Sports in the 1980s

[Wade Heidt]

Going to the rink to play hockey.  Gotta put my Microns and XL7 helmet in my bag.  Can't forget my Cooperalls.

 

 

[infrared41]

1 hour ago, DEAD! said:

That McGwire card reminds me of another aspect of sports that became a relic.... tobacco advertising.

 

That is the Marlboro sign at old Cleveland Stadium. If memory serves, it was on display right up to the day the Browns played their final game there in 1995. Since the topic is 80's sports, in 1987, I saw McGwire hit three HRs in a game at that stadium. Some guy named Reggie Jackson hit one that day as well. 

 

[johnnysama]

^ https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/CLE/CLE198706270.shtml - You know, once I find some details about a certain game, I have to go figure out what it was on the internet; this is the game you saw, on June 27, 1987.

[Shumway]

The 80s gave us Steve Jeltz, the greatest French born baseball player of all time, and his glorious jheri curl.

 

[Fitzy0220]

12 hours ago, SFGiants58 said:

Can't forget the cocaine! It may have started in the '70s, but I'm pretty sure each of the Big Four had a big cocaine bust/scandal during the '80s. MLB had the Pittsburgh Drug Trials, the Oakland Hilton was the NBA's primary coke-dealing area, the NHL had a bunch of guys on coke, and I do believe the NFL had its fair share of drug busts relating to the white stuff. 

As a Hockey / Penguins Fan first and foremost, where we were #4, 1)Steelers,  2)Pirates, 3)Pitt Football, 4)Penguins in the pecking order of Sports. I was in my Glory during the '80s.  The Steelers and Pitt Football were on a quick sharp decline and the MLB Drug Trials were an embarrassment to not only the Pirates but also the City.  Luckily (tanking  lol) the Pens were able to draft Lemieux and despite the Team being mediocre for a few years, he was the Cities BEST Rising Superstar during those dark times. Even after winning Back to Back in '91 and '92, we (Pens fans) were treated like Rodney Dangerfield LOL

[JayMac]

1 hour ago, Shumway said:

The 80s gave us Steve Jeltz, the greatest French born baseball player of all time, and his glorious jheri curl.

 

He was the epitome of mediocre. He was so mediocre that one of his baseball cards actually has a picture of Juan Samuel. But he did have that one game that he hit a HR from both sides of the plate. So there's that.

[See Red]

11 hours ago, Wade Heidt said:

 

That's a weird marketing pitch.  "It's so light it meets the current worldwide standard for how light a helmet should be!"

[Skycast]

For me it's hands down the USFL, so many fond memories of that league. Bandit Ball...the awesome Michigan Panthers uniform...the Breakers helmets...a slew of Heisman trophy winners...hard-nosed Marcus Dupree...Herschel...and on and on.

[Fitzy0220]

12 hours ago, Wade Heidt said:

Going to the rink to play hockey.  Gotta put my Microns and XL7 helmet in my bag.  Can't forget my Cooperalls.

 

 

I had the Micron Mega 10-90 Skates (it's what Lemieux wore  LOL)

[tBBP]

We won't talk about the Tampa Bay Yuccaneers up in here, so...

[Red Comet]

Royals won the World Series in 85 because the Cardinals decided that throwing a tantrum in Game 7 over an admittedly bad call that happened the previous game was better than not acting like children and playing ball.

 

The Chiefs were total garbage and at one point were outdrawn by an indoor soccer team on the same weekend. 

 

Oh, that indoor soccer team? The Kansas City Comets? Ran out the Kansas City Kings. 

 

 

[crashcarson15]

As someone who's grown up in an era where most NBA and NHL arenas are soulless, generic copies of each other, one of my favorite things about the Jordan doc has been observing the variety in arenas throughout the '80s in the NBA.

 

The Celtics and Bulls played in their iconic, old standards; Milwaukee and Utah had their small, undersized venues. The Pacers, Suns and Warriors all had their variants of '60s/'70s modern, single-level venues; the Cavs played in an incredibly agrarian arena built in the middle of nowhere. Places like Charlotte, Dallas, Miami and New Jersey had new arenas that would be out of date by the end of the '90s, while you had the Pistons, Sonics and Spurs all playing in domed football stadiums at various points in time. Hell, when the Kings moved to Sacramento, they played in a temporary arena!

