Box Score Blues

As Fantasy Football and Baseball have taken on a life of its own. I am brought back to the memories of a game that my friends and I used to play to past the time during the summers. The game had no official name that I can remember. It was, on a very minor scale.. gambling and all that we needed to play was are knowledge of baseball and some lined paper. The newspaper boxscore of the baseball game provided everything else we needed.

I give you the notorious gamblers of Rose Place and Blue Point Road
Mario, Ken, Fankie, Lenny, Steve, Davey, Sal, Ray


The Boxscore Game
The ahem..rules.

each run scored (R)= 1 point
each hit (H)= 1 point
each rbi (RBI)= 1 point

The wager
dime= per point

5-10 baseball players chosen by each of us. It really depended on how much money we had. Remember we were kids.

Players to choose from for example Jim Rice (good for 4,2,2,3)/George Foster/Johnny Bench/Dave Parker/Reggie Jackson/Brian Downing/Rod Carew (4,1,2,0)/Toby Harrah/Mike Schmidt/Dwight Evans/Yaz/Dae Kingman (always a 5,0,0,1)/Steve Garvey/Dusty Baker/Chris Chambliss/Pete Rose/ Greg Luzinski. Each of us had our own rhyme or reason why we chose are players. Some of us read the back of the baseball cards for stats and other just liked the player or team.

The Game was simple: Grand total points for the week(S) for each player chosen wins the pot.
That's it, no trades , no waiver wires to deal with, no crying about your guy getting hurt, tough noogies if your team got rained out.

Usually the game would be around 3 weeks long, not sure if they went any longer.
Say the winner would have 100 points,
2nd place guy 70, 2nd place guy owes 10 cents per point he lost by (30 x .10= $3.00)
3rd place guy 50, 3rd place guy owes 10 cents per point he lost by (50 x .10= $5.00)

I want to say I owon my share, but I know I didn't. I problably still owe someone some money, yes I definitely do. Guess I chose Mario Mendoza one too many times.
Who do I send a check to?

My most treasured memory was meeting up with the guys, waiting to get the paper to check the box scores, the excitement of all of us adding up the the players tally or groaning when their player had an o'fer night. George Hendricks had 10 RBI's one night, I know I didn't have him on my team. Sigh!

ESPN did not exist then and the regional sports news just gave scores and an occasional highlight of the local teams. When I saw my team had scored 11 runs, I am beliveing that my guy went 5 for 5 with five runs scored and 5 runs batted in. The dream game score of 15. To my dismay it was usually an o'fer night with a sad one sacrifice fly RBI.


To this day, I will read the box scores entirely and even though they have changed or added some new stats, I will always count the number of points a player gets and think back to a time that provided some special memories for me.


the sportsfreak always scores a 5,5,5,5

A Fan of All

Today someone asked me who my favorite sport team is. For the millions of sports fans this is the easiest question in the world to answer. Can't tell you how many people just blurt out the Yankees because it's the in thing right now. For all you posers who now love the Minnesota Vikings, you couldn't name five starters on the team 2 years ago.

I have to process the question before answering it. I have to take account for whom I am talking to, where are they from, where I am at the time of asking, who else is in the area, and I am thinking about the reaction of person asking the question.
See ..I have issues.

I want to be the fan of every team. Ok, that is a little selfish but why can't I have it all. I do not jump on the bandwagon once a team start to improve and does well. I have been a passenger on that train the whole time. I may not have bought the priciest seat on the train and I may have been sleepng every once in a while but I know where the train has been and where it is going. Every team, if you look hard enough has something to be a fan of.

You can call me "Switzerland of Sports"- Good luck to the Swiss Team playing in the World Cup this year. Too bad Spain will school them in Group H.
Not too much, not too little... see?

When I was younger, I rooted for different teams for a number of reasons.
I rooted for the Houston Astros because the uniforms were god awful ugly, but mesmerizing to me. I rooted for the Tampa Bay Bucaneers (still do to this day) because of the Buccaneer on the helmet and the really cool creamsicle uniforms. So they went 0 for their first 26. But when the finally won a Championship in 1997, I took part in celebrating as well.

Being from New York I will always have a special place for my fav's:
the Mets (from Wayne Garrett to Greg Jefferies to Straw to Wright, time to win!
the Jets (Wesley Walker dude could run, not catch but run. Sack Exchange
the Knicks ( Ernie Grunfeld through Pat Ewing to the D League team playing now.
the Islanders (4 Cups in a row. Now John Tavavers will lead us?
the Giants (in da 80's,I'd given my right arm for a passing game. run,run,run, punt.
the Yankees (from the bleacher creachers to the $2500 a seat. The YANKEES WIN!!!
the Rangers (Mess, thanks for the bringing the Cup to us.)

I am a sucker for a cinderella story. Give me you down on their luck team who comes back to win it all. Your weak Division II team going against the big bad BCS team.
Give me your displaced team finding a new home. Your gently used player "past his prime" having one last season.

I hope that I have secured my peaceful place on the planet, Fandom.
On planet Fandom you can root for anyone , any team, for any reason, at any time.



Come join the sportsfreak, all are welcome.