Saturday, September 11, 2010

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun - Your Sports Teams

It's Saturday Night -- time for more Genealogy Fun for readers of Genea-Musings.

I almost did a 9/11 SNGF theme but realized that that isn't fun, it's real life.

Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to:

1) Recall your favorite sports heroes and teams of your childhood, and how you supported them.

2) Tell us about them in your own blog post, in a comment to this post, or in a comment on Facebook.

Here's mine:

The San Diego Padres were my favorite baseball team (AAA Pacific Coast League 1936-1967) when I was a boy. I listened to the radio for almost every game (sometimes beneath the covers!) from 1949 to 1960 or so. We occasionally took the bus downtown to go to games at Lane Field at the harbor, and then to Westgate Park in Mission Valley. The Pads were the farm team for the Cleveland Indians in the 1950's, and we saw Herb Score, Rocky Colavito, Bob Lemon, Luke Easter, Bob Elliott, Earl Rapp, Max West, Jack Graham and other players on their way up or on their way down. The Pads won the PCL pennant in 1954 which was real exciting.

The Major League franchise in San Diego started in 1969 with an expansion team that didn't have a winning season until 1978. We have attended games every year, and have had a 20-game season ticket plan since 2003. Padre heroes over the years were Nate Colbert, Randy Jones, Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith, Tony Gwynn, Tim Flannery, Steve Garvey, Ken Caminiti, Steve Finley, Jake Peavy, Adrian Gonzales and many more. The Padres won the National League pennant in 1984 (lost the World Series to the Tigers) and 1998 (lost the World Series to the Yankees). We're due! My Padres are tied for first place right now...and we'll be at the game when this post appears on the blog.

The Chargers came to town in 1961 and they became my favorite football team. They won the AFL championship in 1963 and were a playoff team in 1961, 1964, 1965 and 1966. I worked for them in training camp in 1963 and have always considered myself the "lucky charm" for their only league championship. The Don Coryell years (1978-1985) and Bobby Ross years (1993-1998) were the most enjoyable because of the exciting offense and decent defense. The 1994 team went to the Super Bowl and lost to the 49ers. The Chargers have made the playoffs the last few years but have faltered getting to the Super Bowl. Maybe this year! Linda and I had season tickets in the early 1970s but the team was so bad, and the tickets became so expensive, and the crowds were so unruly, that we now watch them on TV.

3 comments:

Jasia said...

I wasn't into sports as a young child. I was introduced to football in high school and fell in love with the game. My high school team was the first one I followed and attended all the games for. I went to college at the University of Michigan who of course is a football powerhouse. I bought season tickets every year I attended there and went to all the games. I still go to games at "The Big House" in Ann Arbor when I can and I catch the games on TV when I can't. Go Blue!

Geolover said...

I have never understood how people came to be 'fans' of commercial sports enterprises.

It seemed as silly as being a 'fan' of a particular automobile brand despite fair-to-poor quality, or of a certain department store.

The team *owners* as a whole have not treated their employee-players well, and have not even respected the (misguided) fans.

Wouldn't you think attitudes would change a little as game tickets went from a few dollars, for a family outing, to hundreds or thousands?

Dorene from Ohio said...

During the last week of my mom's life, she told her two grandsons to "win one for the Gipper" before they left for their football games. They didn't know what she meant, but our family loves to hear about Knute Rockne...!