Did you know: at Ohio State John Halichek played with two others who made the college basketball hall of fame: John Lucas and Bobby Knight. Another Buckeye teammate also went on to play with Hondo on the Celtics. During the summer after graduation the Cleveland Browns drafted Havlichek in one of the later rounds. He spent the entire preseason camp playing flanker, but before the regular season started the coaches knew he would be better off sticking to basketball.
At Tech my friend Wilbur Wiggins was a big Celtics fan. He thought I shot like forward Cedric Maxwell so he called me Cornbread (#31 above), and I was to call him Hondo. I liked the Celtics traditions and black shoes, and then the run they had with Larry Bird, Dennis Johnson, Danny Ainge, Kevin McHale, and Robert Parrish. Lots of passing and team basketball, though with Magic the Lakers passed as well. Later Boston added two of my favorites for the bench: Pete Maravich (#44 above) and Bill Walton. Even Dominique landed there after the Clippers (below, defended by Dennis Scott). I bought a pair of black Reebok high tops like Ainge and Johnson wore, and claimed the Celtics Mighty Mite franchise.
One of my favorite numbers became 17 because of Havilchek. Later I learned he was a boyhood teammate of Phil and Joe Niekro. Favorite numbers:
21 Jim Kiick, Dolphins RB. Wore it in high school.
17 Havlichek. Wore it for SPdL softball.
07 Mantle. Maravich with the Jazz. Wore it at GT & for SPdL softball.
03 Dale Murphy
82 Ken Burrow, Falcons WR. Wore it my sophomore year.
05 Dimaggio. Everyone liked 7 so I started liking 5.
Also like other numbers ending in one: 31 (Maddux), 41 (Eddie Mathews), 51 (Butkus), 81 (Falcons WR Wes Chesson). Today is Greg Maddux’s birthday, so they’re re-running some of his great games on MLB Network (which we don’t get any more). Several good Maddux stories….
When I went to the Cubs fantasy camp I didn’t chose 21 because I didn’t like Sammy Sosa. I chose 23 instead for their star at the time was Ryne Sandburg. Then the jersey had my name on the back. If I’d known that I might’ve picked 3 even though Dale Murphy never played for the Cubs. Or 31 for Maddux.
More numerology: Lots of kids started wearing 2 for Derek Jeter, but I’m not a fan of the number. He was the first great number two. Jeter wore it because all the other single digit Yankee numbers had been retired. Now kids want oddball, higher numbers like 99, 88, etc. to be different. I say that’s trying too hard.
Also hate the number one. It’s a “look at me, I’m better than you” number. In colleges kids fight over the number. Nowadays a kid might choose a college based on whether he can wear his favorite number. I say retire number one. Braves can retire it for Otis Nixon. GT can retire it for Eddie McAshan.
Defensive linemen like to wear single digit numbers, which is ridiculous. If you are good people will notice, no matter what number you are. Now every team has two or three linemen wearing single digit numbers, so it’s not special any more. And half the white guys have super long hair like Packer Clay Matthews, so that’s not special either. Like the kid said in the movie The Incredibles: “When everyone is super, then no one is.”
Used to be wide receivers wore numbers 80-89. Then a few prima donnas started wearing 19, and now WR #11-19 is commonplace. Back in the 60's flankers wore numbers in the 40's. Interesting find below: an early Falcons photo with jerseys not with the Falcon logo OR stripes on the sleeves. Perhaps one of the very first home preseason games.
I’m all for wearing a number that fits your position. Didn’t like kickers wearing numbers in the 90’s, but now it’s commonplace. Cooler for a kicker to wear a number in the 20’s, 30’s, or 40’s, though that’s rare these days.
I’ve forgotten all my baseball numbers. Other numbers I’ve worn as a kid:
23 basketball burgundy jersey 7th grade
15 football orange jersey 7th grade
31 football blue jersey 8th grade
68 football green jersey 9th grade
Fun fact: late in his life former Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer took to changing his number every year, to coincide with the number of years he’s been in baseball. His last jersey number was 66. Maybe that’s why Yasiel Puig wore that number.
When I heard Taqueria was closing I relayed the info to Anna. She wasn’t happy.
Busy work day yesterday. Several long conference calls. Something I had to finish do I pretty much worked until 6:30. Too late really to cut the grass and plus my back was hurting from sitting in that chair all day. M cooked a ham & cheese sandwich and sausages. Ceil fixed me an eggy boy sandwich for breakfast then later I ate a leftover bowl of chili for lunch. C went over to The Table on Delk ministry to hand out masks and sandwiches. Supper was lentls, rice, pasta, English peas, and tossed salad. Was almost nine by the time I finished the dishes. Watched The Neighborhood and The Voice.
Last weekend with the Masters cancelled Augusta resident Amy Herndon fixed herself an egg sandwich.
CHUCK TANNER [SABR Bio] was the only player to hit a home run in his first major league at-bat playing for the Milwaukee Braves – 1st AB 12-Apr-1955. HR off CIN’s Gerry Staley. Tanner was the manager in a victory which was the opposing manager’s only game in the majors. Tanner was in his first year of managing PITT when ATL came into Pittsburgh for a 4 G series. The Braves’ 38-year-old owner Ted Turner decided he needed to do something dramatic to help turn around his club’s dismal record (they had just lost 16 straight). On 11-May-1977, after telling manager Dave Bristol to “take 10 days off”, Ted said he would manage the team for a while to see what was going wrong. Oops—Turner meant that literally and took his hand at managing. Tanner’s Pirates beat him 2-1. The very next day, NL President Chub Feeney, supported by MLB Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, gave Turner the thumb. Anyone who owned stock in a team was forbidden to manage it, they told him. Turner decided not to sell. That person later hired him to manage his team. Tanner’s major league career began with 3 seasons with the Braves and ended with 3 seasons managing them.
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