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Collins reflects on listening to Ali as a teen

MIAMI -- Terry Collins was just a teenager when Muhammad Ali -- then Cassius Clay -- fought Sonny Liston for the first time in Miami Beach, Fla., just a short trip over the intracoastal from where the Mets are playing the Marlins this weekend.

Back then, Collins was attending high school in Michigan, where he tuned his radio to the fight because it was not on television.

"That's when boxing was boxing," Collins said Saturday, a day after Ali's passing. "I just remember listening to the fight."

Like so many around the sports world, Ali's death prompted Collins to pause for reflection.