Million Dollar Baby [antikvár]

Memfoer of the Fancy: An IntroductionIn my mid and late forties I came to boxing by choice and by chance. But I had already been there as far back as the mid thirties. I huddled with my father in front of the radio and listened eagerly to the driving voices of ring announcers like Bill Stern and Clem McCarthy as they covered the great fights of the time. Weeks later, at ten-cent matinees, I would watch grainy newsreels of the same fights. Watched in 1939 as "Two Ton" Tony Galento knocked down "the Brown Bomber," Joe Louis.Madison Square Garden would becomë Camelot for me. I saw Bobo Oison fight Paddy Young there in a middleweight élimination bout in June '53. But I saw the Garden for the first time in 1952. Eighth Avenue between Forty-ninth and Fiftieth, slinky-eyed fight guys standing out front. Greek restaurants, Irish bars, four-dollar whores. The Garden was home to me as much as Shubert Alley.My father was an ardent fight fan, and I adored him for making me a part of something he loved. Like many another Mick and Paddy who came over as indentured slaves in the bottom of boats, who saw 30 percent of their own dumped dead at sea, he took heart from stories of the great Irish fighters. Sullivan and Corbett. Tun-ney and "the Toy Bulldog," Mickey Walker, who fought in every