First Live Sport Memory

[mitlen]

Other than playing in the street, grass between project units, parks, etc., what is your first contact with live sports (players/teams/games) beyond the neighborhood?    (no TV or radio memories)

I remember meeting Jim Tucker and Dick Ricketts (Duquesne basketball players) at Duquesne Gardens in Pittsburgh.

Secondly, which sports were you introduced to outside the neighborhood in sequence (First 5)?

1.  Basketball
2.  Football
3.  Baseball
4.  Soccer
5.  Hockey

[Slateman]

My grandma and grandpa taking me to a Tigers game. I still have the little helmet the ice cream came in.

[HalfSmokes]

Minor league game in Norfolk as a preschooler with my father

[Ali the Baseball Cat]

For me it was all in 1978...first the Asian Games in Bangkok (track & field, soccer, fencing), and then 3 Yankees games with my grandfather in NY later that summer. 

[skippy1999]

Cool topic
My dad took my sisters and I to see the West Haven Yankees at Quigley Stadium every summer in the mid-70's, oh I was so hooked on going to a ball park to see baseball after that.  I didn't realize it at the time but he reminded me a few years later we saw Ron Guidry pitch there 

[DPMOmaha]

Hmmm...let's see, my earliest memories of sports would have been when my family went to Chicago to watch our friend who pitched for the Expos play the Cubs. We went twice, somewhere between 86-88. I wanna say it was probably 86 and 87. Tough to say for sure, though. My aunt recorded one of the games of of WGN on to VHS and I kept that thing and watched it a ton growing up. Probably wore it out. I remember Maddux pitched in one of those games. I would have been 5 or 6. That's my earliest sports memory, for sure.

[wpa2629]

1974 ACC Tournament between Maryland and NC State - considered the greatest college basketball game ever played

You have no idea how badly I wanted Tommy Burleson to snap like a twig

My love for sports, particularly Maryland sports, started that day

[comish4lif]

It would have to be my first MLB game - Mets vs Astros at Shea. weeknight game - ~1977ish.

[Natsinpwc]

I'm so old I can't remember anything before last year!

[mitlen]

I'm so old I can't remember anything before last year!

Hmm, I always thought it was a short term memory loss.   

[Mathguy]

I was 7 when my grandfather took me to my first live baseball game, at Yankee stadium.  It was the last day of the 1961 season and Roger Maris hit his 61st home run.

[JCA-CrystalCity]

1967 Red Sox Impossible Dream season.  I remember the 10 game winning streak in June.  The first game I can remember is coming back from 8-0 down, I think to the Angels, to win 9-8 on a hit by Jerry Adair, the utility guy.  We would listen to the games at night driving in Ford Galaxie 500, going out to the new burger place out in Natick, McDonalds.   The windows were open because the Galaxie 500 was not air conditioned.  Just like the Reverend Horton Heat song.


Oh, Skippy - Sounds like we may have overlapped in New Haven.   My only game at that baseball field was Darling Viola

[varoadking]

Other than playing in the street, grass between project units, parks, etc., what is your first contact with live sports (players/teams/games) beyond the neighborhood?    (no TV or radio memories)

I remember meeting Jim Tucker and Dick Ricketts (Duquesne basketball players) at Duquesne Gardens in Pittsburgh.

Secondly, which sports were you introduced to outside the neighborhood in sequence (First 5)?

1.  Basketball
2.  Football
3.  Baseball
4.  Soccer
5.  Hockey

Dad took me to Wrigley Field for a Bears / Colt's (I think) game.  Bears lost.  Circa 1960's.  Had been and remain a Northwestern Wildcats fan.

Mom took me to White Sox Spring Training in Sarasota, Florida, though I had been to a number of games prior.  I met Nellie Fox in person...my biggest sports thrill even today...even moreso than meeting Mickey Mantle.  Circa 1960's.

Basketball...went to Magic / Bulls playoff game the year they beat the Bulls and went to the Finals.  Nick Anderson picked MJ's pocket to seal the deal late.  Circa 1990's.

Always been a huge Blackhawks fan.  First game other than one Capitals game with my wife was with my daughter in Chicago at the Madhouse on Madison...seats on the glass.  She is now a hockey fanatic.  Circa 2010.

Don't care for soccer...don't plan to change that.  Circa Forever.

[Terpfan76]

I won tickets to a Pirates/Astros game when I was in 10th grade. My dad and I went to it together and had a great time. Pirates won 1-0 behind Zane Smith and Orlando Merced. That should date it some


http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT199207060.shtml

[1995hoo]

Washington Diplomats soccer at RFK, though I don't remember what year nor which opponent.

[GburgNatsFan]

My father took me to Yankee Stadium, probably when I was 9 or 10 (so 1969-ish). The Yankees were playing the Orioles (Boog Powell was playing). Mantle wasn't playing any more, I don't think. My favorite player was Bobby Murcer, and he was. I remember being surprised by the urinal troughs in the men's rooms.

Oh, it was bat day. That was cool as hell.

[mitlen]

These are great stories.   

[varoadking]

I won tickets to a Pirates/Astros game when I was in 10th grade. My dad and I went to it together and had a great time. Pirates won 1-0 behind Zane Smith and Orlando Merced. That should date it some


http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/PIT/PIT199207060.shtml

I was 39...a month from 40...

[mitlen]

I was 39...a month from 40...

I met Tucker and Ricketts in 1951 or '52.   

[Terpfan76]

I was 39...a month from 40...

I was 15, wouldn't be 16 until December. Getting ready to go into the 11th grade.

[varoadking]

I met Tucker and Ricketts in 1951 or '52.   

Who are they?

[mitlen]

Who are they?

Google 'em young man.        Tucker was one of the first AA to play on an NBA Championship team (times have changed).   Ricketts played pro basketball, was a team mate of Maurice Stokes in Cincinnati, and played pro-baseball as well.    I guess you're one of the "if they played before I was born, they don't exist" crowd.   

[varoadking]

Google 'em young man.        Tucker was one of the first AA to play on an NBA Championship team (times have changed).   Ricketts played pro basketball, was a team mate of Maurice Stokes in Cincinnati, and played pro-baseball as well.    I guess you're one of the "if they played before I was born, they don't exist" crowd.   

Google turned up nada.

I did act as bodyguard for Artis Gilmore at a personal appearance in 1976...maybe 1977...if that counts.   

A more senior Patrolman got the Barbi Benton bodyguard gig...

[mitlen]

Google turned up nada.

I did act as bodyguard for Artis Gilmore at a personal appearance in 1976...maybe 1977... if that counts.   

A more senior Patrolman got the Barbi Benton bodyguard gig...

Messin' with ya.    Try their names with Duquesne basketball added.     I've heard of this Gilmore guy.   

[varoadking]

I've heard of this Gilmore guy.   

He had a custom Pontiac Gran Prix with the drivers seat relocated to the front of the rear seats so he could squeeze in and drive it.