BEST LAS VEGAS CRAPS SESSION
Eight of us had decided to spend a weekend in Las Vegas. We took different flights and stayed in different hotels, but pretty much stayed together for gambling and for meals. Most were going home Sunday afternoon, and so six of us were up very late Saturday night.
We were sitting in a small lounge toward the rear of Caesars, relaxing over drinks. It was perhaps two thirty in the morning when one of the women said, "I want to play some craps," stood up and began heading toward the casino. The rest of us fell in behind her and were soon approaching the tables.
It was a ghost town compared to its better hours. Only one craps table was in play, and I think only one blackjack table as well. One whole end of the craps table was empty, and I wound up next to a 30ish woman just as she received the dice, her husband having sevened out.
The game came to a halt for a moment while four of us bought chips. I was by this time a hundred dollar bettor, and used four thousand dollars of my line of credit.
I bet a hundred on pass, everyone's bets were down, and the shooter let them fly. She rolled a point number, I don't remember what, and I put two hundred behind my pass bet and a hundred on come. She rolled another "number" - for those of you who don't know, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, and 10 are "numbers" - and I backed up my first come bet with two hundred and made another come bet. She rolled a few more numbers, making a couple of my come bets for me, and then rolled her point.
Well, that was a good start. I put two hundred on the pass line, she rolled another point number, and I backed my bet up with four hundred. A couple more numbers and she made her point again.
There was a mild stir of excitement at the table and while the pass bets were being paid off I introduced myself. She was Judy (her real name, and all I know of it). She introduced me to her husband, and told me they were from St. Louis.
I bet three hundred, then four hundred, then five hundred, each time backing up my bets with double odds, and she continued to make points.
Well, let's see if she's serious,. I bet a thousand dollars, put a hundred on pass for "the boys" - the crew that was working the table - and put a hundred down beside her five dollar chip. She rolled a ten.
I put two thousand behind my bet and two hundred behind the bets for her and for the boys, turned to Judy, and said, "No fooling around now. We need this right back."
She threw the dice. FIVE FIVE!
As I began to absorb the fact that I had just won $5,000, she shrieked - she was a five dollar bettor and now eight hundred dollars richer. She turned to me and threw up her arms. I picked her up and swung her around to the right (hitting, I later learned, a blackjack player across the aisle).
Well, she made nine passes, which included my $1,100, $1,200, and $1,300 dollar bets, all points, no sevens along the way, which meant that my come bets kept paying off too.
On my $1,400 bet she rolled a point number and then sevened out. When the smoke cleared I was $30,000 ahead, and it all happened in perhaps twenty minutes. By the way, this was the first and only time I ever had $5,000 chips.
To this day, the six of us think of her and refer to her as "Judy from St. Louis."
This wraps up the "Las Vegas Quintet," so let me say that I don't mean to give the impression that I always won. There were some losing weekends too, including two consecutive trips during which I lost a total of $14,000. But my best guess is that I wound up somewhere between $30,000 and $40,000 ahead of the game (not counting the free first class air fares, hotel rooms,and meals), and it looks as if it will stay that way.
I don't have the craps "itch" any more. The last time I went to Las Vegas was more than fifteen years ago. I imagine I'd enjoy going once more just to see all the changes, but I don't miss the gambling. In fact, I've been back in the Chicago area for ten years now and haven't been to any of the riverboat casinos.
Showing posts with label Caesars Palace. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Caesars Palace. Show all posts
Sunday, May 25, 2008
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
A Las Vegas Quintet: Part IV
GLUTTONY IN LAS VEGAS
Husband and wife Stefano and Julie, Stefano's dad and his girlfriend, and Debbie and I all went to Las Vegas for a New Year's Eve. On the first night we had dinner at Spanish Steppes in Caesars Palace, one of my two favorite Las Vegas restaurants at that time. Since Caesars would pick it up, I "bought" the dinner. The food and wine were wonderful, and a we had a grand time.
