07-05-2008, 05:26 PM
Just for the heck of it, let's date ourselves. How many of these do y'all remember...
That sounds weird as hell when I say it out loud...
The Charleston Gazette Wrote:Those were the days ...weren't they?With the exception of playing fantasy football (which I think is stupid), I remember all. But every player in all pro leagues was born after I served in Nam.
By Rick Ryan
Assistant Sports Editor
July 5, 2008
AS A sports fan, you know you're getting old when:
* You can remember not only when the NBA draft wasn't televised nationally in prime time, but when the NBA finals weren't televised live at all - being shown instead on tape delay after your late local news.
* You remember when there were about as many NHL teams in Canada are there were in the U.S. (Hockey below the Mason-Dixon Line? What if the ice melts?)
* You remember when a basketball player had to raise his hand after being whistled for a personal foul, or be hit with a technical foul, too.
* You were watching NFL games before there was a Super Bowl.
* You remember listening to Bob Prince ("The Gunner'') calling Pirates games on the radio. And you remember that, especially toward the end, a little of him went a long way.
* You survived the jogging boom of the 1960s and the tennis boom of the 1970s without being sucked in.
* You remember when it was a real honor to get invited to a bowl game.
* You're watching a game on ESPN Classic that you know you saw live, but you can't recall exactly what happened. So, in essence, it's like watching it live again.
* You remember when professional wrestling was called "studio wrestling.''
* You remember when every NBA team scored 100 points.
* You're about to begin your 31st season of fantasy football, and you realize that far less than half the players in the NFL are that old.
* You saw your local major league teams on rabbit ears, over-the-air television stations like KDKA (Pittsburgh) or WVAH/WSAZ (Reds) instead of cable or pay-per-view.
* You remember when American League pitchers batted all the time.
* You remember watching the "Heidi Game'' between the Raiders and Jets, and you weren't surprised at all when the feed changed to NBC's scheduled movie at 7 p.m. That's the way it was every week when NFL games ran over their time limit. You just hoped the game was decided by then.
* Even as a lefty, you started out golfing right-handed because no one had left-handed clubs.
* You grew to loathe the voices of Howard Cosell, Curt Gowdy and Brent Musburger, not necessarily for what they said, but because they were announcing everything televised in the wide world of sports.
* You used to know all the kickoff times for your favorite college football team months ahead of time.
* You remember when major league teams scheduled doubleheaders intentionally, many on holidays, instead of only as last resorts from previous rainouts.
* Before the days of ESPN and the Internet, you used to get score updates from radio station KYW in Philadelphia (1060-AM), which has sports at 15 and 45 minutes past every hour.
* You remember when heavyweight boxing matches were shown live on over-the-air television stations.
Reach Rick Ryan at (304) 348-5175 or rickryan@wvgazette.com.
That sounds weird as hell when I say it out loud...