 

It's all just very interesting to me, given how there's little to separate most NBA and NHL venues today.

[johnnysama]

Even for a small league, the CFL had some semblance of parity, with six of its nine (eight from 1987 onward) winning the Grey Cup, and Edmonton was the only one that one it more than once (1980, 1981, 1982, 1987).

 

It's also crazy to think that Montreal lost TWO CFL teams in the space of five years in the 1980s!

[Fitzy0220]

34 minutes ago, crashcarson15 said:

As someone who's grown up in an era where most NBA and NHL arenas are soulless, generic copies of each other, one of my favorite things about the Jordan doc has been observing the variety in arenas throughout the '80s in the NBA.

 

The Celtics and Bulls played in their iconic, old standards; Milwaukee and Utah had their small, undersized venues. The Pacers, Suns and Warriors all had their variants of '60s/'70s modern, single-level venues; the Cavs played in an incredibly agrarian arena built in the middle of nowhere. Places like Charlotte, Dallas, Miami and New Jersey had new arenas that would be out of date by the end of the '90s, while you had the Pistons, Sonics and Spurs all playing in domed football stadiums at various points in time. Hell, when the Kings moved to Sacramento, they played in a temporary arena!

 

It's all just very interesting to me, given how there's little to separate most NBA and NHL venues today.

Boston Garden, Buffalo Aud, Chicago Stadium and Maple Leaf Gardens were smaller rinks. Hartford Civic Center was a MALL Complex.  Pittsburgh had the Silver Domed Civic Arena (which as time marched forward was GARBAGE when it came to acoustics for Major Concert Acts, not to mention the Dome shape created problems when trying to hang rigging for stages, sound systems, lighting fixtures, etc).
I GET what you're saying about the Copy Cat Cookie Cutter nature of these buildings (Three Rivers Stadium (Pit), Riverfront Stadium (Cin), Astrodome (Hou), Veterans Stadium (Phi)) but what more can you do with these buildings (especially these closed in Arenas).

The Civic Arena was a Modern Marvel when it was completed in 1961, it was Unique (it had a Retractable Dome Roof) but as I stated as time marched on, it became GARBAGE. The editions of the E Balcony (End Zones) OVER HANG created viewing issues for those people in the Upper Section of Level C (End Zone), TVs had to be installed underneath the Over Hang so people could watch the play in the opposite end of the ice. Editions of the F Balcony (End Zones) were steep and shook whenever the crowd got rowdy (Pens Goal), last Row of the F Balcony, if you were tall enough, your head would hit the bottom of the Silver Dome (not exactly comfortable). Repair cost on the Hydraulics Jacks that opened the Roof prevented the Roof from being opened after 2001. So this Unique Arena was different from all the other Copy Cat  Cookie Cutter Arenas however the practicality of it, wasn't worth it

[sc49erfan15]

1 hour ago, crashcarson15 said:

As someone who's grown up in an era where most NBA and NHL arenas are soulless, generic copies of each other, one of my favorite things about the Jordan doc has been observing the variety in arenas throughout the '80s in the NBA.

 

The Celtics and Bulls played in their iconic, old standards; Milwaukee and Utah had their small, undersized venues. The Pacers, Suns and Warriors all had their variants of '60s/'70s modern, single-level venues; the Cavs played in an incredibly agrarian arena built in the middle of nowhere. Places like Charlotte, Dallas, Miami and New Jersey had new arenas that would be out of date by the end of the '90s, while you had the Pistons, Sonics and Spurs all playing in domed football stadiums at various points in time. Hell, when the Kings moved to Sacramento, they played in a temporary arena!

 

It's all just very interesting to me, given how there's little to separate most NBA and NHL venues today.

