I had just turned 12 years old in June 1984 when the Celtics and Larry Bird captured the NBA title over the Los Angeles Lakers. I was either mowing neighborhood yards for $5 or playing Whiffle Ball in the backyard most days that summer. We had to read the newspaper sports page to see the Major League box scores from the night before and that's how we knew the lineups of every other team besides the Cubs and Braves. We had 10 channels on our TV, but only five were worth stopping for while turning the dial. The Cubs were on WGN and we had a gray box on top of our wood-panel TV. Flip the switch to the right during a 2 p.m. break and it was time to watch a couple innings of the Cubs and listen to Harry Caray. Wrigley Field didn’t have lights in 1984 and every home game was a day game.   

We would copy the batting stances of Leon "The Bull" Durham and Ron "The Penguin" Cey in the backyard Whiffle Ball games after one time through the order.

After dinner, the switch was flipped back to channel 8, WTBS, and my dad watched the Atlanta Braves and listened to Harry Caray’s son, Skip, on the play-by-play. I had a Bob Horner and a Larry Bird poster in my room. "Horns" and Larry Bird, circa 1984, were still on the wall during my college days and my college buddies christened my room the "Bob Horner" suite when they made the drive from St. Cloud State to Fort Walton Beach, Fla., on spring break.

My parents took my brother and me to watch "The Natural" right at the end of school in sixth grade in 1984. I picked #9 that summer in city league baseball, the same number Roy Hobbs wore in the movie. Roy Hobbs was left-handed just like me, and I wore that number in baseball all through junior high, high school, town ball later on, and now with the over-35 River Falls Groupers.

Roy Hobbs was "nobody for nowhere," a tough-luck underdog story. I have been rooting for the underdog ever since. The summer of 1984 was the summer of underdogs on the big screen, too.

A reoccurring theme in many 80's movies was the "haves" against the "have-nots." The rich kids were bullies and the kids from the wrong side of the tracks were the heroes.

There's another "Larry" to help segue this story, but not Larry Bird. It’s Larry B. Scott. He played Lamar Latrelle in Revenge of the Nerds in 1984, but a little-known fact is Larry B. Scott also played Jerry in "The Karate Kid." He was a member of Cobra Kai and was Daniel LaRusso's second round opponent in the All Valley Karate Tournament during the "You're the Best" montage, which by the way was written by Bill Conti, the same guy who wrote “Gonna Fly Now” from “Rocky.” But, back to Larry B. Scott. Talk about acting chops, Larry B. went from playing an effeminate rapping javelin thrower for the Tr-Lambs and being bullied by the Alpha Betas at Adams College to the testosterone-filled "Sweep the leg, No mercy" mantra of the Cobra Kai and Sensei John Kreese in the San Fernando Valley. Quite the summer for Larry B. Scott in 1984.

"The Karate Kid" was the fourth-highest grossing film of 1984. As the kids say 41 years later, there were some all-time classic bangers in ‘84. Look up the list on your Commodore 64; it’s impressive.

Before the days of GPS, when you were driving or walking around lost and blurted out a, "Hello Cleveland," with a British accent and a complete stranger gave you a knowing smile, an immediate bond is formed with a shared love of “This Is Spinal Tap.”

No film from 1984, however, has more memorable lines, or lessons, than "The Karate Kid." One of the summer's hottest songs on the radio in 1984 was Bananarama's "Cruel Summer," a song on "The Karate Kid" soundtrack. It was anything but that. In the spirit of Mr. Miyagi's teachings, the summer of '84 is just like karate.

"Karate here (pointing to Danielsan's head). Karate here (pointing to Danielsan's heart). Karate never here (pointing to the color of his belt.)"  

River Falls Wildcat Assistant Baseball Coach Mark Vrieze has been throwing out random "Karate Kid" quotes for the last 11 years on the baseball diamond.

"When you have to lighten the mood a little bit, I might pull some Miyagi out," said Vrieze, "if Danielsan wasn't doing things right, Mr. Miyagi would always say, 'ahhh, tah tah tah tah tah tah tah."

