Notes from an Inquisitive Mind

Decisions, decisions

2012-01-27T18:51:00.003-05:00

We're almost through the first month of the Presidential primary season, and as usual, the structure of the system is achieving its goals. Candidates have been dropping out for the past few weeks as the electorate, more or less, has spoken.

Gone are Michelle Bachman, whose high point was buying a victory in what she termed the "historic" Iowa State Fair straw poll; Rick Perry, who seemed to have some good credentials but lost his chance of winning merely by opening his mouth in a debate; Herman Cain, whose run seems even more odd in hindsight than it did at the time; and Jon Huntsman, one of those people who would be better Presidents than they are candidates for Presidents.

The survivors, as Florida approaches, are down to four. We all thought Milt Romney would make it, since he was well-financed and had the more moderate wing of the GOP more or less to himself. We knew Ron Paul could "live off the land," as General Sherman once said about the race, and campaign indefinitely without regard to winning anything. Somehow Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum made it through the obstacle course to represent the far right wing the party; well, someone had to do so.

Santorum is fading, and it's difficult to see him having enough money to go much further along. I'm not sure that a candidate who talks about the "global warming hoax," is anti-gay marriage, and worked for the government to interfere with the Terri Schiavo case while in the Senate represents anything close to the majority of mainstream thought anyway.

That's leaving the Republicans with an odd choice. From the books I've read about 2008, Romney wasn't exactly personally popular with anyone in the field back then. He's made a decision to move more to the conservative side this time around. I'm all for people who are willing to change their views as circumstances dictate, but changing views on something like abortion rights for political expediency does make me wonder if there's much in terms of core values there. His great wealth seems like it's counter-productive when protesters are sleeping in parks to protect economic inequities. When Romney speaks, the words almost seem more strident than the way they are delivered, as if he is reading from a script but is merely saying the words.

Gingrich, on the other hand, certainly believes what he says. Yes, politicians have a way of saying that this particular election is the most important election of our lifetime, because they are trying to stir up the electorate. It's never true, because life will go on no matter what, but that's OK. This is a cold warrior, as they used to say in the Fifties. Gingrich does have some interesting ideas, but he also has enough odd ones (moon base?) to keep opposing campaign operatives in ad ideas for months. And if you are looking for someone to represent the right-wing base of the GOP, who better than someone who worked in Congress for years and hasn't exactly been a paragon of family values in his personal life?

I could see a lot of far right voters staying home, or at least not working hard, if Romney wins the nomination. I could see independents running away if Gingrich gets the nomination.

In other words, it's going to take something dramatic, like another recession, to prevent Barack Obama from winning November. Right now, his margin seems like it would be less than it was in 2008, but he's still a good campaigner with an army of people ready to go out and work for him and vote for him like it did before.

And I'd still like to know what someone like Chris Christie and Mitch Daniels are thinking as they get ready to fall asleep. How about, "It could have been me"?

Anger squared

2012-01-20T00:42:00.002-05:00

There are all sorts of levels of anger when it comes to professional sports. When teams don't win -- and remember, every team but one comes up as a loser at the end of a given season -- the emotion of the fans spill over. It's great for the teams when those fans pay more than $100 for three hours of entertainment, but not so great when the fan base isn't happy.

There are a couple of different stages of anger here in Buffalo right now. There are the Bills, who haven't made the playoffs in this century. There's a certain amount of resignation with a streak like that. Players and coaches have come and gone, but progress toward the postseason has been a rare sight. Then in the past season, just when it looked like the Bills were making progress, somebody pulled the carpet out from under their feet and sent them skidding off the road to success again. It was a little cruel to watch, but had the advantage of being at some level expected, particularly because of several key injuries.

Then there are the Sabres, who have taken the frustration level up a few notches in the past month.

In the past 30 years, Sabre ownership could best be described as having something of a commitment to mediocrity. The exception to that might be the guy who is in jail at the moment, although it's a little difficult even in hindsight to figure out his goals when owning the team at the time. Either way, the Sabres were often mediocre with a few rare excursions into the ranks of hockey's best.

Enter Terry Pegula a little less than a year ago, who needed only a news conference to enter the hearts of Buffalo sports fans. Here was someone with billions of dollars in his wallet, a longtime fan of the Sabres who wanted nothing more than to win a Stanley Cup. Or three. Western New York had never seen anything like it, except perhaps when the Bills kept a group together long enough to make it to four straight Super Bowls.

Then in July, when free agent season arrived, the Sabres were ready to go hunting. Two players, Chrstian Ehrhoff and Ville Leino, were signed to big contracts, and a third, Robyn Regehr, was acquired by trade. I can't say I saw many outsiders pick the Sabres to win the Stanley Cup back in October, but they were expected to be a team that could figure in the discussion come spring. Closer to home, the optimism rate had hit a record high.

After a decent but hardly great start, it's been downhill. Injuries have been a problem, with several regulars missing at a given moment. But, that doesn't let some of the team's best players off the hook. Only Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville have had good years when looking at the team's top players. It's an odd sounding cliche -- your team is in trouble when its best players aren't its best players.

Here we are, just past the halfway point, and the Sabres are 18 points behind Boston in the division race. They are in 11th place in the Conference, nine games under .500, and nine points behind eighth-place Florida. They are 2-6-2 in their last 10, and haven't won a road game in their last 11 starts -- which means Dec. 3 was the last win.

If all that weren't enough for the fan base to handle, many fans haven't been able to see games on television between MSG and Time Warner Cable. You can make some sarcastic jokes about not wanting to see them play -- go ahead, everyone else has -- but it's never a good idea to be cut off from your fans in such a visible way.

Judging the level of frustration is difficult, of course. You always get people who love to complain when things go badly for a sports team, and they are out in force. Still, the disappointment shown by many people seems to have a level of bitterness that has hit some new heights. If you listen to the comments around the office or from your friends, and read the posts on Facebook, it's difficult to find anyone who harbors much hope. "Yup, fooled again."

And the worst part is, options for a cure from anyone are few. There are still a number of injuries, so recalls from the minors already have been made. Management has few options there. Trading a fourth-liner for a fourth-liner would qualify only as a cosmetic move. No one is going to be in a rush to acquire some of the Sabres' biggest underachievers, especially at their relatively high salaries. Firing the coach is the usual course, but Pegula has said he's a big fan of Lindy Ruff. A new general manager now won't salvage this season, although you'd have to think Darcy Regier would have trouble surviving a campaign that ended in early April.

And so, the fan base waits. They wait for good health, they wait for some sort of chemistry-altering trade, they wait for a shakeup in the front office. Mostly they wait for something like a 9-0-1 stretch that would put the Sabres in the playoff race.

In the meantime, we can see the pool of good feelings for the Sabres slowly empty before our eyes.

Moneyball, lacrosse style

2012-01-18T00:47:00.002-05:00

With the Academy Award nominations coming out soon, it's worthwhile to discuss an interesting aspect of ... the Buffalo Bandits' roster.

Don't worry, I'll get there soon enough.

"Moneyball" might get Brad Pitt an Oscar nomination. He played Oakland Athletics general manager Billy Beane in the movie. Beane became famous in the early 2000's for trying to figure out ways to compete with teams that had more to spend on payroll that his team did.

What's more, he was successful at it for a while. That probably was due to a group of young pitchers who came up from the minors and were good right away, thus giving the Athletics an edge. However, Beane also discovered the on-base percentage was undervalued by the rest of baseball, so he could stock up on players who were good at that skill at a relatively cheap rate. It didn't get the A's any championships, in part because of a little bad luck in the playoffs, but they had a nice run.

It gets more and more difficult to find a competitive edge through roster selection like that in any sport. Still, the idea comes to mind when looking at the Bandits.

