When I am out and about in my car, I usually listen to sports radio; the late summer is often a time when the standard hosts are “on hiatus” and they have “rookies” filling in for them. Such was the case late last week when a stand-in host came up with an imaginative way to fill a couple of 10–15-minute segments. Here was the question for callers to answer:
- If you had the superpower of time-travel, what great moment in the history of sports would you go back and witness in person?
That is a mindless and harmless set-up for a call-in show and the host was taking calls in rapid fire. Don Larsen’s perfect game in the World Series; Bill Mazeroski’s walk-off home run in the World Series; NC State’s upset over “Phi Slamma Jamma” in March Madness were among the early suggestions from callers. One caller suggested the 1940 NFL championship game where the Bears defeated the Redskins by a score of 73-0; that did not find favor with the host here in the DC area; he didn’t call that suggestion blasphemous, but you got the idea he would like to have done so.
After a few more, someone said he would want to go back and see Wilt Chamberlain’s 100-point game against the Knicks in the early 1960s. And that mention triggered a memory of a game I actually saw in person that did not have a singular attachment to sports history but was probably the best total basketball performance I ever saw in person. It took me several days to track down the box score for that game because my memory had me looking in the wrong month and the wrong year. But I eventually found it and want to share today what I was lucky enough to see.
The date was December 8, 1961; I was a freshman at the University of Pennsylvania and a friend’s father had two tickets to a game between the LA Lakers and the Philadelphia Warriors. At the last minute, the friend’s father could not make the game, so my friend asked me if I wanted to go with him. That is how I got there.
Elgin Baylor and Wilt Chamberlain put on a show that night; here are the data:
- Baylor had 63 points and 31 rebounds in the game.
- Chamberlain had 78 points and 43 rebounds in the game.
- The Lakers won the game in Triple OT and Wilt played all 63 minutes that night.
I was in the right place at the right time and got to see that spectacle.
However, one evolving story today is an example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time for the wrong reason. Jed York is the CEO of the San Francisco 49ers; he was arrested over the weekend and plead no contest to misdemeanor charges that stem from a prostitution sting in East Palestine, OH. According to reports, York responded to an online ad for “carnal services” to cost $140; he was arrested, booked, charged and with his plea he got to spend a day or two in jail and paid a fine around $1000.
Cue the NFL’s Personal Conduct Policy here … If a player or coach or referee behaved like this, you can be sure that the league would suspend and fine the individual and maybe even fire the offender if it were one of the officials. It will be interesting to see how the league will apply the policy to an owner because suspending an owner doesn’t mean much and the chances that the league could levy a fine that was meaningful to Jed York are pretty slim.
Before anyone jumps to remind me that Robert Kraft did something very similar here and was not punished for his actions, there is a significant difference between the two incidents.
- Jed York plead no contest and was punished by the court for his actions.
- Robert Kraft was never tried; the charges were dropped when the prosectors stood down.
Jed York spent two days in jail; Robert Kraft did not. As trivial as that “sentence” from the court may be, I suspect The Commish will need to consider it when he renders his decision.
The Niners obviously want this matter to be over and done with posthaste. Here is the official statement by the team about this “situation” as per Adam Schefter:
“As this is a legal matter, which has been resolved, we will not be providing any further comment at this time.”
Translation:
- Can’t wait for the regular season to start so that people will be focused on the games and not this “legal matter”.
Finally, this statement from Benjamin Franklin seems a good way to close today’s rant:
“Remember not only to say the right thing in the right place, but far more difficult still, to leave unsaid the wrong thing at the tempting moment.”
But don’t get me wrong, I love sports………