Spring Sports
It’s a great time of year to be a sports fan, with an exciting March Madness, Opening Day for MLB and the Masters golf tournament. Basketball, baseball and golf are my three favorite sports, going way back as both a player and as a fan. As evidence, since starting this weekly blog in 2015, I’ve written 5 posts about basketball, 6 about baseball and 7 about golf. Fortunately, over my lifetime, I’ve had the opportunity to attend several March Madness games, a number of Opening Day games, and a couple of Masters rounds. All were a thrill to attend in person, literally absorbing the crowd's excitement and enthusiasm.
The NCAA Tournament games were in 2000 and 2001. The first was at the Palace of Auburn Hills, seeing the MSU Spartans beat Syracuse and Iowa State in the Regionals on their way to a National Championship. The second was the first play-in game at UD Arena with Northwestern State beating Winthrop.
The Opening Day games included the Reds and two with the Tigers. The Reds’ Opening Day was in 1973 during the Big Red Machine era when as a newcomer to my in-laws family, I was invited to attend the game as they had season tickets. The first of two Tigers Opening Days were in 1984 at old Tiger Stadium when the team eventually won a World Series and the last was the inaugural game at Comerica Park in 2000. Read more about these memorable ball games and check out the photos in this blogpost.
The Masters golf tournament is totally different than the stadium scenes during March Madness or Opening Day games. The golf course is spectacular and the fans are in so much respect for the history and tradition of the Masters. I attended a Thursday round in 2000 including the Opening Ceremony and a Sunday finals in 2006 when Phil Michelson won (that’s me tipping my hat just to the left of Phil doing the same). On my bucket list is a return someday with my son. Here is the blogpost about the two Masters events I had the privilege of attending.
To my knowledge, Michael Jordon is the only person to play each of these three sports professionally, which is an amazing accomplishment if you think about it. Jordon was definitely an outstanding athlete to be able to master those three sports at the professional level so effectively. Had he been able to focus on baseball and golf like he did basketball at a young age, he likely would have been a hall of fame baseball player and golfer just as he is in basketball. But it could have been four professional sports considering this video of Jordon tossing a football 65 yards in the air, tongue out and all.
Enjoy spring, Fish Report readers! Take in a round of golf, watch some high school baseball or just go for a walk outside after the long winter.
Postscript: Really enjoyed Craig’s outstanding blogpost this past Friday about his visit to Rich Romie’s shop in Ft. Loramie. Check out this previous blogpost from 2016 about Rich’s father John and many other Loramie proprietors from that era.
~~~~~~~~
Receive a weekly email whenever there is a new blog post. Just click here to send me an email request and your name will be added to the distribution.
No comments:
Post a Comment