Real Sports - Athletes and Teams that we follow and admire.

[mikeyank]

A couple of days ago, KG made a few comments about the Duke-Georgia Tech game that was a heartbreaking overtime loss for Duke. However it was on the thread that is being used to portray images of bulges and bodies of largely anonymous guys who are engaging in athletic competition. That is a great thread to watch hot bodies but I wanted to make a thread for true sports fans to talk about and share pics of guys on teams we watch and care about who they are and how their teams are doing.

I typically start a Baseball thread each season and sometimes an NCAA Tournament one, but much like we now have one thread for political discussion, I was thinking that this would be the thread that I will come back to to discuss any teams that I am following and the players that I enjoy watching as the seasons go round. I would encourage any sports fans who may be a member of this site to comment on their favorite teams and players.

 

[mikeyank]

2021 Yankees

I was very grateful to get a 60 game season during the 2020 season but I am looking forward to a full 162 game season this year. I am obviously a Yankee fan and these are some of my favorite players who I am hoping will lead us to the "promised land in 2021. lol

Aaron Judge

Gleyber Torres

Gerrit Cole

 

[mikeyank]

One more Yankee I want to mention today is not a star and may not even make the Opening Day Roster, but I have a crush on 26 year old, back up infielder and pinch runner, Tyler Wade.

 

[mikeyank]

One more Tyler to show here today. Twenty-one year old 6′ 5″, 195 lbs Tyler Herro is a basketball player I used to admire when playing for Kentucky and he is now doing great for the Miami Heat.

 

[kgmets]

One more Tyler to show here today. Twenty-one year old 6′ 5″, 195 lbs Tyler Herro is a basketball player I used to admire when playing for Kentucky and he is now doing great for the Miami Heat.

Good pics. I preferred the old pic you posted of Lee Mazilli, when he was the young heart throb outfielder for the New York Mets. His son Lee Jr. had a great college career for the University of Connecticut I believe and played minor league ball thereafter. He shared his dad's youthful good looks.

 

[mikeyank]

Good pics. I preferred the old pic you posted of Lee Mazilli, when he was the young heart throb outfielder for the New York Mets. His son Lee Jr. had a great college career for the University of Connecticut I believe and played minor league ball thereafter. He shared his dad's youthful good looks.

I will look for the Lee and Lee Jr. pics again later. Both were basically 10 out of 10.

 

[kgmets]

As my computer skills are rudimentary and largely consist of clicking on and off and posting and replying to posts, permit me to post this Mikeyank "find their pics" challenge: Both were star college basketball point guards who had such youthful faces that they looked as if they still were in high school. The more recent one was Villanova star point guard Ryan Archidiacomo (I'm guessing on the spelling of that long Italian last name) who obviously had an Irish mother and an Italian father. The older one led Marquette deep into the NCAA tournament one year. His first name was Robbie, and I'm struggling to remember his last name. I thought that this would be a nice challenge to start this new thread!

 

[mikeyank]

Good pics. I preferred the old pic you posted of Lee Mazilli, when he was the young heart throb outfielder for the New York Mets. His son Lee Jr. had a great college career for the University of Connecticut I believe and played minor league ball thereafter. He shared his dad's youthful good looks.

As a Yankees fan, I still admired young Lee Mazilli very much. He was the typical hot young straight Italian New York City type of kid that had me drooling.

And Lee Junior was a hot kid as well!

 

[mikeyank]

As my computer skills are rudimentary and largely consist of clicking on and off and posting and replying to posts, permit me to post this Mikeyank "find their pics" challenge: Both were star college basketball point guards who had such youthful faces that they looked as if they still were in high school. The more recent one was Villanova star point guard Ryan Archidiacomo (I'm guessing on the spelling of that long Italian last name) who obviously had an Irish mother and an Italian father. The older one led Marquette deep into the NCAA tournament one year. His first name was Robbie, and I'm struggling to remember his last name. I thought that this would be a nice challenge to start this new thread!

RYAN ARCIDIACONO

Chris Arcidiacono

 

[kgmets]

As a Yankees fan, I still admired young Lee Mazilli very much. He was the typical hot young straight Italian New York City type of kid that had me drooling.

And Lee Junior was a hot kid as well!

Those are the pics! Thanks very much!

 

[kgmets]

RYAN ARCIDIACONO

Chris Arcidiacono

Thanks for finding the pics of Ryan. I'm amazed that I guessed correctly the spelling of his last name as it is a tough one. I'm going to have to think harder as to the last name of the Marquette kid.

 

[mikeyank]

Thanks for finding the pics of Ryan. I'm amazed that I guessed correctly the spelling of his last name as it is a tough one. I'm going to have to think harder as to the last name of the Marquette kid.

I'll make you a deal KG. You keep naming the hot athletes you've watched play and I will find the best possible pic of them to post here. That's what I love to do and why I started this thread for "real" athletes that we've watched and fantasized about over the years, as well as a place to discuss non sexual aspects of our teams that we follow as well. I'm really glad that you are enjoying it!

 

[mikeyank]

Tonight is the regular season finale for Duke & North Carolina, in what many consider to be the greatest rivalry in sports. This is an unusual down year for both schools with neither ranked in the Top 25 and neither guaranteed a spot in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, with especially Duke on the outside looking in. But it is still Duke - North Carolina and there will be fans in the stands at North Carolina tonight. As the cliches say "throw away the records", this is war. And there has literally been blood shed at some of the contests over the years. I am really looking forward to tonight's game.

And I of course will be rooting for Duke!!!!!!!

GO DUKE!!!!

