Things You Miss In Sports

Tank McNamara

 

The old sj.com

 

Conference play in basketball meaning you played every team twice.

 

Afternoon high school softball or baseball games that start when the day is warm and then slowly cools until you're freezing your ass off and your fingers are curled around your pen that hardly writes in the cold, and now you have to find some way to write about the no-pitching, no-hitting walk-fest time suck. Yeah, I miss the shit out of that.

Albert Pujols in his prime in a Cardinals uniform — ruining Brad Lidge for a good two years.

 

I hope you're kidding. Baseball Reference lists Nancy and Family Circus as its comparables.

 

I'll never forget Tank's running gag in 1986 about the Mets disappearing into the distance. For weeks no one knew where they were until they were discovered by an astronomer. "See that big cluster of egos just to the right of Orion's belt?"

 

I too miss printed tickets. I still have stubs from games I went to years ago. A folded up 8 1/2-by-11 sheet with a bar code just isn't the same.

 

Norm Crosby for Natural Light.

"Bulls-ear, Catnip!"

 

When my grandmother died 10 years ago we found the game program and ticket stub from a Pirates game they took me to in 1986. I still have stubs from every memorable Pitt game
I’ve attended. I don’t have any memorable paper print outs.

As for the Lite beer ads, the company wanted Minnesota Fats for this commercial but he was too busy and offered it to Mizerak instead, who went on to become a millionaire as a result.

 

I kept ticket stubs for years for no apparent reason, always just stuck in my bedside drawer. A few years ago, I put them all in a large picture frame with a sticky backing, and it is hanging in my man-cave type garage. Cool stuff that means something to me.. Angels playoffs in 2002, including game six of the World Series; Lakers/Kings/Dodgers/Clippers/Galaxy games. Long Beach State-Georgetown basketball game from 1987. Magic Johnson's Midsummer Night's Classic from late 1980s. Long Beach Grand Prix. A's game. Mariners game. Rams game from their time in Anaheim. Angel game ticket that was the first date with my wife (I showed her the ticket and asked if it had any significance; she didn't have a clue). When my mom passed away a couple years ago, she had momentos from every year with the kids. She had the Game 6 1979 World Series tickets that me, mom, dad and brother went to. I had no idea she had it. It is in the frame now.

I am with you guys - what am I going to do with a ticketmaster printout now? Or a screen cap of the ticket scanned on my phone?

 

Real tickets, not those ticketmaster print jobs. I still have my stubs from Mike Schmidt's final game and Nolan Ryan's sixth no-no.