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| Lake Placid, NY - 1980 |
That having been said, I will tell you that I have cut myself off from professional sports, and all sports. It's not because I don't admire the prowess. I do. It is because I gag at the behavior of the athletes and the owners. I didn't even watch 2 minutes of the Olympic games last month. Was it last month? No. Maybe farther back than that. Anyway, that's where I am with the sports thing.
This morning a news program on television had Len Berman as a guest. Len has written a book about the best moments in sports. He has chosen 25. I remembered some of them and some of them I did not. I didn't remember anything about the basketball stuff. Most of the choices about baseball I remember vividly. I remember Jackie Robinson (Lary Doby too, remember?), and the 1969 Mets. I also remember Roger Bannister and I think of him a lot. Don't ask me why. Actually, I'll tell you why. The runners who stand out on the track seem to be so alone. They seem to be so distant from one another in a very strangely isolated way. And maybe they are. But when Roger Bannister broke the four minute barrier in the mile run in 1954, he did it with two accomplices, familiarly known as "rabbits." These two conspirees had the task of setting a fast pace for Bannister so that if he followed them, they all three knew that he would break the record. He would be the first person ever to run a mile in less than 4 minutes. I remember this very clearly and I even remember the names of the two "rabbits." It is strange that this event made such an impression on me that I still carry it around. Oh yeah, the two "rabbits?" Chris -- yep, both of them were named Chris. See! That's why I can remember. I remember only one surname though, Chataway. The other one escapes me. Oh, the time? 3 minutes, 59.4 seconds.
Of course, you have all recognized the picture at the top of the page. It is of course the USA hockey team of 1980...THE USA HOCKEY team. They, the college amateurs who beat the formidable, steamroller style, ultra-disciplined Russian Red Army Hockey Machine. I watched that game and I could not believe my eyes when Mike Eruzione scored the go-ahead goal. It was already a miracle that the college boys from the USA had already score twice. I was sitting there waiting for the Reds to score again and that would put the kibosh on the USA. Besides it was hardly possible that the guy in goal, Tretiak would ever surrender three goals in one game. He the Cerberius of the hockey world would never, ever allow three pucks to go by him in one single hour. But that day, because he had let two get by him, he was held out of the game for the third period and was replaced by Myshkin. No one knows why. But that was a mistake by the Russian coach, Tikanov. Maybe he should have stayed with Tretiak. After all, he is the same Vladislav Tretiak who one time shut out the Montreal Canadiens, in Montreal. No matter, that day, the college boys won. It didn't matter that it was not the gold medal game. It was more than that. It was the great "Miracle on Ice."
Two days later the "Miracle on Ice" was complete. The USA beat Finland for the gold. For me, that day when the Russin Army sank into the ice was the best. It is still the best.
You know what? The first and only perfect game ever pitched in a world series didn't make it into the book. That's too bad because I saw every single pitch that Don Larsen threw in that game. Those were the days when I watched every pitch of the World Series. Now, it's been several years that I don't even know when the baseball season starts and when it ends...Of course that may be because there is no such thing as a baseball "season" any more. Oh well, I'll get over it until I meet Bobby Doerr in heaven. Bobby has to be in heaven. He will remember me too because I prayed so hard for him to get into the Hall of Fame. It took a while, but he made it.
So there, more memories.
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