The Bandits have a Native American general manager/head coach in Darris Kilgour, as well as several players on the playing roster who are Natives from either the United States or Canada. I'd have to do a ton of research into the numbers, and figure out how to count them. But ... I'd guess that the Bandits have had more Natives than any other team, and they've drafted more such players over the years as well.

Part of the reason is certainly geography. The Bandits have tended to use players who are from the area, and thus able to drive to games and practices. That area does contain a good amount of Natives, including Six Nations near Brantford, Ontario, and the Syracuse region as well as some Western New York locations. The Natives have played lacrosse almost forever, and the game attracts the best athletes. In that sense, it's a good fit.

There's another issue that more difficult to quantify, though. Are ther Bandits going out of their way to select Native talent, or are they are taking advantage of an underutilized source of players? Teams that go out of their way not to take the best player when they have a choice usually face severe penalties in the standings. Remember when teams like the Red Sox and Cubs were slow to sign African American players? They paid for it in the Fifties and Sixties.

But that's not happening here. The Bandits have not a record under .500 since 1999; By the way, Kilgour came aboard in 2003.

It's even tougher to guess if other teams have avoided acquiring Natives for whatever reason. Geography might be a factor there too. But it's at least worth noting that a team with a large Native percentage has been better than average in the league over the long term.

Wonder if Pitt is interesting in doing a lacrosse movie?

One of a kind

2012-01-12T00:07:00.003-05:00

I've never talked with anyone about this hockey-related subject before, but, under the circumstances, this is probably the time.

I ran the Sabres' press box for six seasons during my time in the team's public relations department. I tried at all times to be cordial, friendly and professional to visitors. But I am willing to admit now that there was one team that I hated to see come to Buffalo: the St. Louis Blues.

And the reason for that was Ron Caron, who passed away the other day at 82.

Caron was the Blues' general manager during those years of the late 1980's and early 1990's. I can't speak for his personality when he wasn't watching a game by his team. But during those times in Memorial Auditorium, Caron turned into the proverbial "mad man." As the joke goes, here was a man who wore out his suits from the inside.

The press box was mostly open in terms of seating, meaning few areas were sectioned off from the rest of the occupants. When Caron came to town, you could expect plenty of yelling and screaming, with press notes flying around like a ticket-tape parade in New York when the situation called for it. Which it usually did.

As I recall, and it's been a while, he did some loud complaining a couple of times to me about the Sabres' operation not meeting his specifications somehow. My job then was basically to take it and shut up, which I did. I also saw Caron belittle my press box staff, which was comprised not only of my friends but who were volunteers who showed up because they loved the game. They didn't fight back either, but simply rolled their eyes when the Blues came to town too. Because they knew it would be a long night.

The calmest I remember Caron, oddly enough, was the night Clint Malarchuk had his jugular vein cut during a game with the Blues. At one point, Caron grabbed someone nearby and demonstrated what to do to stop the bleeding in such a situation. Mostly, though, I stayed away from that end of the press box.

This story is about Caron's full life. It's almost comforting to know that he didn't act like a maniac all the time, and could be, if anything, a bit charming and funny.

But I can't say I'm surprised that the obituary included a story about how he wound up getting banned from the press box in Detroit. Caron is a good reminder that it only takes a moment to be civil to those around you, if only because the memories you create can last a lifetime.

Be notified of new posts via Twitter @WDX2BB.

A eureka moment

2012-01-10T00:28:00.004-05:00

Here's a story about a relatively common problem in computerland, with a happy ending no less.

My computer is more than six years old, and it has a limited amount of hard drive space by 2012 standards. I think it's 37 gigs of memory off the top of my head. That's not much, but we don't do much in terms of video, pictures, programs, etc.

So it was some discomfort a couple of years ago that I noticed the amount of available space was slowly shrinking. I believe I was down to three percent. I did the logical thing shortly after noticing the problem -- I bought an external hard drive. When I had a new program to add to the computer, it went there. And, I moved some files over as well. That created enough space for a while. I also frequently used the disk cleaner and defragmenter that's built into the computer.

But in the last couple of months, the free space on the main hard drive was almost gone again, and little was helping. When I tried to move big problems over to the external drive, I got warnings along the lines of "Are you sure you want to do this?" Well, no, if you are going to be that way, I'd better not.

I asked a friend of mine about the problem; we're about at the same level of computer proficiency. He told me, "I have the exact same problem."

So ... I did a search for techniques on what to do about it. I found something called CCleaner, which found some loose files I didn't need floating around but didn't really solve the problem. I also read that something called "TreeSize Free" was a great, free way to determine what the heck was on the drive. The program reads your hard drive and tells you exactly what's on it and how big each file is.

I scanned it, and looked around for files I could remove. Eventually, and it took a while, I found the file that attached to the program I used for making copies of compact disks. Then I noticed it was taking up 20 gigs of space.

Upon opening the file, I noticed about 15 "temporary files" that took up more than 18 gigs of space. In other words, it was sucking up half the space on the hard drive. I removed them.

And suddenly, more than half of my hard drive was empty, and the computer started to work much more efficiently.

I'd say "Yahoo," but there are copyright issues there. So "eureka" will have to do.

(Keep up with posts on Twitter @WDX2BB).

Going bowling

2012-01-02T23:19:00.003-05:00

Could someone please tell me why we are in such a hurry to preserve the current bowl system? Does anyone think it actually works?

Right now there are about 30 or so bowls, depending on the year. Anyone who has won six games or more, which translates to a not-so-gaudy .500 record, is eligible to go. That leaves the calendar filled with a handful of good matchups, and some others that you might watch if you were sleepy on a Saturday afternoon in October and needed background noise for a nap.

Some of the universities involve lose money on accepting a bowl bid, since they are require the guarantee the purchase of a certain amount of tickets. That leads to some teams being more likely to get a "better" (translation: a bigger paycheck) bowl bid because they "travel well" (translation: more their fans will pack up and go).

And based on some of the minor games that I've glimpsed so far, the host cities don't seem too excited about the games either. There are acres of empty seats.

Yes, the current system does allow about 30 coaches and teams to win their last game of the season, which gets them a nice trophy in the lobby and a ring. And ESPN gets to show a couple of games a night for a two or three weeks; the outlet has even gone to the trouble of owning a few of the games. That's better programming than a poker game from a couple of years ago, at least.

Back in the Stone Age, known as my childhood, the college football season climaxed on Jan. 1 with a bunch of games throughout the day. It was sort of like the last day of the regular season in baseball in 2011 at times, as teams had to win games and then watch the scoreboard to see if they wound up number one. I'm not saying that was better than a playoff, because it wasn't. But it did have its moments. There were a few other games (Sun, Liberty, Cotton, Gator, Bluebonnet) in the week leading up to it, and that was that.

We've got to do better. Maybe we can.

I believe I've written here before about the merits of a "plus-one" bowl system. That's when you have four teams named to a national tournament. That creates semifinals and leads to a final, just like the current BCS title game. Yes, it would be tough to pick the four teams, but it would be fairer than choosing two. This year, I could live with LSU, Alabama, Oklahoma State and Stanford pretty easily.

Designate two of the current BCS bowl games each year for the semifinal. This year, the Fiesta Bowl could match LSU and Stanford, and the Sugar Bowl would have Alabama and Oklahoma State. Then the winners could play a week later in the Rose Bowl (although THE Rose Bowl would still be played on Jan. 1, because people need to do something after the parade). Rotate the sights among the BCS locations.

Oh, and cut out any bowl games that are played before Christmas. No exceptions. If college presidents say the student-athletes need time to prepare for finals in December, it's silly to have a football game on Dec. 20. Survival of the fittest can determine which bowls can make it when placed between Dec. 25 and Dec. 31. Might be a good economics lesson for the kids. Not to pick on the Beef O'Brady Bowl, but it probably wouldn't be missed by many if it exited.

