IT'S BETTER WITH THE SOUND OFF

By Roger Esty

We talk about the past. So were they better fighters back then? Up and down the line,pound for pound,I think so. Oh,maybe football and baseball, and certainly basketball has transcended into a better game.

Boxing seems to me a sport that hasn't regressed, because if it did,it would be better. The guys today don't have the skills or the staying power of pugilists of 40 years ago. PacMan is a good one. That little guy Finito Lopez had the goods. But you won't run out of breath naming off all the good fighters of today.

Boxing has given way to other sports. The chances of making a living breaking the law with a lot of our youth that's trying to work their way up appears more rewarding. Boxing is too demanding. So if the option is playing a game, there are other sports to turn to. You can make good money and not get hit in the head.

Tonight I went to a friend's house to have a few drinks and enjoy a cigar. My friend is a sports nut. We went out back to his patio. I had a bottle of Sauza Reposado near and lit up a nicely blended "puro". He has a nice set up in the back with a big screen TV that you can watch while indulging.

ESPN had a pro basketball game on. My friend likes the XM station on the radio that plays the Sinatra tunes and others of similar genre. I asked him to turn the sound off the TV and turn on the radio station.

It's amazing what these pro basketball players can do. The guys on the flying trapeez aren't as acrobatic. While watching the players leap like Nijinsky and float like butterflies,pass and dribble with the slight of hand, and find the bottom of the basket like they had lasers in their shots,the music that resounded from the sound system seemed apropos.

The stylist songs and smoothe arrangements. The classic voices were a fit with the game. Heavy metal and rap would have paled in comparision. I was almost drunk enough to ask my friend to tune in the classical station,but that would have been asking too much.

Sinatra was enough and friends like him. Watching the players today with all their skills are a compliment to those songs of yester year. Like Frank was singing,"You Go To My Head." Yeh,I guess those basketball players do if I'm watching the game with the sound off.