Everyboy growing up has sports heroes. Mine should of been Mickey Mantle since I was born in the Bronx. Or Maybe Vince Lombardi since I was born at Fordham Hospital where Vince played football. Maybe Homer Jones of the NY Giants,Walt Frazier,Willis Reed or any other Knick.. But being a Phiilie fan mine was Richie Allan. Number 15.. Back in the day we kids could imitate almost every superstar baseball batter as he got up to the plate. Mickey was easy batting lefty,Rocky Calivito ,Willie McCovey, .. But I could do Richie Allen with his 44 ounce baseball bat as he stepped in the batters box. I heard he passed away at 78 and although I always believed he should be in the Hall of fame I do understand why he isn't. He did strike out a lot but hit some long home runs and a few over the roof of Shibe Field or Connie Mack Stad.. He was a somewhat problem for the Phillies but faced a lot of racial issues coming up in the minors to the phillies. I have his baseball card in my wallet since 1967.. I had to redo the plastic cover over the years.. when I looked at it today the question is do I now take it out.. have to think about that today.
Dec 7th.. I have told this story here already maybe 3 or 4 times.. Its Dec 7th and my school janitor Yashu a polish decent former US navy Veteran with ta-toes and speaks broken english is in the hallway by the gym, mopping before one of my games.. Michel or Timmy his brother who plays on the middle school team is just finishing practice when Yashu asks him " do you know what Dec 7th is ? Michel or Timmy [ they were twins} answer no. Then Yashu goes off " its the day the Japs hit us with everything,they came down on us and hit us hard" The boys said " Oh we never heard of them but when we get those guys on our court we will kick there butts". Yashu is screaming " what do they teach you in this school".
Today I get a call from Matt L one of my former players .I haven't heard from him in over 20 years. He was a chappaqua cop in Westchester on the Hillary Clinton detail when she was a NY senator. Matt is now a NY State Trooper .. He was the 1st black student president at Oswego St Univ in upstate NY. He was such a good looking kid he was in the movie with his mother in " Bonefire of the vanities"
But I reminded him tonight of the scouting report he gave me of Bishop Grimes HS in Syracuse. He was a police officer there when he was reading the sports pages and saw that if Bishop Grimes wins tomorrow night they will open up in the NY Final 4 vs my team Matts alma mater if they win there next game. So he calls me and I ask him can you scout them for me. I know they are 26-0 but I'm playing the Long Island champion the same night Grimes is playing. Matt goes to the game and gives me a great scouting report. They have a 6'6 Lithuanian kid that is already signed to go to Syracuse.. Matt breaks down Grimes and tells me our "box and one " will work. Anyway we both win and I open up vs Grimes.. Matt drives from Syracuse to Glenn Falls maybe 2 hours away to watch the game. During warmups I see matt in the stadium. I ask him to come into our locker room pre game and talk to my team. Matt gave an inspirational speech and asked " who is the Cobra on this team"? When we ran the box and one the player who boxed was called the Cobra .. Matt said I played for Coach for 4 years and i was the cobra. My scoring avg was maybe 5 pts a game and on our bench almost every player was better then me but I could lock anybody up on defense. I would draw 3 offensive fouls a game. And my junior and senior year I was the teams MVP ... it was a great speech and tonite Matt said I have those MVP trophies in my living room and see them every night. I went out for the Oswego St Univ basketball team and didn't make it. But I didn't need basketball. You gave me the confidence,respect and love and i knew I was on the right path . I was a little teary eyed and am so proud of him. He became his senior year Oswego's 1st black school president and became a police officer in Syracuse,Peekskill Capaqua and now is a NY state trooper. I had many NYC kids that are dead or in jail. In fact Carl N who was a 5'6 pt gd on that team that Matt talked to 2 years later was killed in a drug deal with 2 bullets in his head.. But getting that call tonite was really a nice gift..
just re-read my post sorry for all the bad grammar but I did forget to mention .. we beat Grimes 77-65 and the Lithuanian although we boxed him he did get his 20 but his rebounding and assists were down and he forced a lot of shots. From the 3 pt line he was 2-10 or something like that...and the box took him out of his rhythm... sometimes the kid we box still might get his points but we disrupted the other teams offense. But the next day after we beat Grimes I lose in the state finals by 5 I lost 3 state final games ... my nick name was the" Bud grant of HS basketball " in reference to the NFL Viking coach who lost 3 super bowls ..
just heard this morning on Dec 8th its 40 years ago Lennon was killed at the dakota in NYC. wow How come we always remember where we were when we got the news. I can remember JFK,Martin Luther King,Thurman Munsons plane crash ,and many more. Especially the Timmons brothers telling Yashu in the hallway " we are going to kick those japs butt's when we get them on our court.
