OT- Your shoes are untied…and other real life sports stories which seemed like April Fools
It’s that day. Taking a slightly different twist. What real sports stories, when you heard them, made you say “no way, that can’t be real”.
A couple for me:
- The Cleveland Browns move, literally, in the middle of the night to Baltimore. One of the weirdest sports stories ever.
- Dennis Rodman appoints himself as an ambassador to visit the leader of North Korea, who actually accepts the meeting.
And a few closer to home:
- Michigan AD apparently misses phone calls about their football head coaching hire because he’s on a yacht.
- Michigan football is legitimately investigated by NCAA because they spent an extra 15-35 minutes stretching as reported by the local media.
I thought the Baltimore football story was the Colts packing up into trucks and moving from Baltimore to Indiamapolis in the middle of the night. Don't recall that type of hijinks with the browns move to Baltimore.
Yeah OP screwed that one up. It was the move from Baltimore to Indy that happened in the middled of the night, I believe by Jim Irsay's dad. The move from Cleveland was announced halfway into the season.
Rich Rods first year; felt like our program was taken hostage.
Most of you are probably too young to remember the two Yankees pitchers, Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich, who switched wives in 1972. They each moved into the other one's house with the other one's wife and kids. They had a press conference to announce their new lives.
The fan man
i was at that fight in vegas. it was wild. and as fights go, the single best heavyweight bout i ever saw. great action.
MLB player lands on disabled list because of nightmare.
https://archive.seattletimes.com/archive/?date=19900708&slug=1080991
taking this in a different direction
In HS, I was on the baseball team, and we went down to FL to play before it got warm up north. We sucked as northern teams do, and we were playing a local FL HS with multiple guys who got drafted / played college. But we had one good pitcher, and baseball being baseball, we ended up in a tight 1-0 game.
April 1, 1998. Bottom of the seventh. We got a couple of runners on and i came up with two outs. Gentlemen, i shit you not i could barely see what this pitcher was throwing, he was easily in the low 90s and I was an unathletic guy who never made it above HS ball. His fastball had an angry hiss and his slider jerked down and away like it was on a string. I had no chance of hitting this, absolutely none.
So i closed my eyes, prayed, and swung.
And i hit the ever loving shit out of the ball, I never hit a ball so hard before or since, when I last looked the ball was still rising as the outfielder gave up, and we won the game. My coach called it the biggest april fools joke he ever saw.
^^^ THIS ^^^
I had a very similar experience at 22 playing in a shotgun start company golf event at Kemper Lakes in IL. I worked for a fortune 500 company and invited my Dad to join me. My Father was an avid golfer and I barely played.
My Father made sure I dressed the part and with his old bag I had some proper sticks if no game. So after worm burning, duffing, 4 putting and the like we come to a hole where play has stalled and there are a number of players gathered around like the hole at the Waste Management event.
My boss, My bosses boss, the President of the company, at least 40 people now all watching a Par 4 - 475 Yard hole from the tee box. This was well before Eminem but Mom's spaghetti and sweaty palms were the least of my symptoms.
The last thing I remember with all eyes on me as I was teeing up the ball was my Father standing next to me his hand on my shoulder leaning into my ear saying "You got this, just take a breath and make contact."
I am 6'3" and sadly when the hush fell over the crowd of my peers among me I heard many in the crowd whisper "Lets see the big kid hit." This made me want to hurl from the nerves as silence fell and I could feel the eyes on me.
I do know I kept my head down and never took my eye off the ball but I think at some point in the swing my eyes were closed because my last memory is looking down at the ball but not seeing the club meet the ball. I do remember the sound it made - thunderstruck - and the feeling in my hands from the solid contact. My eyes were still closed when I heard an audible *gasp* from the gallery and then the "ewws and aahhhs".
I finally opened my eyes but could not see where the ball was but the gallery and my Father were silent as the ball traveled and all heads were following the arch and path in what seemed forever. I did see the ball land and murmurs could be heard in the awe of the distance the ball traveled and rolled. "Whoa", "Damn", "What the?" were among the many comments I heard and then applause broke out. Upon the applause I saw my Fathers face for the first time and he had a huge smile and we just laughed at the impossibility of it all."
Immediately VP's and Company leaders were asking how often I played and if I would be interested in coming to the "club" sometime for a round with friends. Handshakes all around as I had a moment of golf celebrity.
It was by far the longest ball I ever hit and traveled at least 375 although my Father would tell you it was just shy or just over 400 yards. Of course I chipped over the green and 3 put for a bogey but by that time we were well away from the gallery.
I never truly picked up the game as it requires the time it does but I understand the addiction. Pancaking a linebacker on a trap remains my favorite sports memory/achievement but this moment with my Father was a moment indeed.
Mine is: Kirk Gibson and Dave Rozema are still married to the Sklarski sisters after nearly 40 years.