A Load of BS

My friend Matt Mentone likes to tell the story of how he first met Jim. He walked into the WNHU studios, down in the bowels of dingy Maxcy Hall, one day back in 1995. The man extended his hand and said, "Hi. Jim Abbott, like the pitcher." I suppose there could have been more than one Jim Abbott in this world, but the one we would come to know and love was one-of-a-kind. This made it all the more sad when Matt texted me last night. He'd heard from a mutual friend that Jim Abbott passed away on June 11th at the age of 59. I later found out that he'd suffered a stroke in January and never fully recovered. When I walked into my first sports department meeting in 1994, I was a little punk with long hair who loved alternative music and sports. I'd previously met Jay McEnaney, WNHU's Sports Director and play-by-play man at the time. Next to him was a young Scott Criscuolo, whom I would later bond with over anything Mets and wrestling-related. Then, there was this...

15 years ago, I was working for what is now known as Valley National Bank. I got out of my car at approximately 8:45. Literally, in the time it took me to walk from the parking lot into the building, everything changed. Don't ever take anything for granted. It can all change forever in the span of ten seconds. Today, a lot will be made of some athletes either standing or sitting or holding hands for our National Anthem. You want to talk about injustice in this country? For me, it doesn't get any more unjust than terrorists from another part of the world hijacking airplanes and driving them into the World Trade Center killing thousands of innocent people. When you stand for the anthem, you're not just standing for yourself. You're standing for everyone who gave their lives, either willingly or unwillingly, so that you can live in America and have the nerve to claim injustice. Terrorists don't care about black lives, white lives, or any of that. They care if you a...

I've been reading the Wrestling Observer flashbacks on the Blog Of Doom wrestling site. Right now, we are in March of 1988 approaching WrestleMania IV and Dave Meltzer is making his predictions on who will win the vacated WWF World Heavyweight Championship. Of course, after they changed the brackets to put DiBiase next to the Hulk-Andre winner, the outcome was pretty obvious if you were aware of the fact that Hogan was leaving afterwards to film No Holds Barred . If you weren't, you were thinking it was still Hulk's tournament to lose anyway and it was just a matter of who would be waiting for him in the finals. (HAHA, silly boys and girls!) Anyway, I searched for the original tournament brackets and came across another link from Place To Be Nation (of which my friend and UNH alum Scott Criscuolo is a major contributor) in which they invited others to re-book WrestleMania IV. The rules were that you could not duplicate any of the actual matches that took place and all...

As a baseball fan, the beginning of every new year brings the anticipation of the announcement of a new Hall of Fame class. For the past few years, I have yearned for that moment when Mike Piazza's name is called. Since 2013, yours truly, along with other Mets fans, have cried foul as rumors and innuendo have kept Piazza from his rightful place amongst the game's immortals. It appears that, finally, the haters have been swayed by a lack of proof and an infusion of common sense. As reported via social media, Piazza has about 90% of the support of all writers on Twitter. There's a good chance that, at this time tomorrow, he will be among the newest inductees at Cooperstown. I will be amongst the many basking in the glory as the first ever Mets position player is enshrined. I will watch from my home, avoiding the annual apocalypse that overtakes Otsego County. I shall bide my time until my wife and I travel to upstate New York a few weeks later to prostrate in front of Mr....

Happy Canada Day to my friends up north and Happy Bobby Bonilla Day  to  all you Mets fans! Yes, indeed. It’s Christmas come early once again for Bobby Bo. As you are undoubtedly aware, today is the day that Bobby Bonilla gets his annual deferred salary of $1.19 million from the New York Mets. It all started during the 1999 playoffs when he and Ricky Henderson had the audacity to play cards in the clubhouse during a game that was still in progress. The Mets decided to cut bait after the season, presumably to give Bonilla time to hone his skills for the World Series of Poker. Bobby Bo was still owed $5.9 million on his contract. Rather than reward him for his sheer lack of interest in baseball-related activities, the Mets, in their infinite wisdom, agreed to defer his payment ten years.  This agreement also factored in an annual interest rate of 8%. Thus, the Mets  have sent Bonilla a check for $1,193,248.20 every year since 2010. They could have ju...

I'm a little late to the party, but it saddens me to think of a potential future without spring training baseball in Central Florida. Last month, The Houston Astros and Washington Nationals announced plans to leave Kissimmee and Viera , respectively, for a brand-new facility in Palm Beach County. This would likely create a ripple effect that could eventually facilitate the departures of the Braves and Tigers. Similar to Arizona spring baseball, most teams in Florida want to train and play within short distances of each other. This means the Tampa Bay region, the Fort Myers area, Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast would all be chomping at the bit for future spring training occupants. Of course, Central Florida is not hurting for tourism dollars with the presence of The Walt Disney Company, Universal, Sea World, WWE's NXT development program and, um... THE WALT DISNEY COMPANY! Still, baseball is a part of the fabric of spring in the Orlando area. This is why I'm m...

Apparently, WWE has booked themselves into a corner... for NEXT year's WrestleMania. You see, WWE is holding WrestleMania 32 at AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. The goal is simple: Break the world indoor attendance record again and puff out your chest. WWE famously set the new standard at WrestleMania III at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1987 with 93,173. Conspiracy theories aside, that record (real or imagined) was legitimately broken by the 2010 NBA All-Star Game. 108,713 fans filled AT&T Stadium. Surely, WWE can get more fans for the simple reason that a wrestling ring takes up less room than a basketball court. The question is what will they have to offer for the big day in Big D? Here is a quote attributed to the immortal Dave Meltzer... "Any legend that can still perform will probably be asked to be part of the show." Boy, is that an indictment on the WWE's inability to make new stars or what? It sounds like they bit off more than they could chew. Of co...