That should lead to a more meaningful end to the college football season. Bowl games in themselves would be a nice reward for a good season. The semifinal games probably would make a ton of money.

I can't see a downside to any of it.

Back to the Ralph

2011-12-29T00:27:00.003-05:00

I returned to Ralph Wilson Stadium for the first time in a while on Saturday for the Bills' game with the Denver Broncos. You know how the game turned out, I figure. But I did want to make a few quick observations from the fan's point of view:

* Traffic problem? What traffic problem? It took 30 minutes to make a 30-minute drive from Buffalo to the Erie Community College parking lot. I think it takes me about, oh, 30 minutes to make the same drive on a Wednesday in June. It was funny to see the main lots, charging $25, so empty, while the lower-cost secondary lots were relatively full.

* It's never easy to pick up the biggest price-gouging item at the concession stands. My personal winner, though, was the soft pretzel with cheese. Six dollars. Ouch. By that standard, the $3.50 hot chocolate was a bargain.

* I wonder if Tim Tebow is already in the NFL Shop's Pro Bowl for moving merchandise. The single most popular jersey worn by fans to the game ... IN BUFFALO ... was Tebow's. There were a few other Broncos' shirts for Champ Bailey and John Elway, but Tebow was about a 5-to-1 winner.

On the Buffalo side, there were a variety of shirts worn -- a Fitzpatrick here, a Stevie Johnson there, a few Fred Jacksons, one Merriman, some Jim Kellys. That might point out one of the Bills' problems -- a few more stars not only would move merchandise, they might help the team's record.

* I was about 20 rows up on the Broncos' side of the field, and I'm told fans have developed a new habit this year -- standing constantly. When the fans in the first few rows stand, the fans behind them stand, and the fans behind them stand, and so on. My first thought was, I'm getting a little old for this. My second thought was, I expect this at a Rush concert, but not at the Ralph.

* Speaking of fan behavior, one traditional action remains in effect during Bills' games. When fans (and there aren't that many of them, for the record) need to yell something really insulting at opposing players, sometimes no doubt fueled by alcohol, they still rely on an old standby -- homosexual slurs. Now, remember, the opposing players in question can't hear the insult from a couple of dozen rows up, so all those fans are doing are revealing a lot about their own character.

NFL games are always a great spectacle, and this one was plenty of fun to watch from the Bills' standpoint. And by Bills' standards, everyone was relatively well-mannered -- meaning I didn't see any fights or vomiting. But with fewer than 50,000 fans on hand and temperatures in the 30's, it wasn't a typical game by any means. I'm glad I went, but a Disney-like atmosphere it's not.

Who's turn is it anyway?

2011-12-23T00:08:00.003-05:00

I'm starting to get the impression that the Republican Party is looking for someone, anyone, but Mitt Romney to win its Presidential nomination.

All together now ... "YOU THINK?!?"

Considering the election process hasn't started yet, I can't remember a more fascinating process without a single vote being cast. The polls have done up and down for most of the candidates, while Romney stays in the 20's for support.

If you recall, Michelle Bachmann got a bit of a boost early on when she bought her way to a victory in the straw poll at the Iowa State Fair. The bounce from that lasted, oh, about a news cycle.

Rick Perry thought he saw an opening, entered the race, and vaulted to the top of the polls. Then he started talking, people became rather fearful, and Perry's ratings plunged.

Perry was followed by Herman Cain, who seemed personable enough and had a simple economic plan. Too bad he knew as much about world affairs as I did, and may have cheated on his wife. See ya. By the way, his book called "This is Herman Cain - My Journey to the White House" was on the new releases table at Barnes & Noble today. Expect it to be in the discount section by about Dec. 27, if not sooner.

The Republicans, disapproving of a candidate charged with infidelity, then turned to Newt Gingrich. Now there's a man who knows something about infidelity. Gingrich, who at times at least has some thoughtful ideas, rose to the top of the polls. Then the "bad Newt" started coming out again in his public speeches, and suddenly bringing back 1994 didn't seem like such a great idea. Back down the ladder he went.

On the other side of the see-saw from Gingrich this time was Ron Paul, who at least sticks to his ideological guns under any circumstances. It's hard to think of him as the least bit electable considering his libertarian views, but he's not someone who panders to an audience. Right now, Paul and Romney are considered a toss-up in the Iowa caucus.

Bachmann and Rick Santorum might be thinking, "Is there time enough on the calendar to have our turn?" Tim Pawlenty might be thinking, "I probably look good to a few Republicans about now."

If I'm forced to guess what happens at this point, I would say Romney will win the nomination because there isn't much of an alternative. But while some Republicans will hold their nose and vote for him, few will have any enthusiasm and some will just stay home on Election Day. Barring further economic troubles, it's difficult to see that combination winning a general election.

But, as commentator Jeff Greenfield says, if the election were held today ... everyone would be surprised. I can't wait until votes are cast.

Great but not greatest

2011-12-18T17:53:00.002-05:00

Rob Ray, one of the North America's leading authors (sorry, couldn't resist), stirred up a good-sized debate on Facebook the other day. Apparently he said recently that there were no great American hockey players.

That sparked a series of responses. Some of them were along the lines of "What? What about Lafontaine, Tkachuk, Chelios, Housley..."

Then I thought about it. Rob may be on to something here.

Let's make a list of the greatest players of all time from anywhere. The top three is pretty set. You can change the order around all you want, but Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr and Gordie Howe are at the top of the list. Your order probably depends on what you value. Meanwhile, Mario Lemieux is number four.

If you were picking the top 12 players ever, particularly by position, you'd come up with a bunch of good candidates. Among forwards, the list for consideration probably would include Phil Esposito, Bobby Hull, Maurice Richard, Mark Messier and Guy Lafleur. Among defenseman, certainly you'd think Nicklas Lidstrom, Ray Bourque, Doug Harvey and Larry Robinson are in the hunt. At goal, I'd consider Patrick Roy, Dominik Hasek, Martin Brodeur, and Terry Sawchuck.

If you want to include some players from Russia who didn't play much over here, then the names of Tretiak, Yakushev and Fetisov would be considered.

See any Americans there?

The best American player might be Brett Hull, who scored 741 goals. The catch is that he is a joint citizen of the U.S. and Canada, although he played internationally for America. Let's say he doesn't count here for the sake of argument.

From there, my pick for the best U.S. player ever is Brian Leetch. Chris Chelios is right around him in the all-time rankings, and Pat LaFontaine might have been there had his career not been shortened. Mike Modano was really good for a long time.

Yes, the Americans listed are great players by most definitions. But they aren't the best of the best. I don't think you'd put any of them in the top 10 all-time.

Therefore, Rob just has a different definition of "great." His point is valid when examined that way. The top of the list is dominated by Canadians.

Man in the middle

2011-12-13T23:22:00.006-05:00

I recently received an e-mail from someone through ancestry.com. He said that he had noticed that I was related to the Budd family that lived in Meriden, Connecticut, about 100 years ago. By chance, his grandmother knew them well. The 1910 census indicated they were neighbors on Howard Ave.

He said he had some photos from those days, and would be happy to send them to me. He did. One of them had a picture of my grandmother at around the age of 5, give or take a year, with her mother and part of the neighbor's family. I had never seen a picture of my grandmother as a child; it was amazing how much she looked like her daughter (my mother) at a similar age.

There were also four photos of one of my grandmother's younger sisters, Eleanor. I happened to have the e-mail address of Eleanor's son in the state of Washington. Although I'm a little vague on the specifics, I believe Eleanor's first husband was killed when some sort of robbery went horribly wrong a long, long time ago (1942?). Later, after remarrying, she supposedly put a roast in the oven one day, laid down on the couch, and died.

