TED SOBEL SPORTS AUDIO VAULT: Your Inside Access to TOUCHING GREATNESS

Friday started out by many celebrating one of the all-time sports greats’ birthday-as it was a very happy #80 to Willie Mays with a huge party/ballgame for him at AT&T Park in San Francisco (my favorite stadium on the planet). But it ended with the sad news that one of golf’s best ever, Seve Ballesteros lost his 3-year battle after multiple brain tumor surgeries at the too young age of 54 in his native Spain. These are 2 of a very few sports legends that somehow I have never had the pleasure of interviewing and hopefully one day I’ll get to speak with Willie.

The ‘Say Hey Kid’ used to destroy my Dodgers when I was a kid and I can easily say that he is the greatest all-around baseball player I ever saw over a career (with Ken Griffey, Jr. right there for a shorter/too often injured span). I remember Mays hitting homers off of Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale, covering center field like a gazelle and running the bases as if he owned them! Willie used to hit the ball so hard that even the rediculous winds at old Candlestick Park couldn’t keep him from homers that few others could ever imagine hitting. I hated the Giants while growing up but it was hard to hate Mays because of his greatness-happy birthday #24!

Ballesteros won five majors, (the British Open 3 times and The Masters twice) during his 30-year professional career and was such a class act in how he handled himself on and off the course along with a charisma that put him in a class by himself.

The former world No. 1 still holds the record for European Tour titles with 50. Ballesteros was also one of the best ever match play competitors and helped Europe capture the Ryder Cup four times as a player and captained the team to victory in 1997.

But Seve will always be remembered for his PASSION, PASSION, and more PASSION for the game and life in general. He was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in 1999 and belongs in the people Hall of Fame as well…He will be greatly missed!

If you could put 2 names that were the epitome of what sports in the 20th century was all about into a locked box to be opened a thousand years from now, you couldn’t come up with a better pair than Mays and Ballesteros. And those of us who saw them at their best are just damned lucky!

(thanks to Ryan Leong/John Dickinson
for the Mays pic)

The whole basketball world expected to see the favored Lakers rebound in game 2 against Dallas…but nooooooooo as it was all Mavericks 93-81 before heading back to Texas with a surprisingly commanding 2-0 series advantage. Or should it be so surprising the way the up-and-down Lakers have played all season long? Sometimes they look like solid favorites to get their 3-peat and at other times they look like a team just going through the motions…well tonight they were simply out-played in most phases of the game while showing signs of resembling an over-the-hill gang? The Lakers only scored 13 points in the 3rd quarter alone and just 32 total in the 2nd half. And not many other stats really stood-out in this one except for the Mavericks’ bench dominating L.A.’s 30-12, the Lakers making just 2 of 20 3-point attempts (although several were in garbage time) and the Lakes were just 11 of 20 from the free throw line. Overall Dallas played very well and looked like the hungrier team again, while the Lakers truly are in must-win mode for the rest of the series (however long that lasts now?).

I talked with all the principles in the Lakers’ locker room after this one, but none sounded more animated than big Andrew Bynum who kept using the term ‘trust issues’ when describing what needed to change and in a hurry if his Lakers were to have a chance at making history and winning this series from the dumpster? And you’ll quickly be able to tell what the reporter’s storyline in this one was, as we tried to get to the bottom of what that trust or lack of means to the Lakers moving forward?…

Andrew Bynum with Ted Sobel:

I just happened to be walking alongside Kobe as he headed into his postgame newsconference room tapped him on the arm—and he gave me that bewildered look as if to say…I don’t know what to tell you but we’re really in deep now!…

Kobe Bryant with Ted Sobel:

Pao Gasol with Ted Sobel:

Derek Fisher with Ted Sobel:

Shannon Brown with Ted Sobel:

By the way, nobody brought up the fact that unless the Lakers get at least one game in Dallas, this could’ve been Phil Jackson’s final home game coaching the Lakers? But it’s just not the right time or place to get a legitimate answer from anybody anyway…so I thought I’d plant the seed for you all to comtemplate before games 3 and 4 in Texas.

