Hall Of Memories

Al and Austin were telling me of their favorite basketball coach and how well he coached. They told me as we were sitting in the living room of the house we rented near Cooperstown, New York. The emphasis was Coach Phil Sheldon’s fast break and how they would work on it daily. Sheldon was a special guy in Al’s life too as he acted as his Big Brother. He had a system in his coaching which was so precise that even though he was coaching 8th graders Austin made a comment that made me laugh. When the Showtime Lakers ran their fast break Austin thought to himself “that’s us.” Precision was the key to their 8th grade runs that dominated their competition. They explained in detail to me their roles in the scheme and the precision of how Sheldon would coach in an encouraging way with a fantastic strategy. Most of all it was Sheldon’s ability to motivate and at the same time punish for excuses made when things didn’t go right. An example was when Al tried to get a pass through and had it knocked away or intercepted. Sheldon got on his knees so that he was closer to Al’s height and without saying a word demonstrated the side pass with ball in hand from both sides that basketball players learn from the beginning of their basketball fundamentals schooling. Obviously it was a lesson Al remembers from Sheldon more than 50 years ago. If someone came up with an excuse as to why they failed Sheldon would listen maybe even smile and send them out to run six laps around the basketball court. While they were running the practice went on so it was kind of a triple punishment. The first was the actual running of the laps which was no big deal really. The second and third though was the embarrassment and the fact that they were excluded from the actual practice. You see the practice went on without them with someone else in their place. After running there was no guarantee they would get back on the court right away. The mental mistakes were not punished so harsh. If Al for instance passed the ball too soon before the defense was fully committed it was a case of knowing he was wrong and sorry he didn’t wait. The break was ran again after Sheldon called him out and Al kicking himself for his mistake.

They both were telling me the intricacies of their fast break. Austin was one of the bigger kids on the team and he was one of the main kids responsible for the rebound. If he got the rebound he was coached to keep the ball over his head. If he brought it down even to chest height he would feel and hear Sheldon’s disapproval and it would cause the dreaded do over and signal him out as the reason. Keeping the ball high he looked to the side which Al was part of. Right away when the ball was secured Al would sprint to his spot which was to one of the sides of Austin. Al played point guard in the scheme but there was also another ball handler on the other side to give Austin or whoever rebounded an option. Austin would make an above the head pass to one of the two (whichever was open) and immediately Al or the other guard would get the ball to the middle of the floor. The first option was to pass it there since it was quicker. If they couldn’t get that done they were instructed to dribble as fast as they could to the middle of the court. The idea was to force the defense to commit. If they didn’t the ball handler could possibly take it all the way to the basket. The moment the defense committed and not before or long after he was to pass to one of his wings which were players in the scheme whose job was to run as hard as they could on the left and the right lane. About half of the time I was told they were able to get a layup attempt. The kid that rebounded the ball would run hard through the middle for a possible followup rebound at the other end. Austin mentioned that a good percentage of his points came from followup put backs from missed layup attempts. Each player had their role and they ran the fast break over and over again and the looks of the process changed depending on how the defense reacted. If by chance the defense stopped their initial burst they were coached to pull the ball out and run their half court offense. They were affectionately calling themselves the Ramona Laners. The Junior High made up the teams from the elementary school the kids came from. Ramona Lane was the elementary school we all went to. Others in the mix were Amberly, Angling Road and a few others. The concept the school organized was brilliant in that the kids could play ball with kids they grew up and went to elementary school with!

Al, Austin and I grew up in the same neighborhood. We played sports together along with a few others. We spent a lot of time on the baseball field. It was a field we made at our dead end. Before the dead end we had played on empty lots between houses but as we got better and older it became more dangerous to the neighboring houses we were around. The dead end was a big wild field with a church down there where the roads ended. I was a couple of grades older than Al and Austin. Besides us Tom, Todd, Kenny, and a few others played. I don’t remember Al playing as much in those games as the core group because he lived one street over. Al, Tom and I played tons of slow pitch softball together through the years. Austin on the other hand moved to San Antonio, TX with his family for his final year of high school. I remember our first meeting at the dead end. It was my idea to set the field the way it ended up. We had a big hill and my thought was since we didn’t have a backstop the hill could keep the ball within reach by acting as one. Kenny was the main cog though in the leadership of the operation. He would organize the games and would roll his dad’s mower down there and keep the field mowed. We didn’t have a fence so we decided that where the mowed grass ended and the weeds began was a home run. Grounding one into the weeds was a double. We usually only played with 3 men on a team. The other team supplied the catcher. We played pitchers hands which meant if the pitcher had the ball before the runner made it to first he was out. We also had a force play at home. If a team had runners on first and second for instance and the ball was hit to the outfield the fielder just had to get the ball into the pitcher covering home before the runner got there to record the out. I guess we kept score but the main emphasis was on hitting home runs. Everyone kept track of their own. The shorter distances were right and center. Left field was the longest field. Austin didn’t hit as many home runs because he was a pull hitter hitting to the furthest part of the field. When he hit them he really had to nail one. We always rode our bikes to the field after getting called by Kenny. I remember Kenny and I in close competition for the home run title and Kenny not calling me for a week. When he finally did he was ahead by 8 or 10 home runs! That was his option as the organizer of the games. Todd, the youngest of the group got the worst deal. Whenever he hit a home run that was the signal that the home run distance was getting too short and we always mowed it back a few feet. Austin and I walked through our old neighborhood when he came to visit a few years ago. We talked about the different houses and who we remembered lived there. We invariably made the trip down to the dead end. The church had made a ball field right around where ours was. They had a backstop and benches. Still in our minds our field was the best and most memorable!