I sent the photos off to the son via e-mail, with a note explaining what they were saying that I didn't know if he had ever seen them or knew anything about them. He wrote back and said that he had never seen a photograph of his mother from when she was a child, so to see these at this point in his life touched him greatly.

That's Eleanor on the right. The photo dates back almost 100 years, I would guess, since she was born in 1912. Even though she couldn't conceive of being remembered this way, it's nice to bring her memory back for a moment. And I was glad to play a role in getting the photos to their proper destination.

Richard may receive a number of holiday gifts this year, but I'll bet this one from someone he'll never meet will mean more to him than any of them.

Be notified of new posts via Twitter @WDX2BB

It's a Wonderful Run

2011-12-11T19:52:00.008-05:00

Seneca Falls, N.Y., hosts "It's a Wonderful Life" festival each year as a tribute to the movie, which was somewhat inspired by the little village in Central New York. Two years ago, four people got together and created a 5-kilometer race as part of the festivities.

In 2009, the event attracted more than 400 runners. That's quite good for a new race in a small town. Last year, organizers were stunned to have 800 runners, including me. This year, thanks in part to word of mouth advertising plus some media coverage, including an article in Runner's World, the race did more than 2,000 runners.

That's more than any race of that length in Western New York, by far. It's several hundred runners more than the Lindsay's Legacy run, held in November. Amazing. What a great economic engine for the festival.

I was back this past week for the third annual running, and have to tell you about the Saturday portion of the trip.

The race starts on a bridge that served as an inspiration for the suicide scene of the Jimmy Stewart movie. That alone is a little odd, especially to someone named Bailey (think of the film). I was waiting for the start with a couple of friends, when Karolyn Grimes was recognized. She was Zuzu in the movie, the young girl with the line at the end about an angel getting wings when a bell rings. Karolyn has made every one of the 11 festivals, signing autographs, selling her cookbook, and posing for countless pictures. She was nice enough to stop for a quick picture with me before the start of the race, and seemed to enjoy the fact that I was a favorite in the "Bailey Division" of the race. Last year, I was the only Bailey, and waited in vain for a trophy.

Grimes started the race with a replay of her final movie line ("Start running when you hear 'wings."), and we ran around the village at dusk. Near the end, as the race went down the main street of town, I again got to yell out at a temporarily renamed building, "Merry Christmas, you old Building and Loan." Then I finished, had some water, and headed back to the hotel to take a warm shower.

The fun really began when my wife and I got back to a bar/restaurant renamed "Martini's" for the weekend. The Lancaster Striders had a major club outing at the event, and they had gathered at Martini's for dinner.

When I walked in the bar portion of the place, my wife and I were greeted with a loud and unexpected chorus of "It's the Baileys!!!" I felt like I was in the drafty old house at the end of the movie, surrounded by friends. After a good laugh by all, I said, "I guess for the weekend, I should be named George Bailey," which got another happy response.

Then after a moment or two, I said, "All we need now is for Harry Bailey to get here." And someone pointed to my right and said, "He's right over there."

The festival uses "actors" to walk around town impersonating movie characters during the event. Sure enough, "Harry Bailey" was there in character, dressed in a military uniform and seated next to Grimes.

And at this point, I was no longer visiting a movie festival. I was in the movie.

Thinking quickly, I walked over to "Harry" and said, "I'm so glad you came home from the war, Harry," and gave him a big hug. Then someone yelled out, "Here's to George Bailey -- the richest man in town." I just wish I had the presence of mind to lead the bar in a chorus of "Hark the Herald Angels Sing."

You never know when you are going to have to be really, really fast on your feet. Whew.

Almost a big winner

2011-12-02T17:54:00.002-05:00

"You have won $15,000!"

Well, maybe not. But it's a good story for the blog.

Yesterday, the phone rang. I answered it and was asked by a woman if I listened to WBLK. I said no. She didn't seem to care, and said that the station was giving away $15,000 to selected listeners, and I had won.

When I asked how my name had been chosen, she was incredibly vague. She mumbled something about getting names from lists compiled around the area, including businesses. When asked what I thought I said, "Well, when something is too good to be true, it usually is. But go on."

She said there were four winners already of the prize, including people named Baker, Bailey and Bailey. Think she was going down the phone book or something? She added that I had to come over to the offices in order to pick up the check by Saturday afternoon before 4 p.m., and that there were 50 prizes to be awarded. If I didn't get over to the office, my prize would go to someone else.

OK. Fifty prizes times $15,000? The station's entire operating budget probably isn't that big. A look at the address given as the offices was not WBLK's, but in a rather, um, poor portion of the city. I don't know if there's a course for rip-off artists, but this woman flunked it.

So ... I mumbled something and got off the phone. I wrote down the name and number of the call from Caller ID. Then I called WBLK, to let someone know that someone was using the station for a scam. (Oddly, no one there seemed too concerned.) And then I got in touch with the police, and presented them with all the information I had. They said they would send someone over to the address to take a look. If I had gone, I might have wound up with a conk on the head and an empty wallet for my trouble.

It's too bad I'll never get to hear how the episode turns out. But, hopefully, the community will become a little safer.

Merry Xmas 2U

2011-11-30T21:44:00.001-05:00

Does it work? We report, you decide.

Joining the club

2011-11-25T23:54:00.004-05:00

I joined a not-so-exclusive club late Thursday night/early Friday morning. I went shopping.

The so-called "Black Friday" madness has certainly come into its own during the past few years. The starting times have gotten earlier and earlier in that time, to the point where a 6 a.m. opening seems almost quaint. But the stores took it up a notch this year. Some stores actually were opened on Thanksgiving Day, while others decided to unlock the doors at midnight or so.

I've never taken part in this odd tradition. I'm never up early enough, for one thing, often due to work. And while I like to save money as well as the next fellow, usually I figure such purchases can wait -- especially when your holiday shopping list in incredibly small.

This time, though, a few of the stars lined up correctly. I got out of work at 11:50 p.m., and a Kohl's wasn't very far out of my way while driving home. Besides, I had been mailed a coupon good for 15 percent off on all purchases. I didn't really need anything, but I figured the scene would be worth a visit.

I got to the store about 12:10 p.m. The parking lot was more crowded than I've ever seen it; granted, I usually go there at 1 on a weekday so by my personal standards I'm surprised the store is still in business. (What? People shop at night and on weekends?)

When I got inside, a couple of sights struck me. One, I saw shopping carts that already had been filled up. Remember, it's now about 12:11, so someone had to work really, really fast. Then I saw people on their phones, apparently coordinating purchases with spouses in other locations. If the military had used such precision in its operations, we might have been out of Iraq five years ago.

I strolled around and saw that pants were marked down $10, and the coupon added another $7 discount. OK, I can always use another pair of pants in the drawer. I got in the line that resembled a snake as it went through the store. I got in the back and slowly edged along. Naturally, I turned on my stop watch at the beginning -- in comes from running, I think -- and got to the cashier after 12 minutes. Not bad, considering.

Before cashing out and boosting the economy, I talked to the woman who was directing traffic as she sent shoppers to the next available register. I asked her when her shift ended, and she said 8:30 a.m. In other words, an all-nighter.

Then she added, "I'm a seasonal hire. So this is my first night on the job."

Wow. Welcome to the world of retail.

I felt a little torn by the whole visit. As someone who believes in free markets, part of me says that stores should be able to open anytime they like. If they think they can make more money this way, fine.

Still, it feels like we're losing something in terms of quality of life. It was always nice to see the tranquil feeling that comes while seeing everything closed on Thanksgiving or around Christmas. While the shoppers have the choice to participate in the madness, the employees don't. Can you imagine starting a job that way?