LOL

 

[kgmets]

Tonight is the regular season finale for Duke & North Carolina, in what many consider to be the greatest rivalry in sports. This is an unusual down year for both schools with neither ranked in the Top 25 and neither guaranteed a spot in the upcoming NCAA Tournament, with especially Duke on the outside looking in. But it is still Duke - North Carolina and there will be fans in the stands at North Carolina tonight. As the cliches say "throw away the records", this is war. And there has literally been blood shed at some of the contests over the years. I am really looking forward to tonight's game.

And I of course will be rooting for Duke!!!!!!!

GO DUKE!!!!

LOL

As shall I!

 

[kgmets]

Our Blue Devils got spanked by the Tar Heels 91-73 earlier this evening. Duke alum Jay Bilas turned on his alma mater by opining that North Carolina would have been better off asking Duke for an additional game rather than playing Marquette! Oh well, there is still the ACC tournament next week!

 

[mikeyank]

Our Blue Devils got spanked by the Tar Heels 91-73 earlier this evening. Duke alum Jay Bilas turned on his alma mater by opining that North Carolina would have been better off asking Duke for an additional game rather than playing Marquette! Oh well, there is still the ACC tournament next week!

Jay Bilas while an ex-Dukie is honest and and we did get our butts kicked tonight. Now it would take winning five games in five days in Greensboro and beat good teams like Virginia, Florida State and North Carolina to get the automatic bid. I've accepted that 20-21 is going to be the first season since 95-96 that Duke missed the tournament. But thinking big picture, twenty-five consecutive years is a very good run. And if our team stays together with a new Freshmen class mixed in, we have a good chance to start a new string of appearances next season. Unfortunately in life as in sports, you can't win em all!

 

[kgmets]

Jay Bilas while an ex-Dukie is honest and and we did get our butts kicked tonight. Now it would take winning five games in five days in Greensboro and beat good teams like Virginia, Florida State and North Carolina to get the automatic bid. I've accepted that 20-21 is going to be the first season since 95-96 that Duke missed the tournament. But thinking big picture, twenty-five consecutive years is a very good run. And if our team stays together with a new Freshmen class mixed in, we have a good chance to start a new string of appearances next season. Unfortunately in life as in sports, you can't win em all!

Winning five of five games in a conference tournament is a tough assignment, but it has been done. This year's Duke team heavily relies upon talented Matthew Hurt for point scoring, and another Jay Bilas point was that opposing teams are going after him early in games to draw fouls and try to get him fouled out. That is why Matthew was on the bench near the end of the Georgia Tech game the other night patting Joey Baker's butt, when he should have been in the game scoring lots of points and having Joey pat him. Addressing that issue and keeping Matthew in the game would make an ACC tournament Duke run more possible. You can tell I'm a Met fan as we never give up hope.

 

[mikeyank]

Winning five of five games in a conference tournament is a tough assignment, but it has been done. This year's Duke team heavily relies upon talented Matthew Hurt for point scoring, and another Jay Bilas point was that opposing teams are going after him early in games to draw fouls and try to get him fouled out. That is why Matthew was on the bench near the end of the Georgia Tech game the other night patting Joey Baker's butt, when he should have been in the game scoring lots of points and having Joey pat him. Addressing that issue and keeping Matthew in the game would make an ACC tournament Duke run more possible. You can tell I'm a Met fan as we never give up hope.

You know I will be watching on Tuesday and rooting hard. Wasn't it the Connecticut Huskies who won the Big East Tournament with a five game run and they went on to win it all? So I know it can be done. Give me another day and by tomorrow I will be totally psyched for one more chance to make the dance.

Speaking of your Mets, let's use this thread to discuss our passion for New York baseball.....although in different parts of New York City. And if anyone reading this is a sports fan please talk about your favorite teams, be it basketball, hockey, football, baseball or other!

 

[kgmets]

You know I will be watching on Tuesday and rooting hard. Wasn't it the Connecticut Huskies who won the Big East Tournament with a five game run and they went on to win it all? So I know it can be done. Give me another day and by tomorrow I will be totally psyched for one more chance to make the dance.

Speaking of your Mets, let's use this thread to discuss our passion for New York baseball.....although in different parts of New York City. And if anyone reading this is a sports fan please talk about your favorite teams, be it basketball, hockey, football, baseball or other!

The UCONN Huskies run was exactly what I was thinking of. Also every year it seems that the NCAA tourney has one or two teams with losing records. ALL of those teams only made the tourney by getting hot at conference tournament time and winning the automatic bid. So it happens nearly every year. Lets stick with being Duke allies for now. We shall part company over baseball soon enough.

 

[mikeyank]

March 8, 1971 - The Fight of the Century

Today is fifty years later, a half century after, "The Fight of the Century", and it still is the most memorable boxing match and one of the most memorable sporting events of my lifetime. Spring of 1971 was my junior year in college in upstate New York and one of my closest college buddies, (who I also had a huge crush on, but that is a story for a different thread. lol), named John was a huge Joe Frazier fan, "Smoking Joe" and I loved Muhammad Ali from back when he was known as Cassius Clay and he upset Sonny Liston to become heavyweight champion. he kept saying things like, "I'm too pretty to be a boxer", and he was extremely good looking with a great personality who was as quick with his wit as with his fists.

I won't go into all the controversy of him becoming a Muslim and being a conscientious objector and refusing to go into the armed forces during the Vietnam War. But my hot straight Irish buddy John borrowed his family car for the weekend and he and I got tickets to see a closet circuit broadcast of the fight at Monticello Race Track. The stands were packed and we were all cheering like we were at Madison Square Garden. Norman Mailer wrote a story for Life Magazine and Frank Sinatra was a photographer. It was a most memorable night.

Frazier won the fight after knocking Ali to the canvas with a left hook in the fifteenth round. It was the first loss of Ali's career, but Frazier also went to the hospital after the fight as Ali inflicted a beating on him too. It was an epic, sporting, political and cultural event, a night I will never forget.