My Very Own Sports Fantasies

Like anybody else, I have a lot of sports fantasies. On very rare occasions, a few have come true, such as the NY Jets beating the Baltimore Colts in Super Bowl III. Another was Pete Rose, a player I absolutely hated, getting into deep molasses late into his career.

Here is a list of more of my sports fantasies. Of course, some can’t happen because of death or the passing of many years. I still wish they could have happened anyway.

I wish that someone would have beaned George Foster. He always drove me crazy when he would step out of the batter’s box just as the pitch was being thrown. I would have loved to have seen him do that against Don Drysdale or Bob Gibson. He would have stopped that nonsense quick.

I would love to have seen someone, anybody in the media, question Bear Bryant on why it took him so long to integrate his Alabama football team. His first African American freshmen arrived in 1970, and made their Crimson Tide debut in 1971. The Civil Rights Act was enacted in 1965. The SEC’s first African American athlete, a basketball player, made his debut at Vanderbilt in 1967. As it was, Bryant was far more powerful in the state of Alabama than George Wallace could have ever hoped to be. He could do both anything he wanted and do no wrong. But the national media botched their chance. I wouldn’t have hesitated to ask. Bear Bryant owed plenty of answers on that matter. He didn’t deserve the free pass that he got.

I always dreamed of shoving Red Auerbach’s cigar straight up his keister. An L.A. radio reporter once tried to in a hotel elevator during the NBA Finals in 1985. They got into it, but it got broken up. Auerbach may have been a major reason for the Celtic’s legend, but he was one of the poorest winners ever in sports.

I wish Angel Stadium of Anaheim would be re-done the way it used to be before the Rams moved there in 1980. They’ve knocked out most of the extra seating since the Rams left, but there are still remnants, such as luxury boxes and outfield seating. I get it that the suites are now an economic necessity, but I would love to see the outfield seats taken out, and the original Big A scoreboard, now an advertising sign in the parking lot, moved back into it’s old left field position. Back then, as far as I was concerned, Anaheim Stadium, as it used to be called, was the greatest little ballpark in the majors. And the city of Anaheim sullied it.

I would have loved to have seen a World Series played in the Astrodome.

I wish Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar could have played just one game against each other. It never happened. Russell retired the season before Kareem entered the NBA.

I wish that the Baltimore Colts, Houston Oilers, and Montreal Expos were still around. I miss them.

I wish that Jackie Robinson could have played in L.A. with the Dodgers. He was from nearby Pasadena, and played four sports at UCLA. Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley knew long in advance that he was moving the team to Los Angeles. Why wouldn’t he keep Jackie Robinson?

It’s a shame that Willie Mays had to spend the bulk of his career playing in Candlestick Park in San Francisco. If he had been able to play in a decent ballpark during his prime, he might well have had over 800 home runs. Candlestick’s architect should have been flogged.