The Cardinal Vault XII: K.J. breaks finger

By K.J. Cardinal

For the 12th installment of The Cardinal Vault, and the second video entry, we travel back to 1987 for these two gems.

Both clips are from my Pee Wee night game when I was seven years old in a classic match-up of Red vs. Yellow. It's great to not only unleash my stellar basketball skills for the world to see on the internet, but also to see my dad and some of his friends as they were involved in the 500 Boys Club in Farmington back in the day.

The first clip is the highlights from the big game. In starts with me winning the prize for selling the most tickets to the game, followed by the Red team starting lineups and ends with me breaking my pinky finger as I sky for a rebound :)

For those of you familiar with the Farm-town crew, take note that Paul Moulton is the emcee of the event, while my Dad (gray sweatshirt with blue sleeves) and Dave Sargent (blue T-shirt) are the refs for the game. Clearly a conflict of interest with my old man as the ref, which is probably why we won by 14 points. For you America East folks out there...yes, Charlie Diehl was assigning officials for the 500 Boys Club in the mid-80s.

The second clip is from the opening tip until when I check out halfway through the first quarter. It's just an unedited snippet to show you the fast-paced action that epitomized 500 Boys Club basketball back in the mid-80s. It's reminiscent of the Lakers' Show Time. Please take note that it takes me approximately seven seconds before I fire up my first shot...I was a gunner.

Also, just because I'm a stat geek, I couldn't help but keep stats in my head as I watched the game in entirety. I'll be honest, for the game I was 0-for-5 from the field with four assists, five rebounds, three steals and three turnovers. My team was up 12-0 with 5:23 to go in the fourth quarter when I break my finger and then the defense fell apart and gives up a basket. Don't worry though, the Red team was able to hang on for the 16-2 victory in my absence.