Selected Sports Images (1968-2018)
In my youth I loved both playing and watching sports. I wasn't a great athlete, but I could hold my own on the baseball field or basketball court. It was not always easy to find open fields and greenspace in the middle of New York City, so we played stoop ball on the cement steps of our apartment buildings, and brought our ball and gloves outside for a catch on the sidewalk. On other occasions we headed to our local parks. In winter, we’d walk down the block to Riverside Park for sledding, and headed east to Central Park for softball and basketball.
There were a number of highlights in my early athletic career that are still burned into my memory bank. When I was seven years old I batted 4 for 4, played stellar defense, and hit the game-winning home run to win an important softball game for our day-camp team. Then, when I was twelve, I was lucky enough to partner with an amazing shooter and ball-handler who I was teamed up with on the pickup courts of Central Park. He seemed never to miss a shot during our 2-on-2 pickup basketball games, where I fed him the ball, rebounded, and even hit the occasional shot when he was double-teamed. We stayed on the court for hours on end, slaying multiple opponents and winning every game. When we finally called it a day, I felt what it was like to be a true champion.
As a fan, I remember freezing my butt off at New York Giant football games in the dead of winter, and watching my favorite New York baseball team, the Mets, lose almost every game they played during their inaugural 1962 season. But New York’s basketball team, the Knicks, were my real true love. I had spent the 1969-70 season obsessed with the team, watching as many games as possible on TV and spending my days in 9th grade class doodling caricatures of the players on the covers of my school notebooks. When the Knicks made it to the finals that year, I waited in line at Madison Square Garden all night with my pals Guy and Billy to get tickets, and then watched as the Knicks beat the LA Lakers in seven games to win the NBA Championship. It was an historic championship finals and to this day it was the single greatest sports experience of my life.
Photographically, I have always been fascinated by people who are at the top of their profession, so it seemed like a no-brainer that once I began taking photographs I would gravitate towards shooting athletes and the sports they played. I hope you enjoy these few memoriable sports moments from my photo archives.
(For image data, click thumbnail and hover cursor over enlarged photographs)
