RIP "The Dobber" & Your Earliest Sports Memories
Was sad to hear about the passing of Bob Lanier. A great player and even better person. A real ambassador for the NBA and a trailblazer as the president of the NBPA.
As I was born in 1967, my earliest memories of the Pistons involve the team with Lanier, Chris Ford, etc. My dad was not a frequent attendee of sporting events, but I do remember him taking me to Cobo a few times.
All of my other earliest sports memories are from the mid-'70's...the Ricky Green/Phil Hubbard & and Rick Leach/Anthony Carter Wolverines...the early days of the Trammell/Whitaker/Morris Tigers...etc.
Interested to have you share your earliest concrete sports memories...the ones you can remember experiencing rather than hearing about later on in your life.
Argh. I knew that AC came after Rick Leach. Meant Harlan Huckleby!
Having read a ways down I'm a generation older than most of the posters so far.
I have 2 major historical sporting events that formed me as a sports fanatic & diehard Blue:
1. 1968 WS, as the Tiges reunited the Detroit area following protests & riots about racism and Vietnam. As a child it cannot be stressed how much impact seeing people of all races coming together, hugging & dancing after the great come from behind Series win had!
2. 1969 upset of the "unbeatable" buckeyes! My family were 50-year season ticket holders (mostly all moved West now). The joy, nay glee, this win brought was not matched til last November!
That's what I got...
1984 was special. I was 8. I still have the scrapbook of paper clippings that I made throughout the season when the Tigers won it all.
You just beat me to this! LOL. Such a great memory too!!!
I was 15 in 1984. That summer was special. I can still hear George and Al on the TV. We only had one TV and fortunately my mom liked baseball. Back then not all games were on TV so I did my fair share of listening to games on the boom box. We used to play driveway basketball games with the neighborhood boys and have the game on in the distance.
What a great time to be a young teenager.
Yep. You circled the dates they were on channel 4, watched Eli Zaret do the pregame, watched the entire game, then the cartoon Tiger would either roar triumphantly at the end of broadcast after a win or meow with an ice pack on his head after a loss. You also watched This Week in Baseball on Saturdays and hoped to see a Tiger make it in.
Exactly. This Week in Baseball. What a great memory that is. I was one of three boys and we would never miss it. After the show we'd go out and throw the ball around.
TWIB Notes!!!
This Week in Baseball
If you don't instinctively read this in Mel Allen's voice I feel very, very sorry for you.
This. Week. In….Baaaseball!!! Can hear his voice in my head clear as day.
The outro song is called “Gathering Crowds” and was my ringtone for a while.
https://youtu.be/giAsugzxZIM
One of the greatest sports songs EVER! It instantly pops into my brain with the mere mention of TWIB.
Might be just me, but I remember the Dodgers being featured really often on This Week in Baseball. As an Upper Midwestern kid, I was also fascinated by a place (LA) where it was apparently sunny all the time.
I used to crack up at that cartoon tiger when I was little.
Back when I cared about every team in MLB. Great, mind-blowing posts above.
Bless you, boys. (Not sarcastic as original was the original quote after a bad loss.)
I turned 15 that summer too. Went to many games that year. Going to Tiger Stadium was easily my favorite thing to do since I was very young. My dad would take me and my brother to a bunch of games each year (we almost always went to a Sunday double header) and my next door neighbor and his dad would go somewhat often and they would always invite me.
In 84 my moms boyfriend at the time had a small segment on one of the local mid-afternoon TV pseudo news shows. Somehow he came up with tickets to game 5 of the Series for the four of us. We were in the second from last row in upper deck bleachers right under the scoreboard. Gibby hit those 2 frozen rope home runs. Best sports memory ever. Not sure how it will be topped. Ticket stub to prove it.
