We’re kicking off SEASON 3 of Hustle and Pro! THREE. So let’s talk about 3s – our favorite players who’ve donned the #3 jersey, our not-so-favorites, too. Who comes to mind when you think of famous #3s in sports?
Enjoy this episode and other episodes of Hustle and Pro in our archives.
Show Notes
[02:20] Babe Ruth
[10:11] Ken Griffey Jr
[18:32] Alex Rodriguez
[30:51] Bonus mentions: ESPN3 and 3 pointers!
Resources within this episode:
- Chris Mycoskie: Website | Podcast
- Chris on social: Twitter @mycoskie | Linked In
- Kelly Walker: Bio | Instagram @kelly_walkertexas | Twitter: @kelly_walker_TX
This episode is sponsored by:
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Transcript: (machine-generated)
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Welcome to Hustle & Pro. This episode starts Season #3 of Hustle & Pro. I’ve had the pleasure of talking to so many inspirational athletes and coaches and fans and broadcasters over the last few years. I’m very lucky to be able to host this podcast. And so when I was excited that my Season 3 was starting, I thought, “Okay, how do we celebrate Season 3? Number 3. Number 3.” And I was brainstorming. And all I could think about was #3 like Babe Ruth. And so to talk about that for this episode, I invited our friend, Chris Mycoskie, on to join us. So thanks for coming on with us, Chris.
Yeah. And congratulations. I have not been able to stick with many things in my life for three years. So for you to be able to do this is a pretty remarkable, uh, you know, yeah. It’s been a great run and obviously a ton of great guests. I’m honored that you’d have me on for this anniversary show.
Yeah. Well, we did a countdown last time you were on. And so I thought, “okay, this isn’t really a countdown of famous Number-3s or anything.” But because I had Babe Ruth on my mind, I’m thinking, all right, who can talk to me about, you know, I don’t know, baseball players and different things and with your a professional broadcaster. So obviously you can talk sports, but you also have such a personal background in baseball with your family ties to the Rangers. So I thought, “okay, I know that I know the guy.” So that’s why, uh, that’s why I invited you. And I appreciate you joining me. So I keep mentioning Babe Ruth, I think it’s because as I was a kid, when I started playing softball, for some reason, maybe that was the number that was available. I don’t know. Maybe that was just because my dad told me Babe Ruth, but it just kind of never, it always stuck with me and I, it never left me that that was his number.
And so, you know, you start noticing other numbers as you’re a player and over the years. And so, um, I thought it would be fun. I was, I was a little Number-3. Yeah. I mean, it changes as you get older and sometimes you don’t get to pick that number, but it just stuck with me, I guess it was kind of my first one and Jack, our son, he just recently, um, switched AA baseball teams and had to pick a number. And so it’s kind of funny as you talk different numbers. You, you try to like kind of coach your kids, you know? “I mean, yeah, that’s fine. But what about this number?” And then it’s like, “well, when you’re the new kid on the team nothing’s available anyway, so you get what you get.” But it’s just kind of fun thinking about what your mind goes to when you think of different Jersey numbers. So yeah.
When I was little, I always picked #22, if I had the opportunity to choose because my next-door neighbor was kind of this larger-than-life figure in my life because he was, um, on the high school baseball team and idolized him. He actually made time for us to play catch with us as little kids. So I wanted to be just like him. So wore #22, like Chad MacDonald.
- That’s a good one. Yeah. All right. Let’s talk about some Number-3s. I keep talking about Babe Ruth. So if you don’t mind, let’s jump off there because I was, I was looking for some ideas today. I kind of went down the Babe Ruth rabbit hole anyways. Um, cause I wanted to write down some things and it opened up a lot of interesting things as I was looking at other Number-3. So not just Babe Ruth, but my second baseball Number-3 and I don’t know, baseball just kind of kept topping my list. But, um, Ken Griffey Jr. Right, was, was another Number-3. And there were so many parallels in their career. Obviously as a person off the field, not the same type of people so much. Um, but when you’re talking about player kind of historically, and some things that they were able to accomplish, I was surprised to learn that there were some similarities between those two Number-3s, but, um, first of all, is, is he one of the top Number-3s that you think of when you think of that?
