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SAUNDERS: Mays, Aaron share their memories

By Dusty Saunders, Special to the Rocky

Published September 28, 2008 at 9:21 p.m.

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What happened?

Sports broadcasting's talking heads began posing that question to Mike Shanahan and Broncos players Sunday afternoon following the team's meltdown in Kansas City.

And the question will be repeated, almost ad nauseam, throughout the week - probably until Sunday's kickoff against Tampa Bay.

But I'd like to direct your attention to a more important - even historical - "what happened" scenario.

Tuesday's edition of Costas Now (7 p.m., HBO) features the host spending an hour (obviously, no commercials) with Hank Aaron and Willie Mays, who recall their history- making careers while expressing their enduring admiration for each other personally and professionally.

While not a news-making interview, the hour offers an intimate look into their professional personal lives - a look often spiced with humor and occasional bitterness.

Mays recalls his early days in the Negro Leagues, while concentrating on three games in Hagerstown, Md., where racial epithets from whites watching games in the stands were commonplace.

During the first game, Mays hit two home runs and a triple. The next night: two home runs and a double.

On the third night, according to Mays, the public address announcer said: "Ladies and gentlemen, we know you don't like that kid playing center field. But please do not bother him again because he's killing us."

Aaron, who hit the then-record- breaking home run No. 715 in Atlanta before the hometown crowd, recalls that the most amazing part of the drama was that his mother somehow got onto the field before he rounded third base.

Aaron recalls: "When she put a bearhug on me, it reminded me of when I was 10 years old and didn't want to get a whoopin'. "

Such humorous anecdotes are mixed with more serious commentary about their careers and the problems of being black major league superstars.

"What happened" to Mays and Aaron obviously is of more historical significance than the fact that, from my TV armchair, the Broncos defense looked woefully inept.

MORE HARDBALL: As it did last year, TBS cable will telecast all Division Series in the major league postseason and cover the American League Championship Series.

(Fox will carry the National League Championship Series and the World Series).

TBS, working with a dozen play-by-play men and analysts, has added a new wrinkle to its coverage.

Atlanta pitcher John Smoltz, still an active player, will be a game analyst.

Thus, the 41-year Smoltz, in the early National League competition, will be in the interesting position of critiquing the performances of players he'll complete against next season - probably his last.

TBS' Division Series coverage is scheduled to begin Wednesday.

RADIO LINES: Mile High Sports Radio, hoping to find an audience through live coverage of major local sports, will have a busy week.

Airing are three preseason Avalanche games, on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday (Dallas and Chicago, twice) along with Air Force-Navy football on Saturday and the Patriots-49ers NFL clash Sunday.

The key here is how many sports fans will pick up the action clearly, since the station's 1510 AM signal varies in strength, particularly in the evening, depending on where you pick it up.

THE WAY WE WERE: Actually, the Broncos lost twice to the Chiefs on TV over the weekend.

On Friday night, the NFL Network's Classic Games Series featured Kansas City's dramatic 31-28 win at Mile High Stadium on Oct. 17, 1994, during a Monday Night Football thriller.

This memorable back-and- forth contest, pitting Joe Montana against John Elway, ended when Montana tossed a 5-yard touchdown pass to Willie Davis in the final minute.

* The Rockies lost their season finale to Arizona on Sunday in a contest that won't produce skyrocketing audience ratings. Contrast that with a year ago, when Colorado beat Arizona on the final Sunday to earn a Monday play-in game and a victory against the Padres.

The two games set all-time Rockies audience figures on Nielsen's rating machines.

Comments

  • September 29, 2008

    9:44 a.m.

    Suggest removal

    primafacie writes:

    Good stuff. One clarification, however:

    The Hagerstown anecdote with Willie Mays most likely happened when he was playing with the Trenton Giants in the Class B Interstate League, which included the Hagerstown Braves in 1950.

    The Birmingham Black Barons were in the Negro American League when Mays played for them. There was no Hagerstown team at the time.