Okay, so today's my birthday. . .how did I know, cause I come into work and my office is trashed with streamers, banners and birthday confetti. I'm getting old, and I know that because all I can think of is how big of a damn mess this is and how long it will take me to clean it up :)
Anyway, since I'm offically 33 today I think I've earned the right to be a little introspective and think about my bests sports-related childhood memories. I'd like to hear yours too. Then tomorrow, its back to being totally ridiculous and juveline, cause it keeps me feeling young. . .
My One Football Helmet: For my 8th birtday, I got a Dallas Cowboys football uniform. I remember the helmet that came with it was almost like a real helmet, not like the crappy plastic ones that kids get today. You could definitely do some damage to your buddies with those old ones. I remember that when I wanted a new uniform my dad decided I could just get another jersey and he would paint a new logo on the helmet for me. I kept naming team helmets that I wanted but he kept making me pick a different one because the logo was too hard to paint. Finally he limited my choices to the Bears or the Browns, so I went with the Bears. Then the next year I was a Brown. . .
Baseball Cards: I used to have tons of these, I'm sure everyone else did two, but my dad found some deal on boxes of Donruss cards so I had tons and tons of those cards. I loved the Rated Rookies. In ten years I'm selling all my B.J. Surhoff and Greg Jefferies rookie cards and retiring. It's gonna be sweet. . .
Wrestling: Man, did I love to watch the WWF. We used to go over to my friend's house. . .you know the rich one with the HUGE satellite dish in his back yard, and watch all of the pay-per-view events. I loved all the old guys like Hulk Hogan (before he was a dad), the Macho Man, the Junk Yard Dog, the Iron Sheik, CoCo Beware, Hacksaw Jim Duggan and of course Andre the Giant. After the events we all went outside and tried out all the moves. . .this was of course before lawsuits. When we got in trouble and had to come in, we would go to his room and crank Living on a Prayer on his record player and all rock out. And in case you are wondering. . .no. . .we're all married to women now. . .
Little League: I loved spending the summer at the ball field. The ball games were fun, but it was also like my first social event. . .we would stay and play cupball (baseball with a paper cup) and chase girls around. I met my first girlfriend at the ball field. We were together for about two days, then she broke up with me at the skating rink to be with this mysterious guy from another middle school. . .I was pretty upset until mom bought me some nachos. . .then it was all good :)
The Dr. J vs. Bird/Double Dribble Debate: I had one, my cousin had the other. I liked Dr. J vs. Bird just because they were two of my favorite players AND you could break the backboard when you dunked the ball. It was cool to see the glass break and to see the little janitor come out and clean up the glass. Plus, Larry Bird could actually dunk on the video game, so it was awesome. My cousin, who was younger, liked Double Dribble because it was for this new thing called a Nintendo and had better graphics. . .I guess I was just old school even back then. . .
Okay, that's my day spent looking back on some cool moments from my childhood. I'd like to hear about some of yours. . .