Of course. And you know, the Yankees were one of the first teams to actually have jersey numbers, period. So he wasn’t just a most, one of the most memorable Number-3s. He was one of the first in baseball that they decided that you need to have a way for fans to be able to tell who the players are from afar. And, uh, they came up with jersey numbers, which, uh, you know, for the Yankees, it was just the order that they were in, in for batting. So Babe Ruth batting #3, that’s what he wore, no other significance behind it other than that.
That pure, yeah, batting order.
Right, but yeah, just what a, just, a mythical character and, you know, it’s, it’s amazing that it really took until recently with Otani to have somebody who could do both pitching and batting at an elite level. And I’m sure there were others who could have if they tried, but you know, guys get pigeonholed. It’s like, “no, if you want to be a pitcher, you really can’t worry about the batting stuff and vice versa.” And now we’ve got a, a guy who I, you know, I wished the Rangers would have opened their wallets a little bit more to bring him this way, because just, I don’t like the Angels at all. But how can you not love Otani?
Yeah. And it’s a shame that that’s kind of the way it goes with saying “don’t focus on pitching and don’t, don’t focus on hitting.” Because you know, there’s room to focus on both and be top-notch at both positions. But yeah. So Babe Ruth was when he wasn’t pitching, he was an outfielder, right field, left fieldman. Um, just kind of everywhere out there. And he had a 22-season or year, uh, career, 1914 to 1935, 714 home runs, um, 342 batting average. And this number, uh, rings true because we just finished watching the super bowl, uh, seven World Series championships.
And all powered by hot dogs and beer. No steroids in this system.
Yeah. And he looked like it too, right? It’s so funny when you think of physiques like that, because nowadays when you have somebody like Luca coming back for the season and he’s got a few pounds on him, he gets killed for that in the media, right? And it’s really sad that – first of all, it’s sad that anybody gets talked about for just having a few extra pounds of, of maybe even a few extra pounds of fat or something on their body. But, um, but man, can you imagine back then, what people would have said if they had the ability to, to spread that kind of chatter on social media?
It’s the old John Kruk quote that, uh, I’m reminded of right now, somebody was getting on to him about going out for a few drinks, uh, you know, after a game and whatnot, it’s like, “you should be keeping your body in tip-top shape. You have a, you have a game tomorrow.” Like, “Lady, I’m not an athlete. I’m a baseball player.”
Yeah. Things, things have changed over the years too. Um, so you mentioned the Yankees. So Babe Ruth was born in Pigtown, Baltimore area of Maryland. And he, um, we always think of him as a Yankee, but he started with as a Red Sox right there. Um, moved on to the Yankees. And he’s is he really what the 86-year drought kind of stemmed from when he moved?
Right. I’d have to, uh, go back and look at the exact story. But basically the Red Sox sold him to the Yankees because of a failed theater production if I’m not mistaken, they, the owner needed the money for another venture. Uh, and thus sell, sell off your best player to your rival. And yeah, the, the Curse of the Bambino was born.
Yup. 86 years later, man. I didn’t know. Yeah. I hadn’t heard about the theater part, but man, imagine that nowadays, uh, an owner needing money for something else and then, and then that’s starting for your franchise. Um, so another couple of things that I noted about him: he wasn’t a healthy man. Right? We, we, we talked about what would he look like carried all that extra weight. I think it was 1948 that he actually ended up dying and it was cancer that he died from, which I never really realized that. I’d heard so many different stories. Um, you know, unfavorable things off the field about him, of course, I never really realized what actually was ending his life was the cancer. And then I also read that in 2018, Trump awarded him the Medal of Freedom. Did you know that? I didn’t. Yeah. I didn’t either. I mean, I trust Wikipedia sometimes too much, so that could have been written in there, but um, you know, how presidents can name
Pretty much anyone alive or dead.
Yeah. And it can just be any cultural significance. It doesn’t have there, hasn’t had to be many reasons, but, um, yeah, I thought that was interesting that after all those years, uh, Babe Ruth still getting some shoutouts. So,
So here here’s now the homework is to go find a video of the play No, No, Nanette, because that is what the Red Sox owner, um, he sold his contract to the Yankees for $125,000 before the 1920 season. And, uh, use that money to finance production of that musical.
