Commentaries & Musings

2026

My Sporting Life

What do Ted Williams, Bob Misevicius, John Havlicek, Mark Fidrych, Michael Jordan, Larry Bird, Tiger Woods and Justin Leonard have in common? The surprising answer is me! Because of fate and good luck I have watched, in person, iconic moments in these sports legends careers. Well ok, calling Misevicius a legend is a stretch and my Leonard experience has an asterisk but hey, this is my story.

While I have attended a decent number of sporting events in my seven decades plus on earth, I’ve only had season tickets for one stretch of time; the Celtics from 1978, the year before Bird arrived, through 1999 when Rick Patino almost destroyed the franchise. So this means my fortunate presence at the seven historic events I will regale you with were possible because of serendipity mixed with some wise choices. I will present them in chronological order from 1958 through 1999!

July 20, 1958 - I’m twelve. Grandstand seats first base side at Fenway Park with my Dad and big brother, Mike. Two outs, bottom of the 9th inning and Detroit Tiger pitcher Jim Bunning has a no-hitter going. As if scripted in Hollywood, Ted Williams steps into the batters box. Bunning winds up and delivers the pitch. Williams’ classic, smooth

swing sends the ball on a high arc towards the right field bullpen. The crowd is mesmerized into awed silence as the trajectory of the sphere continues. Al Kaline, Detroit’s brilliant right fielder, lopes gracefully back to the warning track. It is so quiet you can hear the “plop” as the ball hits Kaline’s glove. Williams, Bunning and Kaline, three future Hall of Famers! I mark my scorecard F-9. Final out.

December 29, 1976 - My older sister, Ginny, snared two last minute tickets to the Michigan versus Providence College basketball game. Although we were close it is the only game she and I ever attended together. Michigan is rated #1 in the country and comes into the Civic Center undefeated after seven games. P.C. has a good team but mighty Michigan, although the visitors, is a solid nine point favorite. The game does not disappoint! The weary combatants battled into double overtime. Even the fans were getting exhausted. With one second left P.C.’s workmanlike Bob Misevicius managed to bank in a short jumper for the victory and the Civic Center exploded. It was the only time in the Friars long, storied history that they have beaten a #1 team!

April 9, 1978 - Final games of a player’s long career can be mentally and physically exhausting. In his sixteen seasons with the Boston Celtics John (Hondo) Havlicek never looked tired. He simply outran his opponents for 1,270 games. My being a weepy sentimental Irishman, I knew watching him go would be difficult. I was right. In fact, I abandoned my brother and spent the halftime ceremony and retirement speech by Hondo drinking beer at the concession stand in the concourse. The emotions and father time had seemingly affected #17 as he struggled through most of the game with numerous missed shots. Celtic coach Dave Cowens inserted Providence College legend Ernie DeGregorio into the game in the 4th quarter. Ernie D. knew his job, get the ball to Havlicek where he could score. His assists helped Hondo finish with a game high 29 points. A fitting ending to a fabulous career.  

July 1, 1982 - On this date serendipity conspired to produce a magical pitching duel at McCoy Stadium. Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was attempting a comeback by pitching for the Red Sox’ AAA team in Pawtucket and the New York Yankees had briefly assigned their young All-Star hurler Dave Righetti to their Columbus squad to work on his mechanics. Hearing of this amazing match up I hustled my then four year old daughter, Katy, out of the house and made the short drive to Pawtucket. Knowing McCoy had a limited capacity with only 5,380 seats we arrived more than an hour early. Approaching the old, venerable ballpark I knew we had a problem. The parking lots and side streets were already jammed. Tickets were sold out. A record 9,389 early birds had crammed McCoy way past capacity. The Fire Marshall must have turned his head. I spied a single small parking space next to a closed diner which stood on top of a tiny hill. After maneuvering into the spot Katy and I sat on the car’s roof . From this vantage point about 100 yards outside the field on the third base side we could see a little less than 1/2 the field. But, we could see the mound and the batters boxes! Imagine being a minor league hitter suddenly facing Fidrych and Righetti under the less than powerful McCoy lights at dusk! Righetti struck out the first four hitters and fanned twelve in his six innings. Fidrych also struck out twelve and, more importantly, pitched a complete game. Worst  seats I’ve ever had at a sporting event and yet, with my daughter, my most enjoyable memory!

April 20, 1986 - The Chicago Bulls were down 0 - 1 games and desperate to leave Boston with a playoff win. From our seats in Loge 6 my brother and I watched as Michael Jordan showed what other worldly talent and desperation can produce. M.J. played 53 minutes in the double overtime thriller. He scored 63 points! Celtic’s defensive stopper Dennis Johnson worked diligently but Jordan spun, flew and exploded everywhere. Post game Larry Bird, who played all 56 minutes and scored a mere 36 points declared, “That was God disguised as Michael Jordan.” Yet, our Celtics won 135 - 131 on their way to another championship!

August 27, 1995 - I had never heard a golf ball sizzle before. Standing in the gallery for the 1995 U.S. Amateur Championship at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island I watched as 19 year old Tiger Woods pulled a two iron out of his bag. He had about 230 uphill yards to the green with the Atlantic Ocean wind in his face. He took a smooth, controlled backswing then his slender body accelerated as he returned the club face towards the ball. The contact was violent then the ball launched into the clear blue sky. I heard the sizzle as the ball tore through the prevailing breeze. I’ve watched a decent amount of PGA stars in person since the 1960’s. No other shot has ever produced that magnificent sound. Tiger defeated veteran amateur Buddy Marucci that day to win back to back U.S. Amateur titles.

September 26, 1999 - Most attendees for the final day of the 1999 Ryder Cup at The County Club in Brookline, Mass. were realistic about what they would see. The U.S. team started the day down a seemingly insurmountable 6 points to 10 so we in the gallery were resigned to simply watching some good golf. U.S. team Captain Ben Crenshaw however, had some optimism saying, “ I have a good feeling about this.”

Give that man a prize! As the day slowly unfolded the U.S. players were ahead on most of their matches. I scrambled around to catch as much drama as possible trying to gauge which match would be the deciding point. I was working my way towards the 17th green when the loudest roar of the entire week came from that direction.Justin Leonard of team U.S.A. had just sunk an improbable 45 foot putt which meant his opponent, European great Jose Olazabal, had to make a difficult 22 footer to save his team from defeat. Another roar, lesser in decibels, erupted when Olazabal missed. I was still about 50 yards away at the end. However, I was privileged to get soaked with the champagne 15 minutes later when the entire Team U.S. A. celebrated by popping multiple bottles of the bubbly from The Country Club’s iconic balcony. I chalk this one up as historic adjacent.

I will, Lord willing, turn 80 later this year. Are there any more major sports moments waiting for me? I’ll just use another Crenshaw Ryder Cup quote, “I am a great believer in fate.”  

Contact: jimraftus33@gmail.com

2024

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014