THE DAILY DIVERSION

The first step in recovery is admitting you have a problem.

Well, I have a problem and here I am stating it.

I AM A JUNKIE.

Now, before you really get worried about me, let me explain. There are good and bad junkies. Luckily, I don't do drugs (unless you've got some!), so I'm not that kind of junkie. However, I'm a good kind of junkie, unless you ask my wife.

Actually, I'm a junkie about a lot of things. I'm a video game junkie, a TV junkie, a music junkie, a movie junkie, a trivia junkie, a Suduko junkie, and the list goes on and on. However, first and foremost, I am a Sports Junkie. Yes, I capitalized both words, just so you know I mean business.

I am a sports junkie in the worst form. I'll take it any way I can get it. By being a newlywed, I have taken some time away from "the games" so as to not make my wife feel neglected. This, in turn, has forced me to deviant lifestyles. I used to just sit around and watch whatever game I chose. Now, I have to catch sneak peaks whenever I can.

If my wife and I are watching a show and she gets up to go to the bathroom, get a drink, or whatever, I immediately pull up the channel guide and find the closest game I can (which depends on what "season" we're in). Then, I have to make sure to time things perfectly so I don't hear "Did you change the channel to sports again?!"

I've also found myself staying up later than I really need to, just in order to catch the highlights of the day in sports. "Sportscenter" is no longer part of my daily regime. Both "Around the Horn" and "Pardon the Interruption" aren't the first things I see when I get home from work. I have to pick my spots and, usually, when I get home, I want to play a video game or two, since I have more chance of getting to watch bits and pieces of a game than playing video games later on in the evening.

So, here's where we are right now. The only games I get to watch (or listen to on most occasions) are the Hilltopper basketball games. I am given a specific allotment of time to do this every week (since usually Topper basketball games aren't on TV). My wife is no dummy either. If I'm still sitting there after 9:30 pm, with my headphones on, staring intently at my laptop, while banging away on the keyboard, she knows I'm messing around and not spending time with her. That's about the time I hear "I miss you!"

Yes, that is the worst thing in the world to hear for a sports junkie. We (sports junkies in general) want what we want, with no interruption or outside attachments, until we have our fill.

Now, last night, after my wife fell asleep, I stayed up way too late again. First of all, I wasn't tired. I was working on Suduko puzzles, but the light was keeping my wife awake. So, I turned the lights off and started flipping channels. Nope, didn't want to watch the World Series of Poker for the five millionth time (really, can ESPN2 not find something else to show?). I forget what was on ESPN, but it was lame. Fox Sports had their highlight show on, but I had seen what I wanted to of it. So, I wandered back around to ESPN Classic, hoping "Cheap Seats" or something else funny like that would be on. To my surprise I found the Mike Tyson - Trevor Berbick fight from 1986.

Yes, I was 11 at the time this fight took place. At the time I didn't think much of it, but now I have realized that Mike Tyson is the sole reason I started watching boxing, and the only reason I'm a fan. Here's where the junkie in me comes out.

I actually remember watching this fight on HBO back when I was a kid. I went out of my way to watch Mike Tyson fight back then. I don't remember there being a ton of hype to the fights then, like their is now, but this fight was a big one. This fight would make Mike Tyson the youngest Heavyweight champion ever, at just over 20 years old.

On to the fight... This fight didn't last very long. Few Tyson fights did back then. Tyson bumrushed Berbick early in the first round. Most of the time, the fighters meet in the middle of the ring to start pummeling each other. In Tyson's fights he was usually about three quarters of the way across the ring before his opponent knew what hit him.

It didn't take long, but Tyson was nailing Berbick with everything. He didn't knock him down in the first round, but he knocked him absolutely silly once. He knocked him so off balance that Tyson couldn't catch up with him to finish him off and knock him down (Berbick was wobbling and stumbling all over the ring, in case I didn't get that point across).

Now, the funny thing about watching sporting events in retrospect, especially when you know what's going to happen is the way the players, coaches (in this case trainers), announcers, etc. act prior to the end of the event. In this case Berbick, after getting knocked senseless in the first round, actually taunts Tyson by giving him the universal sign for "Come On!" (i.e. underhand waving toward yourself).

The reason it's amusing is because Tyson did "Come On" in the second round. He actually knocks Berbick down pretty quickly, but Berbick got right up. He didn't look hurt, even though the pounding Tyson gave him was pretty bad. After the first knock down it just got ugly.

Tyson methodically stalked Berbick around the ring and waited for the most opportune time to finish him off. Really, Tyson was like a shark back in the day. If he smelled blood, you could forget about him not finishing the job off. Well, the blood was in the water.

Tyson hits Berbick under his ribcage with a right, just to feel him out. Berbick winces a little bit, but seems unharmed. Tyson ducks low, then fires up a nasty right-handed uppercut, missing Berbick entirely. As the punch is missing, Berbick has this crazy look on his face. Its almost as his face is saying "Good lord! That would've killed me!"

Well, Trevor my fried, you weren't so lucky on the next punch. Tyson comes with an over-hand left and hits Berbick square on the right side of his face (encompassing the entire eye, temple, nose, and cheek area). Berbick just collapses to the ground. His legs looked like the road under Lois Lane in the Superman movie, when the earthquake hit. Yes, crumpled is the word.

He tries, vehemently, to recover and stand up, but all that ends up happening is he stumbles around the ring, falling all over the place. The first time he tries to get up, he falls nearly out of the ring into press row. The next time he tries to get up he stumbles all the way across the ring collapsing again to the mat. All of this happens right in front of Tyson who's just standing there, not in amazement or bewilderment, but with no expression on his face. I actually think he wanted to hit Berbick a few more times, if he would've actually gotten up.

Finally, Judge Mills Lane grabs a hold of Berbick and waves the fight over. Berbick is a mumbling, bumbling mess after the fight, while Tyson just stands there as if nothing had happened.

I've now thought back to watching Berbick stumble around the ring after getting clobbered by Tyson and all I can say is this... I've watched many a drunken fiasco, and I've never seen anyone as messed up as Berbick was after Tyson landed that over-hand left. Man, it was ugly!

Now, I'm done being a junkie and I'm going to get to work!