Hope it was worth it. Right? Doubt it 125,000 for No, No, Nanette. What’s that in today’s money? Sheesh, I don’t know. No, No, Nanette, like, no, no- No, No World Series is, is kind of what that really equated to, Oh, I can only imagine the frustration as a fan. Okay. I mentioned Ken Griffey Jr. So growing up, I always like admired the consistency and you know, the play of Ken Griffey Jr. So what I learned was he also had a 22-year career. So, um, yeah, ’89 to 2010, he had 630 home runs with a 284 batting average. He was also an outfielder and DH. He was born in Donora – I’m not sure if I’m saying that right – in Pennsylvania. It’s funny how the more modern players, you start looking at their stats, it’s all, you know, Golden Gloves and All-Star, All-Star, All-Star MVP, MVP MVP and when you, when you’re looking at the older players, like Babe Ruth, it’s just, none of those things existed yet. So the stats change and these laundry lists of, um, accolades get longer and it’s kind of hard to know how much some of them mean. Right. But, um, I’m trying to see like did Ken Griffey Jr. win- I don’t know if he won any World Series. I don’t think he’s-
No. And that was one of the things that I always admired him for is that he stuck with the same team for so long. You know, obviously with Seattle, he could have gone on to a bigger market and made a lot more money probably, but Seattle was loyal to him and he was loyal to them. And it wasn’t until really late in his career, if I’m remembering right that he moved to Cincinnati. And I think that was partly because the Mariners kind of were in a rebuilding phase and they really didn’t necessarily need him around anymore. There’s also a family tie there with his dad being a former Red and kind of a big deal to him to return to the place where you spent so much of his childhood.
That is neat. I mean it, yeah, I think of him, he’s a Mariner. Right. But it is cool that he did get to make that tie. So,
And he got to be in the same batting order is his dad in Seattle for awhile. Yeah. There, they actually, if I’d have to go back and find the footage, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this within the last couple of years that junior and senior hit back-to-back home runs in one game.
Well, I knew that they, you know, made history, being father-and-son duos to play. And I can’t remember a certain amount of games and I don’t know all the details, but I didn’t see that. So back-to-back home runs, you say?
I think so. I think they were in the order one after the other and yeah, exactly. I mean, to be able to have that opportunity to play with your dad and to do that. Yeah. 1990 in a game they hit back-to-back homers. But the only, the only time that this could potentially- not, not obviously this exact same thing, but something similar- with the father and son being able to play on the same team that could happen in a few years with LeBron James, his son.
Yeah. If he holds out long enough. Yeah.
Right. Yeah. The longevity he has had is very similar to what Ken Griffey Sr had in the game and be able to hold out that long and be in the lineup with your son. That’s, uh, I’m not the biggest LeBron fan in the world, but even I’m going to think, “Wow. How cool is that?”
So cool. Yeah. To just to get, first of all, like taking a step back: just to have a second generation of your family be professional athlete. We’re, we’re kind of numb to that, I guess in some of these scenarios, but that in itself is a really hard thing to do. Right, right. And then yeah. To make it time out to where you’re both in the leagues at the same time. And then when you think about the Griffey Jr’s scenario, for you to both be still good enough where you’re active and then hitting home runs. So that’s awesome. I didn’t know that.
Yeah. There, you know, the family, the family business, it’s it’s, I think of it kind of like me where you, I just couldn’t walk in and become a doctor. You know, there would’ve been a lot of work to actually stay in the family business. And it ended at my generation. My grandfather was a doctor. My dad was a doctor and unfortunately ended here, but in the same thing with the Griffeys and now the James family that the, all the work that they put in to actually be able to stay in the same industry as their dad.
Yeah. It’s incredible. Um, so, um, I always liked Ken Griffey Jr. And I, I probably was too young to really know much about him and why, but part of it is you just never heard, you just never heard a lot of negative chatter press about him. And so I thought it was interesting that it was when it was his time for Hall of Fame votes, he holds the record for the most votes. So he got 99.32% of yes’s.
That was, that was finally overtaken by Marianna Rivera, the first 100% vote.
Okay. So when was that? Like,
He should have been inducted this, uh, this past summer and it’ll, it was, it’ll be delayed until this summer. So class of 2020 officially, but they won’t actually do the induction ceremony until 2021.
