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Ep. 4 - Ray Didinger

Jun 20, 2020

Being a sports fan can be many things; joyous, desperate, miserable, and transcendent. But how important is watching sports to our mental well being? We asked an expert. Ray Didinger began to like the rest of us, a passionate hometown fan. His love of the games led him to a career in journalism and ultimately a place in the Pro Football Hall of Fame writers section.

Ray believes sports are absolutely important to our sanity.

As we wait through this strange spring for the games to come back, Ray joins us on the Corner with his sports memories and a prediction on when (or if ) the games will return.

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    Episode 5 - Ray Didinger Interview Transcript

    Steve Martorano  
    Hi, and welcome. I'm Steve Martorano. And this is the behavioral corner, you're invited to hang with us, because we've discussed the ways we live today, the choices we make, the things we do, and how they affect our health and well being. So you're on the corner, the behavioral corner, please hang around a while. 

    You know, it's been a spring, like no other because of, well, pandemic. So, we're taking a look at how that's impacted our behavioral health, our psyches, our emotions, so we're very excited to take a look at a big part of our lives that have been altered by this and what it all means. And that's, you know, the games we play and the games we watch, in particular, the effect on sports and sports fandom. During this absence of games. Now, we could have Go into academia. Certainly this subject has been studied by those pointy heads for years and years, they would have loaded us with data. It's the golden age of data. And that would have told us something for sure we could have had clinicians in to talk to us about, you know, the way the frontal lobe lights up when your you know, your team is in the red zone and fumbles, that would have been valuable, or we could have dragged that grizzled sports writer away from their duties, and gotten a real expert and passionate view of, of the topic sports and our relation to them. To that end, we are really happy to invite a great friend and a legend and these parts of the country right didn't hear an American sports writer. He is an author, a screenwriter, radio personality sports commentator, and not the least of which around here is noted for his position in pro football, his Hall of Fame in Canton, Ohio. So as I said, if you want to find out what sports means on a very deep level. There's nobody better than as we say around here, Ray Diddy. Hello, Ray, thanks so much for joining us on the corner.

    Ray Didinger  
    Nice to join us, Dave. Always a pleasure.

    Steve Martorano  
    You know, I could spend the next 20 minutes with your Emmy Award winning documentary work and your awards you've won your work but you're too modest to let me do that. So let's jump right into it. You know, I we spoke earlier. We as we sit here now, there there are plans afoot to bring the games back. They are they are elaborate, they are detailed. They involve bubbles and testing and fans no fans, that all could change by the time we get on the air. So we're speaking in this vacuum of no games. It's been a very, very peculiar spring for sports fans all over the country all over the world for that matter. Do I make too much of this when I talk about the psychological or behavioral health aspect of sports fans?

    Ray Didinger  
    Oh, no, no, I think it's, it's very real. You know, I mean, in, in our society, especially, sports has always been the great release, it's, that's where everybody has gone to get away from their other problems to get away from the problems at work to get away from the problems in their personal life. To get away from all that stress, the easiest thing to do is either go to a game or just sit on the couch and grab the remote and flip on a game. And it's it that's kind of where you go to get away from the other troubles. And it's been that for generations, and we kind of grown up knowing that it was always going to be there. And when we needed it, it was it was a great source of comfort. And now, you know, now that's taken away. And I can't tell you how many people that I've bumped into over these last, what four months now that say to me and people I didn't even think were sports fans and I don't really truly sports fans, but what they've said to me is can I miss it? You know, and I know exactly what they're saying they don't they don't have to go into much more detail than that, you know, I miss it. And I'm not even talking about the people that are you know that that really breathe, eat, sleep, devour this stuff, you know people that read all the box scores and know all the batting averages and, you know can tell you every stat i'm not i'm not talking about the people that are the true devotees. I'm talking about just the average guy, you know that he does he just grew up in a world where he knew it was always there you know, there was always you pick up the you know, turn on the TV and it was it was going to be there. Turn on the radio, it was going to be there. And now it's not and there's a genuine sense of loss and when as many things are happening in the world as they're happening right now, which are confusing and troubling and, and just hard to kind of get a handle on them. You know, in other times we would have said, You know what, I need to get away I'm gonna watch a Phillies game tonight. Well, guess what? Phillies aren't there either. I think that from just that. I just kind of need this have something to grab on to Having lost that, I think is a very real loss to, to everybody. And, you know, the people in the business, the people that are that are sports casters, sports writers, broadcasters and all I mean, it's I mean, it's your way of life has been taken away. And the problem is that the real problem is nobody knows when it's coming back. And in what form it's coming back. So you I mean, you said it well, at the beginning, these are these are times unlike any other and it cuts across all platforms. And sports is a real big part of that. 

