Sports Stories of My Generation
Hosted by SSOMG
Latest Stories
#63 Sports Camp 2020
Well, I must say, this was a good one. Below was the schedule for first annual Sports Camp 2020: Sports Camp 2020 Dates Tues – 28th/Wed – 29th / Thurs – 30th TIME Tuesday Activities – July 28 – Camp Opening Ceremonies/Check-in Bike racing S. Oceanside 4:00pm Batting Practice + drills S. Oceanside 4:30 Football…
#62 The Restart
Today is August 1, 2020. We are about a week into the restart of professional baseball, or I guess, more accurately referred to as Opening Day of the 2020 Major League Baseball season, a season that will go down as unlike any other. At this point it is anyone’s guess if the baseball season, now…
#61 Uncle Jimmy
No, not that Uncle Jimmy; this is about a different Uncle Jimmy; the Uncle Jimmy you would wish for. So what do Bobby Lillis, Bill Monbuquette, Johnny Werhas and Gene Conley have in common? That’s right, Uncle Jimmy. – Bobby Lillis was drafted by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1951. He did not make the big…
#60 The Cut-out Fans and the Cut up season
The next story was actually supposed to be #59, a glimpse of the career of Laura Baugh, a female professional golfer from Long Beach who grew up with Marijane. Given the sudden intervention of the Major League Baseball season, I have elected to put Laura on hold for a minute and skip ahead to the…
#58 Magic Johnson
OK, let’s see where did I leave off? SSOMG has taken about a two week break as a result of moving out of my office and out to Pauma Valley and then back again to host Eli and Fox, and it has been just a good time to concentrate on other things that are happening…
#57 Michelle Wie
Well, on this Independence Day I think SSOMG will steer clear of any stories having to do with our forefathers to avoid obvious missteps and other politically incorrect interpretations. Today let’s celebrate the independence of women over the last many decades and tell a story about a very independent and incredibly gifted and talented 4…
#56 Monday Night Football
Well, it’s Monday Night, so it seems like a good night to tell the story about Monday Night Football. Assuming they actually have a 2020 NFL football season, this year will mark 50 years of Monday Night Football broadcasts. The first year of MNF kicked off with Keith Jackson, Howard Cosell and Don Meredith as…
#55 Dice Baseball
Ok, here’s a good one. I should have thought about this back in March when they put all the real games away. We could have started our own Dice Baseball League. During all this covid down-time we could have been playing dice baseball, instead of sitting around staring at a blank TV screen, or trying…
#54 The Season of 37%
The what? That’s right. Get used to it. From now until October we will be dividing everything by .37… 60 games; Today, at last a decision was made by all of the powers that be. Major league baseball will head back to Spring (?) training by July 1st and professional baseball will resume by July…
#53 Father’s Day
Ok, sort of a no-brainer selection for today’s story. Father’s Day; normally I would be watching the last few holes of the US Open, just as I was at Pebble Beach last year. No Open this week, but a pretty good story at the RBC Heritage where there are a bunch of great golfers playing…
#52 The Four Musketeers
In 1625 a young man named d’Artagnan left home to travel to Paris, hoping to join the Musketeers of the Guard. Although d’Artagnan was not able to join the elite corps immediately, he is befriended by three of the most formidable musketeers of the era – Athos, Porthos and Aramis, “the three inseparables” – and becomes involved…
#51 Ann Meyers Drysdale
Lisa pointed out to me tonight that I have run amuck. Until she pointed it out, I hadn’t realized that I had written only one story about a woman athlete. On April 3rd I wrote a story about Mary Lou Retton. The first sentence of that story starts with SSOMG apologizing that it had not…
#50 Gary Fisher
No not Bobby Fisher. Gary Fisher. If you were wondering, I will probably not be adding a story about chess to this collection. You can relax. Gary Fisher was born in 1950; he is now 70 years old. And if you are a mountain bike rider, you probably recognize the name; known by some as…
#49 Big Sur
I suppose you are saying to yourself, wait a minute….Big Sur? What kind of sports story is that? SSOMG says hey, wait a minute; there is plenty to say about the great sports activity that goes on there just about every minute of every day on the California Central coast. I am not sure now…
#47 Jim Bouton
Ok, so did someone say controversy? So here is a real controversy stirred up by one of those New York Yankees, pitcher Jim Bouton. I think I have a few of Jim’s baseball cards from the early 1960’s. Jim passed away last year at the age of 80. Seemed like a good guy, despite the…
#46 Rick Monday