The next night we went to Justin's in the Frontier (yes, you've seen these two restaurants elsewhere on this blog). Stefano insisted on buying this night. The six of us settled in at a table, two facing two and one facing one. I was at one end and Debbie was immediately to my left.
We were all in good spirits before the meal, and things got better. Three of us decided on red wine and three on white. As we guzzled sipped our wine (we had ordered four bottles) we pondered the menu. Our waiter, a young man - about as young as I've seen as a waiter in the better restaurants - came to the table and asked if anyone had their hearts set on any particular thing. No, not tonight. "Well, then, why don't you just let me put together some appetizers for you?"
That was going to be easier than choosing and we cheered him on. After a while he returned with a huge tray filled with asparagus hearts, crab stuffed mushrooms, crackers and pâté, and who knows what else. For perhaps a half hour we munched, sipped, and laughed. I don't know that I've ever had a meal that was more fun.
Our waiter returned and asked, "Anyone ready for dinner?" Six hands shot up.
"Why don't you just let me put something together for you?" Well. How good does it get? We agreed immediately, (and ordered four more bottles of wine) and perhaps forty-five minutes or an hour later he and a helper returned with two of those huge trays, filled with vegetables, a couple of different potato dishes, lobster stuffed crab legs, beef strips, sauces, and again, who knows what.
As we gawked at the dinner, he commented that our wine was disappearing and we ordered four more bottles. The current four were dry when the new ones arrived.
Over the next hour and a half or so, we demolished the dinner and downed more wine. By now Debbie's shoes were off and her feet were in my lap, all under the table of course. I doubt that we were any more relaxed than anyone else at the table, however.
Our waiter arrived and asked about dessert. Everyone groaned at the thought. "Let me bring you some of our coffee, which is excellent, and you can think about it." Done deal.
The coffee was in fact excellent (one of my criteria for a first class restaurant). After a while more coffee arrived and our waiter said, "Suppose I just bring you a few desserts? You can pick and choose when they get here."
We consented happily, he did, and we were soon surrounded with trays bearing chocolate mousse, biscotti, strawberry tortes, and more. We agreed that we were probably going to Hell for this, but tucked into the desserts.
When they were all - literally all - gone, Stefano asked if we should get some more desserts. I expressed the opinion that "If I eat any more dessert they'll have to worm me." Our waiter was approaching from behind me and said, "That would be extra, sir."
Stefano paid and tipped handsomely, and we hit the bricks, heavier by twelve bottles of wine, appetizers, entrées, coffee, and desserts. We were unanimous in the opinion that we should walk back to Caesars and we did, but the hope was in vain that it would make a difference regarding our bodies' bloated feelings caused by the obscene amount of food we had eaten. No one ate breakfast the next day, and it was only in the middle of the afternoon that we began to think about lunch.
The company was as good as the food and the service. Some nights are special.
NEXT: BEST LAS VEGAS CRAPS SESSION
Husband and wife Stefano and Julie, Stefano's dad and his girlfriend, and Debbie and I all went to Las Vegas for a New Year's Eve. On the first night we had dinner at Spanish Steppes in Caesars Palace, one of my two favorite Las Vegas restaurants at that time. Since Caesars would pick it up, I "bought" the dinner. The food and wine were wonderful, and a we had a grand time.
The next night we went to Justin's in the Frontier (yes, you've seen these two restaurants elsewhere on this blog). Stefano insisted on buying this night. The six of us settled in at a table, two facing two and one facing one. I was at one end and Debbie was immediately to my left.
We were all in good spirits before the meal, and things got better. Three of us decided on red wine and three on white. As we
That was going to be easier than choosing and we cheered him on. After a while he returned with a huge tray filled with asparagus hearts, crab stuffed mushrooms, crackers and pâté, and who knows what else. For perhaps a half hour we munched, sipped, and laughed. I don't know that I've ever had a meal that was more fun.