Sounds like the free-marketers are winning this one, though. Once you knock down the wall, it ain't going back up.

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Eye for an eye

2011-11-22T21:37:00.003-05:00

The Buffalo Sabres play the Boston Bruins Wednesday night in Buffalo. It's probably one of the most anticipated games of the season ... for, perhaps, all of the wrong reasons.

Let's review for a moment. Last week, a loose puck floated into the Sabres' end in a game in Boston. Ryan Miller, the Sabres' goalie went out to get the puck and knock it away to prevent a possible breakaway. Milan Lucic, the Bruins' physical forward who won't be described as shifty any time soon, knocked (if you are a Sabres' fan, use "slammed" instead) Miller over. Miller went down, the referee stopped play, and there was a mild scrum afterwards as a few Sabres gave Lucic a shove. Lucic picked up a two-minute charging penalty.

The Sabres seemed to go down meekly after that, and reaction from there quickly multiplied. On one hand, the Sabres weren't happy that someone had hit their goaltender -- it's one of the unwritten laws of the game, although officials only treat goalies a little different than skaters when it comes to contact in open ice. The fans and media all pounded the Sabres for their timid reaction to the play, in some cases saying the team was "soft." NHL discipline czar Brendan Shanahan reviewed the play and decided not to hand out a suspension on the play, even though Miller suffered a concussion and has not returned to action yet.

The episode points out that there's something of a faultline when it comes to such matters along the fan base of hockey.

One on side is the "old time hockey" crowd, for lack of a better name. This is the crowd that likes a good hit and loves a good fight. These are the ones who called for the firing of Ruff and/or the trading of some current Sabres for some tough guys.

The other side sees actions like this and wonders what the fuss is all about. Those fans don't want to see the Sabres take the law into their own hands -- that's why we have referees. "Frontier justice" supposedly went out with the Jesse James era.

Both sides have a right to their viewpoint. The traditionalists grew up with hockey that was played in a certain way, and like it. The newcomers prefer to watch speed and skill, and if they don't get it, they stay home or switch the channel. Hockey always has had some trouble attracting the newcomers, particularly in areas where the game isn't part of the culture (think the Mason-Dixon Line and south). It doesn't want to offend the old fans, but wants to attract new ones. Remember, it's the only major team sport that allows fighting within the context of the game.

The new way of thinking has been winning the argument over the last 30 years, but an episode like this comes up every so often and reminds us that we have a ways to go before reaching any sort of settlement. In fact, an agreement by a Congressional super-committee on budget cuts seems more likely.

On Wednesday, Lucic will be booed by the sellout crowd when he comes out on the ice and touches the puck. He'll be drawn into a fight by one of the Sabres, they will exchange punches for a while and sit in the penalty box for five minutes, and the game will go on. Some sort of point will be proven, I guess. We'll then more or less forget about it.

And so it goes.

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Three quick notes

2011-11-20T17:31:00.004-05:00

1. It's much too early to come to a great many conclusions about the mess involving the Penn State football program. The oddest part for me came when, at some point, I said to myself, "well, at least this isn't happening to my alma mater."

Then, one night, the news about the Syracuse University basketball team broke.

There's an awful lot to study here involving both situations, and a lot of questions still have to be answered. It's interesting that author Glenn Stout put on Facebook that we'd be hearing more about such scandals right after the Penn State situation broke. And it only took him 10 days for him to be right.

2. Sorry to hear about the death of Milt Ellis, one of the true gentlemen I've encountered in life. I've told the story here about splitting some public address duties with Milt at Sabres' games many years ago, and I was the one with the wimpy voice.

Milt always was a hard act to follow. He always had a smile when he saw me, and was always optimistic about Syracuse football and basketball. He'll be missed.

3. Heard a story from a reliable source that a well-dressed man hopped into a car with the license plate EC-1, and drove off from the Rath Building in Buffalo the day after the election. The car was spotted at a couple of different times in the next few minutes, and the driver was talking on a cell phone without a hands-free device both times.

Think Chris Collins will do that once he is a private citizen again?

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Rooting for the home team

2011-11-13T00:43:00.004-05:00

It's rare that a movie gets me to thinking about hockey, but today was such a day. And I wasn't even watching "Slap Shot" or "Miracle."

I saw "Gasland." This is a documentary about fracking.

Fracking is the short-hand name for the technique of drilling under ground and taking natural gas out. There are huge reserves under much of the United States, although it's a little difficult to get at them. And things can go wrong.

Josh Fox made the documentary, touring the country to interview people and show problems. The natural gas industry has spent some time knocking down some of the film's contents, and there's little doubt that the motion picture could have been put together a little better and more orderly.

Still, Fox makes the point that there do seem to be some dangers and issues involved. There are enough scenes of tap water looking like motor oil and rivers catching on fire to get that across. To play movie critic, it's probably worth your time to see it if you want to learn more about the matter, particularly from one side. In fact, I'll bet it convinced some viewers that we need to stop, or at least slow, fracking in ecologically sensitive areas. Like, my back yard, and yours.

That brings us to Terry Pegula.

He was in the energy business, eventually selling East Resources to Royal Dutch Shell for $4.7 billion. That's billion, with a B.

Since then, Pegula has purchased the Buffalo Sabres and lifted all financial restrictions from the franchise. He says his goal is to win multiple Stanley Cups; he added that if he wants to make more money he can always drill another well.
This approach has made Pegula more popular than anyone else in Western New York in record time. None of the area's franchise owners have ever done that, And Pegula, who on a personal level seems like a good person, put his money where his mouth is, shelling out enough money to put the Sabres right up against the salary cap. And making major improvements to the Sabres' arena. And buying the Rochester Americans in order to move the team's minor-league affiliate there.

And thus the conflict, for some. To quote a Philadelphia Inquirer article, "The sale of East Resources included a Marcellus Shale lease hold for more than 650,000 acres in the Appalachian Basin, a major contributor to the natural-gas supply in the United States." The area roughly extends north to a line in upstate New York going from Buffalo to Syracuse, thus covering much of Erie County and all of Cattaragus, Chautauqua and Allegany Counties for starters.

There are plenty of people out there who are fighting the establishment or expansion of fracking in certain areas. It's been talked about in Western New York. I'll bet some of them are hockey fans.

Does it matter to them that the money spent to improve the hockey team was gained through fracking? Does the fact that Pegula has sold his business make a difference, even if he remains a firm advocate of the concept?

I don't recall this sort of issue popping up in sports before. No one complained that Ralph Wilson made major money from trucking, or that the Knox brothers picked their parents well. Once we learned what John Rigas did, he was in jail ... and thus a moral conflict never came up.

Sometimes, it's not easy to be a fan.

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Decided, in a sense

2011-11-06T23:22:00.004-05:00

Let me try out a theory here.

The election for Erie County Executive will be held on Tuesday. The latest poll says the vote is the proverbial too close to call, 48 to 48 percent.

Off the top of my head, I'd say that Mark Poloncarz, the challenger, has a decent chance of willing the election. (Brilliant, eh?) I'd also say that Chris Collins, the incumbent, has -- if the poll numbers are correct -- already lost it.

Let me think this through. Four years ago, Collins ran as something of an anti-politician. He promised he would bring fiscal sanity to government, in an effort to solve the financial problems that sent Erie County to "adult supervision" in the form of a control board before that. By the way, it's interesting that a Republican, Joel Giambra, was in charge before that election, and that party wasn't "blamed" for those problems by voters.

Collins won that election by a 64-34 margin. That's pretty impressive under any circumstances, and gave him a lot of political capital that he has wielded in the past four years. That's fine, it's the way the game is played.