    Steve Martorano  
    You know, we let's begin with the most obvious things about what sports are - and you mentioned it right there. They are a diversion. If they're nothing else, they are diversion. I think that's right into the wheelhouse you're talking about even the casual sports fan will turn on a baseball game as he reads because it's it's company, and it's soothing. And it does take you away from the moment you know, from a like a psychological point. I don't want to get to Academic here. Is this a time when we should be looking for diversions? You know what I mean? sports is faced with this need to come back for sure to offer all that you talked about, but to divert but to divert us at a moment in time when maybe we shouldn't be diverted. Maybe we shouldn't be concentrating on bigger issues than Gee, there's no baseball. How do you feel about that?

    Ray Didinger  
    Yeah, no, I know what you're saying. And I, I think there's a distinction to be drawn. Because I heard someone I heard actually, two guys having this debate one time, not that long ago, about the idea that the sports is a great distraction. And the other guy said, Yeah, but with what's happening in the world right now. I don't think we need to be distracted. I think I think we need to pay attention to the issues that are right in front of us right now and resolve those. You know, being distracted isn't exactly what this is about. And I get that point of it. But I think there's difference between diversion and just release and relief. You know, you can be fully engaged with what's happening to us society right now. And I think everybody should be. I think, by and large we are. And you can be that for a good portion of the day, and be thinking about it and trying to do what each person can in their own way to make things better. And the thing that I've always stressed is just what I really think you need to do, especially parents is I think it's desperately important that parents sit down and talk to their kids today, you know, take the Xbox away for an hour, you know, to put the cell phone down for an hour. And let's just sit at the kitchen table and talk about what's happening in the world. Because kids are getting just assaulted with with images on TV and conversation and, and I think it's it's really critical that parents act like parents right now, and then sit down and tell the kids look, this is what's happening in the world. Here's what we're dealing with. Here's what these people are saying. Here's what they're fighting for. You know, I think that conversation, that kind of understanding begins at home and then grows out from there. So I'm not saying that, that sports should take the place of that. But what I'm saying is that if you do everything you can, in your, in your workplace, in your family, all day long to be a good person to kind of set things right. There's nothing wrong at eight o'clock at night, just sitting back and saying, You know what? I need to just watch a ballgame and that doesn't make it doesn't make you negligent. It doesn't make you a bad person. It doesn't make you someone who's fleeing from reality. You're just somebody that needs a break. Yeah, no. And I think so that's, that's why I think there's a distinction between the idea of this as distraction slash diversion, and just having a couple of hours in your day where you just kind of need a little bit of emotional release. 

    Steve Martorano  
    Yeah, well put, I mean, yes, you can. You can take this apart a lot of ways but you cannot remove that relief quotient, which which is what We're missing the release of a game in all of its, it may be complicated on one level, but you know, sports watching sports really a very simple universe the games are played in a confined space easily, easily delineated. There are clear rules most of the time that you know there are referees who tell you when mistakes are made. So it's a universe unto itself that offers you solace. You can go there and like cool out. Unfortunately, everything you just said has seeped into the game as well. I mean, now when you introduce a kid to sports early on, they may say to you, why are some of those guys kneeling? And why are they not? Has that real world behavior that seeped into sports across the board, hurt people's fandom and emotional well being and connection to the games or is it just an inevitable consequence of the world we live in?

