It’s been rewarding to relive fun and not-so-fun games, incidents and conversations from the last 60-plus years.

One thing is certain. My recollection of long past events, many involving dearly departed friends, coworkers, relatives and local sports dignitaries, is far from perfect. There are going to be unintentional minor mistakes, so please, don’t sue me!

I’m almost 75 years young and can no longer go toe-to-toe with Jeopardy champions. At least not every night.

Sudoku gives me a headache, I can’t tell five differences between pictures and no longer tackle daily crossword puzzles. At least not with a pen.

Bart Carruth

I cannot reliably recreate conversations word for word, have no clue of the actual day, or even year, of certain events, and often have no idea where I left the freakin’ TV remote. And it was RIGHT HERE a minute ago! At least I think it was!

I’m a proud Baby Boomer born at the turn of the half-century (1950). Tales of the Buffalo Bills, Sabres, Braves and Bisons all graze freely in my sports-heavy subconscious, as do generations of New York Yankees.

With considerable apologies to personal idol Mickey Mantle, I believe Roberto Clemente was the best baseball player I ever saw.

Jim Brown is the greatest player in NFL history, and Tom Brady sucks. No argument. Just fact.

As far as basketball goes, I’m strictly a fan of centers. Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton all would be on my All-NBA team with Michael Jordan. My Second Team would be Magic Johnson, Steph Curry, Larry Bird, Lebron James and Julius Erving. Pure entertainers.

If you find this TV remote, please contact me immediately.

Shaq? Wack.

As you can see, I’m pretty much stuck in the past with players and teams I grew up idolizing.

Perhaps the best thing about penning this series of columns is connecting with the public.

After spending years on a comfy couch during the pandemic, it’s been a treat to hear from so many OBSERVER readers.

Nearly all of them have been gracious in their comments and suggestions for future column topics. Please keep them coming. See my email below.

It’s also been especially gratifying to be contacted by former OBSERVER reporters and editors. Thanks to them for taking the time to make my day.

Some online community members have offered heartfelt reminiscences of local athletic heroes dear to their heart.

Gone-too-soon Fredonia High baseball pitching great Bart Carruth is just such a case in point.

His impressive career statistics, especially those from his unparalleled championship senior season with the Hillbillies, were relayed to me by a longtime admirer.

It was one of the first responses to my fledgling column and provided a very convincing case for his admission to multiple hall of fame-type organizations.

Bart was an all-star pitcher and power-hitting teammate of mine. He helped orchestrate the First Ward Falcon Club’s lone Grape Belt League championship. He is sorely missed by many.

Tim Iskra similarly responded to a column mentioning John “Hot Dog” Tofil, hIs former basketball coach and local fast-pitch softball great.

Seems Coach Tofil once gained some small measure of revenge on Iskra, his grade school player, one day in practice.

Tofil deliberately failed to grab a nearby errant bouncing ball, forcing Iskra to chase it down himself.

The sly gesture was “payback” for a previous defeat in another sport at another time. “Hot Dog” immediately reminded young Tim of that fact. Revenge is truly best served cold … on a gym floor.

Some of you sharp readers have even offered guesses to the identity of certain, let’s generously say, somewhat sketchy players, coaches and game officials I have mentioned in my weekly submissions.

You know them, they’re the ones I have purposely failed to publicly name for various moral and legal reasons.

Keep guessing, faithful readers, and I will keep denying. At least I’ll try.

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DO YOU have a favorite, funny, weird, best or worst memory of amateur sports refereeing, playing or spectating? Drop me a line at mandpp@hotmail.com and let’s reminisce.

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Bill Hammond is a former EVENING OBSERVER sports editor.