Since then, there's no doubt that Collins has more or less done what he said he would do in several areas. The control board is gone, albeit because Collins took some of the federal stimulus money and, instead of hiring people, used that money to help balance the budget. Some funding for cultural organizations was cut, causing all sorts of games to go on over budgets. Most of the last round of layoffs came at the expense of social services, which could be considered "playing to the political base" by cynics.

Collins has lost about 16 percentage points of support of the electorate. He has gone from 64 to around 48. If it's 15 points, he'll win according to the poll. If it's 17 points, he'll lose. Either way, is that a whole lot of comfort?

Maybe some local voters have learned the lesson that government shouldn't be run like a business in every way because it isn't a business. Run efficiently? Yes. But the functions are obviously different. For example, a government probably shouldn't try to cut out funding for eyeglasses and hearing aids for the needy, as Collins tried to do, even if it might save some money. If people can't see, they can't work many places.

And County Executives can't be CEO's, no matter what they think. CEO's are used to doing whatever the heck they want, including giving contracts to friends, without any of those pesky checks and balances provided by legislatures and courts.

The campaign, particularly in the television ads, became a referendum on Collins' tenure. Collins has dragged out the national Republican playbook of saying Poloncarz is beholden to unions and will raise taxes, but Poloncarz hasn't provided a whole lot of ammunition there. The most effective ad for the Democrat might have been done by a union, which put up a counter on the screen that went from 0 to 13,000 in 30 seconds -- reflecting the job losses in Erie County in the past four years. Even if Collins can't be blamed for all of, or even many of, the economic ills of the area, it's not exactly a sign of effective job creation either.

What can you do if people seem to like you less the more you appear in public? Keep your face out of TV commercials on Monday? Stay in the (Delaware Park) Rose Garden? It's a tough one, and the answer to how well Collins did it may come on Tuesday.

No matter what happens, losing 16 percentage points of your popularity while fulfilling your campaign promises is a neat trick. It might make some people a little more humble, a little more willing to compromise. But even one friend of Collins says that the current County Executive has trouble talking without using the word "I." Hard to picture that changing, but he may have to do so. Opponents would certainly notice the numbers during a second Collins Administration, if there is one. Even the allies could afford to be a little more independent.

The turnout figures could change what the final numbers look like, and Collins could win by as many as 10 points -- although I doubt it. No matter what happens, though, from a little more than a day out from the election results, it sure looks like the county's political landscape is about to shift. Will be drastically or slightly? I'll get back to you on that one.

Attention Kmart crooks

2011-11-02T19:00:00.003-04:00

It's quite an experience to visit Kmart these days. Most of the stores are on the old side and need "refreshing." In fact, most of the customers could use refreshing themselves.

Today I visited to pick up some video cassettes, a useful tool for those of us unwilling to spend the money to join the DVR revolution which was fought and won around the time of World War II, it seems. One of the characters spotted along the way was a guy with a Bills' logo tattooed on the front of his neck. I had the odd urge to say, "What did the Bills ever do for you to justify that?" but resisted.

When I was finished paying for the cassettes at the checkout register, I started to go to my car when a guy behind me practically ran over me to head for the front doors. Based on a look at his neck, he wasn't a Bills' fan. At first I just thought, well, another odd guy at Kmart. Then our shopper got to the door, where he was greeted by not one, not two, but four security guards.

"We are asking you about the unpurchased items you have in your clothing. If you cooperate with us, we will not call the police," the head security guard said.

The shopper started to mumble something without making a whole lot of sense. The rules were repeated. I started to try to figure out a way to escape, since our pal looked capable of odd behavior (you never know when he might seek out a hostage). Before getting out the other door, though, there was a small shakedown of his pockets. Suddenly, there were candy bars and jewelry falling out of his pockets and landing on the floor. The discount shopper tried to say that jewelry wasn't sold at Kmart, but he lost that argument pretty quickly. Jewelry and candy bars? There's an interesting combination to steal.

I was let out the other door to the comparitive safety of the parking lot. Can't say I've ever seen that sort of incident at a store before, but I'm a little surprised that the guy was offered a plea bargain right off the bat.

Too bad I'll never know how the story ended. And neither will you.

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What's next?

2011-11-02T00:05:00.004-04:00

I have to believe one of the most fascinating figures in sports today is Tim Tebow.

In fact, I just figured out that he reminds me a bit of ... Doug Flutie. Not in body type, of course.

Flutie, you might remember, came out of Boston College as something of a folk hero. He was very small by college football standards -- heck, he was small by gym class standards -- but he put Boston College on the national radar almost single-handedly by leading the Eagles into the Top 10. There was doubt about his pro potential, but he was so popular that there was fan pressure on the Bills to draft him number one. Flutie solved that issue by jumping to the United States Football League early, although the Bills did OK with someone named Bruce Smith.

Flutie eventually arrived in the NFL, played a little without distinction, jumped to the CFL where he was one of the all-time greats, came back to the U.S., made the Pro Bowl once with Buffalo, and won more games than he lost as a starter. You still could start a debate about him now.

Tebow made about the same impact in college at Florida, also winning a Heisman Trophy. Tebow was big for a college quarterback -- heck, he was big for a fullback -- and he seemed more like an extra running back who could throw a little rather than the classic passer. But his intangibles were off the chart, and Florida prospered.

Tebow figured to get some coaching at Denver and not be ready to step in right away, and that's more or less what happened in his rookie year last year. This year, the Broncos had an open competition at QB, and Kyle Orton was declared the winner ... while Tebow was third, behind Brady Quinn. But the fan base put up billboards supporting him, and the Broncos have given him a shot the next two weeks. He's been poor statistically, but did somehow lead Denver to a great comeback win over Miami. Tebow was bad enough against Detroit Sunday that coach John Fox had to think it over when asked about the coming week's starting quarterback before sticking with Tebow.

There's one extra element with the Tebow story that adds a twist. Tebow is practically the poster boy for "muscular Christianity." He's gone on missions for his church in the summer, no doubt calls his mother regularly, and so forth. While the usual rule in sports fandom is "root for the laundry" -- that is to say, root for anyone wearing the uniform -- I'm sure there are bunches of people out there who are Tebow fans first. And not all of them live in Gainesville, Florida. Those fans are the ones that pushed his autobiography up the best-seller list, making him at the time the only third-string QB to be so successful in publishing pursuits.

The Broncos have a first-round pick, and first-round money, invested in Tebow, and they need to find out if he can play. He needs to play, too. But it's impossible to know just how long of a leash he has. In the meantime, I always wondered what went wrong with Quinn, who sank through the first round of the draft in Cleveland, didn't do much there and was traded for 20 cents on the dollar to the Broncos, where he hasn't been in the discussion lately.

It's a tough spot, and I don't have any more easy answers than anyone else. I'd suggest the Broncos send Tebow to Triple-A, or at least Canada, but football doesn't work that way. John Elway is in charge of the Broncos' operations now, and he is someone who knows a bit about quarterbacking. He and coach John Fox are going to earn their money on this one.

(After the fact, I discovered I had read a column by Phil Taylor in Sports Illustrated a couple of weeks ago that made similar points. Didn't think of it until later, but I guess it had an effect on my thinking.)

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Quick hockey tip

2011-10-31T21:54:00.002-04:00

Here's something they don't teach in hockey school.

After you score a goal, be careful who you hug.

A Swedish player found this out the hard way the other day:

Here we go again

2011-10-23T18:27:00.002-04:00

Apparently I'm a published author. Again.

I worked on "Rayzor's Edge," the autobiography of Rob Ray, a few years ago. I was thrilled to see it become one of the best-selling hockey books of the season, as the hardcover copies disappeared from the bookstores in less than a month. At one point, it was number one on Amazon.com's list of top selling winter sports books. Considering that Dorothy Hamill is much more well known nationally than Ray, I think we did something right.

