While We’re Young (Ideas) Wishes You a Merry Christmas
By TERRY LYONS, Editor-in-Chief of Digital Sports Desk
BOSTON – Merry Christmas 2023 to all who celebrate the day. To others, this columnist wishes you sincere best wishes and joy for 2024 with peace in the holiday(s) you celebrate.
May we all wish for Peace on Earth and Goodwill Towards Men (and women)!
As in years past, this Christmas-themed column carries the torch of the legendary writings of the late, great Shelby Strother. It also takes a look back at 2023 with a week-by-week listing of what was covered by While We’re Young (Ideas). Also in years past, there’s been some details written about Shelby and his family. Check it out HERE, from this antique December 2013 column.
Let’s get to it.
Each Christmas Day Contains the Past, Present and Future
By SHELBY STROTHER
It did not matter that the wind-chill was life threatening. It was Christmas morning, and a bright sun stabbed the frozen land. And children were playing.
The decision over which to play with – the official World Cup soccer ball or the Turbo Football – never materialized. With all the snow, a soccer match was out of the question. So spirals of pink and black performed in the most sincere imitations of Rodney Peete and Joe Montana floated back and forth in the yard.
What a nice sight.
The Annual Second Chance is near – it’s called New Year’s Eve. It is the window of opportunity where the hopes and fears of all the year (not to mention the mistakes) can be erased.
But Christmas Day is a time of reinforcement and the essence of tomorrow. And children playing with toys are the finest examples of what that tomorrow looks like.
I look out the window. I’ve been in that yard. All young boys have. Sports become such a part of childhood. Santa is aware of all of this, naturally.
This particular day is exquisite, I think to myself. I take personal inventory, not only of blessings and personal satisfaction, but of the presents of Christmas past. Still the kid, I suppose.
I got my first basketball when I was six. I made my first basket a year later. There was a tetherball set; I must have been eight. And a football helmet when I was ten. A Carl Furillo-model baseball mitt at eleven. There were tennis rackets and fishing poles and boxing gloves and shrimp nets and a Mickey Mantle 32-inch Little League bat and one time, even a badminton set.
Every Christmas, I’d play out my dreams and my mind would fly over the rainbow, imagining my propulsion. Of course, I would become a major-leaguer, an All-Star, an all-time great, a Hall of Famer. We all would. My vision extended well beyond the day.
My athletic ability, alas, never kept stride. It was not the worst realization I would ever make.
But I have noticed a direct correlation between Christmas gifts and sporting dreams. The dreams are for the young. So are the gifts. Usually, the two disappear in unison. The rare few who project into greatness discover they do not need imagination to make those lofty flights of fantasy. Hope is not the co-pilot. Expectation is.
It must be a wonderful view.
I was thinking about all of this when another memory nudged me. My 17th Christmas I got a typewriter.
It was about the same time that I’d maneuvered my fantasy a few extra miles. I’d received a baseball scholarship to pitch at a small school in Florida. There were other opportunities, other colleges available. But none that would allow my athletic vision to continue.
I had expected a Christmas of more games in the yard. More dreams to celebrate. I got a typewriter instead.
“What am I going to do with a typewriter?” I asked.
My mother said I’d need it for college. But she also said, “Sometimes you get too old to play games. But you never get too old that you can’t use your imagination.”
Sometimes Christmas is taken for granted. Almost always, in fact. I think Christmas music, and I hear bells. I turn on the radio and I hear someone named Elmo and Patsy lamenting their grandmother’s head-on collision with a reindeer. I think of the meaning of Christmas, and I think of the most special birthday in the history of the world. But I turn on the TV and there are all these Claymation raisins doing Doo-Wop homages to the joys of buying machines wherein a microchip can seize command of entire generations.
Christmas (will soon) be gone, 364 days to go. But children still play. They chase the wonderful image of themselves as they would like to be seen. Christmas is their favorite arena. But they settle for lesser stadia.
But remember this – the present is sometimes confused with the package it comes wrapped in. Sometimes the gift is simply the freedom to imagine. There may be no greater one.
It was a great typewriter. I still play with it.
– A column by Shelby Strother
Digital Sports Desk was founded on January 1, 2012 and was redesigned October 1, 2016. For Sunday Sports Notes columns posted on Christmas or Christmas Eve over the many years, I’ve alternated by posting memorable columns from a few of my all-time favorite writers. This column is, by far, my favorite column of all-time so read on my friends and “followers.” Here is to Shelby Strother and a Peaceful Christmas to his widow, Kim, and to all.
HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Let’s take a look back at 2023 with Part One to follow and Part Two to come in next week’s missive. Here’s January to June 2023:
Part One – January
1st
- New Year’s wish for World Peace – the difficulties of today and tomorrow
- Sentry Tournament of Champions Preview
- Salute to David Bowie
8th
- Buffalo Bills’ Damar Hamlin Injury
- Hamlin’s Toys for Kids charity went from $3,900 to $8,327,000 in four days
- Duke vs BC at Chestnut Hill
- College Football Playoff
- NFL Tanking
14th
- MSG – World’s Most Famous Arena
- Favorite Moments/Events at The Garden
- KC Chiefs Top NFL Power Rankings
- Salute in Memory of Jeff Beck
22nd
- Prediction: Red Sox = Cellar Dwellers
- Boston Bruins = Leading the NHL
- Major League Pickleball
- LIV Golf Schedule
29th
- Pointing fingers at Bill Belichick
- AFC/NFC Championship Preview
- Chef of ‘da Future
- EPL Franchise Valuations
February
5th
- Dog Days of Winter; 19 NBA Ts in five Days
- Marty Walsh to NHL Players Association
- Charlie Baker to NCAA
- Sports Catch Phrases – “Just Like That”
12th
- Super Bowl LVII Preview (KC vs Phila)
- PGA Tour’s Phoenix Open – LODR than LOUD
- World Baseball Classic
- Tennis Player Younes Rachidi Banned for Life
19th
- Mass shooting and murder on campus of Michigan State
- Coach Ed Cooley Feature
- 40th Anniversary – Marvin Gaye National Anthem at ’83 NBA ASG
26th
- PGA Tour Load Management
- NBA Load Management Issue
- Ideas for a Better NBA All-Star Weekend – None
- Music: One Hit Wonders
March
5th
- Memorial Tribute to David Benner
12th
- Timeline of the 2023 BIG East Basketball Tournament
19th
- St. Patrick’s Day Salute
- March Madness Upsets
- World Baseball Classic
26th
- Willis Reed Memorial Tribute
- Rick Pitino Hired by St. John’s
- National Lacrosse League Playoffs
- MLB Opening Day
April
2nd
- Opening Day at Fenway Park
- Caitlin Clark and the Iowa Hawkeyes
- Jim Nantz’ Last NCAA Final 4 Broadcast
9th
- The Masters
- LIV vs. PGA Tour Golf
- MLB and Austin Meadows’ Mental Health
16th
- Boston Marathon
- Amazing Shohei Ohtani
- Bruce Springsteen and Last Man Standing
23rd
- The Curse of the NHL President’s Cup
- NHL Team Valuations
- NBA Playoffs and Injuries
- Suggestion: LIV World Team Golf
30th
- Sports Gambling in Massachusetts
- NBA Moves Up Finals Start Times
- QB Aaron Rodgers to J-E-T-S
- NCAA, Committees and Charlie Baker
- Death of Boston Celtics’ veep Heather Walker
May
7th
- Future Days for Saudi Basketball
- Euro Soccer Team Valuations
- Kentucky Derby Review
14th
- Michael Jordan Barcelona Olympics Jacket Auction
- Buzzword Bingo
- MLB’s Oldest Ball Parks
21st
- World’s 10 Highest Paid Athletes
- Troubles of NBA’s Ja Morant
- Beginning of the End for the PAC-12
- Baseball Buzzword Bingo
- Set Tribute to Meatloaf (RIP)
28th
- Send-off to TNT’s Very Best (Tara, TK)
- Brandel and Brooksie Mix It Up for PGA Tour/LIV
- Busy Summer of ’23 Listings
- SBJ Awards
- TNT’s “Yes” Man
June
4th
- Connor McDavid, Jack Michael and Nikola Jokic
- Stanley Cup Final or NBA Finals – “s” or no “s”
- Sox Chris Sale Out Again
- NHL Stadium Series – NY/NJ Style
11th
- Surprise of Potential PGA Tour/LIV Merger
- Most Beloved USA Athletes
- Harvard’s/WCVB-5 Mike Lynch Inducted Mass Broadcasters Hall of Fame
18th
- NYC Father’s Day Fire
- Ja Morant More Trouble – 25-game suspension (ended 12-19)
- The Four’s is Closed
- Bradley Beal shipped to PHX
- Sports Hall of Fame Line-ups
25th
- PGA Tour: The Traveler’s Championship
- 2023 NBA Draft
- No. 1 Pick: France’s Victor WembanyamaSlamBall is Back (and on ESPN)
(Tune-In Next Week for the rest of 2023 Look Back – July 1st through December 31st)
TIDBITS: You’ve heard of World Team Tennis which debuted in 1974 with Billie Jean King leading the way as player-coach of the Philadelphia Freedom, runners-up to the champion Denver Racquets, coached by Tony Roche. The league had talented stars such as Jimmy Connors who led the Baltimore Banners. Here in Beantown, we had the Boston Lobsters. The team played at the Walter Brown Arena and lost about $300,000 in its first year of operation … Fast forward to the conclusion of the 2021 WTT season and you’ll note the tennis league vanished. The following July, the WTT announced it was seeking expansion franchises at $1 million a clip. That news release was the last we heard of World Team Tennis. “World TeamTennis, the nation’s only professional, mixed-gender team tennis league, has announced that it is accepting expansion proposals from prospective ownership groups and markets that are interested in acquiring a WTT franchise.” … With WTT in the history books, tennis fans now have the World Tennis League, based in Abu Dhabi. Saturday morning, the Tennis Channel aired Taylor Fritz’ extra time match vs Daniil Medvedev and the new version of team tennis, featuring the Kites and Hawks, the Falcons and Eagles. The new league is big on entertainment and concerts, but short on match results and realtime stats. … Sports Business Journal’s media mind John Ourand announced he’s leaving the post he’s held since 2006 to join Puck.
MLB: A week ago we wrote of the urgent need for Major League Baseball to enact a form of maximum team salary after the LA Dodgers broke the bank and the concept of deferred compensation with a $700 million deal to pay for the services of Shohei Ohtani. This week, the Dodgers landed prized free agent in Japanese right-hander Yoshinobu Yamamoto who scored a 12-year, $325 million deal Thursday, per multiple media reports. Yamamato’s deal out-distanced New York Yankees ace Gerrit Cole’s deal by $1 million, making it the largest contract for a pitcher in major league history. The Dodgers will also pay $50.6 million in a posting fee for Yamamoto. … A posting fee is MLB terminology for a transfer fee.