, you can hear a lot more of what's happening on the court.
The game I really want to watch is Game 7 of the 1987 Celtics-Pistons playoff series. In my memory, that was a surreal war, played with such intensity that it was remarkable there was a victor. I thought it was going to end up like the shootout scene in King of Hearts, with nothing but bodies lying under a pall of smoke.
posted by beaverboard at 11:37 PM on June 14, 2020
MLB Channel has given me a real treat this weekend with the broadcast of games 6 and 7 of the 1952 World Series. This is when I was 11 years old and really starting to pay attention to sports, and more importantly to understand them. Red Barber and Mel Allen shared the play- by-play duties, which in itself was worth listening to. Watching the likes of Mantle, Berra, Gil Mcdougald, Johnny Mize (I used a Johnny Mize model bat when I played in those days), and Allie Reynolds for the Yankees and Dodgers Gil Hodges, Jackie Robinson, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella (an alumnus of the Nashua, NH, Dodgers), and Carl Furillo, as well as many others on both sides, brought me back a long, long way. Thank you, MLB Channel for the broadcast, and thanks to Gillette for preserving the kinescope recordings.