The book eventually went into paperback, although I had heard stories that the publisher was in financial trouble. The new version was printed, but came out after the playoffs and didn't get a great deal of promotion.

Sure enough, the publisher went bankrupt a couple of months later. I became one in a long line of creditors from Sports Publishing. I didn't even know how much money they owed me until the court case was closed, a case that apparently only made the lawyers and bankers happy since they got first claim on leftover assets. I did get a $2,000 advance, but lost more than $2,000 due to the bankruptcy. Oh well.

But last spring, a letter came out of the blue from Skyhorse Publishing. It had purchased the rights to Sports Publishing's catalog, and had picked "Rayzor's Edge" for reprinting this fall. As I said to Rob in a note, this was money from heaven.
Skyhorse changed its mind about adding an epilogue, which seemed like it would have been the logical move to make after a few years.

But the book is apparently out. Amazon.com is advertising that it is available immediately. You can find a copy here.

The funny thing is, I looked in the local Barnes and Noble for a copy this morning, and it was nowhere to be found. I haven't heard of any autographing sessions requests either. I do have pens at the ready, though.

People seemed to like the book, although probably not enough to buy the same words from a different publisher. Rob's story is quite relevant in the light of the concussion issues that NHL players have had lately (Rob says in the book he had five concussions in his career). For those who missed it the first time around, though, here's your second chance.

Use your head

2011-10-21T00:39:00.002-04:00

I think I've figured out what the big story in sports over the next 10 years, minimum, is going to be.

Head injuries.

The evidence is piling up quickly when it comes to contact sports. Football players are dying far too young, and those who survive are often impaired. Stories about alumni gatherings of football teams, particularly in the pro ranks, are quickly turning into sad tales about the disabilities these ex-athletes now have.

And no wonder. Linemen have said they go through the equivalent of a car crash on every single snap. And if you haven't noticed, the players are getting bigger, faster and stronger -- thus making the collisions worse by the year.

In hockey, a few current enforcers died over the summer. The ex-players are showing signs of problems as well. A brain scan of Rick Martin, hardly a tough guy, showed damage. Sabre fans remember in the late 1970's when he took a nasty fall and landed on his head. He showed up for his next game, quite a bit later, in a helmet for the first time.

Here's the fundamental problem that face those who run contact sports. How do they make it more safe for the players without taking out some of the excitement that attracts fans?

If they don't do something, and soon, the problems are going to mount. They are going to get the reputation for turning their players into something close to "disposable" -- they play a few years, get their heads knocked around, and then are sent off eventually ill-equipped to handle society's challenges. There will be someone to take his place, eager to collect the money and glory for a while.

And you can guess what is coming too -- lawsuits. By the truckload.

We've gotten better at dealing with concussions during the past few years. Baseline teams are mandatory in many sports, and players aren't rushed back into action so quickly after "a rung bell."

But before long, sports leagues are going to have to take a look at how to make their games safer. The NFL has tried to cut down on the collisions on kickoff returns this year. The NHL is trying to be pro-active on the matter; league officials have to be praying for the return of one of its greatest stars, Sidney Crosby, from a concussion. (For more on the NHL, check out Ken Dryden's superb piece from Grantland, which wonders how much longer fighting in hockey can be tolerated.)

This line of thinking probably will filter down into other levels, such as the colleges. Other contact sports have to ponder the situation as well. Speaking as someone familiar with indoor lacrosse, which features sticks flying around heads, concussions have to be a concern as well.

I don't want to read any more stories about ex-football players like John Mackey, whose mental state deterioriated quickly in the final years of his life. But I know I will. I also don't want to read any more stories that end like those of late NHL players Derek Boogaard, Rick Rypien, and Wade Belak. We need to take action soon to make sure we don't.

The next step

2011-10-17T00:07:00.003-04:00

Way back in 2008, I wrote a blog about how The Sporting News was going to a biweekly format, and wondered about the publication's future.

Now three years later, I'm looking pretty good.

The digital publication mentioned didn't last long, at least in that incarnation. And the biweekly version has stopped publishing. It will go to a monthly now, merging with its preview magazines. I have no idea how that is going to work, and I have no idea how my subscription is going to work.

I do know that a run that dates back to the 1880's is essentially over, and there's something sad about that.

I liked what the Sporting News had been doing in the last couple of years. They had come up with a formula of providing interesting information that wasn't overly timely. There were some good features and unusual story angles. I didn't rush to read it, like I do most times for Sports Illustrated, but I liked it.

But that's over. The magazine said it plans to go back to some sort of daily format down the road in the relatively near future. That may not be a bad idea, in an age when the iPad is starting to catch on. The first time around probably was ahead of its time, and The Sporting News might become that "second read" that the National wanted to be without having to deal with the distribution problems that ruined the National about 20 years ago.

Still, I've been reading The Sporting News since 1965, and it was a thrill to write for them briefly in the late 1990's. It's not a happy time.

Executive decision

2011-10-14T18:34:00.003-04:00

It's been an interesting week in the political business here in Erie County.

We have an incumbent, Republican Chris Collins, who was overwhelmingly elected to the office four years ago. Collins ran on the proverbial "I'm a businessman, not a politician" platform that has proved popular in some cases. In this case, county government was a mess, with a control board overseeing expenditures, and Collins promised to clean that up.

Here we are in 2011, and Collins is running for reelection. He is running against Mark Poloncarz, the County's Comptroller. It figured to be an uphill climb for Poloncarz, mainly because of money. Collins has shown an ability to tap into donors to pile up cash in his bank account.

On Sunday, a poll came out on the race. Surprisingly, Collins only led by a couple of points, within the statistical error built into the survey. In other words, it's too close to call. The Poloncarz people were quick to point out what that might mean to his campaign, perhaps anticipating the idea that a donation would no longer be money down the drain. The Collins staff apparently cancelled a public appearance, said their own polling had their man well ahead (without releasing anything), and attacked the polling methods. In other words, the Collins staff said "Holy mackerel, this isn't good" in a variety of ways.

Therefore, we seem to have a horse race. And the reason is fascinating. I looked at the complete poll results, and "everyone" has agreed that Collins has more or less done what he said he would four years ago. He's balanced the budget and shrunk government. However, Collins has gone about his business in such odd ways that a percentage of people dislike him personally enough to not vote for him no matter what he does. That covers everything from charges of ignoring the city in favor of suburban issues (guess where this Republican's votes come from) to asking to lead a parade earlier this year. Among other things.

It sounds like a good recipe for the "Rose Garden" strategy, where a candidate stays out of sight and let's others do the talking for him. Why should your face if it only reminds people of what they think of you? That's a little harder when you don't live in the White House, of course.

The two men got together for their first public debate on Thursday. It was televised on public television. While it's easy to wonder how many people watched it, it certainly creates some conversation that pops up in other areas (radio, newspaper, TV, Internet).

It was something of a coming-out party for Poloncarz, who probably has never been on the news for longer than 20 seconds for a sound bite on county finances. This was a chance to see them both in action for an hour without commercials.

Collins certainly stuck to his talking points about cleaning up county government and keeping taxes low. He had some trouble, for example, when it came to why he took stimulus money that was designed to put people to work and put it in the county bank account to keep taxes down. The incumbent always has a hard time in these debates, because he has to defend a record while the challenge can merely say what he would have done and would do. But Collins did seem nervous and sometimes didn't come within a 3-wood of answering the question, which is always annoying. He also brought a typical bit of arrogance with him -- as one person put it, "He's the smartest person in the room ... just ask him."

Still, it sure seems like Poloncarz missed an opportunity. He seemed to know his facts and figures and attacked Collins whenever possible right after saying "good evening." But I wouldn't call his performance "warm and fuzzy" either.

I'm a firm believer that the more optimistic candidate often wins close elections, as people prefer to vote for candidates who offer a little sunshine down the road. Poloncarz never did that in an hour.