Our waiter returned and asked, "Anyone ready for dinner?" Six hands shot up.
"Why don't you just let me put something together for you?" Well. How good does it get? We agreed immediately, (and ordered four more bottles of wine) and perhaps forty-five minutes or an hour later he and a helper returned with two of those huge trays, filled with vegetables, a couple of different potato dishes, lobster stuffed crab legs, beef strips, sauces, and again, who knows what.
As we gawked at the dinner, he commented that our wine was disappearing and we ordered four more bottles. The current four were dry when the new ones arrived.
Over the next hour and a half or so, we demolished the dinner and downed more wine. By now Debbie's shoes were off and her feet were in my lap, all under the table of course. I doubt that we were any more relaxed than anyone else at the table, however.
Our waiter arrived and asked about dessert. Everyone groaned at the thought. "Let me bring you some of our coffee, which is excellent, and you can think about it." Done deal.
The coffee was in fact excellent (one of my criteria for a first class restaurant). After a while more coffee arrived and our waiter said, "Suppose I just bring you a few desserts? You can pick and choose when they get here."
We consented happily, he did, and we were soon surrounded with trays bearing chocolate mousse, biscotti, strawberry tortes, and more. We agreed that we were probably going to Hell for this, but tucked into the desserts.
When they were all - literally all - gone, Stefano asked if we should get some more desserts. I expressed the opinion that "If I eat any more dessert they'll have to worm me." Our waiter was approaching from behind me and said, "That would be extra, sir."
Stefano paid and tipped handsomely, and we hit the bricks, heavier by twelve bottles of wine, appetizers, entrées, coffee, and desserts. We were unanimous in the opinion that we should walk back to Caesars and we did, but the hope was in vain that it would make a difference regarding our bodies' bloated feelings caused by the obscene amount of food we had eaten. No one ate breakfast the next day, and it was only in the middle of the afternoon that we began to think about lunch.
The company was as good as the food and the service. Some nights are special.
NEXT: BEST LAS VEGAS CRAPS SESSION
Sunday, May 18, 2008
A Las Vegas Quintet: Part III
23 OF US
After the Las Vegas trip with Mandy, the manager of the Caesars office in Chicago called. "They loved your action. I'm sending your airfare check to you. Any time you want to go out there, just let us know. It doesn't have to be a junket - you can just go whenever you want to."
Free room? Free meals and drinks? Airfare reimbursed? "Donnie, fly first class. It'll be taken care of. Just call us." Cool.
Mandy and I split. I went to Las Vegas a couple more times that year and perhaps once every two or three months for the next couple years, taking a girlfriend when I had one, going alone when I didn't.
One day someone started a movement in the junk mail company I worked for - "Let's get a bunch of people to go to Las Vegas together." In the end, twenty-three of us went, mostly employees and spouses or SO's, and in a couple of cases friends or relatives. I was fairly certain that none of them knew much about gambling, and I invited all of them to come to my house one night, as I could at least teach them about casino craps. I purchased a ten or fifteen dollar set that included a craps layout and chips, and in the event all but one of the group showed up for the lesson.
For many of them this would be their first time in Las Vegas and the first time in any casino. In case you're interested, here are some of the things I told them about gambling in general:
I taught them too much about craps to repeat here, but here's what was by far the most important:
When I checked out a couple of days later, I went downstairs to see "the man with the pen," the casino employee who decided what would be comped and what wouldn't. He called up my action history for the weekend on a monitor, whistled, and asked, "Did you ever see your room?" We chuckled about the amount of gambling I had done, and I then said, "There's a dinner bill on there that I don't expect you to pick up. It's not really mine."
"Did you sign for it?"
"Yes."
"That makes it yours."
"Yes, but what I mean is that I bought dinner for 22 other people. We all came out here at the same time - not really organized, different hotels, different planes."
