Long drives + Family = Arguments
PITTSBURGH, PA – I’m not just out here shopping for sports apparel for recently adopted team – the Pittsburgh Pirates – but also a family function. We drove. We argued. The two go hand in hand.And as my mind drifted during these arguments, I got to thinking about the arguing in sports, which is as much a part of the game as anything else. And with hockey being the exception because words can lead to permissible fighting and subsequent fighting majors, most exchanges are between head coaches and officials:
Today, I’m dropping the gloves like Milan Lucic and twisting the baseball cap around like Earl Weaver to debate one point that may change your ranking of movies forever… I say that we give Fast Times At Ridgemont High its rightful inclusion in The Top Ten Sports Movies Of All Time: Allow me to explain…
How many kids were turned on to “hang 10” because of this big screen ambassador of the sport? Jeff Spicoli is no different than any other teen-aged California Valley dude. He’s a surfing fanatic – I’m not talking the world wide web either. This stoner’s dream sequences revolve around a waxed board, killer waves, and bikini-clad hotties. Sean Penn nails his performance as a body or water-surfing hopeful and nobody can dispute both forms as being deemed a sports. I’d go so far as to say Spicoli belongs in the Surfing Hall of Fame, probably in Hawaii, but that’s an argument for another day.
Then there’s the racing/demolition derby aspect of the movie with Spicoli weaving in and out of traffic like a NASCAR hillbilly. The problem for the marijuana-loving-Jeff is the Trans Am he drives, and subsequently wrecks at a construction site, belongs to school standout football player Charles Jefferson. It doesn’t help that the player’s brother is riding shotgun when the demo derby motif is completed. The wreck is then spray-painted to look like the opposing high school is responsible. ABC covered Demolition Derby often during the day of their Wide World of Sports programming so it garners sport status. Spicoli made that happen.
Earth, Wind & Fire fan, Charles Jefferson, reeks havoc as a one man natural disaster on the gridiron as Ridgemont defeats rival Lincoln 42-0. 
The defensive stalwart’s exploits are the best we’ve ever scene on or off screen. The only problem I have is the number Chuck wears (33) is associated with great RB’s. Then again he spends the entire movie’s football sequence in the opponents backfield, it’s an honest mistake.
Next, there’s a swimming aspect to the movie. Ok, so it’s not the Olympic version made famous by Spitz and then Phelps, but when Phoebe Cates enters the pool and gets herself wet, it’s pretty damned close. When she exits the pool dripping and introduces her gifts to the world, therein lies the “practice” that makes for better “performance” on any sports playing field… so to speak. Doesn’t anybody knock anymore?
Finally, the teen make-out spot, The Point, is/are the two baseball field dugouts – where first base is a given.
Surfing, NASCAR, swimming and baseball. There you have the facts. That’s why Fast Times At Ridgemont High should crack your Top Ten Sports Movies Of All Time List.
Tomorrow, a Top Ten Dude, West Coast Craig.