The Lakers blew a 16 point 3rd quarter lead and the Dallas Mavericks walked away with a 96-94 game one win at a stunned Staples Center where they’re already thinking about a must win game 2 on Wednesday night.

Kobe Bryant with Ted Sobel:

Pao Gasol with Ted Sobel:

Derek Fisher with Ted Sobel:

Andrew Bynum with Ted Sobel:

Shannon Brown with Ted Sobel:

Luke Walton with Ted Sobel:

This blog is generally used for special interviews I’ve conducted or been a part of for your listening pleasure. But last night was such a special life’s moment for me that I couldn’t help but share it all with you (and without sound for once)! I was invited to emcee Saturday night’s 8th annual West Coast Sports Medicine Foundation’s Wine & Food Charity Event with all proceeds to benefit their ‘Team to Win’ high school community outreach sports medicine program (which honors the most outstanding scholar athletes and awards college scholarships to 6 deserving student athletes).

I was to first introduce the principles, founder and old friend Dr. Keith Feder, Chairman of the Board Richard Katz, Dr. Carol Frey (Mrs. Feder), and then host a live auction of gourmet wines, fine jewelry, and exotic trips.

The night began with some great wine tasting and gourmet hors d’oeuvres that I enjoyed mostly with another old friend John Van Boxmeer and his great wife Judy who were back in town only a couple of weeks after Boxy had coached his Swiss league hockey team to the finals in the beautiful city of Lausanne, Switzerland (the town where the International Olympic Committee and it’s museum preside on the banks of Lake Geneva and where I had the priviledge to visit in 2007). If you’re not familiar with Van Boxmeer, he played in the NHL for many years (won a Stanley Cup with the Montreal Canadiens) and since has been a longtime coach who I worked with for 5 years as the play by play voice of his Long Beach Ice Dogs of the now defunct International Hockey League. And to put this all in order for you, Dr. Feder was the team doctor the entire time I was there. As we got closer to dinner being served (a phenominal meal catered by the great Fleming’s Steak House) little did I know while watching the approximate crowd of 350 people file into the beautiful showroom of Lexus Santa Monica, that one of them would be my boyhood idol (and longtime friend) Elgin Baylor. Yes, the same Hall of Famer who long before Kobe, Michael, Magic and Bird was known as the best ‘pound for pound’ basketball player of all time. And not only did Elgin and his lovely wife Elaine and daughter Crystal end up sitting next to me at dinner, but I was asked to make a special introduction announcement for Elg along with his former Lakers mates Keith Erickson and Lucious Allen who were all on hand to honor these special student athletes.

Think of how YOU might feel if an athlete that you had most admired as a kid not only befriended you…but then later got the once in many lifetimes opportunity to introduce him just how you wanted to (from the heart) to a well-receptive gallery? And boy did I ad-lib that intro with passion as in…if you never saw Baylor play “you missed out on one of the all-time greats”…that this was a man (as the late great Chick Hearn had told me several times) who if not for his presence, the Lakers may’ve either had to move from L.A. in the early 60’s or go under all-together? And then I stressed (as I have for over a year now to the Lakers organization) that if anyone deserves a statue in front of Staples Center, it is the man who put them on the map and kept them here-Elgin Baylor! The crowd reaction was stirring and probably more emotional for me than anyone else…but I soaked it in like a giant sponge and then went on with my night’s work.

The event went very well raising lots of money for the program and then when there were just a few remaining in the previously packed showroom, I sat and chatted with the Baylors and his longtime friend (and WCSMF Board member) Mitch Huberman and his wife for about 90 minutes as we were the last to leave. And when Elg gets going he can be one of the great story tellers, many to be included in his upcoming book which hopefully will be written sometime during this year?

The night ended with me driving home thinking how lucky I am to have been put in that position and how it couldn’t have worked out any better! Thanks to Jill Sleight for the invite and thanks to Elgin Baylor for giving me a lifetime of memories that few will ever have!

For more information on how to give tax deductable donations to the ‘Team to Win’ program please contact Jill Sleight at the West Coast Sports Medicine Foundation in Manhattan Beach, California via their website at http://www.wcsportsmed.com.