He looked at the monitor for a few seconds and said, "We can pick that up."
Most (all?) of us still have the group photo. I've seen them on office desks, and living room walls.
NEXT: GLUTTONY IN LAS VEGAS
After the Las Vegas trip with Mandy, the manager of the Caesars office in Chicago called. "They loved your action. I'm sending your airfare check to you. Any time you want to go out there, just let us know. It doesn't have to be a junket - you can just go whenever you want to."
Free room? Free meals and drinks? Airfare reimbursed? "Donnie, fly first class. It'll be taken care of. Just call us." Cool.
Mandy and I split. I went to Las Vegas a couple more times that year and perhaps once every two or three months for the next couple years, taking a girlfriend when I had one, going alone when I didn't.
One day someone started a movement in the junk mail company I worked for - "Let's get a bunch of people to go to Las Vegas together." In the end, twenty-three of us went, mostly employees and spouses or SO's, and in a couple of cases friends or relatives. I was fairly certain that none of them knew much about gambling, and I invited all of them to come to my house one night, as I could at least teach them about casino craps. I purchased a ten or fifteen dollar set that included a craps layout and chips, and in the event all but one of the group showed up for the lesson.
For many of them this would be their first time in Las Vegas and the first time in any casino. In case you're interested, here are some of the things I told them about gambling in general:
- Don't start gambling right away. Walk around the casino, observe some of the games and players, ask questions of the casino employees when there is anything you don't understand.
- It's an exciting atmosphere and everything is calculated to entrance you and to keep you gambling. There are no clocks. There are no windows - you can't look outside and see whether it's day or night. Get used to the atmosphere before you gamble.
- Drinks are free to gamblers. Don't overuse this perk. If you start feeling a buzz, you've probably had too much and you've certainly had enough. It's one thing to feel bulletproof and invisible when the dice or cards or slots or roulette wheel or whatever are going your way and you're winning, but it's entirely another thing to feel bulletproof and invisible because you're drinking too much. Your judgment disappears and is soon joined by your money.
- You know how much money you're taking. Decide how much is for eating, drinking, shopping, shows, and so forth, and how much is for gambling. Divide the gambling amount by two - that's the maximum you should allow yourself to lose in one day on this trip. If you're going to have two gambling sessions on each of the two days, divide the gambling money by four. Do not exceed that amount in one session for any reason. In particular, if you're losing don't tell yourself "My luck's bound to change." It isn't. There is no "maturity of chance." Whether you've won or lost on the last play, the odds are the same as always for the next play. If you're flipping an unbiased coin and you throw heads ten times in a row, the odds for heads and tails on the next throw are fifty-fifty.
I taught them too much about craps to repeat here, but here's what was by far the most important:
- Bet "Pass" and/or "Come," or bet "Don't Pass" and/or "Don't Come." The come and don't come bets are exactly the same as the pass and don't pass bets, but they are made when there's already a point.
- Don't Pass is better by a minuscule amount - tenths of a percent. However, you have to have the right temperament to be a "wrong way" bettor. Most people bet pass, and the last thing they want to hear when they lose is "Yeah!" from someone who won five dollars while they lost. But if you can stand being surrounded by hostility - and I'm not exaggerating - then the "Don't" bets are for you.
- Betting pass and come, don't pass and don't come, getting or giving the odds, you can reduce the house percentage against you to less than one percent. All other bets are sucker bets. Remember it - All other bets are sucker bets, no matter what your friends tell you, no matter how much money they won betting "Any Craps," or placing numbers, All other bets are sucker bets. It's not as if you can't win with other bets, and it's not even as if you can't have a winning streak with other bets. It's just that you will win less money when you win - more precisely, your profit percentage will be smaller - and the house percentages on those bets will grind you down faster and more often than the percentages on the good bets.
