Category: History and More

NBC televised Monday night baseball games off and on starting in 1966, but it wasn’t always “must-see TV” for me. My first vivid memories of sports date back to around 1967, and they almost exclusively center on tackle football (and mostly the New York Jets).

There were notable exceptions, of course. I rooted for the New York Yankees (pinstripes are cool) and Chicago Cubs (loved that baby bear logo), so I was more engaged when they were on. If Pop (my dad) was watching them, I’d usually join him.

And I always wanted to see games featuring Willie Mays and Hank Aaron because they were my favorite players when I was a kid growing up in Birmingham, Alabama.

That leads me to the NBC Monday Night Baseball game I remember best, played on April 8, 1974.

The Atlanta Braves hosted the Los Angeles Dodgers, which under normal circumstances would be just a run-of-the-mill early season clash between two National League West rivals. On this night however, Aaron – the Atlanta legend – was sharing Babe Ruth’s crown as baseball’s home run king but poised to take solo possession of the throne.

I was well aware of the historical implications. Everybody knew who Ruth was, and his 714 career home runs seemed like a record that would stand forever. But when Aaron blasted his 714^th on April 4 at Cincinnati, it was apparent that forever would last only until the spring of 1974.

Making the chase even more remarkable was that the Braves right fielder was closing in on one of the most coveted records in sports while having to deal with hate mail and death threats from racists – vitriol that increased dramatically the closer he got to the milestone.

While Pop had been a huge fan of the Braves ever since the franchise relocated from Milwaukee, the team itself didn’t interest me nearly as much as Aaron himself.

He was piling up Hall of Fame-level hitting numbers even without the homers, and that impressed a young stat geek like me. What was most important, though, was that he and I were from the same state; I took great pride in Alabama stars, and in my world the ones who played sports shone the brightest.

Mays was a Birmingham native and former Birmingham Black Baron, thus I gravitated to him immediately and followed him closely until he retired in 1973. Aaron was born and raised in Mobile, and since I had relatives who lived there, that made him seem even more like a local hero.

So with Pop in his easy chair and me plopped on the couch, I watched every pitch to every batter just for the privilege of seeing “Hammerin’ Hank” come to the dish.

He drew a leadoff walk in the second inning and later scored his 2,063^rd run, breaking a tie with Mays for most in National League history. That feat secured his 20^th Major League Baseball and/or NL record overall.

In the fourth inning (at 8:07 p.m., CDT), Aaron delivered the big one.

With a 1-0 count and L.A. lefty Al Downing dealing, the 40-year old slugger smacked a fastball over the left field fence, prompting me to leap off the couch and thrust both arms in the air. I had just seen history made, and it was made by a man from my home state.

Pop was happy, too – but even happier five innings later after the Braves secured a 7-4 victory and handed the Dodgers their first loss of the young season. He supported Atlanta’s big league team through thick and thin, and there was so much thin back in the day, any win was extra special.

Now at this point you might expect me to tell you how that game turned me into a serious baseball fan, but that’s not exactly the case. As happy as I was for Aaron – and proud – it was really the early 1980s before I grew passionate about the sport.

Yet if I’m gonna mark significant memories in my journey as a fan, April 8, 1974, ranks right up there. I never let the date pass without acknowledging the most historic NBC Monday Night Baseball game ever played.

We all have dreams, and many of them make no sense whatsoever once we wake up and think about them (if we remember them at all). Then again, there are other dreams that seem closer to reality than not.

Indulge me as I describe one that is not only fresh on my mind, but has become a bit of an obsession.

A couple of weeks ago I dreamed about a sport that – to the best of my knowledge – doesn’t exist. I only remember bits and pieces, but it involved kicking oblong balls at targets while players tried to catch them.

I know there were two balls in play at the same time and there were multiple players to a side. The field was grass and rectangular – similar to a football field, but not as long or wide.

When I think back on it I saw two balls (possibly the kind used in Australian Rules Football) being kicked toward circular white spots on the playing field. In one instance a player ran under the ball, caught it, and a red light went off, presumably signaling a score.

The images were so vibrant that I wrote them down shortly after I woke up and then started to reverse engineer the dream so I could fill in the gaps.

Obviously during this time of social distancing, quarantine and a complete lack of live sports due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s not surprising I’d have a sports-related dream. I love soccer and have become a serious rugby fan as well, so you can make a case that somehow this “vision” was a combination of the two. But it’s more akin to a futuristic sport.

So what did I do with all this information?

Well, I invented what I’m currently calling “Target Ball,” a semi-contact sport featuring kickers, catchers and defenders.

The main object is for a catcher to shake off a defender and field a kicked ball inside a specific target. Making things a bit more interesting is that the catchers for each competing team are converging on the same target at the same time.

