Baseball, Boxing and WWF, a great time to grow up in. 

With what seems to be the halfway break (intermission) in the boxing year and the All-Star baseball game festivities this week, I look back at growing up in the 80’s.

When I was 10 years old or so, I enjoyed collecting baseball card, a hobby my two best friends (Matt & Mike) at the time got me involved in. My favorite sport was boxing. It was a golden era when the Fab Four challenged each other and the sports media was buzzing about boxing. 

On  June 27, 1988 Mike Tyson fought Michael Spinks; a monster PPV fight the whole country was excited for.  This Mega-Event bought neighbors and friends together as we all gathered to watch this historic event. I went to a neighbors house up the hill and watch the fight with my friend and his large family. As most know, it wasn’t really a fight, it was a blowout of the highest order. The Legend of Mike Tyson had officially began and what was to come in his life after working his way up from nothing no one could have foresaw. 

I would make sure to go up with my Father to his girlfriends house on the weekends that Mike Tyson was fighting because she had HBO. I watched Tyson dominate all opponents.  He was an unstoppable force much like Hulk Hogan in the WWF. Yea many kids favorite wrestler was Rowdy Roddy Piper, but Hulka Mania was running wild and just like a kids belief in Santa Claus, it was a wonderful time to watch wrestling.

A couple years earlier WresleMania was announced and it was on PPV for $14.95. I wanted to see it so bad and ask my Dad a few times to see if we could order it, even though I new it was a long shot as the price was high. After missing the first WestleMania, I was fortunate enough to see the many others at my uncles house.

Growing up listening to Michael Jackson, watching Rocky and pretending to be like Rocky while listening to the Eye Of The Tiger,” throw in Mike Tyson, Hulk Hogan and baseball and you have yourself a childhood. Don’t forget the biggest name in monster trucks – Not GraveDigger but the all night Big Foot.

Michael Jordan ruled the 90’s but that’s another story.

On February 11, 1990  Tyson went to Japan to fight little known Buster Douglas, I remember watching  Tyson documentaries about his love for animals and Pigeons. HBO had a camera following him around in Japan showing Tyson being able to grab the pigeons quickly with one hand. It was the Mike Tyson show and his opponent wasn’t even talked about, it was a foregone conclusion that the fight would only last a round or two anyway.

My Father didn’t go to his girlfriends that weekend and I missed the fight, but I knew Tyson would of course dominate. A couple days later, my Dad told me that Mike Tyson lost and I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock, and I saw the fight the following weekend and couldn’t believe it, Iron Mike Tyson was stopped by Buster Douglas. Even though Douglas basically dominated Tyson the entire fight ( except for the one round Douglas got knocked down in), it was probably the biggest upset in boxing history.

Mike Tyson only dominated the Heavyweight Division for a short period of time, but Mike Tyson has the Sandy Koufax effect. Koufax dominated MLB for 4 years like no other. He is one of the greatest pitchers ever because of that run. Mike Tyson is similar, he had a short run at the top, but that Run was legendary. Mike Tyson captured people’s imagination like few athletes in history ever have.

Back in the mid to late 1980’s, my Dad and I listened to every NY Mets game on the radio and listened to the Happy Recap more often then not. “Put it in the Books”, What was the saying after the Mets Won a game.

One of the beautiful things when baseball and boxing reign supreme is in these rich history, the statistics kept in baseball and boxing are second to none. I enjoyed studying old timers like Stan Musial,  Ted Williams and Ernie Banks, “let’s play two”. Boxing in every way has that wonderful history and the older you get, you become a library of what you have seen.

I read a saying years ago staying whenever someone elderly dies, so does a library.

Julio Cesar Chavez is probably the Boxer that set the bar for being the best. Any champion knew that if they were mentioned in the same paragraph as Julio Cesar Chavez, that they were on the top pound for pound list.  Undefeated Champion Chavez has an unbelievable record. Then along comes this kid, also an undefeated champion. A skilled quick American boxing genius. His name, Pernell Sweet Pea Whitaker.

Pernell Whitaker was beating all comers. Whitaker’s will and focus was at a level, he couldn’t lose. The only way to lose inside the ring is for him to mess with things outside the ring. I don’t know how much drugs or alcohol hurt Whitaker, no one will ever know what his true potential could’ve been.

Whitaker already a champion and my favorite boxer, captured the boxing fans after fighting Zoom Zoom, the Terrible Warrior Azumah Nelson.  I think the fight with Azumah Nelson sealed the deal of how truly special Whitaker was. In the great words of Pernell Whitaker, “don’t get me motivated”

Then the big showdown happened, it didn’t get any bigger then my favorite boxer, Pernell Whitaker who refused to lose against the greatest, the legend and the best in the entire sport, Julio Cesar Chavez. They fought to a draw as both men gave it everything they had. But everyone and there mother new that night, Pernell Whitaker was the best in the World.

In the NBA, after Bird and Magic, the Bad Boys took over for a couple of years till another Michael game along. When Jordan played, it was him and then everybody else, Nobody was ever near his level, plain and simple.

In the NFL is was Joe Montana and Jerry Rice putting on a show and don’t forget the great defense’s of the Bears, Giants and Niners.

Fast forwarding then Oscar De La Hoya took the sport over with more epic matches that can be counted. What a warrior taking on all comers.

Now a Man in my 40’s having a wonderful wife and three teenage boys, having traveled and had adventures to my hearts desire. Besides being thankful to God and happy to be alive, enjoying every second of breath, there isn’t much for me to go nuts about.  But when I met Pernell Whitaker, I was like a kid in a candy store, I was a man that just won the big Mega-Millions jackpot. 

I don’t know maybe things are just much bigger when your a kid. When your imagination runs wild and you think your Superman. You think your unstoppable.

Boxing and Baseball, Legendary History And stats that will keep families talking and enjoying conversation for all time.