    Ray Didinger  
    I think it's probably both Steve. It's it's certainly an inevitable part of the world. We're living in now, a world where that kind of visual messaging is really important. Where social activism is as great as it's ever been, if not greater. I mean, it's it's just impossible to imagine that that wouldn't cross over and get into the sports culture to some degree. And it has. And I think that I have some people turned her back on and walked away and said, I don't want to deal with this anymore. I don't want to walk. You know, if that's what the players are going to do, they're going to kneel, they're going to disrespect to the flag. I don't want to deal with them anymore. Yeah, I think there has been, I think, I think the number is smaller. I think it's smaller than people think. I think it's smaller than people say. But have some people. I know some people that have just said, you know, I'm not interested anymore. You know, that's kind of been there for a while. I mean, some people are kind of driven away by the money. Some people are just kind of driven away by what they see. is just the sheer avarice and elitism of the athletes and the owners that I just don't want to root for these guys anymore. I don't like them the way I like to some of those people yeah, I think they've been they've they've sort of drifted away but I think the number is relatively small.

    Steve Martorano  
    And that's the love the game hate the player phenomenon which we see more, more and more. Well, let me ask you some images grossly over generalized question to ask anybody. But do you think guys who are really dedicated to watching the games and they enjoy it and you think they are, in general, happier than people who don't watch sports? As a constant?

    Ray Didinger  
    I think everybody seeks out their own their own bliss, you know, I mean, there's some people that just, you know, their idea of a wonderful Sunday is going over and watching a string quartet at the Curtis Music Institute. That's where they find their pleasure. That's where they find their release. You know, and then, you know, there are other people that are just activists, you know, they want to get on a bicycle and just ride. Some people that want to run, there are some people that deeply immerse themselves in community service. And then there are the other people that are like the people I grew up with in southwest Philadelphia, my grandfather's bar, that I mean, they're their greatest source of enjoyment after they finished work in a GE or Westinghouse or something that's coming in my grandfather's barn having a shot in the beer and watching a Phillies game. You know, that's where, you know, that's where they kind of find their enjoyment. You know, I think it's, I don't know that they're happier, necessarily, I think everybody finds how that, you know, finds their own sort of place of happiness. But for the people, for the people that need that for the people who've grown up with that for the people that have have accepted that as part of their way of life, you know, to have that taken away, you know, for the for the last four months. I know, it's been really difficult. I, you know, every day I bumped into somebody who tells me about you know, I don't know what I'm going to do, you know, are they they're sort of begging me as if I can bring these things back and more and more telling you know, tell you know, tell me baseball's coming by, please tell me, please tell me, please tell me there's going to be a football season. get struck by shows. I don't I don't know any better than you do get to work. 

    Steve Martorano  
    You know, one of the other things sports has historically done is it is a very primal bonding method. It's a way families pass on their enjoyment of the games in their teams. Everybody remembers the first game they were taken to and by whom? Do you recall yours?

    Ray Didinger  
    Yeah, Phillies Milwaukee Braves. My dad was away with the Air Force. So it was my grandfather took me but it was a Phillies Milwaukee Braves. Yeah, Robin Roberts against Warren spawn. And we had great seats. lower deck. Not quite box, but pretty close. 

    Steve Martorano  
    This is Connie Mack Stadium?

    Ray Didinger  
    Connie Mack Stadium. Yep, yep. Connie Mack stadium. And I remember there weren't that many people in the stands. So we were able to kind of hedge our way down and edge our way down to some of the empty seats down on the boxes, and I vividly remember, literally being close enough because this is how intimate Kenny Mac stadium was being close enough that we're sitting right by the railing. And when Henry Aaron was in the on deck circle, I could literally see the perspiration on his neck. Not the kind of experience you're going to get vaguely ballparks today, but when you talk about everybody remembers that first trip to the ballpark. Yeah, I mean, I remember it in that much detail. 

