Sports in the 1980s

[TalktoChuck]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

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

 

 

Those Cooper masks were my favorite. As a kid who did not play organized hockey and couldn't ice skate without falling, I always told myself I would rock one of these when I made it to the NHL.

 

[Wade Heidt]

4 hours ago, Wade Heidt said:

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. 

 

 

Have to cite another example that was great.  Gilles Meloche and Don Beaupre when together with the Minnesota North Stars.

 

                                                                 

[B-Rich]

On 4/27/2020 at 4:46 PM, JayMac said:

NBA

San Diego Clippers move to  LA

 

Kansas City Kings move to Sacramento

 

19 hours ago, Sport said:

and The Omni in Atlanta 

 

Damn, I have some great memories of the Omni in the late 80s... was in grad school at Georgia Tech, working internships too so would be going to weeknight games in a suit and tie like a jr. yuppie; old girlfriend's firm had floor seats behind the basket, saw Barkley, the X-Man, Jordan, the Mailman, Magic, etc. from those seats; the days of Dominique, Spud Webb, Moses Malone and Reggie Theus... good times.

[Sodboy13]

On 4/27/2020 at 7:33 PM, johnnysama said:

The NHL had trouble on U.S. TV in the 1980s. USA, ESPN and SportsChannel were the major national networks carrying it (they were all cable networks); no over-the-air broadcast network aired games then.

 

NBCSN is showing the '91 All-Star Game tonight. It's the first hockey game I watched on television, because I lived in Chicago with no cable.

[BBTV]

Yeah TV kinda sucked in the '80s.  Chicago's situation is well documented, but even in Phila, we only got road games unless you paid for PRISM, which was basically a premium RSN that also occasionally showed tittie movies at night.  Oh... it just so happened to be owned by Ed Snider / the Flyers.

 

I didn't have cable until '91, so I didn't get any of the Sports Channel road games - just the OTA... which was still most of them.  Absolutely zero home games though, which is one reason why I loved the one year the NHL wore their white jerseys on the road, because I found the Flyers to be faaaaaar superior... and white should still be the home one today.  F you - fight me IRL.

[JayMac]

1 hour ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Yeah TV kinda sucked in the '80s.  Chicago's situation is well documented, but even in Phila, we only got road games unless you paid for PRISM, which was basically a premium RSN that also occasionally showed tittie movies at night.  Oh... it just so happened to be owned by Ed Snider / the Flyers.

 

I didn't have cable until '91, so I didn't get any of the Sports Channel road games - just the OTA... which was still most of them.  Absolutely zero home games though, which is one reason why I loved the one year the NHL wore their white jerseys on the road, because I found the Flyers to be faaaaaar superior... and white should still be the home one today.  F you - fight me IRL.

Nothing like soft core immediately following the Flyers game on PRISM. Now I know why my dad rushed us to bed once the Flyers game ended.

 

To be honest, I miss PRISM. I enjoyed Phillies broadcasts on that channel too.

[CaliforniaGlowin]

I love ANYTHING 80's related.  What a colorful fun crazy time. 

Dodgers road jersey had white outlines.  I wish they brought that back.

Powder blue baseball uniforms

Padres three color uniform

Astros stripes

Baseball unis had no belt but stripes.  I love that, more colors.

LA Raiders!!!
My favorite Olympics was 1984
Canucks V jersey

GIANTS helmet

I wasn't into hockey, basketball or college sports then so I can't speak on those.

[tBBP]

17 hours ago, Wade Heidt said:

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.  

 

   

 

 

 

1.) The lighting in some of those old arenas almost makes some of those photos look like horror flicks.

 

2.) Dude's jersey in the second pic looks like a dress. Did he not bother to get that thing tailored?? (That is an awesome mask, though.)

[Wade Heidt]

5 minutes ago, Buc said:

 

2.) Dude's jersey in the second pic looks like a dress. Did he not bother to get that thing tailored?? (That is an awesome mask, though.)

 

John Garrett wore it long like that on purpose.  Pushed the no jersey size rules to its limits to help cover the five-hole when on his knees.

[The_Admiral]

Good to know Garrett was as annoying a player as he is a broadcaster

[johnnysama]

13 hours ago, Sodboy13 said:

 

NBCSN is showing the '91 All-Star Game tonight. It's the first hockey game I watched on television, because I lived in Chicago with no cable.

Awesome. From 1990 to 1993, NBC showed the NHL All-Star Game only, and it wouldn't be until 1995 that the NHL would have another over-the-air broadcast contract in the US, when Fox gained the rights.

[Fitzy0220]

6 hours ago, BringBackTheVet said:

Yeah TV kinda sucked in the '80s.  Chicago's situation is well documented, but even in Phila, we only got road games unless you paid for PRISM, which was basically a premium RSN that also occasionally showed tittie movies at night.  Oh... it just so happened to be owned by Ed Snider / the Flyers.