So he got a full a hundred percent of the votes. Wow. That says a lot.
It’s ridiculous that a lot of people, including Griffey did not get a 100% before. There’re sports writers who vote for this, who just decided at some point nobody deserves to be 100%, Babe Ruth wasn’t 100%. Willie Mays wasn’t 100%. So how can anybody be 100%? You know, you can’t find any logical argument behind it. Other than that, it’s never been done before, so it should never happen. And finally that mindset was put to the size, like, who can really say that Rivera doesn’t deserve to be a Hall-of-Famer. And unfortunately that argument didn’t hold up when Griffey’s vote came along. Somebody and I’m sure we can find it, but somebody among the voters for Griffey said, “nah, I’m not going to vote for him.”
Yeah. Like it’s a strange principle to stand by to say, even though I’ve know, this guy should be in, I’m going to vote the other way just so on paper it’s not perfect. That’s weird. Well, I’m glad that somebody kind of broke the streak. I mean, cause if a player deserves it, they deserve it. Doesn’t, that’s kind of a strange thing to pull out. It’s the old guard of those really those long-time sports writers. Yeah. Do you ever get a vote in, in anything like that?
I voted for, I vote for the top 25 in the FCS. Did for a long time. Individual awards locally, I vote for the Landry Award, which is a, you know, for the top high school football player in DFW. Uh, but on a national stage other than the top-25 vote, not yet.
So to vote for that Landry Award, are you year-round paying attention and close enough to where you feel really, um, firm in it or do you get some synopsises and just kind of go with some cheat sheets?
I mean I’m following pretty closely. Um, not just the games that I’m covering for CW 33, really the whole high school landscape. But yeah, I definitely, at the end, in previous years when I actually worked, um, in our high school package, used to be on channel 21, which is all part of the same station group with CBS 11. So then I was a little bit more intimately involved. Uh, now that it’s moved over to CW 33, I’m just a plain voter and yeah, I’ll definitely get some feedback on the finalists and make sure I know everything there is to know because the Landry Award is not just an on-the-field award. It’s a character award, too, this because of the tie into the Landry family. They want to make sure that’s the right young man representing them. And so you can’t just look at the stats.
And see, that’s how I could see how that 100%, you know, when you go back to like big Hall of Fame votes could, could stand because if you’re looking from the lens of off-the-field and character also, it might not be a no-brainer for everybody. You know? I mean, there’s enough to where somebody could say, you know, we see that a lot, a lot now. What you did off the field damaged enough- right, right.
There’s no excuse for that with him. He doesn’t seem to have any, I mean, I’m sure he’s got skeletons in the closet. Like anybody else, he’s not, he’s not a perfect person, but between him and, and the guy who finally did get the 100% Rivera, two guys who at least in the, in the public perception are pretty well flawless.
Right. Right. All right. Then let’s switch gears to, uh, the other baseball Number-3 I had on my list. Okay. A-Rod. Oh, boy I knew we were going to talk about it. Yeah. I mean, I don’t have a lot here. I don’t, I don’t want to talk about him a lot, but it’s funny. I think I like, A-Rod more way more now, after baseball than during baseball, he’s growing on me.
He’s rehabilitated his image in between whether it’s him or strictly him listening to people who have given him great advice. He seems really past his playing career. He’s made all the right moves to be somebody who people love now. And if you didn’t know him as a player, especially if you didn’t cover him as a player like I did, I can completely see why you would love the guy. I mean, there’s what he does now. He’s fun. He is great on television. You can’t deny that. He knows the game like nobody else. And you know, he’s going around dancing on TikTok with his, his kids and JLo’s kids. And you know, they’re having a great time. But you go back. I can’t separate the two. I mean, when I was covering the Rangers and he was in the line, he was in the locker room. There were very few people who were bigger jerks than that guy. You know, I would, I was a young reporter at the time, very, very green. And you know, if he had a good game, I’d be in the back of the pack and lucky to get a single question in. So if he wasn’t the biggest star of the game, I would take it upon myself to approach him. Like I’ve got to get some one-on-one time with him, build a relationship. And that’s how, you know, as the advice was given to me by so many people, that to be a good reporter, you have to foster relationships with these athletes. So I was like, all right, in these times where maybe I can get some one-on-one time, I’m going to approach him. Sure. I try it. I probably tried it four or five times and each time it was either a look or a strict “not today.” And I mean, just the absolute dirtiest look like, “don’t even-”
Like, “how dare you even try to do your job right now.” Yeah, exactly. Which is unfortunate. But, and I know you can’t separate the two. I wouldn’t be able to either if I had the personal interactions with him like that, but I mean, it’s fair to, to understand how he had, he has a second career now, you know, like his playing career was one thing and it’s almost like he took on that persona of being the jerk in the locker room and not- be kind of untouchable to I think he must’ve chosen when he switched gears as post-baseball, playing career, he, he chose or he became a different, he let the softer person come out and maybe that was just something that had to happen as a player. You know, he just didn’t want to be, he had the hard shell and he didn’t want to change.
