Kobe Bryant was drafted at #13 in 1996, passed over by my beloved Celtics, who took Antoine Walker instead. Ouch.
Categories: Sports Tags: basketball · Celtics · Kobe Bryant
Sports
Chief’s ring
Robert Parish is selling his 1986 Celtics NBA championship ring. How sad. Best single-season NBA team I’ve ever seen. (Via Red’s Army.)
Categories: Sports Tags: basketball · Celtics
Fenway ’56
August 7, 1956. 68 cents + 7 cents tax. Via Eephus League.
John Fox on ball games
Book trailer for The Ball: Discovering the Object of the Game by my friend John Fox (on sale May 14). The footage shows the Kirkwell Ba’, an ancient “folk football” game played twice a year, on Christmas and New Years Day, in the streets of Kirkwall, a tiny coastal town in Orkney, northern Scotland.
Categories: Books · Sports Tags: book trailers · video
“A fair-haired crew-cut lad”
“You will no doubt remember a fair-haired crew-cut lad…” In the spring of 1960, Anthony Gilchrist, an old army buddy of Toronto Maple Leafs coach Punch Imlach, recommends a 12-year-old prospect named Bobby Orr. The Maple Leafs’ response is here. The whole story is told here. (Via Pension Plan Puppets.)
Cousy
Bob Cousy drives the lane against the Rochester Royals, December 12, 1956. (Sports Illustrated)
Categories: Sports Tags: basketball · Bob Cousy · Celtics · Sports Illustrated
Touch the Hem of His Garment
Now up for auction: 1972 Bruins road sweater worn by Bobby Orr in the Stanley Cup finals. If you were a kid in Boston in the ’70s, you’d understand.
Quarterbacks of the NFL, 1961
Back row (left to right): Milt Plum (Browns), Bobby Layne (Steelers), Sam Etcheverry (Cardinals), Bill Wade (Bears), Bart Starr (Packers), Johnny Unitas (Colts), Norm Snead (Redskins), Zeke Bratkowski (Rams). Front row: Jim Ninowski (Lions), Fran Tarkenton (Vikings), Don Meredith (Cowboys), John Brodie (49ers), Sonny Jurgensen (Eagles), Y.A. Tittle (Giants). Photo by Ralph Morse. First published in Life magazine, November 17, 1961.
October baseball
“Umpire William Grieve issuing a walk to pinch hitter, outraging Red Sox manager Joe McCarthy and catcher Birdie Tebbetts, during Senators and Red Sox game.” October 1949. (Life Magazine.) The story of the memorable Yankees-Red Sox pennant race of 1949 is told in David Halberstam’s Summer of ’49.
Think Different, cont’d
Poster from Apple’s Think Different campaign (1998).
Categories: Design · Sports Tags: advertising · Apple · Muhammad Ali · posters · Think Different
Ali for Apple
Think Different 15-second TV ad, 1997
Categories: Design · Sports Tags: advertising · Apple · Muhammad Ali · Think Different · video
The origin of Roy Hobbs
Phillies first-baseman Eddie Waitkus, Clearwater, Florida, 3/9/53 (source). On June 19, 1949, Waitkus was shot in the chest by a deranged fan, Ruth Ann Steinhagen, in a Chicago hotel room. The incident inspired the similar episode in Bernard Malamud’s The Natural.
Categories: Books · Sports Tags: baseball · Bernard Malamud · The Natural
Wings not included
On auction: Bobby Orr’s skates, worn during the 1974-75 season.