When I checked out a couple of days later, I went downstairs to see "the man with the pen," the casino employee who decided what would be comped and what wouldn't. He called up my action history for the weekend on a monitor, whistled, and asked, "Did you ever see your room?" We chuckled about the amount of gambling I had done, and I then said, "There's a dinner bill on there that I don't expect you to pick up. It's not really mine."
"Did you sign for it?"
"Yes."
"That makes it yours."
"Yes, but what I mean is that I bought dinner for 22 other people. We all came out here at the same time - not really organized, different hotels, different planes."
He looked at the monitor for a few seconds and said, "We can pick that up."
Most (all?) of us still have the group photo. I've seen them on office desks, and living room walls.
NEXT: GLUTTONY IN LAS VEGAS
Sunday, May 11, 2008
A Las Vegas Quintet: Part I
While living in downtown Chicago, I received a flyer from the Chicago office of Caesars Palace, inviting me on a junket. I knew nothing about the junkets, but I had been to Las Vegas a few times and played some blackjack and some craps. The latter was my favorite and I was a five dollar bettor.
I called the office to get the whole scoop. The deal was:
With a goal of not only getting the airfare back but also being invited to go again, I did the math. I had to guess how much action it would take to satisfy them, and eventually I decided that if I became a fifty dollar bettor and played sanely, that I really wasn't at much risk. Yes, the dice could be very unkind and I could lose a lot, but it was unlikely over a period of three days. And I might even win with "normal" dice I figured to lose a little over the three days, but not enough so it would hurt and certainly not enough to cover the cost of the room, meals, and drinks.
I opened a $15,000 line of credit with Caesars, which required only that I notify my bank that Caesars would be calling to ask "If he wrote us a $15,000 check today, would it clear?" and to tell the bank that they should answer that question.
Came the day, and we flew to Las Vegas along with many others in a 707. We were bused to the hotel and got into a check-in line. When we reached the counter a young woman asked whether we wanted a room with or without a mirror in the canopy over the bed. I turned and asked, "Mandy?"
"Whatever you like, Donnie."
"Well, which would you prefer?"
"What. Ever. You. Want. Donnie."
"We'll take the one with the mirror."
While we were unpacking and settling in, I asked, "Why didn't you want to tell me which room you preferred?"
"It's too personal, Donnie."
NEXT: A FIFTY DOLLAR BETTOR
I called the office to get the whole scoop. The deal was:
- I could go alone or with someone.
- I would write a check to Caesars for the airfare ($179 per person, if memory serves).
- I would get a line of credit with Caesars.
- Lodging and all meals and drinks in the hotel, whether restaurant, bar, or room service, would be free.
- I would gamble. If Caesars liked my action the airfare check would be returned to me uncashed.
With a goal of not only getting the airfare back but also being invited to go again, I did the math. I had to guess how much action it would take to satisfy them, and eventually I decided that if I became a fifty dollar bettor and played sanely, that I really wasn't at much risk. Yes, the dice could be very unkind and I could lose a lot, but it was unlikely over a period of three days. And I might even win with "normal" dice I figured to lose a little over the three days, but not enough so it would hurt and certainly not enough to cover the cost of the room, meals, and drinks.
I opened a $15,000 line of credit with Caesars, which required only that I notify my bank that Caesars would be calling to ask "If he wrote us a $15,000 check today, would it clear?" and to tell the bank that they should answer that question.
Came the day, and we flew to Las Vegas along with many others in a 707. We were bused to the hotel and got into a check-in line. When we reached the counter a young woman asked whether we wanted a room with or without a mirror in the canopy over the bed. I turned and asked, "Mandy?"
"Whatever you like, Donnie."
"Well, which would you prefer?"
"What. Ever. You. Want. Donnie."
"We'll take the one with the mirror."
While we were unpacking and settling in, I asked, "Why didn't you want to tell me which room you preferred?"
"It's too personal, Donnie."