Today is June 6th. It is the 76th anniversary of D-Day; the invasion of Normandy. D-Day, 1946 marked the largest air, land and sea invasion in history. 150,000 allied troops arrived on the beaches of Western Europe. It was the turning point in World War II. It allowed the allies to gain a foothold in…
#45 Hank Aaron
Sheesh. I guess it is about time to hear about Hank Aaron. So, steering somewhat clear of the current racial unrest in America, and sticking to how the black athletes of my generation were able to navigate, the story of Hank Aaron is a great example of the times and the challenges. Yes, I can…
#44 Loma Prieta
In case you were wondering, Loma Prieta is the name of the highest peak in the Santa Cruz mountains. It is also the name given to the 6.9 magnitude earthquake that arrived in San Francisco at 5:04PM on October 17, 1989. At the time, Bob Welch of the Oakland A’s was warming up in the…
#43 The Holdout
1966. 54 Years ago, The Holdout happened. It was crazy. It was shocking. Looking back at it, it was amazing. Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax, at the height of their careers were holding out, not agreeing to sign a contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers until Walter O’Malley and the Dodgers agreed to sign both…
#42 Miracle on Ice
SSOMG has another confession to make. I have yet to watch an entire NHL Hockey game on TV. Please don’t mention this to any of my Canadian friends; or even those from the eastern part of the United States. Let’s also admit that in 1999, Sports Illustrated, named the Miracle on Ice the top sports…
#41 Marco Siffredi
So SSOMG realized yesterday that there are a lot of sports that have not yet been mentioned in the first 40 stories that have been written. Some of these sports, including bowling, ping pong, ice-dancing and gymnastics probably are worthy of consideration. Another whole genre of sports also has been ignored…extreme sports. Not knowing the…
#40 The Indy 500
Well, no surprise here. The Indianapolis 500. The greatest spectacle in racing….a Memorial Day tradition, even for some of us who have never been to a race track and will probably never go. SSOMG remembers some of the highlights and some of the names that have made the race famous, especially those over the last…
#39 Eli Lyall
So, maybe you saw this one coming. On the eve of his 6th birthday, it is time for a sports story about Eli; Maybe not so much about his sports accomplishments to date, but more about his future and the potential of 6 year-olds everywhere. Eli of course has some super powers. He started throwing…
#38 Tiger Woods
SSOMG could not put together a list of Sports Stories of My Generation without including Tiger Woods, certainly one of the legends of our time. SSOMG touched on one of Tiger’s greatest victories in Story #15 – The Masters. But Tiger’s story is much more than just his latest major-tournament victory. Reading his life’s story…
#37 Joe Namath
I realized today that I have written only a couple of stories about football, and only one about a professional football player (OJ Simpson) and even that story was mostly about OJ’s career at USC. So to be fair to one our Country’s favorite pastimes I decided it was time to highlight some football. Joe…
#36 Tony Gwynn
Today would have been Tony Gwynn’s 60th birthday…unfortunately Mr. Padre passed away in 2014. As you know SSOMG has never been a huge Padre fan. That being said, I probably have watched parts of more than 2,000 Padre games over the last 30 years (maybe more?) since moving to San Diego County. Many of those…
#5 Sonny Liston
So I started this story way back in early April and decided not to finish it somewhere along the line. Sonny Liston’s story was just pretty darn sad and unfortunate, and I thought, geez, we don’t need a sad and unfortunate story to go along with our sad & unfortunate situation. Today I noticed that…
#35 Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
1965. Back in those days Kareem was known as Lew Alcindor. 1965 was Kareem’s freshman season, and as was the standard back then, he played on the freshman team and not the varsity. In a pre-season warm up game prior to the start of the regular season, the Bruins, ranked #1 in the country, played…
#34 Jimmy Carter
It’s funny but sometimes when I look back at people and events that occurred during my generation, it is almost as if I may have missed them completely. Or maybe they happened, and were really big items, but I was distracted and not paying much attention. Or maybe my memory is just not what it…
# 33 Bob Feller
Sheesh. This guy was amazing. Granted, he was on the very edge of what could be considered My Generation. But I didn’t want Bob to be left out. In 12 games that he pitched, he allowed only one hit; twelve one-hitters. Obviously, he was one pitch away from making those 12 one-hitters into no-hitters. Those…
#31 The Streak