The tentative rules – determined after more revisions than I care to admit – are as follows:

* The field is 60 yards long and 30 yards wide.
* One end features three targets with varying point totals. The smallest target has a five-yard radius and is located at the center back of the field (60-yard mark), extending to the 55-yard mark. ­­It’s worth seven points for a kicked ball caught within the target and four points if the ball is not caught, but lands inside the target. A slightly larger target (seven yard radius, located between the 50 and 43-yard mark) is worth five and three points, respectively. The largest and easiest target (10 yard radius, extending from the 40 to 30-yard mark) is worth two points/ one point.
* A catcher from each team is situated on opposite sides of each target (lined up on the sideline), and paired with a defender. In other words, there will be a catcher/defender combo to the left of the 7/4 target and another to the right.
* On the other end of the field are kickers representing each team, whose task is to put their catchers in the best position to field kicks inside the target. The balls must be of different colors in order for the catchers to know which ball is “theirs.” (In Australian Rules Football a red ball is used for day matches and yellow balls are used at night. One of each could be put in play in Target Ball).
* The first scoring phase involves the kickers – lined up at the opposite corners of the back line (0-yard mark), simultaneously punting the ball toward the 2/1 target. Once the ball is released the catchers and defenders from each team assigned to the target race from the sideline toward the target. The defender can block the catcher but can’t hold him, and once the catcher has reached the target the defender may not go inside it. (This rule applies to all scoring phases). If the kick fails to land inside the target, the play is over and no points are scored.
* The second scoring phase begins as soon as the first phase ends, and involves the kickers lining up on opposite sides of the 10-yard mark and aiming at the 5/3 target. This time they kick the ball from a tee (a spot kick).
* The third scoring phase starts at the end of the second phase with kickers stationed at their 20-yard mark and drop-kicking the balls in the direction of the 7/4 target. That completes the first session.
* The game consists of four sessions of the three phases, and the kickers and catchers must be substituted each session. For example, kickers from session one might swap positions with 7/4 catchers in session two, and so on. Defenders may also be substituted but it’s not mandatory.
* In case of a tie at the end of the fourth session, the kickers will line up at their dropkick spots and aim at the targets. Each get five tries to accumulate the most points. If still tied after the initial round, they alternate dropkicks until a winner is determined.

Since these games should be finished rather quickly (I’m guessing they’d last only 30-40 minutes or so), perhaps a day at the ol’ Target Ball park might include a best-of-three match and maybe even some doubleheaders. I don’t have two Aussie Rules game balls, marked field, or any other humans I’m allowed to play with at the moment, therefore I can’t say for sure.

So, is going to all this trouble silly?

Well, of course it is. People are itching for “real” sports to return and I doubt very seriously they have a taste for something new. This whole project means absolutely nothing to anyone but me, and the chances of it going from drawing board to playing field are slim to none.

Still, I feel kinda proud that I took a dream, fleshed it out as best I could, and came up with Target Ball.

After all, a little fantasy can’t hurt as we adjust to our new reality.

Great sports memories are often defined by buzzer-beating buckets, last-second touchdowns, or walk-off home runs.

My most recent involved a bald guy standing in a mostly empty room.

Andy Kennedy was officially named the seventh head men’s basketball coach in UAB history on Monday, which for me would be exciting under any circumstance. I mean, the guy is the all-time winningest coach in Ole Miss history, averaging more than 21 victories per season.

But in a time of the COVID-19 pandemic – where many of us are worried and frightened while trying to maintain a semblance of routine – it was also a respite.

“I want to give you my heartfelt sentiments to all that have been directly affected in an adverse way during this troubling and confusing time,” Kennedy said during the live stream his “social distance” news conference. “But I know this, I know that Birmingham is strong. I know the UAB community is strong. I know the state of Alabama is strong and together this too, we shall overcome.”

Just as binge-watching a feel-good movie on Netflix can provide a break from an increasingly unsettling reality, so can sports. And when sports is dormant as it is now, looking forward to the day when it springs back into action is uplifting.

“In 1977, when Gene Bartow left Westwood in Los Angeles at UCLA – the pinnacle of college basketball – to come to the Southside of Birmingham to start UAB athletics, he did so with a vision to create a nationally relevant basketball program,” Kennedy said. “In year three, 1981 – led by two Birmingham natives – Coach Bartow led the Blazers to the Sweet 16. In 1982, they doubled down and advanced all the way to Elite 8, awakening the college basketball world that Southside of Birmingham is serious about college basketball.

“It is now my charge, my mission to bring us back to our rightful place on the college basketball landscape. With your help, that will become our new reality.”

Sure, all of that is boilerplate stuff, but it’s stuff I wanted and needed to hear. As much as I love UAB football’s Lazarus act, men’s basketball is the flagship sports program at my alma mater.

I want to see it come back to life, too.

“Things that stuck out to me when I asked him, ‘Why UAB and why now?’ he said, ‘It would be my personal mission to put UAB basketball back to where it once was,’” UAB director of athletics Mark Ingram said. “’I want to win a championship – not just this year – but every year. I want UAB basketball to be a Top 20 program.’”

I always looked up to Coach Bartow. He was a great mentor and a great man, and when I was a young sports writer for the school newspaper, the Kaleidoscope, he made me feel like I mattered.

And since Kennedy became one of “Gene’s boys” after spending a year with Jim Valvano at N.C. State, how could I not be thrilled by the hire – and hopeful that Kennedy will continue what Bartow started?

Mike Anderson has come the closest to date; in four years at UAB he guided the team to three NCAA Tournament berths, including a Sweet 16 appearance.

Since Anderson left following the 2005-06 season, however, the Blazers have waltzed in the Big Dance only twice, and in the last few years fans have stayed away from Bartow Arena in droves.

Maybe soon – or as soon as we can all settle into a new normal – that will change.

Perhaps a brighter roundball future is dependent on a guy plucked from the Blazers’ glorious past.

“It is now my charge, with your help, for us to create more special memories,” Kennedy said. “With your help, we can fulfill Coach Bartow’s vision for this program. Because I know together we will win as one.”

Another basketball season is still a long way away, and no one knows when we’ll get through this current crisis.

But for a few minutes on Monday, Andy Kennedy helped me remember how exciting sports can be.