 

I didn't have cable until '91, so I didn't get any of the Sports Channel road games - just the OTA... which was still most of them.  Absolutely zero home games though, which is one reason why I loved the one year the NHL wore their white jerseys on the road, because I found the Flyers to be faaaaaar superior... and white should still be the home one today.  F you - fight me IRL.

Shortly after the Pens Back to Back in '91 and '92 Cups, howard baldwin Created PensVision PAY PER VIEW Channel. Pens Home Games were blacked out and only way to watch them was to subscribe to this PAY PER VIEW crap.  Another reason I hated that jerk and why I loathe everything about his time as Owner

[Red Comet]

13 minutes ago, Fitzy0220 said:

Shortly after the Pens Back to Back in '91 and '92 Cups, howard baldwin Created PensVision PAY PER VIEW Channel. Pens Home Games were blacked out and only way to watch them was to subscribe to this PAY PER VIEW crap.  Another reason I hated that jerk and why I loathe everything about his time as Owner

 

>Charging Pay Per View to watch Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux and God knows what other stars were in that lineup

 

[TrueYankee26]

Guess that explains why the Pens weren't that popular in Pittsburgh.. Didn't the White Sox do the same kind of thing in the 70s and 80s while the Cubs put their games on WGN, which means anyone with a working antenna in (and cable outside of) Chicagoland can catch the Cubs??

[Fitzy0220]

12 minutes ago, Red Comet said:

 

>Charging Pay Per View to watch Jaromir Jagr, Mario Lemieux and God knows what other stars were in that lineup

 

Considering some of those Players were on the Team before the Back to Back run and we watched the Home games FREE of Charge. Lemieux, Stevens (Pens Farm system, then big club in '87/'88),  Recchi (Pens Farm system, then big club in '88) Coffey (traded to Pens in '87, 3x Cup champ with the Oilers), Barrasso (joined Pens in '88), Mullen (joined Pens in '90, 1x Cup champ with the Flames), Trottier (joined Pens in '90, 4x Cup champ with the islanders), Jagr was drafted in the '90 draft (for the '90/'91 season).

Francis and Murphy joined the Team via the '91 Trade Deadline
Tocchet joined the Team via the '92 Trade Deadline

So other than the Cup victories, what Changed with the Team that pretty has been pretty much the same since '88 that baldwin felt the NEED to Black Out Home Games and Charge people for that privilege to watch them?

[Fitzy0220]

9 minutes ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Guess that explains why the Pens weren't that popular in Pittsburgh.. Didn't the White Sox do the same kind of thing in the 70s and 80s while the Cubs put their games on WGN, which means anyone with a working antenna in (and cable outside of) Chicagoland can catch the Cubs??

Well that and other Factors but that's for another conversation  LOL (football rules the roost here, can be played in any open field, majority of the High Schools around here HAVE a football team, etc, etc, etc). 

Didn't Bill Wirtz also do the same thing to Black Hawks fans (Black out home Games)?

[sc49erfan15]

19 hours ago, the admiral said:

 

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.

 

Yeah, I knew about the early '90s NHL neutral site games, but I was referring specifically to teams playing "home" games in different cities. Scheduling Islanders-Oilers in Oklahoma City or Rangers-Devils in Halifax wasn't trying to make the locals fans of those particular teams. I feel like spreading out some home games would've been something at least a few of the 1960s-70s NHL expansion teams would've attempted. 

 

I forgot about the Rays' dalliance with Orlando in the mid-2000s. Good call on that one.

[TrueYankee26]

53 minutes ago, Fitzy0220 said:

Well that and other Factors but that's for another conversation  LOL (football rules the roost here, can be played in any open field, majority of the High Schools around here HAVE a football team, etc, etc, etc). 

Didn't Bill Wirtz also do the same thing to Black Hawks fans (Black out home Games)?

Western PA and nearby Ohio and West Virginia bred so much football talent (players and coaches) and Canton is relatively a hop step away from the Steel City. The Barry Bonds era Pirates were competitive too.

 

[DEAD!]

The Expos in Puerto Rico was a sight to behold! 

[Fitzy0220]

1 hour ago, TrueYankee26 said:

Western PA and nearby Ohio and West Virginia bred so much football talent (players and coaches) and Canton is relatively a hop step away from the Steel City. The Barry Bonds era Pirates were competitive too.

 

Bonds Era ('86 - '92) Pirates only made the Playoffs 3 times. '90, '91 and '92
1979 was the last Pirates Playoff appearance and last time they Played in (won it) the World Series before that  '90 - '92 "Playoff" run

Baseball is my 2nd favorite sport (behind Hockey) but the Pirates have pretty much been an embarrassment (grant it majority of it is the Ownership Groups that have Owned the Team but) since I was 6yrs old ('79) 

Pens were no better with their Ownership follies  LOL! During the late '60s and '70s, Pens  Ownership / GMs practically GAVE AWAY all their First Round Draft Picks for aging Veterans or Scrubs  LOL