We have so many neighborhood memories and most of them revolved around sports. We played baseball, basketball, football, and hockey. Our hockey was street hockey that we played in Tom’s driveway. When Tom died a few years ago I got a chance to talk to his dad (Jack) at Tom’s memorial. I mentioned that I understand now why when we got there we had to clear off the snow on the driveway to play. He told me that when the driveway piled up with snow he would encourage Tom to get a game up. With all of those helping hands it didn’t take long for us to get the unwanted snow off of the driveway rink so our game could begin! What a scheme Tom’s dad Jack had to get his driveway shoveled! Jack would play right along with us. Austin remembers Jack as a guy who stood like a rock and could not be moved. Tom and I would try our hardest to line each other up for a check into their garage door. It gave when we got our hit in so nobody got hurt however it made a super loud noise. It embarrassed the checked player and was a highlight of our game. I guess Jack had to adjust that door a few times because of our abuse of it. Usually we played our games at night and a strong light on the garage and a light that was hung on the tree kept the place lit. The tree was a part of the rink as it was in the middle of the driveway…We had to maneuver around it and when the ball (we didn’t use a puck because it didn’t move fast enough or at all sometimes) rolled down the hill on one side of the driveway we would race down the hill in competition with the other side to see who could secure the possession for their team. Running up the snowy hill and putting the ball back in play the new action began!

Al surprised me with a new play for our new action last October when he asked ‘if I wanted to go to Cooperstown?’ That is Cooperstown New York the home of the Baseball Hall of Fame. He had also invited Austin who quickly said YES! We decided to go in late May. Al picked me up and we started our journey. We stopped in Willoughby Ohio to spend the night and to play golf. The second day we made it to the house we had rented along with Austin who met us there. Austin lives in Alabama so it was a much longer drive for him. Todd would have came but he has a bad back and has a hard time driving or flying for more than a few minutes before his back tightens up. Since he would have had to make the trip from California his bad back would create a major problem. We rented a house with a beautiful mountain view! It was just right for what we needed and spending time with those guys was like re-living our youthful past. Whatever we have accomplished in life we are still the same kids that had so much fun together 50 years and more ago. The museum was wonderful and we spent most of our time looking in the room of the older generation players. We were amazed at Honus Wagner’s (he retired in 1917) uniform and how it looked so well kept. For being so old it looked fantastic! We spent one whole day at the museum and parts of another at the shops around it. We ate shopped and shared as only people who really knew, cared and understood each other could. Our memories together in those old days has forever kept that bond we have together.

As fun as the museum was (and it was amazing) the real fun was sharing it with my friends. I don’t see my old friends much but that doesn’t mean we still don’t love each other. So glad that through Facebook I reconnected with Austin a few years ago. Al and I had reconnected before that so we had a meetup with Austin when he happened to come to town. Then there was Todd who I had been searching for years trying to find. Through lucky circumstances I finally did. Now we all have each others numbers and can call or text each other any time. Two of my favorite times of the trip was talking to Todd. We all sat in chairs in the front yard of the rented house with a beautiful mountain view surrounding us. In spite of all of the mountains our connection to Todd more than 3000 miles away was fantastic. Al put him on his speaker phone and we all discussed everything that came to mind. It was a re-creation of that friendship we all had with each other! We talked to Todd for over 2 hours (an hour each time). One time Todd got laughing so hard he couldn’t stop. We heard that on the line and naturally laughed with him! We talked a lot about the past and the present. Those talks were more memorable than the Hall of Fame could ever be. We had our own memories and our own Hall of Fame within our own minds!

Just like Al and Austin’s fast break memories our group all had their places in our system. Kenny was the game organizer and keeper of the field while the rest of us were the ones counted on to participate and be ourselves. The looks of the games changed depending on who played that particular day but in most cases the core kids were in the mix. We were all young men who loved baseball and enjoyed our friendships. On January 1, 1973 I received a phone call. I wondered “Who could possibly be calling me on the holiday?” It was Todd and his 10 year old voice was really sad. Roberto Clemente (the great MLB player) had been killed while attempting a goodwill mission. Baseball was so important to us back then that Todd wanted me to know (as his friend) so I could share in his loss. Since that time Kenny drowned in Lake Michigan at the age of 15 and Tom died of Frontal Temporal Disease…(what Bruce Willis has now) at 56. When I re-connected with an old friend at a high school reunion a few years ago he messaged me how that you wake up and you are 50. Now it seems like you wake up and you are in your 60’s. I thank God for the memories of good times and friends. I thank God for meeting a guy near Buffalo, NY named Tim at a flea market on our way home. He and I discovered that we are both believers, prayed with each other and vowed to stay in touch. As we were close to my house coming back we had a tape playing of Ernie Harwell’s Scrapbook. Ernie was the great Detroit Tiger’s announcer that we grew up with. The last thing we heard was a rendition of “Take Me Out To The Ballgame” performed by Harry Caray (the old Cubs announcer) and all of the fans at Wrigley Field years ago. The timing of that song at that time was so right! It was like the timing of this trip, the timing of all of the games we played, and the timing and precision of that over 50 year old memory of the perfect fast break! This trip was our fast break and we ran it as well as the best Ramona Laners fast breaks Al and Austin’s memories could supply!

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