Maybe but you combine that with the fact that he was taking steroids. He was cheating. I, not too long ago, I watched this documentary on Netflix, Screwball. And it’s all about the biogenesis scandal, which A-Rod was a big part of and the way he threw people under the bus, the, uh, everything he did to try to avoid any accountability, you know, it wasn’t just with media members. It wasn’t just with teammates. It was really with everybody in his world that “if you’re not 1000% with me, uh, I don’t have a use for you.”
Yeah. “And burn the bridges as I go.” Yeah, for sure. Well, he’s managed to kind of slightly turn, turn it around in a lot of people’s eyes. So I guess that’s a good thing. Yeah. So I’ll only note this then about him that, um, he had his batting average was 295 and he, he does have World Series Championship behind him, but only I was thinking it was more and is it right? That it was only the one year, 2009?
If that’s what it says, I guess. So, I mean, when he went from the Rangers to the Yankees, he certainly had the opportunity to win one more than- win more than one. But if it ended up only being that one, then Wikipedia never lies.
Well, it does. So I could be wrong, but that’s what I noted. So I don’t know. Maybe that’s kind of good. I mean, I’m sure postseason was off the charts, but yeah, there might be a little bit of actual World Series, you know, winning ones. So, um,
I’ve got a few Rangers with the wore Number-3 that I definitely put on a higher pedestal than, than A-Rod. Um, Billy Ripken for one, and he’s not, you know, obviously was nowhere close to the star of his brother. But really fun, cool guy played with a Rangers mid ’90s and actually spent a lot of his childhood in Arlington. So it was really neat when he came back. Um, his dad, Cal Sr, was a coach with a minor league team that was in Arlington before the Rangers came. So he was a kid running around in the clubhouse. My, my grandfather treated him for all kinds of random things in his family practice, you know, as a little kid. So that’s one, uh, and then a couple other Rangers that wore Number-3 that I loved, um, Mark McLemore, who, you know, like A-Rod is also a TV personality now, but on a regional level, but he was just as fun and smiley of a guy back when he was a player as he is now on television and, you know, the doctor of defense and just so such a fantastic player back then, we only had him in Arlington for four or five years, but, um, you know, he, he decided ultimately that this was going to be his long-term home.
And he is, uh, you know, one of the faces of the Rangers on, on Fox Sports Southwest now. And then now I’m coming back to the ball club this season, after one year away is Delino DeShields wearing, wearing that #3. We don’t know yet if he’s going to really find his stride and really turn into that elite player that we thought he was going to be when he first got to the team. But you know, a lot of flashes of brilliance for a few years.
I like him because he’s just set that, um, that timeframe that we got to see them come up through the Minors here in Frisco. And, um, he was on the other teams that were coming through here, but still we got to see the name and he was memorable. We see a lot of guys come through here, but we remembered him. And so when he was, um, a Ranger, it was really fun. I hated to see him go as I always do some of our favorites. So yeah.
You got him back though for this year, so yeah, Round 2 with the Rangers. Yeah.
But I’m also following him online and things. I just, I don’t know, I’ve grown to like, just some of the things he likes to talk about and stand for. And I kind of dug his blue hair in the outfield. It was kind of fun. Anyway. Any other Rangers to note?
Uh, a couple others, but they weren’t really as prominent for me. Um, Harold Baines, I mean, that was part of the worst trade in baseball, really not talking so much about him, but the fact that the Rangers gave up Sammy Sosa to get Harold Baines here. Um, and then I don’t really count so much as three because you think of him as 25, but it was Rafi. Rafi Palmero wore 3 for a very brief period before Harold Baines came in. If I’m not mistaken and then gave the number up to the veteran.