"Vrieze has always told us to 'wax on, wax off,’" said senior Riley Usgaard.

According to Vrieze, in 2015, the JV and Junior Legion team first brought another 80's movie reference into the dugout, a Jobu doll like the one from the movie "Major League."

"Then they started bringing in samurai stuff and it just kept going," said Vrieze. "We have to constantly look for things to build culture and chemistry and it's getting tougher each year. Before club ball, we had school ball and legion ball and we had five months with the team every year. That’s not the way it is anymore for a lot of the kids.”

Before this season began, Head Coach Ryan Bishop was "sanding the floor" for an idea for a season theme.

"How do know you if it's right?" is a question Danielsan asked in the movie.

To which Mr. Miyagi replied, "Ah, Danielson, if idea come from inside you, always right one."

The team held a preseason pasta party at sophomore Kingston Quinn's house. As a team, they watched "The Karate Kid," many of them for the first time.

"There are such incredible lessons that are in between some of the cheesy one-liners," said Bishop.

Karate was apparently a very big deal in the valley in 1984. So much so, Sensei Kreese at Cobra Kai snapped at Mr. Miyagi, "This is a karate dojo, not a knitting class. You don't drop a challenge and leave old man."

Pat Morita, the actor who played Mr. Miyagi, was 52 years old when “The Karate Kid” was filmed.   

If the Wildcats win the game, River Falls Sports Broadcasting play-by-play announcer Kevin Westhuis will interview the "Sandlot Samurai of the Game." If they lose, then the post-game interview is called the "Miyagi Warrior of the Game." Every post-game interview starts with Westhuis tying on the hachimaki (headband) and ends with a picture with Mr. Miyagi and an actual bonsai tree.

Fans 100 feet away can hear Vrieze yelling, “Bonsai!” after a team huddle break.

“Vrieze is eating up,” said Bishop.   

"Coach Bishop teamed up with Ptacek's (Family Market)," said senior Brooks Rivard.

"It's right up Kevin's (Westhuis) alley," said Bishop, "and Pat Ptacek eats it up as much or more than anyone."

"The Karate Kid stuff makes the season that much more fun and keeps everyone engaged," said Usgaard. "Even if a guy isn't playing as much, they can support the team in the dugout, and it doesn't go unnoticed."

“Balance not for only karate,” said Mr. Miyagi. “Lesson for whole life.”

Usually old school and all-business, Coach Bishop had a "media day" for pictures for social media posts throughout the year.

"We took a serious picture and a silly one," said Rivard. "Henry (Ruhland) did a crane pose like Danielsan. I bowed and had crazy eyes going on."

"I flexed on 'em," said Usgaard smiling.

If you're watching a Wildcat baseball game in the next few weeks and you see a crane pose after a stand-up double to the gap, now you know what dojo you're in. On the post-game "River Falls Baseball" Facebook posts, you can feel songwriter Bill Conti's "You're the Best" song playing in the background with the photos.

"Coach Bishop seems like he's having just as much fun with it as the kids are," said Vrieze.

"Mr. Miyagi has some really incredible advice in terms of resilience and perseverance that translates really well to a game built on failure," said Bishop.

"The main lesson I've learned from The Karate Kid is to be where my feet are," said Rivard. "I'm not worried about the past and it doesn't matter what's in front of me.  I'm concerned with where my feet are right now and just keep on rolling."

Mr. Miyagi may have been doing the hand rub heat trick on Rivard's bat. Rivard is batting .368 and leads the team in RBI. He's 4 for 7 in his last three games.   

"Man who catch fly with chopstick accomplish anything," said Mr. Miyagi. "Walk right side of road, safe. Walk left side of road, safe. Walk in middle, get squished just like grape."

Danielsan said in his New Jersey accent to Ali, "I guess you know about the tournament tomorrow?"

Ali replied, "Who doesn't?"

Cue up "Young Hearts" by Commuter for the rest of the baseball season and watch out for someone trying to sweep the leg.

"Do you have a problem with that, Mr. Lawrence?"