NEXT: A FIFTY DOLLAR BETTOR
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The Fight
In 1985, my friend Jeff and I decided to go to Las Vegas for the Marvin Hagler - Tommy Hearns fight. Tickets were $600, and well in advance I called Caesars Palace and reserved two of them.
A couple of weeks before the fight, the results of some lab tests came back and Jeff's doctor told Jeff he had leukemia and only a short time to live. Jeff and all around him were devastated, and Jeff was in no emotional state to go to the fight.
I thought about the extra ticket and called my father. He had been a fight fan for more than fifty years, this could be the fight of the century, and Hagler was from my father's home town, Brockton, Massachusetts. My father lived in New Hampshire and I in the Chicago area.
I explained to him about the extra ticket and told him I could think of no better use for it than to take him to the fight. "I'll fly you first class to Las Vegas and back. Call it your birthday present."
"I don't think so Donnie. I'm not much for traveling any more." I was flabbergasted. I knew he had never seen a fight this big in person and that he thought Hagler walked on water. But I couldn't talk him into it, and he suggested that I call my brother Billy.
I did, but he wasn't home. A moment or two later the phone rang, and it was my father saying he had changed his mind. (Good thing Billy wasn't home, huh?)
In the event, he flew from Boston to Dallas and thence to Las Vegas. I picked him up at the airport and we took a cab to the Flamingo - I had waited too long and even the Chicago Caesars office could do nothing for me in the way of rooms at Caesars.
Dad had never been to Las Vegas and I showed him around. My gambling made him nervous and he only watched a few minutes of it. He found "his" game at the slot machines, and won several hundred dollars during the trip.
So . . . on the big day we walked over to Caesars Palace for the fight, or actually for the preliminaries, which were unremarkable. The seats were about half full when we got there and we had no trouble finding ours. People trickled in during the prelims, and soon the place was jammed. From time to time someone "special" would arrive and the announcer would inform us of it: Robert Goulet and Olivia Newton-John came as a couple, I believe; Jose Suleiman, the head of the World Boxing Council, arrived and was roundly booed; John and Bo Derek arrived (Bo Derek never did anything for me in her movies, dressed or undressed, but in person she was the loveliest creature I had ever seen); and by far the biggest ovation was for Muhammad Ali when he arrived. Lots of people were introduced in the ring, eventually including the referee, Richard Steele, and the fighters.
I was astonished by the money being bet around us. People who were strangers to each other were making five and ten thousand dollar bets and giving the money to third party strangers to hold. My impression was that the Detroit (Hearns) contingent outnumbered the Hagler contingent. Personally, I thought it was about an even matchup. Dad was utterly confident about Hagler's chances, but it was difficult for me to guess how much of that was due to Hagler being my father's home town boy.
The fight got underway and the pace was furious from the opening bell. Neither was attempting to box. Each was set on creaming the other, with Hagler, the shorter man, determined to get his head on Hearns' chest and make it a street fight. Hearns hit Hagler with a tremendous right. It stopped Hagler only for a second and then he moved toward Hearns again, throwing punches. Hearns had thrown and landed his very best shot and it hadn't been enough. We were less than halfway through the first round and only Hearns' die-hard fans still thought he would win. But the excitement certainly was not over. They continued fighting at a frenzied pace until the bell.
The second round was almost as intense as the first, and in the third round Steele stopped the fight for a moment to have the doctor look at a pretty good cut on Hagler's forehead, probably caused by that Hearns right in the first round. My father muttered something to the effect that he wouldn't be able to stand it if the fight were stopped for a cut.
The fight continued and Hagler knocked Hearns out in that third round. Later, the first round was voted the best first round of the century by sportswriters.
We flew back together as far as Chicago and the plane and my dad continued to Boston. He later made and framed a collage consisting of magazine pictures, newspaper articles, and his plane ticket and fight ticket, with a typewritten note about his "birthday present." He's gone now, and I have the collage and eventually I will get around to adding my fight ticket to it.
