Who's watching old sports events?

Perhaps you've been vicariously re-living previous glories, and/or finally catching some memorable moments you heard about but didn't see live. I know a lot of services and providers are making all kinds of previously aired material available on demand out there in recent weeks.

Has anybody here resorted to watching old sporting events lately?

I actually watched game 5 of the 2000 World Series not too long ago. 2000 was the Subway Series, which the Yankees won 4-2, but game 5 is more fun to re-watch than 6, for me, because of the pitching matchup: Pettite v Leiter. It was 2-2 going into the 9th, and Bobby V left Leiter out there. Leiter recorded 26 outs in that game. It's one of the reasons that Valentine was often referred to as, "The Most Hated Man In Baseball." TBH, i fell asleep well before the 9th, but part of the reason i put the game on was to try to alleviate a spot of insomnia, and it worked.

Lately I've been watching Detroit Pistons championship series. Twice against the Lakers and once against the Trailblazers. Also the two Detroit Tigers championship series. The more recent against the Padres. The earlier one in black and white against the St. Louis Cardinals. That was a 4-3 affair with the Tigers down 3-1. That was where Bob Gibson won two games for the Cardinals but lost to Mickey Lolich in game 7. There are no Detroit Lions super bowls to watch. But I have a liking for some Super Bowl games/winners. Seattle over Denver. Philadelphia over New England. Washington over Denver. The last two games included back up QBs which created a certain mystique. I also liked Russell Wilson and was hoping for a repeat SB victory but someone made a bad call. Oh I also watched an old MNF game: Dallas at Cleveland. 1980, Cleveland won and was 4-0. But then they ran into Houston, Pittsburgh, and Washington.

I didn't really care for the "Bad Boys" 88-90 teams, though i've come around to love the style, which is all but utterly lost in today's hectic up-tempo scoring frenzies. I loved the 03-04 team though, and their Finals series helped get me back into watching the NBA again after i'd lost considerable interest due to  the Western Conference Finals railroading of the Kings just a few years earlier.

I remember The Tigers' most recent championship, was that in '83? Kirk Gibson, and all that.

'86 in the first WS where i can really remember any of the pitching matchups, Rocket Clemens v Doc Gooden in particular. Oil Can Boyd v Bobby Ojeda was a good one, and I remember Ron Darling lost gm 1, won gm 4, and was pulled early in the climatic gm 7.

The Browns won some championships before the Superbowl era. Jim Brown days. Before my time, and ii i remember the years right, maybe before yours too?

Yes both the Browns and the Lions won. Quite a lot. And played each other. I just looked it up.

That Tigers win was '84. Man, what a team. Started the season 35-5 and then put it on cruise control, only went a game over .500 the rest of the way, put the foot back down for the post season.

The '85 Series was a classic. "The I-70 Series" between the Royals and the Cards. Some greats for both teams. George Brett, Ozzie Smith, but one guy I like to remember is Cards righty John Tudor. Nasty fastball and hard breaking slider, but he was also effective with a "falls of the table" curve that you just could not hit...and then he tore his rotator cuff. Was out for over 18 months and when he came back he was a completely different pitcher. Didn't have the velocity so instead he was killing them with a variety of off-speed junk and he was just as good that way for his last couple of seasons.

Speaking of the 68 Tigers I saw in the news that Al Kaline passed away. No cause given. I'd think good old natural causes. Not the current wave. But maybe it was.

The thing I most remember about Al Kaline was that he joined George Kell as a tv announcer for Detroit Tiger games. Kirk Gibson also became a Detroit Tigers color commentator but it's not a good role for him. I don't specifically remember Kaline's skills in that area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Kaline

I've heard many a people lamenting the lack of sports. I'm like: welcome to my world from pretty much February to April like every year.    

See I'm not much of a basketball fan (especially college). So never cared for March Madness. So, for the most part, sports are pretty much non-existent for me from the end of the football to the start of baseball.  So this to me is just kinda normal.

not me dont miss it gave up my hockey habit 4 or 5 years ago baseball has never interested me

TBC wrote:

That Tigers win was '84. Man, what a team. Started the season 35-5 and then put it on cruise control, only went a game over .500 the rest of the way, put the foot back down for the post season.