    Steve Martorano  
    Yeah, yeah. No one who has had that experience will ever forget coming up out of whatever tunnel you lead out to the field and seeing something you'd seen on television and in those days in black and white...

    Ray Didinger  
    ...black and white...

    Steve Martorano  
    ...and then this explosion of color. Even in the old draft ballpark you're talking about, it was still startling. I remember it you just stop. You don't even go to your seat immediately. Just stop at the head of that tunnel and look out at that field and go oh my god, it's real.

    Ray Didinger  
    Takes your breath away. It does. It really does. And it's to me stays with you your whole life at first. That's first moment because and i think it's it's more acute for people of our generation because we literally are introduced to the game on black and white TV. And you're right, you come out of the tunnel, it's dark, and then you walk up towards and it was a night game for me. So you're, you're walking towards it and the overhead lights are all on. And then you step out into where you have the clear field of vision out onto the field. And you see the green grass and you see the scoreboard lights and you see the lights overhead and you know, the Phillies uniforms are really colorful that thing you know that real cherry red color uniforms. And it was, I mean, I remember I just remember my heart something I had the same kind of experience when I went to my first Eagles game, you know, coming up, because that was Connie Mack Stadium to they hadn't yet moved to Franklin field and coming up the same tunnel coming out the same walkway and being exposed to that. Now it was a gridiron, you know, and you had the green field with the white stripes and bandos out there playing and it was I mean it was it was really thrilling. I really think that those those emotions and those sensations. It just moved me so profoundly, that I think has a lot to do with with the career path. I chose nothing in my life that had happened at that point that it excited me more than going to a baseball game in a football game. And I just said to myself, man, this is what I want to do. I don't know what I'm gonna do exactly. But whatever I want to do I want to do it in this setting.

    Steve Martorano  
    Yeah, see if I can get as close to this as I can. If I can't be on that field, let me see how close I can get to this. You know, there's a moment that moment you talk about is it's remarkable for a young mind it's been, it's that's being formed in that moment. It can have a profound effect on the way your brain wires itself. And that stays with you going forward. I'm thinking right now of families out there who had counted ahead and figured this would be this summer or the spring, when we'd be able to take the kids do their first game, whatever it was, and they're going to lose that. Right if we're talking about the impact do this thing that is a diminishing effect.

    Ray Didinger  
    Yeah, it's genuine loss. It really is. And you can't replace it with really anything else. I mean, kids today, the younger generation today, I mean, my grandchildren for heaven's sakes, I guess they replace it in some set because they, you know, everybody's playing Madden, everybody's got games that they're playing in terms of video games, which I guess brings its own source of enjoyment and escape. There's nothing that replaces that, that physical feeling that you have, when you actually walk into the stadium for the first time. And you see the game for the first time. And I guess the best one of the best parts about it, and I remember it is so communal, in a way that a video games can never be. I mean, you're you're in there and you're not just enjoying yourself, but you're sharing it with thousands of other people. And in my case, a lot of relatives and, and people the guys from my grandfather's bar who were like relatives, you know, you're there sharing it with them too. And those are the memories that stay with you a lifetime.

    Steve Martorano  
    We, you know, that's another aspect of the behavioral health component. Sports is that there's an incredible, I don't want to make too much of this because it's can be a false notion. But there is a great leveling effect with regard to our civic lives when you're in a stadium. You know, I went to Franklin fields as a youngster as you did, and you would go in your seats, and no matter where they were, you could be sitting next to a doctor or a judge, a pipe fitter, or cop, and you wouldn't know it. Sure, there wasn't there were no distinctions. We were all in in this thing together. I wonder, though, psychologically, and you've been to so many of these and you've talked to so many people, in terms of our civic lives, do sports, strengthen the Civic bond, or is it a false kind of community? In other words, yeah, we can all be Eagle fans, but that doesn't mean we agree politically. Does it really strengthen us as civic animals?

