Kareem Types!

Nostalgia's everywhere, although in Mr. Abdul-Jabbar's case it's a response to the horrors of business weasels ruining teams.

And he wants to establish credibility as both a Brooklyn Bums & L.A. fan before ripping into Frank "Not good enough to buy the freaking Red Sox" McCourt.

The Brooklyn fans affectionately called the Dodgers the "Bums" because they could never win the World Series. It seemed that fate had made it impossible for them to go all the way, while the Yankees would win the Series regularly. The Dodgers were special in a way that meant a lot to America. By being the first team to sign a black player, they showed the nation that equal opportunity was something that benefited the game as well as the minority communities of our country. Brooklyn embraced the team and enjoyed the fact that the various ethnic backgrounds of the players reflected the same variety in Brooklyn's neighborhoods.

[...]

But those days are long gone now, and the new owner doesn't seem to understand what the team means to its fans. When people became aware of how Mr. McCourt pays his sons hundreds of thousands of dollars for do-nothing jobs instead of trying to improve the team, the reaction was very predictable. The stands are mainly empty now, and the focus of coverage of the team shuttles back and forth between the McCourts' divorce proceedings and various comments coming from the commissioner's office.

He needn't prove anything to us. At some point in the '80s we attended Hollywood Stars Night, which involves a collection of show biz lice playing three or four innings against the Dodger bench. Most notable were the four player outfield the "Stars" were allowed, & Kareem towering above the other three. Can't remember if anything was hit to him. (Probably not, 'cause we would've remembered, wouldn't we?)

AP PhotoIt wasn't unusual over the years to see Abdul-Jabbar take BP with the Dodgers, this time in 1977.

By way of.