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1982

Jul 19, 2022
116
107
43
Was doing some mulching at a park for my side business. By a basketball court in Euclid OHIO. A 12 foot high fence went around the court, 2 side by side. Young man was taking on all challengers yelling WHO IS NEXT, WHO WANTD A PIECE???? I loaded up my tools in my wheel burrow and made my way to the gate, raised up my hand and said it is my turn sir I ACCEPT your challenge. Everybody laughed, this guy???? This man in jean shorts and dirty work boots.

New paragraph. After they laughed I grabbed the ball out of his hands and asked are we going to do this or what you tomato. Game to 7, win by 2. Make it you take it. You take ball first hot shot. He goes to shoot and I hit him with the MOST effecting move a defensive man can give his opponents. THE NAVAL NUDGE! Pointer finger poke right to the belly button. Yep you guessed it. You have to do it twice. The first two shots. They hate it at first but then they want it. It takes them back to that motherly connection at birth. You daprive them of it and you throw them OFF the game. I get the ball. SWISH!!! BANK! BEHIND THE BACK!!!! I did not even have a belt but I beat this man 7 to 1. Not even close. Who was this gypsy? I will not name but he went on to play in the N.B.A. for one season. Beaten by a man in his work boots The mastet of psychology! Learned this move from a wise family friend who was at one with the universe. Most intelligent human you would have known. Talked to him one more time after this game and told him about it and he told me the guy no doubt craved whole milk after the event and stopped at the nearest gas station on the way home. Tremendous loss to the family when he drowned in a shallow pond a few years later. You just never know.

Last paragraph. I worked that park until 1986. Difference of opinion with the city with how the landscaping should look WILL NOT get into that but you do not put a alberta spruce less then 5 feet from the bleachers unless you want a child to be bitten by a spider or stung. Every tine the guys playing on the court saw me they would scream over MULCH MAN! THERE HE IS! THERE IS THE GUY THAT WHOOPED UP ON not saying the name. Went back up there in 2009 and started kicking around in the field to see if anyone would yell but Noone knew me. Thought i heard one kid yell over but he was telling his daughter to get off a swing. She was standing on it. Maybe not a legend but gave that town one hell of a game.
 
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