    Ray Didinger  
    I think it does. Yeah, I think I think it does. Because you're right. I mean, we're never as a society is is As a nation, we're never all going to agree on any one thing. I mean, it's just it's just not going to happen. But I think I think there's something underlying all the other differences that does hold you together. There is that certain kind of understanding that, okay, you're a Democrat, I'm a Republican, but on Sunday afternoon at one o'clock, we're both Eagles fans. And that's, that's one thing that does kind of hold you together. And I, you know, when you see it, when you see it, as you saw Super Bowl 52 the reaction in the city. I mean, that's real. You know, I mean, that's real. And what people were celebrating, I mean, I went to the parade on Thursday, I was in Minnesota, so I wasn't, I wasn't here to see the actual, the moment the game ended, and the people poured into the streets to celebrate, but I certainly saw the pictures. And then Thursday, being at the parade, at the Art Museum and seeing what that was, like, you know, what that looked like, what it sounded like, what it felt like, I mean, that was real. And, and, and one of the things that I think exists in our society Now, which is problematic, I think, is because of the way things are set up. And it's only been deepen now because of the pandemic, is this is this kind of isolation that we all kind of live in, that we live in a world where, you know, we live seems like we live 90% of our days just staring into a computer screen. And we don't talk to each other as much. You know, nobody picks up the telephone anymore. Everybody sends an email. And I think in some ways, you know, in some ways, I think we're more isolated as a society. I think, you know, anything that draws people together, is I think a good thing. You know, I wrote an article long time ago about, about this, this thing around the idea of Super Bowl, and why I think Super Bowl is really important in the united states in this country. I know in a lot of ways, it's way overblown, and it's, you know, it's become kind of this, this big wildling walrus of an event, you know, it's, it's sort of overhyped, and then enters too much money spent as become too corporate and yada yada I mean, you can talk about all the things that are wrong with it. But the one thing is that when it's played, you know, when they kick it off, they really becomes a great American campfire, you know, and whether you're a football fan or you're a man, or you're a woman, or you're young, or you're old, or you're black, or you're white, you're watching, you know, you're engaged. You know, you're all sitting there watching the same thing, you probably have different rooting interests. And you may not be all that big of a football fan, you don't know who the players are, but you're caught up in just this moment. That's, that's, that's collective. And it's collective in a way that very few things are collective in our society anymore. And so that's why I do think that it's easy for sociologists to sort of say, Oh, this is nonsense and poopoo the whole thing is, oh, it's just sports. It's, or as we, those of us that are in the sports, writing, sports broadcasting community always hear, that's the toy department of life. You know, there's the real world that the rest of us live in, that really matters. And then there's the sports which is the toy department. Well, no, it's really all kind of one world and they all kind have to function together and guess what, they all have their purpose. And I think the idea that that teams and routing interests and that kind of involvement, both physical and emotional, Israel, and it is important and I would argue that maybe in the world we're living in now might be more important than ever.

    Steve Martorano  
    Ray Didinger is an American sports writer and those insights are the sort of thing that got him in the writers roll call of pro football's Hall of Fame and raise hanging with us on the corner here, wondering where Joe DiMaggio has gone and when will he be back?

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    Steve Martorano  
    One of the other things about sport that's interesting and beneficial, I believe. And I really believe this and I hear everything you say about it's easy to, it's easy to get cynical about the way it's morphed over the years. But sports can not only takes us out of where we are, but to someplace else. There is a transcendent moment there can be actual transcendent moments. When you see something during a game. That is so wonderful. that fills you with so much joy that you really are transported. It's not it's not Oh, we scored. Hooray. It says you say a Super Bowl victory or some other moment of an individual game or an event. Let me ask you, let me ask you a tough question. Can I ask you for your number one, a transcendent moment where you literally left your body because it's something you'd seen in a sporting event.

