Granddaughter yells Globetrotters to victory

Don Estep is Publisher Emeritus of The News Journal.

Last week my wife and I went with our daughter Amber and her three children, ages 3,5 and 7, to see the Harlem Globetrotters.

She lives in Henderson, Ky. which is just across the Ohio river from the Ford Center in Evansville, Ind.

Actually we didn’t go to see the Globetrotters. We went to see our seven year old granddaughter, Adelyn, dance at halftime of the game.

That was part of the best part of the evening. The other best part was watching her and the other two grandchildren react to the antics taking place on the floor, especially Adelyn.

Prior to the game she got to meet the players. She was really into the game and pulling for the Globetrotters to win. (They always do win but she didn’t know it.)

Near the end of what may be called the game, because there were so many other activities taking place, the Globetrotters were ahead of the Washington Generals 63-56.

That is when one of the Generals slipped on a referee’s shirt and went to the scorer’s table and put a one in front of the 56 making the score 156-63 in favor of the Generals.

Adelyn started screaming, “They’re cheating, they’re cheating.” You guessed it, pandemonium broke loose and they chased the bad General off the floor.

They then decided that the score should be tied at 63 with two minutes to go. It got tense.

First the Globetrotters scored and the crowd went wild. But the Generals tied it up. Adelyn was yelling hard and the Globetrotters scored again.

Ahead two points the Globetrotter stole the ball and with 10 seconds left in the game the countdown began. Every kid in the arena was counting down and at the horn the Globetrotter slam dunked the ball to a roaring cheer.

Adelyn was so excited and on the way home she said she wantied to go again next year.

That takes me back many years to when I saw the film about the Globetrotters at the Hippodrome Theater in Corbin. I was so excited when I got home I told my dad he HAD to go see that movie.

He had never been to the Hippodrome but because of my urging he went to see the show. He too was impressed.

Then a few years later, sometime in the 50’s, I saw them play at the Edwards Gym in Corbin.Meadowlark Lemon was the funny Globetrotter then, having replace Goose Tatum. They were fantastic.

More recently the Globetrotters have appeared at the Corbin Arena. They were good but they are so much more fun to watch when you are a kid.

•This is three weeks in a row that I have written about a friend passing away. It has been a very sad way to start the new year.

This week we lost Baker Reasor, one of the best friends I have ever had. He was 98.

I go back to when I was a teenager and Baker would motion for me to hop in his car when he escorted Coach Harry Taylor to the Redhound games away from home. I rode with him and Coach Taylor’s son Phil to many games.

The sports world in Corbin pretty much operated around Catron Motors at 5th and Main Streets. Everybody knew Tom Catron and Baker and Bascomb Reasor.

As the years went on Baker and I talked frequently. When he retired I asked him to help me start an Auto Guide at this newspaper.

I knew Baker could talk the language and knew most car dealers in southeastern Kentucky.

Since I had other duties as the publisher of this newspaper I only had Thursdays to devote to this sideline operation.

We drove to Middlesboro, Harlan, Cumberland, Pinevile and anywhere we had a chance to sell an automotive ad.

All that travelling gave us time to do a lot of talking with each other. I believe we agreed on most everything we discussed.

For years Baker and I and our wives had seats together at the Corbin football games. That made the games so much better.

I must tell about the time Baker let me use his UK football tickets. At halftime the big screen was showing my wife on it and the PA announcer said “this person in seat # has won a “Big Blue” microwave.” I tried to give it to Baker but he insisted I keep it.

It was always entertaining to visit him and his wife and sit on his front porch on 5th Street and talk.

This world won’t be the same without Baker Reasor. We will miss him very much.