By Michael Letendre

HARTFORD – I think I’m out of touch, folks.

Officially.

I’ll explain myself with a specific example.

The Sixth Annual GHPA High School Boys Basketball Classic last Saturday from Trinity College in Hartford proved that very fact.

However, I started to witness such a transformation about thirty years ago in the same city.

When I was in high school, as my senior year at Bristol Eastern was about to begin, Hartford was awarded a basketball team in the Continental Basketball Association (since Hartford couldn’t land a real professional team) which was coined the Hartford Hellcats.

The semi-pro team ended up playing its games at the Hartford Civic Center, once drawing the largest crowd in league history in the Hellcats’ 1993-94 opener.

The team moved from Albany, New York and when the Hellcats came to Hartford, the squad was a popular draw – at first.

Magic Johnson even brought his traveling ‘All-Star’ team to the venue (I was in a Hellcats’ commercial high-fiving Magic as he came back to the bench) and for $6, you could get a good seat.

But something strange happened when the jump-ball went up and was controlled by one of the teams: the music never stopped playing!

I was wondering when the music was going to be shut off and when it never did, I was a bit annoyed.

Why was the music being played during the game?

And while I taped the Nationally Televised CBA games during that season – using a device called a Video Cassette Recorder – it was the same thing with the music and the like.

I just couldn’t get behind it.

And then fast-forward to the Doc Hurley Classic (a.k.a. the Sixth Annual GHPA High School Basketball Classic), last weekend.

I was ready to watch a good game between top-ranked Bristol Central and Southington from Trinity.

Off the jump ball, when Central’s Donovan Clingan easily won the tap and the Rams controlled things, I noticed the DJ in the gymnasium playing music.

And the music never stopped.

This is nearly thirty years later, and the CBA model is being used at the high school level!

And then the announcer at the scorer’s table at Trinity, who did a very good job by the way, was commentating the game!

What tomfoolery was this?

Do we really need additional play-by-play watching Central’s Victor Rosa chucking the ball towards the rim for a Clingan alley-oop slam?

But it wasn’t the first time I saw this kind of set-up at the scholastic level.

The last time I saw same situation, it was at an AAU all-star game at Trinity about five years ago.

I was completely annoyed that day because Eastern’s Rod Jenkins – a very talented senior that scored over 400 points for the Lancers that season – was playing on one of the teams and when it was time to introduce him, no one knew his name or where he played.

So, I was already in a bit of a crazed state.

But there was the music, a guy on the mic doing play-by-play and a ton of chatter between the baskets.

I just have to say, I can’t get behind this evolution of basketball.

So, the question bears repeating: Am I out of touch?

Does it mean I should call it a career, disappear into the night, and go do something else?

Maybe I am the dinosaur here and it’s all my fault.

Is this the evolution of high school sports with an AAU flare?

The announcer from Trinity had some good one-liners when Central battled Southington:

“Going up against a mountain” when a Southington player tried to body All-World center Donovan Clingan.

“You have to pay attention” after a turnover by Southington.

“He put jelly on that” on a good-looking reverse lay-up.

Dear lord, can’t I just watch the game in peace?

Does the audience need to have every turnover spelled out?

Do I need to stop shaking my fists and yelling at the clouds?

I think that last submission spelled everything out perfectly.

And when I go cover scholastic games, I use the same tools for nearly 25-something years when writing. 

I bring an oversized clipboard to every game, compile the stats, never carry a computer to write the event up (except for baseball), and I always physically score the game whether it’s football, basketball, or baseball.

The art of traditional scorekeeping has also gone digital – breaking my heart in the process.

I see devices that will tally all the basketball statistics, on-line baseball journals, and advanced football stats tablets that do practically everything.

Those devices make things easier but what’s the fun in that?

Give me a clipboard, a pencil, and just start the game – it’s as simple and easy as it gets.

Hey, I’ll just admit my fate.

After all that, I guess I am way out of touch.

Just do me a favor…

If someone can run to their nearest pay phone or can leave Bradlees, Woolworth, or Caldor to help me, can I please have the phone number of the Video Galaxy on Stafford Ave? I need to catch up with that exciting, first season of the new TV show called ALF.