Well as you may have heard, opening day for the 2020 baseball season has been postponed; If Frank Robinson had just been so lucky. Frank was one of the best baseball players of all time, a true hall of famer. But in 1988, Frank Robinson was in the Baltimore Oriole front office, helping direct the…
#30 Lance Armstrong
Lance Armstrong will be 50 years old next year, God willing. 1n 1996, at the age of 25, Lance Armstrong was diagnosed with stage-three testicular cancer. After surgery and chemotherapy his doctors gave him “almost no chance” of survival. When pressed at the time, the medical response was “perhaps as high as a 20% change…
#29 Steve Dalkowski
Steve who? So you may have just seen it if you were really paying attention to the sports page and trying to find a story that did not involve today’s NFL Football draft and the new LA Chargers quarterback. No, Steve Dalkowski has nothing to do with the Chargers or the draft. Steve died yesterday…
#28 O.J. Simpson
OK. I don’t think you are going to get this one. This is a story about OJ Simpson. None of you were 15 years old in 1968 when OJ won the Heisman Trophy as the best collegiate football player of the year. Most of you have other thoughts and opinions about OJ. He ran into…
#32 Sandy Koufax
(In case you were wondering, this is only the 28th story from SSOMG, but it seemed appropriate to number this story #32 after the Dodger jersey that Sandy made famous). Sandy Koufax is 84 years old these days; starting to make even me feel old. I remember I was at a track meet in September…
#27 Meb Keflezighi
Since its inception in 1897, the Boston Marathon has never been cancelled. Yesterday, April 20th, was to be the 123rd running of the Marathon. The race, drawing over 30,000 runners, has now been postponed to September 14th. It is hard to say at this point if the Marathon will go on as planned in September. …
#26 Gary Carter
So you may have been wondering why I have yet to write about Gary Carter. I have been thinking about it. I wasn’t really sure what angle to take, or how to start the story. Should I lead off talking about Sandy Lahm Carter, who I first met in the 6th grade at Laguna Road…
#25 Karch Kiraly
Volleyball. Or, should I say Mr. Volleyball; a local hero in our own back yard. Karch was born in Santa Barbara, attended UCLA, and now lives in San Clemente, CA. You say you’ve never heard of Karch Kiraly? (pronounced ‘kir-eye’) During his career at UCLA the Bruins won 3 national championships and finished 2nd once. …
#24 John Isner
Yikes. Talk about stamina and patience. A 3-day tennis match. I am sure there is a lesson here, but I am not sure at this moment what it is. John Isner and Nicholas Mahut started their first round tennis match at the 2010 Wimbledon championship late in the afternoon on Tuesday, June 23. After splitting…
#23 Bill Mazeroski
Maz. Bill Mazeroski is probably another name you may have never heard. Reality is, he is in the Baseball Hall of Fame; not for the moment that he made so famous and that forever will be remembered by the faithful fans of the Pittsburgh Pirates. He is in the hall as a result of being…
#22 Brian, Lisa, Jamie & Leah
I could not find much background for this story on Wikipedia. I guess I will just have to wing it. Four great sports stories. You might remember some of them. Brian was a baseball player. He started out a little weak, but ended strong. I am not sure where the all star games were that…
#21 Jerry Lucas
So here is one you probably haven’t heard, and never expected to hear about. Jerry Lucas. Here are the highlights of his amazing basketball career at Ohio State: He was a nationally awarded high school player (offered over 150 scholarships), national college star at Ohio State, and 1960 gold medal Olympian and international player before…
#20 Pete Rose
Pete Rose will be 80 years old next year. Pete broke into major league baseball at the age of 22 and played for another 23 years, until his retirement in 1986. Pete Rose is the all-time MLB leader in hits (4,256), games played (3,562), at bats (14,053), singles (3,215), and outs (10,328). He won two Gold Gloves, and made…
#19 Payne Stewart
“They wanted something natural in the area that didn’t stand out and they just wanted to mark that spot forever. So a friend and I began looking around for a rock and lo and behold we found a rock they had dug out at the crash site, and we took it over to an engraver…
#18 Tommy John
So as we enter Easter weekend, SSOMG thought it would be appropriate to tell the story of one, or actually two, of the greatest comeback stories in baseball, the story of Tommy John. Tommy John pitched for 6 major league teams during his career and of course most notably for the Los Angeles Dodgers. He…
Loading…
Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.
Get “Sports Stories of My Generation” delivered directly to your inbox.
Sports Stories of My Generation 