The '85 Series was a classic. "The I-70 Series" between the Royals and the Cards. Some greats for both teams. George Brett, Ozzie Smith, but one guy I like to remember is Cards righty John Tudor. Nasty fastball and hard breaking slider, but he was also effective with a "falls of the table" curve that you just could not hit...and then he tore his rotator cuff. Was out for over 18 months and when he came back he was a completely different pitcher. Didn't have the velocity so instead he was killing them with a variety of off-speed junk and he was just as good that way for his last couple of seasons.

I vaguely remember the '85 series because even as a Yankees fan i'd thought The Pine Tar Incident was ridiculous, and (even though a couple/few years had passed) i was glad to see an all-time great like George Brett get a World Championship. Iirc the series itself was a pretty awesome 7-game affair. Plus there was that whole "The Cardinals are the NL version of the Yankees" thing going on, so i was glad to see them getting taken down a peg by a franchise that was appearing for only the second time in their history. That might all see a bit counter-intuitive in ways but as George Clooney's character in Oh, Brother Where Art Thou once said, "It's a fool who looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." Don Mattingly, Pete Rose, George Brett... I was rooting for those guys against anybody else in that order.

davidalan wrote:

Speaking of the 68 Tigers I saw in the news that Al Kaline passed away. No cause given. I'd think good old natural causes. Not the current wave. But maybe it was.

The thing I most remember about Al Kaline was that he joined George Kell as a tv announcer for Detroit Tiger games. Kirk Gibson also became a Detroit Tigers color commentator but it's not a good role for him. I don't specifically remember Kaline's skills in that area.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Kaline

Al Kaline retired after the season in which i was born. I remember playing Avalon Hill's Hall Of Fame Baseball, and i was always glad when i drew his card. I could always find a good slot for him, and i always got good production from him.

stuntdog wrote:

I've heard many a people lamenting the lack of sports. I'm like: welcome to my world from pretty much February to April like every year.    

See I'm not much of a basketball fan (especially college). So never cared for March Madness. So, for the most part, sports are pretty much non-existent for me from the end of the football to the start of baseball.  So this to me is just kinda normal.

I take it you're also not into Hockey and have also failed to notice that MLB is usually a couple weeks into the regular season by now.

ExpletiveDeleted wrote:

not me dont miss it gave up my hockey habit 4 or 5 years ago baseball has never interested me

Do you follow any sports other than CFL, del?

no not much ... I will watch the Super Bowl and the Stanley Cup Final if there is a Canadian based team in it. the older I get the less I give a shit about sports

Did you ever enjoy baseball or basketball? Well, i think i remember you mentioning basketball from the era before rebounds were considered a trackable statistic, or something, but i mean in the modern era, which (IMO) should be considered as starting before the ABA-NBA merger.

Or baseball from any era or professional (or semi-professional) leval?

I have been to one NBA game (freebie ticket) never watched on T.V. Growing up in Western Canada in the 50's & 60's it was HNIC on Saturday Night. The Maple Leafs vs one of the other 5 teams and that was pretty much it. Junior High was Soccer Rugby & Basketball in P.E. Senior Secondary had the same plus a Football team. Ironically football was played with American rules. Baseball was something the neighbourhood kids played at a local park. I was not a jock in high school more of a rebellious loner who
didnt much like authority. We got cable and a colour TV in 1967 and I seem to remember watching some of the World Series that Fall I think the Red Sox were in it. and of course the was always wrestling on saturdays. Haystack Calhoun, Gene Kiniski, Whipper Billy Watson,Don Leo Jonathon

ML Redundant dot com has a thing going for the quarantine(in so many words). Re-airing old games with two staffers and two guys who played, one from each team, providing commentary from their homes.

