So, anyway, for my next pretend, I am pretending two things on this #freakinweekend.
One, I'm pretending that I'm 10 or so and headed to Indianapolis for the weekend, for Game 4 of the 1973 ABA championship series. I'm pretending my dad is a sportswriter for The Courier-Journal who is not involved with the newspaper's abundant coverage of the Secretariat Kentucky Derby. So we end up, after the Kentucky Colonels/Indiana Pacers game, having to watch the race on the Holiday Inn TV set, which thrills me.
Two, I'm pretending that I'm the 50-year-old second-tier sportswriter at The C-J, and I am not thrilled about having to watch the Secretariat Kentucky Derby on a TV set in a Holiday Inn two hours north of Churchill Downs.
Browsing the actual newspaper editions from The Courier-Journal and The Indianapolis Star at Newspapers.com helps me pretend, as does watching these videos at YouTube. Thank you, Internet.
Here is one thing on which both 10-year-old and 50-year-old pretend me agree: The Holiday Inn is fantastic.
ReplyDeleteHere's the May 4, 1973, To Tell the Truth. This trip is off to a terrific start.
ReplyDeleteOh, my gosh, Tom Kennedy is from Louisville and went to UK!
ReplyDeleteThat silent footage from the ABA game, which appears to have been posted by the son of Roger Brown, is perfect for pretending to have good seats at the game.
ReplyDeleteWhen people talk about the differences in the pro game of years ago and today, the phrase "mid-range jumper" comes up all of the time--that the current players are poor at shooting it or unwilling to shoot it or something. I don't know about that. The players I see today sure seem to be better shooters from most anywhere on the floor than those I watch in the old clips. But what does seem clear is that all offensive plays--shots, passes, even dribbling--are so much more physically and even violently defended now. Artis Gilmore, for example, turns sideways to his defender and holds the ball aloft with his back hand for seconds at a time, waiting for a teammate to come open for a pass. It seems to me that, in today's game, it is likely the defender in front of him would be leaning into Gilmore, slapping at the ball, and another defender would collapse from behind and leap for the ball and cause plenty of contact. I would be interested in checking out an NBA with today's playing talent and yesterday's officiating regime.