Nothing huge but memorable to me:

1.) In March 1980, my wife and I attended our first NHL game in Pittsburgh where the Penguins played the old Minnesota North Stars. Mark Johnson of the US gold medal Olympic championship team had just joined the Pens. He was introduced prior to the start of the game and did a brief pirouette on the ice from the bench to the sound of the organ blaring the Olympic theme song. Probably only 8,000 or so there in those days but the crowd's roar was deafening. It sent chills through me. Can visualize and feel that moment to this day.
2.) With wife and two boys witnessed the last victory of Nolan Ryan's career. Occurred at Municipal Stadium on August 15, 1993.
3.) Attended the 1972 Cincinnati Reds opening day game which occurred later than originally scheduled because of MLB's first strike. Don't remember as much about the actual game as I do how relentlessly Reds player rep Jim Merritt was booed. Of course the game changed greatly after that.

Huge or not, all that matters are the memories.

The 2010 MLB season when the Reds clinched their first playoff berth since 1995, I was at the game that clinched the NL Central on a Jay Bruce walk-off homer against the Astros.

2006: Stagg Bowl when Mt. Union won the D3 National title. Went with some friends who are all Mt. Union alums. Only NCAA championship of any kind I've ever been to.

Some may remember when there were a lot of really bad wind storms that tore though Ohio after remnants of Hurricane Ike came up from the Gulf in 2008. I was at the Bengals-Titans game when the worst of it was going on. Saw several punts go straight up in the air, huge waves on the Ohio River and what looked like a war zone driving home after the game. Made me forget about the loss pretty quickly as most of the city was without power for days following and several people lost their life.

That's always part of the intrigue of going to a game in person-you never know when there might be a day when you see the perfect game, major upset etc. Or you see something on the way to or home that puts sports in a proper perspective.

The stars aligned for me one June evening in 1984. Back before the 1994 strike I was a die-hard Yankees fan. I won some tickets to a Yankees-Tigers game in the Bronx by answering the Bud Bunch Trivia question on Yankees radio (it was Lou Gehrig, but I don't remember the question). This was when the Tigers were tearing up the AL on their way to a World Series win. So, because I won the trivia contest my name was on the Yankee Stadium diamond vision that night. The Tigers led by a couple of runs but around the seventh inning the Yankees start a rally. Dave Winfield comes up. He and I were born on the same date, so he was one of my favorites. The Tigers bring in Doug Bair to pitch to him. My mom and Doug Bair's grandmother were first cousins. I played a few Little League games against him. So here's my cousin pitching to a guy whose birth date is the same as mine on the night my name is on the Yankee Stadium scoreboard. I know it's not much in the grand scheme of things, but for me it was really cool. Oh, and Winfield tripled to give the Yanks the lead and they went on to win.

Not much? That's an amazing story!

thank you - fun idea!!!

A Night On Court Street at the Waldorf Astoria.

The best O.U. event I ever attended,outside of Athens.

My theory: socioeconomic dress code is like a continuum that circles back into itself.

Homeless people are dressed in rags. Middle class folks try to dress what they think rich people dress like. Rich people dress in the same stuff but out of better materials. Actual billionaires dress like homeless people.

And pretend billionaires wear suits that don't fit and ties that hit the ground.

I have a couple of other fun sports related stories from the only other celebrity golf tournament I've been at. This one was about 6 or 7 years ago and I actually got to play instead of just spectate (I play old-guy baseball with the guy that runs it). We were paired with Dudley Bradley (UNC basketball)and Bill Swaggerty (Orioles journeyman pitcher) and I've got a story from both.

As some of you may know Bradley was a Maryland kid and his college decision came down to UNC and Maryland. Obviously, he picked UNC and famously (at least around these parts) became the target of the Maryland fans for his entire UNC career. We talked about J.J. Redick, another Terp fan target and how much it affected him. Bradley said that he handled it much differently and decided to play along with the crowd and it ended up being kind of fun. He said the real takeaway from the whole experience was how Lefty Driesell handled the whole thing. Bradley said he was scared to death to tell Lefty that he was picking Carolina but when he called him Lefty told him he would love to have him at Maryland but that Carolina was a great place to be and he would love playing for Dean Smith. He said his Mom loved Lefty and took his decision harder than Lefty did. To this day Lefty still calls his Mom on her birthday and Christmas. He said he also occasionally gets calls from Lefty as well.

Now on to my favorite story of the day. When I meet players I always ask them who their friends were and if they are still in contact with guys from their playing days. I asked Swaggerty this and he relayed this story. As I mentioned, Bill Swaggerty was a journeyman who pitched parts of 4 seasons with the O's in the mid-80s. He was a September call-up in 1983 and met the team in Boston. He flew in and went up to his room. He said he was sitting on the end of his bed trying to figure out what to do when the phone rang and a deep voice said "Lobby, 5 minutes" and then the caller hung up. He said he had no idea who it was and was wondering if he was being pranked because he was a rookie. But he decided he better go down and see what it was about. Anyway, he gets down to the lobby and the voice on the phone belonged to Eddie Murray. Murray was accompanied by John Shelby and Mike Young. Murray then says "Let's go" and the four climb into a taxi. Swaggerty said he was still in shock and didn't even ask where they were going. They proceeded to go to the "scariest part of Boston you can imagine" and walk into a soul food restaurant. He said it was like a scene from Cheers because when they walked in the whole place yelled "Eddie!!!". They went on to take him to a couple of other spots and were met with similar scenes. But he said that was just Eddie. He was terrible with the media but Swaggerty said he was the best friend he had in baseball and still regularly talks to him.

One other tidbit from that day. I asked him if he knew who was responsible for the famous Billy Ripken bat knob baseball card fiasco (Google it if you are unfamiliar) and he said he did. He said that Ripken likes to now claim that he did it himself by accident but that it was Pete Harnisch who got him.

I am a grade ahead of your older brother and played at Circleville. We needed a police escort from the gym to our bus when leaving Hamilton Township my junior year, after the benches cleared. Most scared I have ever been at or around a sporting event.

Those are Monty Python characters.