The other memorable moment was in our Babe Ruth league championship where with 2 outs and a guy on a second, the other team hit a single up through the middle, I charged the ball and threw the runner out at home to win the championship. It was a picture book scenario, well that was until after the game when our team manager announced the all-star team selections for our league and I wasn’t on the list, but his less-talented son was. It would seem rationale to say that I should have gotten over it a long time ago. I haven’t, but that is a nutshell of how life goes.

http://www.richardhellergallery.com/dynamic/artwork_detail.asp?ArtworkID=116

12 : The Sixers team that Dawkins played on from ’79-’82 was one of the best teams to never win a title, and maybe the most likable. As a Celtics fan, I rooted against them, but I respected them, and even got a little teary with this respect when I joined in (at home) with the Celtics fans urging the Sixers to “Beat L.A.” in the waning moments of the Celtics’ 1982 Game 7 loss to the Sixers. Dawkins’ most famous moments were the two times he broke a backboard, but his most valuable moment in the league may have come just prior to that 1982 Game 7. The year before, the Sixers had lost in the playoffs to the Celtics after squandering a 3 games to 1 series lead, and they went into Game 7 in 1982 on the brink of repeating the choke job. The Sixers locker room was a tense, unhappy place, but then apparently Dawkins started telling jokes, breaking the whole locker room up, getting everybody loose, and they went out and kicked ass. Doctor J led the way, of course, but that team also had The Most Underrated Point Guard In NBA History (Mo Cheeks), plus a host of superlative role players (supergunner Andrew Toney, defensive specialists Bobby and Caldwell Jones, steady Lionel Hollins, goon/baseline jumper specialist Steve Mix, and of course Darryl Dawkins, who though never quite as good as his physical attributes seemed to suggest he could be was still a very solid scorer and rebounder. He was traded after the Sixers became, with the acquisition of Moses Malone, the best team I’ve ever seen (for exactly for one season), but he had his revenge when he led his new team, the Nets, to a stunning, champion-toppling, one-year-dynasty-ending playoff upset over the Sixers in 1984.

Starting the second half, I received the halftime tipoff and proceeded to take it to the hole for a basket. The other team’s basket. This would not be so noteworthy, except that we lost by 1 point. More noteworthy is that I scored all of our team’s points, as well. My father, who was Bobby Knight without the good mood swings, ripped me the whole way home in our fake wood-paneled Oldsmobile station wagon for being such an idiot, moron, dummy, or whatever non-profane word he could think of which wouldn’t break his Baptist code.

While I had success in varsity sports, the 3 most memorable sports moments of my playing career all happened before high school. I hadn’t thought about that until now. Thanks for sharing this great story, Josh, as it triggered some interesting memories for me.

8 : Have a good game. Foul a couple guys for me! I haven’t played in a while, but that’s only because I’m too cheap/broke to join a gym, even the Y, plus I’m lazy. I miss it.

And thanks for bringing up Lovetron. In my earlier attempts at this post I kept trying to get some thoughts about Darryl Dawkins, and Lovetron, and the smashing of the backboard over forever immortalized-in-supreme-facialization Bill Robinzine, and the great early ’80s 76ers, and the wondrous photo on this card, in which Darryl seems to be sleep-rebounding, but I couldn’t jam it all in there and so just gave up. In fact Darryl deserves lenghty epic poems written in his honor, not mere mentions in posts. I am not being a wise-ass when I say that I feel lucky to have grown up during a time when Darryl Dawkins roamed the earth.

But I never lost the love for the game. In fact, in an hour, I drag my 39-year old body to the Y for my regular friday afternoon run with the guys from work.

But I am extremely glad that the Y has wood floors, and not the horrible linoleum tiles that we played on in 7th grade. And since it was a mixed-use floor, no amount of sweeping could kep it from being a skating rink.

And since someone has to say it in today’s comments….”Lovetron.”