Last week, on Wednesday they had the Eastern Conference Final from 2005 between New England and DC with the Revs' Taylor Twellman, now an ESPN color commentator, and DCU's Alecko Eskandarian. The game was won by DC in a shootout after ending 3-3 in regulation with 8 Yellow Cards total being handed out. At least three of those looked like straight Red to me, one or two would have gotten a looking to from DisCo in today's MLS...

On Friday they had the first Cascadia Derby of the 2014 season, Portland - Seattle with the Timbers' Pa-Modou Kah, now head coach for Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League in Victoria, BC, and the Sounders' Kenny Cooper, a journeyman forward who had been one of the original members of the Timbers in their first MLS season. The common player between these to games was Clint Dempsey. In the first he was a raw rookie out of Nacogdoches, TX. He was largely invisible over 120 minutes because Steve Nichol is not the genius he thinks he is. If he were he would have found a way to deploy Dempsey in a directly attacking role. In 2014, lacking a true No.10, for the game Sigi went with a 4-3-3 formation with Dempsey and Cooper on either side of Obafemi Martins. The second game was also a draw, 4-4, Dempsey had a hat trick, the last coming off a penalty in the 87th minute when DeAndre Yedlin was brought down in the box by Ben Zemanski, who had only come on as a sub a couple of minutes before (with the Timbers holding a 4-2 lead).

Side note of interest: The first game featured a pair of goalkeepers who played for Sigi when he was the head coach at UCLA. Matt Reis was in net for New England and his opposite number was the guy who replaced him as the started for the Bruins when he graduated. Kind of odd to see him in a DC United jersey, but then that was before Real Salt Lake was a team. Nick Rimando.

While channel surfing yesterday morning, i'm pretty sure i saw Tony Kornheiser with a  nearly full head of hair. He was speaking as the channel came up, and the voice seemed familiar, so after about another 5 seconds i said, "Wait! Wait, hit 'last' real quick; i think i heard Kornheiser!" She obediently clicked the 'last' button. I didn't get a confirmation graphic, and he didn't stick around long afterward, but i heard that voice again, and i'm pretty sure that what i saw was Tony Kornheiser with hair. It was weird.

YES is re-airing David Cone's perfect game (from 1999) today. I remember listening to that game on the radio at my friend Tony's place, we listened to all the pre-game stuff too, it was Yogi Berra day. Yogi and The Boss had publicly made friends again for the first time since George had fired Yogi as Yankees Manager early in the '85 season, and the franchise was making a big deal about welcoming home one of the last left living icons of their last dynasty. Scooter was there; Joe Torre gave Yogi his '98 World Series ring, and Yogi was wearing all 9 of his own, too; the franchise gave $100,000 to Yogi's charity; Steinbrenner gave Yogi a trip to Rome to meet the Pope; Yogi rode around the stadium in a golf cart while ~ 43,000 Yankees fans gave him a screaming standing ovation; and Don Larsen came out to throw the ceremonial first pitch to Yogi in remembrance of the only perfect game in World Series history. Idk if that inspired Cone and Girardi or if it was the fact that the Expos were a pretty soft team offensively, or both.

A week or two later, it became one of the first games to be featured on YES Encore, and we went to my favorite local bar to actually watch Cone pitch his perfect game. They re-aired all the Yogi Berra Day festivities too, which was pretty awesome. I don't necessarily mind that they're not re-airing those festivities again today, but it would've been nice, it definitely is part of the magic of that day and i'll never think of that day or that game without thinking of the fact that it was Yogi Berra Day at the old Stadium that day.

ETA: One thing i'm really enjoying is the way John Sterling used to subtly give Michael Kay the business. It was so fun to listen to back then, Kay tried to take it lightly most of the time, but every now and then it would really get under his skin, and this game had one of those moments. If i hadn't listened to these two guys call several hundred games together over the years, i might not even realize that Kay was riled, but i actually LOL'd when Sterling was gently mocking Kay as Kay obsessed over the exact number of minutes in the rain delay, and Kay rising to the bait and calling Sterling, "Mister Sarcastic Guy!"