Watchdog

It's a piece of Canadian Broadcasting Corp. material [note logo burned in] and is now an instant classic. The legends of Newsday are well-represented [and probably well-soused] in this clip ... hell Kitman looks and sounds the same as when he did those commentaries on the old WNEW-5 way back when.
Parts of that clip have to be seen on MSG/Fox Sports NY soon ...
I think Fischler "The Maven" will get a kick out of it ...

That clip is... scary. As a former Fischler intern, like numerous NY sports writing luminaries, it's a kick to see Stan (and his lovely missus, Shirley) back in the day.

And Stan may look better now, to be honest.

DuMont: Do you recognize anyone else that I didn't identify in that clip? (Good catch on the CBC logo! That makes it even weirder.)

Art: Thanks for reading. See you later. Get back to studying the Patriots' defensive schemes.

Neil:

Thanks for posting this. It brought back memories at a lot of different levels.

As you know, I have a passion for hockey that goes back to my childhood, when I dreamed of being the next Rod Gilbert. I can't remember which I did first, play table hockey or ice skate, but the two events couldn't have been far apart.

We had one of the table hockey games pictured in this clip, the kind with the metal players and the metal sticks. My four brothers and I would spend hours in the basement playing with that thing, and it was some of the best time of my childhood.

My daughter Emily loves hearing about my childhood days ("Daddy, tell me about your boyhood" is her favorite line before bedtime.) I will have to tell her about table hockey. When I went to my mother's a few weeks ago, I showed her my old bedroom, and in one of the closets was the table hockey game we used to play. A bit rusty, a few players missing, but there it was.

The clip is a classic, and I would never have known it was Fischler because unless he spoke in that classic New York accent. Back in the day, I'd see Fischler at hockey games while covering the sport for the Gannett Westchester-Rockland Newspapers, mostly the Islanders during their glory days.

I also played hockey with one of the guys in the clip. It's the bald-headed referee. His name is Ira Gitler, and he ran an amateur team named "Gitler's Gorillas." We used to play at Sky Rink on the West Side, sometimes at 2 a.m. It was there that I decided to wear a full mask, because some dude popped me in the mouth and nearly put a few teeth out. That was the height of my hockey playing days, although I played in a few of those old-timers games with Gordie Howe, Phil Esposito, Eddie Giacomin and Ulf Nilsson.

In one of the games - it was at the Meadowlands around 1983 - I was awarded a penalty shot after being tripped on a breakaway.
Giacomin was the goalie. As I got the puck at center ice, I noticed that a bunch of the old-timers were lined up on either side of the zone where I was skating toward. As I got to the blue line, they all slid their sticks to the middle.

I did manage to hold onto the puck, but Giacomin picked up the net and turned it around against the boards. He crouched down inside. The crowd liked it, although I missed my chance to score on the goalie for whom I rooted as a child.

Thanks for bringing back some hockey memories, Best. I'm glad you like the sport.

I'm also glad you've discovered a place where aging sportswriters have a purpose. I never knew blogging could mean so much.

See you at the Giants-Patriots game tonight. I'm looking forward to watching a piece of history.

Ira Gitler! I had a feeling people would know that guy. I once was supposed to call him about the Sky Rink games but never got around to it. I started playing in that game in the early 1990s, which I guess was after his time.

If your column in Sunday's paper stinks, it will be because you were writing this comment on my blog instead of studying the Patriots' special teams tendencies.

Staple also commented on this video.

What's next? An Eli post? Eli, are you out there? Strahan? Tiki? Willie Beamon? Hello?

By the way, Glauber, check this out: Ira Gitler turned 79 years old two weeks ago. 79! Wow.

Gitler has led quite a life. Hockey writer. Hockey player. Jazz writer. General raconteur. Gitler's Gorilla days were priceless.

Gitler is listed on Wikipedia. He coined the phrase "sheets of sound" in describing John Coltrane's music. He and I share the same birthday. At 79, he is one of the few people left in the media older than you and I.

priceless,any old clips from the nfl draft in a similar setting(hotel ballroom) would be a fun watch.

bob.you are just a little to excited about this. try de-caf.

Regarding: "I know most WatchDog readers were not born when this video was shot..."

I gotta think your demographics skew older than the Under-35 crowd, right?

People of all ages, genders, colors and creeds are welcome under the WatchDog tent.

Back in the day when I resided in section 432 we would give Gilder holy hell for hogging the little monitor that showed the replays from the MSG telecast (this is before the big JumboTron days)

Hey, Neil! Thoroughly enjoyed the video, even though I only recognize the Newsday names you mentioned, rather than any particular faces. We owned the set with metal players, remember? Hours and hours spent with those little men in the Mt. Freedom basement. I think all the strategizing helped me play decent defense during junior high field hockey games! Remember introducing table hockey to our summer neighbors who hailed from Georgia? Anyway..thanks for bringing back those memories and for the chance to see all those lush 'staches and sideburns!!!
Bonni