Dec 7th.. I have told this story here already maybe 3 or 4 times.. Its Dec 7th and my school janitor Yashu a polish decent former US navy Veteran with ta-toes and speaks broken english is in the hallway by the gym, mopping before one of my games.. Michel or Timmy his brother who plays on the middle school team is just finishing practice when Yashu asks him " do you know what Dec 7th is ? Michel or Timmy [ they were twins} answer no. Then Yashu goes off " its the day the Japs hit us with everything,they came down on us and hit us hard" The boys said " Oh we never heard of them but when we get those guys on our court we will kick there butts". Yashu is screaming " what do they teach you in this school".
Today I get a call from Matt L one of my former players .I haven't heard from him in over 20 years. He was a chappaqua cop in Westchester on the Hillary Clinton detail when she was a NY senator. Matt is now a NY State Trooper .. He was the 1st black student president at Oswego St Univ in upstate NY. He was such a good looking kid he was in the movie with his mother in " Bonefire of the vanities"
But I reminded him tonight of the scouting report he gave me of Bishop Grimes HS in Syracuse. He was a police officer there when he was reading the sports pages and saw that if Bishop Grimes wins tomorrow night they will open up in the NY Final 4 vs my team Matts alma mater if they win there next game. So he calls me and I ask him can you scout them for me. I know they are 26-0 but I'm playing the Long Island champion the same night Grimes is playing. Matt goes to the game and gives me a great scouting report. They have a 6'6 Lithuanian kid that is already signed to go to Syracuse.. Matt breaks down Grimes and tells me our "box and one " will work. Anyway we both win and I open up vs Grimes.. Matt drives from Syracuse to Glenn Falls maybe 2 hours away to watch the game. During warmups I see matt in the stadium. I ask him to come into our locker room pre game and talk to my team. Matt gave an inspirational speech and asked " who is the Cobra on this team"? When we ran the box and one the player who boxed was called the Cobra .. Matt said I played for Coach for 4 years and i was the cobra. My scoring avg was maybe 5 pts a game and on our bench almost every player was better then me but I could lock anybody up on defense. I would draw 3 offensive fouls a game. And my junior and senior year I was the teams MVP ... it was a great speech and tonite Matt said I have those MVP trophies in my living room and see them every night. I went out for the Oswego St Univ basketball team and didn't make it. But I didn't need basketball. You gave me the confidence,respect and love and i knew I was on the right path . I was a little teary eyed and am so proud of him. He became his senior year Oswego's 1st black school president and became a police officer in Syracuse,Peekskill Capaqua and now is a NY state trooper. I had many NYC kids that are dead or in jail. In fact Carl N who was a 5'6 pt gd on that team that Matt talked to 2 years later was killed in a drug deal with 2 bullets in his head.. But getting that call tonite was really a nice gift..
just re-read my post sorry for all the bad grammar but I did forget to mention .. we beat Grimes 77-65 and the Lithuanian although we boxed him he did get his 20 but his rebounding and assists were down and he forced a lot of shots. From the 3 pt line he was 2-10 or something like that...and the box took him out of his rhythm... sometimes the kid we box still might get his points but we disrupted the other teams offense. But the next day after we beat Grimes I lose in the state finals by 5 I lost 3 state final games ... my nick name was the" Bud grant of HS basketball " in reference to the NFL Viking coach who lost 3 super bowls ..
just heard this morning on Dec 8th its 40 years ago Lennon was killed at the dakota in NYC. wow How come we always remember where we were when we got the news. I can remember JFK,Martin Luther King,Thurman Munsons plane crash ,and many more. Especially the Timmons brothers telling Yashu in the hallway " we are going to kick those japs butt's when we get them on our court.
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