AM Radio. Box scores. Johnny Most. The way sports used to be.

One of the only bright spots in our new norm of living with this darn virus is watching all of the old sporting events on TV these days. As I sat down this weekend top watch Tiger King (Turns out it has nothing to do with Jim Leyland leading the Tigers to the World Series in 84) I got to thinking about how it was being a sports fan “back in the day.”

Growing up on MDI in the 80’s we did not have cable TV. On a clear day we had the three local stations, IF the roof top antenna was pointing in the right direction. That meant only seeing the Red Sox on TV maybe a dozen times per year.

It was a thrill to see Bird, McHale and the Celtics on the weekends and a bit more during the playoffs. The Patriots were around on Sundays, but not always shown and I honestly never saw the Bruins play until I was in college.

It was enjoyable to listen to the Sox on the radio on warm summer nights and I loved the cigarette damaged vocal cords of Johnny Most calling the C’s on my AM radio all winter.

I used to check the Bangor Daily News every morning for box scores and it was a Sunday tradition to grab the sports section of the Maine Sunday Telegram to track how Wade Boggs was doing in the chase for another batting title.

Speaking of box scores and newspapers, remember figuring out fantasy football scores from the sports pages every Monday morning? Lee Goldberg and I were in charge of our league in the early 90’s and often I had to grab the calculator and add up the league results.

It was a different time for sure. No phones. No internet. No whacko Tiger King guy. I miss it. And I miss today’s sports. Which I hope will be back as soon as possible.

Share your stories from the good ol days at jeff@sportschowdah.com

Jeff Solari
www.sportschowdah.com

Jeff Solari

About Jeff Solari

Jeff Solari is the president and founder of the Sports Chowdah, Maine’s only free, weekly sports e mail newsletter. Recently, the Mount Desert Island native was the co-host of "The Drive" on 92.9 FM in Bangor.