Oh, I didn’t know that. Yeah. Sometimes these numbers do change and you know what we remember them for what was maybe not even their original number.
Well, yeah. And sometimes, you know, these guys who really attached to a number will give up a significant amount of money to get that number from a new teammate. Like if, I don’t know if that happened, it might’ve just been strictly Rafi saying, you know, “you’ve been in the league for a decade, this is yours. I’m just, you know, young guy.” But a lot of times you’ll see a guy comes like, “I really, really, I’m really attached to that number either. I’ll give you $25,000 or yeah. Or, you know, what’s your favorite charity? I will donate X number of dollars to your favorite charity if you’ll give me that number.”
That’s cool. Yeah. I always wonder those conversations when, when guys are coming on to the team and you know, it’s gotta be awkward, but at the same time, it could be so important to that player that like that’s part of their identity, their brand, what have you, that they’re gonna make a stink about it and get that number. Could be a deal-breaker in some situations.
Like a guy like Chris Paul, if he’s CP3, if he went to another team where there was another, another Number-3, you can’t imagine him wearing a different number.
That’s the perfect segue. Actually, um, there’s a lot of basketball Number-3s. Um, but I think of, so the three that I actually wrote down was, was him and Allen Iverson and D. Wade. Those were, those are kind of my basketball Number-3s. And then I only the only football Number-3 that like I automatically think of is Russell Wilson. He’s another likable guy that, that’s just my first thought when I think of football Number-3s that I go to.
Yeah. I look, I looked down the all-time roster for the Mavericks and there is nobody memorable that wore that number. And what’s funny is, you know, the team was established in 1980. Nobody wore #3 until 1997. Oh wow. I thought that was very strange. You would think a lot, you think guys who came on would want the single digit, but it wasn’t until Jamie Watson in 1997, a journeyman from South Carolina who only played 10 games to the Mavericks. He was the first one to every wear #3. And then you’ve got, you know, journeymen who kind of came through passed him, you know, like Charlie Bell, Shane Larkin, Nerlens Noel. Trey Burke has it now. And you know, when your name, when your name is Trey, three, you have to have #3. But I covered him when he was in the, uh, Regionals at AT&T Stadium with Michigan and, you know, lighting up the college basketball world. So I was really excited to see him get here. You know, who knows? He’s been knocking around the NBA for seven, eight years now. So whether or not he actually turns into something big remains to be seen. Maybe he will end up being the most prominent Number-3 in Maverick’s history.
Maybe. So it sounds like they could use one, right? It sounds like there’s room. Yeah. That is shocking. It took what 17 years is that what you said to get a, like, there, there wasn’t like a point guard or somebody who was wearing it that wanted it that’s interesting.
Exactly. Exactly. And you met and you drifted into football. So, and again, looked at the all-time roster, the Cowboys, it’s a lot of kickers. So not a ton of memorable names there. Mark Sanchez wore it for his one season in Dallas. Um, and then Steve Walsh. So a couple of backup quarterbacks. And you know, when I was a kid, Steve Walsh, I just remember, “why in the world do you need-” They had Troy Aikman and they go and draft Steve Walsh and the supplemental draft. And that did create a little bit of a stink, I think, because it was Jimmy Johnson’s guy at Miami and drafting him in the supplement- are you actually going to challenge Troy? Right.
But that, yeah, but that’s, that’s a good-kid thinking, but now we’ve seen so many examples of why you gotta have a solid backup back there because I don’t know if it’s just me, cause I’m a mom and I’m old and I see so many injuries and I’m stressed about it, but it just feels like we have so many more quarterback injuries that do create second string opportunities now. I’m sure they always happen. But like I said, it’s my perspective, but yeah, you gotta have those. You gotta have those backups ready. Huh? Even with Troy Aikman with the ball, you still gotta have a backup plan. Well, thank you. Okay. So that’s most of my list, I’m sure. Are there any other big ones you want to get out there before we wrap up?
