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26
september
october 201 3
I was always going to play
shortstop for the NewYorkMets.
I grewup a NewYorkMets fan. I remember
hiding a transistor radio inmy desk during 5th
grade Spanish class and listening to the 1969
World Series; I heard Cleon Jonesmake the fi-
nal catch in left fieldwhen theMets beat the Baltimore Orioles to clinch the Series
and become, forever in history,’ÄúTheAmazin’Äô Mets.’Äù
Hurra!
As time passed, I could still play shortstopwith the best, but I could never re-
ally get the hang of hitting a curve ball.And so? The next best thing?
Write
about
sports and
cover
the games!
And so I made it to Shea Stadiumand the right field bleachers for the Seventh
Game of the next MetsMiracle in 1986, and I joined in as the crowd stood from the
seventh inning on and shook the stadiumuntil it felt like it would crumble, and I
saw Jesse Orosco toss his glove into the air when theMets defeated the Red Sox
forWorld Series Championship #2. (People forget, by theway, that theMets didn’Äôt
win the Series in Game Sixwhen Bill Buckner let the ball roll through his legs’Äîand
who can forgetVin Scully’Äôs call in that game?’Äú
So thewinning run is at second
base, with two outs, three and two toMookieWilson. [A] little roller up along first
...
behind the bag! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight, and the Mets win it!
’Äù)
And I made it to theMeadowlands inNew Jersey and the press box for a host of
NewYork Giants football games during themid-1980s, and I watched Lawrence
Taylor dominate football games fromhis linebacker spot like no one before or
since.What I remember most, though, frommy afternoons at the stadium, was
meeting announcers and football legends Pat Summerall and JohnMadden, who
always ate before their CBS broadcast in the huge dining room reserved for the
press; I remember shakingMadden’Äôs hand, and his Super Bowl ring seemed bigger
thanmy head.
And I wrote andwrote andwrote. One of my first editorial gigs was for amaga-
zine called
HomeVideo
; themagazinewas a forerunner of
EntertainmentWeekly
and covered the then-burgeoningworld of VCRs (VHS or Beta?) and newcable
networks. (I wrote about the very beginnings of this crazy idea’ĶaTVnetwork
devoted solely to showingmusic videos’Ķ something calledMTV... and yes, for
all you trivia buffs:’ÄúVideo Killed the Radio Star’Äù was the perfectly ironic first video
aired on the cable network.) I wrotemy own
Sports Illustrated
’ÄúScorecard’Äù-like
sports previews for
HomeVideo
, and I was off to the races: I could finally indulge
my fantasies after years of growing up reading
Sports Illustrated
and
Sport
and
The
Sporting News
.
And so
Cityview
nowpresents Sports in Knoxville: 2013. The entire issue con-
cerns sports in oneway or another: Our political column looks at the influence of
sports on Knoxville politicians, the Knoxonomist imagines (and pleads against) an
Olympic bid fromKnoxville’Äîandwe interview some of Knoxville’Äôs finest athletes,
spanning decades of excellence, fromTodd Kelly, Jr., who is just entering his senior
year at theWebb School of Knoxville andwho has committed to playing football
for the University of Tennessee next season, to a’ÄúConversations’Äù interviewwith
legendary former UT football player and coach JohnnyMajors.And you’Äôll find lots
of surprises, too.
AsMichael Jordan is reported to have said:’ÄúJust play. Have fun. Enjoy the game.’Äù
And enjoy our latest issue of
Cityview
.
From the
Editor
Steven Friedlander
Editor-in-chief
Photo by Bryan Starmer
Local, wireless monitoring
with East Tennessee’Äôs only
local central station
1-865-966-5507
10446 Cogdill Road ’Ä¢ Knoxville, TN 37932
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name for more
than 30 years!