Oh, and Jeff did not have leukemia. His lab results and someone else's had somehow been mixed up. Sheesh.
A couple of weeks before the fight, the results of some lab tests came back and Jeff's doctor told Jeff he had leukemia and only a short time to live. Jeff and all around him were devastated, and Jeff was in no emotional state to go to the fight.
I thought about the extra ticket and called my father. He had been a fight fan for more than fifty years, this could be the fight of the century, and Hagler was from my father's home town, Brockton, Massachusetts. My father lived in New Hampshire and I in the Chicago area.
I explained to him about the extra ticket and told him I could think of no better use for it than to take him to the fight. "I'll fly you first class to Las Vegas and back. Call it your birthday present."
"I don't think so Donnie. I'm not much for traveling any more." I was flabbergasted. I knew he had never seen a fight this big in person and that he thought Hagler walked on water. But I couldn't talk him into it, and he suggested that I call my brother Billy.
I did, but he wasn't home. A moment or two later the phone rang, and it was my father saying he had changed his mind. (Good thing Billy wasn't home, huh?)
In the event, he flew from Boston to Dallas and thence to Las Vegas. I picked him up at the airport and we took a cab to the Flamingo - I had waited too long and even the Chicago Caesars office could do nothing for me in the way of rooms at Caesars.
Dad had never been to Las Vegas and I showed him around. My gambling made him nervous and he only watched a few minutes of it. He found "his" game at the slot machines, and won several hundred dollars during the trip.
So . . . on the big day we walked over to Caesars Palace for the fight, or actually for the preliminaries, which were unremarkable. The seats were about half full when we got there and we had no trouble finding ours. People trickled in during the prelims, and soon the place was jammed. From time to time someone "special" would arrive and the announcer would inform us of it: Robert Goulet and Olivia Newton-John came as a couple, I believe; Jose Suleiman, the head of the World Boxing Council, arrived and was roundly booed; John and Bo Derek arrived (Bo Derek never did anything for me in her movies, dressed or undressed, but in person she was the loveliest creature I had ever seen); and by far the biggest ovation was for Muhammad Ali when he arrived. Lots of people were introduced in the ring, eventually including the referee, Richard Steele, and the fighters.
I was astonished by the money being bet around us. People who were strangers to each other were making five and ten thousand dollar bets and giving the money to third party strangers to hold. My impression was that the Detroit (Hearns) contingent outnumbered the Hagler contingent. Personally, I thought it was about an even matchup. Dad was utterly confident about Hagler's chances, but it was difficult for me to guess how much of that was due to Hagler being my father's home town boy.
The fight got underway and the pace was furious from the opening bell. Neither was attempting to box. Each was set on creaming the other, with Hagler, the shorter man, determined to get his head on Hearns' chest and make it a street fight. Hearns hit Hagler with a tremendous right. It stopped Hagler only for a second and then he moved toward Hearns again, throwing punches. Hearns had thrown and landed his very best shot and it hadn't been enough. We were less than halfway through the first round and only Hearns' die-hard fans still thought he would win. But the excitement certainly was not over. They continued fighting at a frenzied pace until the bell.
The second round was almost as intense as the first, and in the third round Steele stopped the fight for a moment to have the doctor look at a pretty good cut on Hagler's forehead, probably caused by that Hearns right in the first round. My father muttered something to the effect that he wouldn't be able to stand it if the fight were stopped for a cut.
The fight continued and Hagler knocked Hearns out in that third round. Later, the first round was voted the best first round of the century by sportswriters.
We flew back together as far as Chicago and the plane and my dad continued to Boston. He later made and framed a collage consisting of magazine pictures, newspaper articles, and his plane ticket and fight ticket, with a typewritten note about his "birthday present." He's gone now, and I have the collage and eventually I will get around to adding my fight ticket to it.
Oh, and Jeff did not have leukemia. His lab results and someone else's had somehow been mixed up. Sheesh.
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