    Ray Didinger  
    I'm not sure not.

    Steve Martorano  
    Not literally left

    Ray Didinger  
    left your right No, no, no. But I mean for me, it's an easy one. It's 1960 NFL Championship Game Eagles Packers at Franklin field. And my hero. My, my true boyhood hero, Tommy McDonald caught a touchdown pass to put the Eagles ahead in that game that they went on to win their last NFL Championship prior to Super Bowl 52. And he caught it we were our seats were in Section double eight, which are in the end zone and he caught the ball right in front of us. And you saw the whole play develop saw (Norm) Van Brocklin dropped back. So Tommy run the corner pattern song beat the defensive back so the ball in the air, and it felt like it was in the air for five hours. I mean, it felt like it felt like that ball hung forever. And, you know, I knew Tommy was going to catch it because he never dropped a pass and and he caught it and the defensive back shoved them in the end zone and Tommy tumbled out of the end zone into a big patch of snow. The crowd came out of the stands and picked them up and then he ran back onto the field and the Eagles were ahead in the game. And at that point, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that they were going to beat the Lombardi Packers and when the NFL Championship and my hero not only scored the Go ahead, touchdown, but he scored it practically in my lap. Wow. Yeah, you're talking about a moment where you just kind of feel elevated and you just kind of feel like you leave your own body for a second go to another place. Yeah, that's that's it for me.

    Steve Martorano  
    Well, you know, I was at that game, and I had a half a dozen of those moments. The one that stands out most though is that we were late getting to the game. We're a little late. I So long story about waking up that morning very sick. And, and the doctor, our family physician said "Bring him over. Bring him over." So I'll never forget him saying, well, you're not here. How you feeling? Can you sit through a football game and I'm faking it and he says, look, we're gonna give you this and you take this at the halftime and take this in, he's not gonna die there. He's just, you know, he'll forget all about it. And then he looked at me and said, Ray, after all, you may never get to see another championship game again, this is 1960. And I remember thinking to myself very clearly, I hope he knows more about medicine than he does about football. Because obviously, we're going to win 12 championships. 

    Ray Didinger  
    And that was how we all felt 

    Steve Martorano  
    So God bless Dr. Curreri, over in Merchantville, New Jersey. But I do remember crossing the South Street Bridge and hearing the player announcements filled with both anxiety because we were late but awed at how the bridge was shaking from the sound of the crowd inside the stadium. So that for me I was was a was a peak moment, but I gotta say something I say this all the time. For me, the absolute max moment when when I was just transported. And this sounds crazy to people who love team sports. I know. It's when Secretariat, one of the Belmont Stakes. You know, you rarely get to see anything in life that is perfect. So perfect. It defies what you're looking at. And it's hard to tell people who don't like horse racing, what that means. But I think you understand. It was a no, it was a moment that was beyond almost beyond belief. And you were watching it, sports can do that. They do. And now we don't have it.