I can still vividly remember with a couple outs to go the police and maybe some security lining the foul lines almost shoulder to shoulder to prevent fans from storming the field. I think there were a bunch on horseback too. Lets face it - the crowd at Tiger Stadium was always fuckin rowdy as hell. Herndon made the last catch and for a moment it seemed like the police line was gonna hold. Then from our vantage point - cause we couldn't even see the center fielder from where we were - all of a sudden you saw all these people who climbed over the center field fence heading for the infield in full out sprint. The cops gave an effort to stop it but they were just overwhelmed at a certain point and pretty much said - fuck it we out. Then it became a free-for-all with everyone from everywhere going on the field.
I remember after the win, Sparky telling Ronald Reagan “Yes, Mr President, I know you wanted San Diego to win” I thought that was pretty damn funny even as a kid.
I was 18 that year and watched the Tigers with fascination through August - when I went to boot camp. I missed the playoffs while at Great Mistakes (aka Great Lakes), and missed most of the World Series while living in the barracks during my 'A' school (basic schooling for whatever trade). I was on my own for the first time in my life, and missed most of the only Tigers World Championship I can remember.
Thanks for the nice memory...
My first Michigan memory is of the Henson-Brady debate. I was Team Henson, the first of many freezing cold takes I'd have in my life
I was also team Henson. My memory says Henson was special and without external interference, he could have been excellent. Brady, in hindsight, probably should have been a freshman starter though :).
You’re too hard on yourself. I’d wager the majority of fans probably felt the way you did. Brady’s season in 1998 was…OK, but nothing spectacular. The offense really struggled along the way. Remember winning scores of 12-6 over Iowa, 15-10 over Minnesota, 12-9 over Northwestern? That was painfully ugly football.
Very thankful that 1999-Tom Brady was much, much better. But Henson in 2000 (and what SHOULD have been 2001) was some of the finest athleticism I’ve seen from a UM QB in my lifetime…and his passes were like lasers.
Nobody could have predicted that Brady would become this freak of nature in the NFL.
Sorry, but I sorta did. I remember being 100% ' Team Brady' and recognized him as having that certain extra that winners were made of. I was Tom Brady's biggest fan among the Michigan fans I personally knew back then.
But foreseeing TB12 to be the GOAT---I'd be a bald-faced liar to the nth-degree to make that claim.
I would not be a bald-faced liar - I called him the next Montana in '99 & lobbied for the Niners to draft him in '00. They famously knew better and took Gio Carmazzi, he of the 0 NFL pass attempts and worst mis-draft of all the "Brady 6"!
Rewatch some of the '99 games on B10 Network - Musberger called TB10 "Captain Cool" & "Captain Comeback" repeatedly. It was known!
fellow member of team Henson here... the 2000 season (minus the NW game) was amazing!!!
and for people who aren't old enough or just remember him from football i highly suggest you take a look at MHSAA baseball records and look at what he did in 4 years of high school playing baseball... i never realized great his numbers were until i was looking at my sons baseball coaches numbers (after listening to his dad go on and on about them). career homeruns stands out the most, Henson 70... my sons coach hit 30... 2nd on that list hit 47...
https://www.mhsaa.com/Sports/Baseball/Record-Book/Individual-Records
RBI's might be even more impressive...he has like 90 more than the next guy.
Fun fact, I am 2 years older than Henson, but played him in football and basketball (he was real good, but not yet an upper classman), but that isnt the story, as a freshmen (a freshman!), he hit a homerun off my buddy that they found where it landed over the tennis courts and people that seemed official deemed it the longest homerun in MHSAA history...now whether or not that it is true, it is the only time I am aware of someone hitting a homerun over the fence AND the tennis courts behind the fence.
Guy was really a special athlete.
1999 UM offense was...strange? They would run the ball for 3 quarters and then turn it over to Brady for the comeback. But by the end of that year, when Brady took the field in a 2 minute drill, I was 99% sure that they would score. I didn't understand why he was such a low draft pick (but true enough I didn't think NFL star, and certainly not HOF or GOAT)
Earliest major sports memory was being in 3rd grade at Johnson Elementary in Milford, MI and the Tigers Winning the World Series! 1984 was a special year!