For the Stars, Craig Ludwig and you know, he was part of my, and really the whole area’s introduction to hockey. I was a fan of the Fort Worth Fire back in the day. I lived in Arlington at the time. So started getting into hockey then, but then the Stars arrive and you really start to understand what big-time hockey is about. And Craig Ludwig was a huge part of that. And he was a Number-3 when they first arrived into town. And then I’ve got a couple others that- threes in sports that I think are huge. One of them, this is not the big one, but ESPN3, the streaming network from the worldwide leader in sports, opened up so many more opportunities to see teams when it was limited just to the ESPN television networks, it was such a small scope of ball games that you could watch when ESPN3 came on in 2010. Now you’ve got pretty much every Division One Conference available to watch. And a lot of that is drifted over to ESPN+ now.
Important to those exposure, those schools, those athletes that would have never been able to be seen on TV, right?
Yeah, it was huge. But maybe the biggest Number-3 on my list, the three-point shot. Yes. I had to do some, some research on this one. It was introduced in the ABA in 1967, as they were trying to find things that would differentiate themselves and make it more exciting than the NBA. So they add this shot behind this line and you can get one more point for this. And at first, apparently coaches really didn’t know what to do with it. They just were using it in desperation. Um, and if they were down big at the end of a ball game, but I found one game that actually happened here in Dallas, the old ABA Chaparrals, and this was November of 1967. This is the team that eventually became the San Antonio Spurs. But we had them, we had them in Dallas at first, and this is the first season. The three point shot is the thing. So nobody’s used to it yet. So the Pacers are losing 118 to 116 with one second left and the Pacers have to go the length of the floor to get two to tie or as they didn’t think about, get three to win. But there’s only one second. So from 92 feet away, Jerry Harkness from the Pacers throws up the desperation heave and it goes in! And everybody thinks “we’re tied. We’re going to overtime.” And the referee is “like, no, there’s this new rule. This three point shot. Pacers win.”
That’s crazy. That’s awesome. Yeah. They just, they weren’t used to it now. They weren’t factoring that into the play. Even just like play calling and like inbounds strategy and everything. Yeah.
I had, I went back and looked at the stats of the most recent basketball games that I did broadcast for and the last women’s game I did, there were 40 3-point attempts or the last men’s game I did, there were 47. So that’s just in college basketball, especially now they’re just making it up all the time.
That’s a huge factor now. And that’s what, 40, 50 years old. Incredible. That’s, yeah, that is incredible. I didn’t know how old it was.
The NBA, the NBA and the ABA merged in 1976. And the NBA at first did not use the three point line. They’re just like, you know, there’s some innovations the ABA made that maybe we’ll embrace, but this is not one of them. This is not real basketball. We’re going to keep it pure and shots are only worth two points. But three years later it was the rookie year for Larry Bird, Magic Johnson. In 1979, they introduced three point shot into, uh, the NBA. And obviously Larry Bird made it a huge part of his game
And proved that it is more exciting. It is worth it. That one point matters a lot more. And it’s fun when you get to see you guys take those long shots
And it wasn’t until 1986 that the NCAA added the 3-point shot.
’86. Yeah. Well that’s good stuff. I didn’t know that.
And, and, and I, one thing I thought of too, that it kind of, it needs to go on my bucket list now of things to do as a sports fan. I have never thrown my hat onto the rink for a hat trick for 3 goals.
For a hockey game. You haven’t, I haven’t either. I’m too cheap to throw out like a good hat.
Me, too. I need to just bring along an old one that I’m about to throw out anyway, just in case.
Or if it’s like, if it’s a big game and it’s like, it is a moment, then it’s worth it to throw a good hat on, on the rInk. But yeah, I haven’t either. I don’t know if I’ve ever been to a game where a hat trick has happened. I don’t go to enough hockey games, but, and I don’t sit close enough to, to do that, but yeah, that’s a good bucket list item. Get to a game, get good enough seats where you can toss it on the rank and have your favorite player score a hat trick. Good stuff. Well awesome. See, Chris? I knew you would have some good tidbits to share with us and our audience. So, thanks. Thanks for celebrating, uh, the #3 Season of Hustle & Pro with us and I’ll have you on again and we’ll think of another, another fun thing to talk about. Absolutely. Kelly, thanks for having me.
Punching the Ticket on Episode #100 with Jeff Cheney