    Ray Didinger  
    Yes, exactly. And that's and you know, and that's why it's moments like that, that are that are very special in anybody's life. And, you know, I am the farthest thing from a horse racing aficionados, I'm really not I know very little about it. I don't really understand that. I couldn't tell you all the Triple Crown winners I I'm not, I'm not nor do I pretend to be Dick Jerardi, but even I, when I saw what happened at the Belmont and I saw a Secretariat, just pull away from those other horses, great horses, all of them and just become kind of this almost This magical kind of transported figure. Yeah, I mean, I can, I can absolutely relate to that. And that's and that's kind of what sports does. You know, Jim Murray, the the great columnist from the la times the first sports writer ever to win the Pulitzer Prize, once wrote in, he did a sort of farewell to sports writing when he was retiring. And he dealt with this whole idea that, you know, he had spent his whole life writing about sports and there were certain people in the newspaper business and in journalism that kind of even as good as he was just kind of looked at him. Yeah, yeah, you're you're a good you're a sports writer, you know, and, you know, you're not, you know, you're not an editorial writer, you're not a, you know, you're not a guy that's writing cover stories for Time Magazine, you know, you, you know, you're in your own little playground, and that's fine for what it is, but, and Jim, kind of, I remember him writing that, that if you're if you're a fan of a team, or you're a fan of a player, that it's very easy. People will look at you disdainfully and say "get a life." And what Murray said was, "You know what? I gotta life." You know, and this is what it is, and to say that it's not important, or to say that by that I don't have your life, well, maybe I don't. But the fact is that I have this life. And it's real. And it's important to me. And in this arena, I know that I'm good at what I do. And there are a lot of people who get enjoyment out of it. And there's a great book that was done by a guy named Jerome Holtzman, who was a baseball writer for The Chicago Tribune. And he went around in the interviewed a whole bunch of old sports writers who were at that point retired about the glory of their times, and what they had seen and how they felt about their lives. It was really an oral history. There was it was just basically his interviews with these guys. But to read, you know, "Red" Smith talking about what he did, and and, you know, Jimmy Cannon and all that all the true giants of sports journalism is these were great journalists. Yes. I mean, these were the I mean, these are journalists that were the EAC Have any news journalists, they were just performing in a different arena. And the way they talked about what they did and the passion that they had and what they brought to their job. The beauty of it was that it never got old for them. I mean, they were as hungry and they was enthusiastic and, and they were as engaged with what they were writing the day they walked away from the job as they were the day they came in as a cub reporter. And I think there's a lot of beauty and truth in that. 

    Steve Martorano  
    Yeah. And you know what, Jimmy Cannon is a hero of mine for sure. Cannon hung out with Hemingway Hemingway admire Jimmy Cannon so tells you about his skill as a writer. But Cannon said, among many other things, that shows you how, how important this stuff can really be psychologically, when talking about Joe Lewis, in the in the moment he was always referred to as a credit to his race. Yeah, they were the times cannon, went further and said, "Yes, the human race," which I thought was...

    Ray Didinger  
    ...act ually right. It's one of its one It stands as one of the great lines of all time, and and Canon is not regarded as a great wordsmith, but he was his writing was beautiful in the sense that it was. He wrote it a level he wrote to the common man. I mean, the, you know, the cab driver, the cop on the beat, I mean, they could Jimmy Cannon and enjoy him as much as a university professor. He spoke with a clarity and a universality that was just, it was a unique form of eloquence. Yeah, there was two of them. And I thought that I remember reading, it was it was kind of I sat next to him. At my first AFC Championship game that I covered when I was at the Philadelphia Bulletin. It was January of 71. And I walked into the press box at Baltimore Memorial Stadium, the culture is still in Baltimore than and I walked down the aisle and I looked and I saw, I had this I'd been given a seat next to Jimmy Cannon. I thought, oh my god. You know, I'm going to cover a championship game and I'm going to be sitting next to Jimmy Cannon. And I remember when I sat down, he put his hand out he shook hands with me and he said "Philadelphia? Philly, I love it. Great fight town." And we talked the whole game and he I remember him telling me he said, You know, my two favorite and I told him I said, You know I've admired I've read you for years I really admire your work. You know, he's the guy that really kind of created the what they call the notes call, right? Nobody Nobody.

    Steve Martorano  
    Nobody asked me, but...

    Ray Didinger  
    Nobody asked me, but dot dot dot. Yeah and I mean everybody does notes columns today but Jimmy was the first one and we and we had a very far ranging conversation that day over the course of the game. And I remember him saying that his two favorite people that he dealt with in sports, and he said in life the two best men I've ever met were Joe Lewis and Joe DiMaggio said those he said, those are my buddies and I gotta tell you a kid I can't be objective when I write about those two guys because they're my friends he said, but they're special and I'll always remember that day.