 

Semi-related to that (especially regarding the NBA), I think of the '80s as the end of teams playing regular season games in multiple cities - the death of any attempt at a "regional" franchise. In addition to the Celtics playing a few games in Hartford until 1995 and the Bullets/Wizards occasionally playing in Baltimore until 1997, you had:

 

Hawks in New Orleans (1984-85)

Jazz in Las Vegas (1983-85)

Sonics in Tacoma (1984-86, 1990-91)

Kings in St. Louis (1982-83), and only a few years removed from actually being the "Kansas City-Omaha Kings"

 

In the NFL, the Packers played a few games a year in Milwaukee until 1994. I can't think of any examples of MLB doing this (at least in the "modern era"), and I'm not sure about the NHL, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[DnBronc]

7 hours ago, Fitzy0220 said:

As a Hockey / Penguins Fan first and foremost, where we were #4, 1)Steelers,  2)Pirates, 3)Pitt Football, 4)Penguins in the pecking order of Sports. I was in my Glory during the '80s.  The Steelers and Pitt Football were on a quick sharp decline and the MLB Drug Trials were an embarrassment to not only the Pirates but also the City.  Luckily (tanking  lol) the Pens were able to draft Lemieux and despite the Team being mediocre for a few years, he was the Cities BEST Rising Superstar during those dark times. Even after winning Back to Back in '91 and '92, we (Pens fans) were treated like Rodney Dangerfield LOL

 

Heck, in 1984, the Pittsburgh Spirit Indoor Soccer team was more popular than the Pens. Also, this was a few years before the Pitt Basketball team got pretty good (and choked in the 87 and 88 NCAA second-round).

[Wade Heidt]

I miss something that you would see in the early 1980s when I first starting becoming a hockey fan.  Different headgear for NHL goalie tandems.  One goalie wearing the helmet and cage while the other goalie partner wears the old school face hugging mask with the eyeholes.  You could always tell which goalie was in net from a distance.  You would see this with a few NHL teams.  Some examples.  The Oilers with Fuhr and Moog:

 

   

 

The Canucks with Brodeur and Garrett:

 

   

 

 

[BBTV]

To your point, while these aren't from the same season, there was overlap.

 

[The_Admiral]

6 hours ago, sc49erfan15 said:

 

Semi-related to that (especially regarding the NBA), I think of the '80s as the end of teams playing regular season games in multiple cities - the death of any attempt at a "regional" franchise. In addition to the Celtics playing a few games in Hartford until 1995 and the Bullets/Wizards occasionally playing in Baltimore until 1997, you had:

 

Hawks in New Orleans (1984-85)

Jazz in Las Vegas (1983-85)

Sonics in Tacoma (1984-86, 1990-91)

Kings in St. Louis (1982-83), and only a few years removed from actually being the "Kansas City-Omaha Kings"

 

In the NFL, the Packers played a few games a year in Milwaukee until 1994. I can't think of any examples of MLB doing this (at least in the "modern era"), and I'm not sure about the NHL, but it wouldn't surprise me.

 

The NHL had the neutral-site games of 1992-1994! Off the top of my head, these brought regular-season NHL hockey to Cleveland, Saskatoon, Halifax, Hamilton, Milwaukee, Phoenix, and just about anywhere the league was either sniffing around for expansion or thought they could wring a few bucks out of (read: the Canadian ones).

 

As for baseball, the Oakland A's had to play a series in Las Vegas in 1996 because of work being done on the Oakland Coliseum, and the Rays briefly tried moving a series or two to Orlando in the mid-2000s, but for the most part, you're right; we didn't enter the era of the baseball-stadium-as-theme-park so that teams could sublease their games to someplace else.

[Sport]

7 hours ago, crashcarson15 said:

As someone who's grown up in an era where most NBA and NHL arenas are soulless, generic copies of each other, one of my favorite things about the Jordan doc has been observing the variety in arenas throughout the '80s in the NBA.

 

The Celtics and Bulls played in their iconic, old standards; Milwaukee and Utah had their small, undersized venues. The Pacers, Suns and Warriors all had their variants of '60s/'70s modern, single-level venues; the Cavs played in an incredibly agrarian arena built in the middle of nowhere. Places like Charlotte, Dallas, Miami and New Jersey had new arenas that would be out of date by the end of the '90s, while you had the Pistons, Sonics and Spurs all playing in domed football stadiums at various points in time. Hell, when the Kings moved to Sacramento, they played in a temporary arena!

 

It's all just very interesting to me, given how there's little to separate most NBA and NHL venues today.

 

I had something drafted like this. Every arena looks the same now. You didn't even mention my two favorite 'Would Never Get Built Like This Today' arenas

 

HemisFair Arena in San Antonio

 

and The Omni in Atlanta