AS I SEE IT COLUMN: Boomers are the luckiest sports generation ever

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 06/10/2024 (262 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While watching L.A. Dodgers phenom Shohei Otani recently go for 6 for 6 with 10 RBI in one game and in the process become the first player since baseball was invented to hit 50 home runs and steal 50 bases in a single season, it suddenly dawned on me – baby boomers have to be the luckiest generation ever when it comes seeing the best athletes of all-time.

Baby boomers were born between 1946-1964 and while we might be old – okay, we are old – we’ve been fortunate to see the best of the best in virtually every sport. I don’t know of another generation that can brag about seeing as many superstars as us boomers did and are still.

In football, we are currently able to watch Patrick Mahomes, who could well turn out to be the greatest QB ever. We saw the true GOAT (Greatest Of All Time), Tom Brady work his magic and we also got to see Joe Montanna, Jerry Rice and Walter Payton, just to name a few.

Shohei Otani is currently the best player in baseball and he may well become the best ball player of all time (especially if gets healthy enough to pitch again).

But us boomers got to watch “Mr. October” Reggie Jackson, George Brett get close to hitting .400, the smooth hitting Rod Carew, the base stealing wizardry of Rickey Henderson, the incomparable Willie Mays, plus we got to watch the Blue Jays win two World Series. (They way they’ve played the last few seasons there may never again be another generation to see a Canadian team with the World Series.)

In basketball we have the 3 point mastery of Steph Curry, but we also got to see Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Shaq, Kareem Abul-Jabbar and LeBron James in the prime of their careers. And we got to see Caityln Clark singlehandedly change the way North Americans consume women’s basketball.

Boomers got to watch Alex Baumann win two gold medals in swimming in 1984, Donovan Bailey become the fastest man alive in Atlanta, Carl Lewis dominate the 100m and long jump, we had front row seats to see the most dominant sprinter the world has ever and may ever witness, Usain Bolt. We’ve been able to see the start of Summer McIntosh’s amazing Olympic career; she has already done amazing things in Olympic swimming, and at her young with several more Olympics before she reaches her peak, she could become someone very special.

We were young but boomers got to witness the unequaled Muhammed Ali, who wasn’t just the heavyweight champion of the world, he was an amazing humanitarian. At the peak of his career he was forced to give up boxing because he refused to fight in the Vietnam war — easily the biggest sacrifice any athlete has ever made for holding true to their values, which for Ali the pacifist meant not killing anyone.

Like all the other sports, hockey is yet another example of the bounty of amazing athletes boomers have had the good fortune to watch. Just Think of the greatness we’ve seen with our own eyes: Connor McDavid, Teemu Selanne, Wayne Gretzky, Vladislav Tretiak, Bobby Orr, Gordie Howe, Bobby Hull, Sydney Crosby, Mike Bossy and Jaromir Jagr to name just some of the many amazing hockey players who played over the past 50 years.

And of course, boomers had the enormous privilege of witnessing the greatest athlete the world has ever produced, Canada’s very own Terry Fox, who ran an amazing 143 consecutive marathons raising money for cancer.

In the limited space here I’ve certainly missed stars in every sport, but the general idea seems clear – us baby boomers are easily the luckiest sports fans ever.