    Steve Martorano  
    Yeah, Cannon is a legend. Ray, Ray, I'm not gonna I'm going to do what you mentioned. So many people are doing you every day now, and asked you to look into your Hall of Fame. crystal ball, all the major sports And certainly basketball and football, baseball in particular deep into discussions about how the game will come back. And we're not going to go into the details of that, because it's exhausting. But what do you think? I mean, are we going to see a baseball this year? We're going to see football in the fall. I mean, a lot of people are assuming football is coming back in September. What's your take?

    Ray Didinger  
    I think it's going to start. I just don't know if it's going to finish. And I I say that about all the sports. One of the things that scares me now is that I think there's so many people around where I live around the country, I guess, really, truly, that kind of thing. Covid's over, they go, yeah, we whipped it. It's done. We're back to life is normal. And I mean, the area where I live. I mean, a couple weeks ago, everybody was wearing masks. Now, not that many people are, you know, people aren't observing the social distancing. places are opening which is fine, but I just don't know they're opening safely. And the numbers are out there that are showing you that this thing is coming back. In other areas of the country, I just don't know that, that the experts, the Dr. Fauci's of the world have this thing nearly as well under control as people seem to think that they do. So my great fear is that Yeah, the hockey teams are going to come back, they're coming back on the limited basis already now, just some smaller training camps. Basketball already has their game plan for how they're all going to convene down in Florida, and get this season underway. And, you know, in baseball, you know, that the commissioner who can't seem to get out of his own way, but he does have the authority to unilaterally decide at a certain point that Yeah, we're coming back and we're going to start having games. I mean, all of this stuff is on the table now and they're really plans that it's going to happen. But my great fear Steve, is that they're going to come back and they're going to be back for a few weeks and then guys are gonna start testing positive that more guys are gonna start testing positive and and more guys are gonna start testing positive and then you're gonna have a quarantine is going to be putting the fact that in teams are going to be put on the shelf. And at a certain point, the people that run the legs are just going to throw their hands up and say, "Forget it. We'll see in 2021." I think that I think they're going to try to get everything underway. And I think they're on their way to getting everything underway. But I just don't know that it's going to be able to make it through to conclusion. Well, you know, what, from a psychological standpoint, and from a behavioral health perspective, fans had better steel themselves for that we're all going to be excited and euphoric when the games do come back, whenever. But there is that that danger? Look, researchers have been interested for a very long time in the characteristic habits and the overall health of sports fans and they've looked at alcohol consumption They've done studies on testosterone levels rising and falling cardiac arrest rates after a Super Bowl game so so this is a well traveled path that we've been discussing here today, but boy, we couldn't have gotten anybody better than then you to talk to us about what sports mean to us psychologically. Ray Didinger, you must be dying to get back into the press box, right?

    I truly I truly am. And, you know, I'm really hoping that they can get the football thing started because I, you know, I just I just I just miss it so much. And I mean, the network's the local networks and the national networks. I mean, they've been, they've been putting a lot of old games on the air. And that's fine to a point. You know, I mean, I can watch old games I go watch the Phillies World Series when again, that's fine. You know, Steve, I sit there and I watch it. And after about a half an hour, it I feel starts to make me sad. Because all it does is it reminds me what I'm missing. Yeah. You know, I know everybody thinks it's kind of I know that the idea is, it's kind of filling the void. But it makes me sad because it real I realize it just reinforces how much I'm missing. So I can't wait to get back to the real stuff. And, and I know I'm not alone in feeling that

    Steve Martorano  
    Yeah, well, no, you're not and you know, around the world, the game of football, soccer, is referred to as "the beautiful game." And that's true of all of these games. Once you get past all the nonsense The big business in the money. It is a beautiful thing. And it's, it's important to us psychologically. Ray, thanks for reminding us of it all.

    Ray Didinger  
    It was my pleasure, Steve. I really enjoyed it. Thank you very much.

    Steve Martorano  
    That's it for now. And make us a habit hanging out at the Behavioral Corner. And when we're not hanging, follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, on the Behavioral Corner.


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