Tigers win the World Series in 1984.
Harbaugh and Jamie Morris spring game and running around on the field. M v BYU in the Holiday Bowl (sucked but introduced me to the pain of being an M fan).
Red Wings getting waxed by the Blackhawks in the Norris Division semi-finals in 1985. Still hate Chicago to this day
I was 6-7 years old for these.
This quote alone will show how he was revered:
“Tell your old man to drag Walton and Lanier up and down the court for 48 minutes!”
I think Kareem's character was Roger.What a great movie.
Roger that!
What's our vector, Victor?
huh?????
Guess I picked the wrong week to quit sniffing glue!
I recall when Bob Lanier visited my elementary school in the mid-70’s. He left us an autographed shoe - it was a size 22 white canvas Converse All Star (“Chuck Taylors”). I got to hold it and it seemed unbelievably large to my 9-10 yr old self.
God bless you. That post scores a 10 of 10 for wit, remembrance, and appriateness.
Very similar. Also born in 1967. I obviously (see user name) remember (vaguely) a year or two before Leach, but certainly that's where I came into full sports-consciousness. (Gordon Bell, Rob Lytle, Jim Smith, et al). First vivid Michigan memory is probably watching Mike Lantry miss those damned field goals. I don't know if I've ever felt despair like that since.
Yep, Ricky Green. Might still be my favorite Michigan player of all time. My first favorite Tiger, for some reason, was Aurelio Rodriguez. (I assume I just loved the name -- still do).
Let's not forget Nadia Comanici. She hit like a bomb. Also I remember Greg Landry, of the Lions, mainly lying on his back.
I have to say, going back to Michigan in the 70s, of course I was formed as a fan at the time, so it's not surprising my tastes retain that 70s flavor, but I loved it when Michigan sports was more understated. Remember how small the "M" was at center court in Crisler Arena (or, for that matter, on the Michigan football field)? Remember how simple and pure the scoreboards were?
Again, I know it was the time, not anything specific to Michigan, but ... damn, I miss those days, when we felt confident we could impress people by winning, rather than with the size of our marketing efforts.
Rob Lytle. Now that I think about it, he might be the first Michigan football player that I followed.
Yes to Greg Landry and Nadia.
It seems as though - for the most of us - the first clear memories of sports happened around 6-8 years of age.
Aurelio Rodriguez was one of my favorite Tigers as well. I know why. I got his card in a pack with that wonderful gum, and I flipped it over to read the back and noticed that he was born on December 28th which just happened to be my birthday. I was devastated when he was traded.
Ahh yes, Aurelio Rodriguez!
I also was a huge fan, often yelling "teamo Aurelio!" when he gunned down opposing runners on those 5-3 plays. Yelled that at him one day while seated about a half-dozen rows up just beyond the Tigers dugout and got a tip-of-the-cap from Rodriguez in return.
Best Tigers arm ever from the hot corner!
IIRC Aurelio came to the Tigers with Joe Coleman and Eddie Brinkman from Washington in the Denny McClain trade.
A trade that was a disappointment to me as a youngster but turned out to be very lopsided in favor of our Tigers!
Aurelio was a great defensive 3rd baseman with a rocket arm. Not very good at the plate though.
Wait, wasnt he senor smoke? Or do I have my guys mixed up? I loved those 80's tigers teams...the cartoon tiger after the games I had completely forgot, but the comments above made me picture it clear in my head...being a kid in the 1980s was the best...now get off my lawn
'Senor Smoke' was our next Aurelio, relief ace Aurelio Lopez, one of the Tigers' key pitchers in the early and mid 80's.
Ahhh - thanks - I knew he had to be a pitcher
Butch "Don't call me Harold" Willfolk was always a favorite , probably because of Ufer
Not to be outdone by Aurelio Lopez.
The real Senior Smoke…