I still think Collins ranks as the favorite to win this race, mostly because of money. But there's a lot of anger out there at the current County Executive over his style of governance, and there's still plenty of time to turn that into votes and an upset win.

In other words, I can't wait to see what happens next.

Easy question

2011-10-12T17:53:00.003-04:00

Mensa's monthly magazine often asks a question for the general membership, and then prints the best answers. This month, the designated question was along the lines of "When were you ever speechless?"

I got a good answer for that one.

I was working at WEBR Radio, no doubt on the early shift sometime in the mid-1980's. That means a starting time of about 5 a.m. Yawn.

The morning drive was starting to wind down about 8:30 a.m. when I went into the main news room. There were donuts on the writer-reporter's desk there for general consumption. At that point in my life, I never turned down a free cruller. I grabbed and started eating.

Suddenly, a rather short man appeared at the door to the news room. "WHAT ARE YOU EATING???!!!" he shouted. "THAT IS ONE OF THE MOST OBSCENE THINGS I'VE EVER SEEN!!! PUT IT DOWN NOW!!!"

He had curly hair, and I knew he looked familiar. But I had no idea what his name was. In other words, a total blank. Rather than try to fight back with someone who was well equipped to out-shout me, I said nothing and could only manage a giggle. After 20 more seconds of abuse, I at least stuck out my hand and shook it.

Then, walking out of the newsroom, the light bulb went on. It was Richard Simmons. Of course. I'm not sure why he was in our building, but he hadn't exactly been part of the culture for a few years at that point.

Simmons thus entered my list of "most famous people to shake my hand," ranking well behind Jimmy Carter. The full list, though, is another column.

Forever a Raider

2011-10-08T21:04:00.002-04:00

I never had the chance to see Al Davis interviewed over the years. The closest I came to him was when I saw him come out of an elevator at a Buffalo Bills game, wearing a silver and black Raiders sweatsuit that was a little gaudy and odd.

Davis died earlier today, and much will be said about a football career that was unique. At some point in the past decade, Davis went from "crazy like a fox" to just plain ... well, odd. But here's the way I prefer to remember Davis. It's from a story that veteran football writer Larry Felser, I think, passed on to me at some point.

Davis was briefly the Commissioner of the American Football League, and worked with a man named Jack Horrigan, who served in public relations for the Bills and for the league. By all accounts, Horrigan was one of the best people you'd ever want to meet, and also one of the most devout.

Horrigan was dying in 1973; he passed away in June of that year. Shortly before that, Davis, who was Jewish, went into a church and lit a candle for Horrigan. As Davis started to walk away, he was told by someone in the church that he couldn't leave the candle unattended because of fire laws. Davis said fine, went back to the candle and sat down in front of it. He stayed there until the candle was extinguished.

Al Davis was a complex figure, but that side of him should be remembered today too.

History

2011-09-29T23:40:00.002-04:00

Someone ought to ask the question.

Was Wednesday night the most dramatic night of sports action ever?

Yes, there have been better games than (pick one from Wednesday), but it's difficult to believe there have been better nights. Ever. Let's review.

With one day left in the long baseball season, no postseason matchup was set in terms of location. So that meant games involving Milwaukee and Arizona in the National League, and Texas and Detroit in the American League had meeting. All four could have won the home field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

Fine. We know that wasn't the big story of the night. In the American League, we had Boston trying to fight off an historic collapse. The Red Sox, running on fumes for a month, were trying to extend their season while playing in Baltimore. In Tampa, the Rays were trying to complete a stunning comeback on their low budget. They faced the Yankees, who had first place clinched and were concentrating mostly on getting ready for the postseason.

In the National League, the Braves had their own September woes and had thrown away the wild-card lead. They were hosting the first-place Phillies, while the Cardinals were going up against lowly Houston. Playoff games loomed in both leagues; indeed, it looked at times like we might have two of them on Thursday night.

Out of the four big games, only one was a blowout. Houston finally realized it was a 100-loss team and went down meekly. But the Cardinals hadn't clinched anything yet. And the Braves were hanging on against the Phillies, who suited up many of their regulars for most if not all of the game.

On the other side, the Red Sox and Orioles went back and forth for a while. The Yankees started a pitcher that no one outside of Scranton had heard of, but jumped off to a 7-0 lead on David Price.

By the time 11 o'clock rolled around, I looked up and realized that I had been watching baseball for four hours and nothing had been determined in the identity of the two wild-card spots. Amazing.

You know how this turned out by now. The Braves blew a lead in the ninth and lost in extra innings. The Rays got a home run with two strikes and two outs in the bottom of the ninth to tie the Yankees. The Red Sox, unbeaten entering the ninth inning and one strike away from a win, lost. And Tampa Bay got a walk-off homer from Evan Longoria, three minutes after the Orioles' win, to clinch the playoff spot.

For a sports fan, has it ever been better than that? One game, maybe. Three games that will never be forgotten? Nope.

I doubt the NFL has had a day like it. While there have been good playoff games on the same day, the interlocking nature of baseball's finish might give it the dramatic edge. Maybe there have been a couple of Game Sevens in hockey that went into overtime. All I can come up with is a flurry of buzzer-beaters in the NCAA tournament on a given day. But mix the on-field dramatics with the scoreboard watching, and I think this wins.

I didn't like the outcome -- although as a Red Sox I figured Boston could lose a best-of-five series in two games the way the team was playing -- but it was an amazing experience to watch.

Tell me again why people watch "Dancing with the Stars" or "Survivor" instead of live sports events.

Good news

2011-09-23T20:12:00.003-04:00

Our long national nightmare may be ending.

More than 10 years ago, "Who's Line Is It Anyway?" was one of my favorite television programs. It was an American version of a British show that had been on Comedy Central for a while, with many of the same cast members.

The program was brilliant. Yes, it was designed to be a very cheap alternative for ABC while "Friends" was in the midst of its huge run. But it was also a chance to see the best improv comics in the business at work. Ryan Stiles, Colin Mochrie and Wayne Brady were regulars, and others (Brad Sherwood, Greg Proops) filled in a fourth spot semi-regularly. Drew Carey was the host; perhaps you've heard of him. The best things that can be said about the show is that it appealed to people who never watched television otherwise. Like me.

Then it went off ABC, and the reruns moved over to ABC Family. They have been there ever since, on and off for about a decade. Every so often, "Who's Line?" pops up at some odd time slot, like midnight to 1 a.m. Eastern. Even though the Monica Lewinsky jokes are dated, it's still great fun to watch. Mochrie and Sherwood still do their act on the road; they've come to Buffalo a couple of times in the past few years and the laughter never stops.

Now comes word, on Facebook of all places, that another improv comedy show is coming to ABC. It is called "Trust Us With Your Life." Apparently a guest comes on and gives an anecdote about his life. The improvisers will then recreate that story in front of a live studio audience.

The program apparently will be taped in Great Britain sometime in late October. And here's the really good news. The host is the brilliant Fred Willard, and the comics are Mochrie, Brady, and Jonathan Mangum.

I won't even ask why the show is being taped in England and then shown in America. I won't even ask when the show will be on the air, and whether it will get several weeks to prove itself.

I'm just waiting to see the finished product on the air.

Updated thesis

2011-09-20T23:08:00.003-04:00

Way back in the 1976-77 school year, when I was a senior, a friend of mine was writing a paper for his political science class. I'm not sure at this point exactly what the assignment was, but he was looking for something fresh to say about the 1976 political campaign.

Without a whole lot of thinking, I came up with the "least objectionable candidate" theory.

This came from a concept discussed in the television business. People didn't have a great many choices back then in the pre-cable/dish days, and sometimes didn't seek out a particular program that filled them with enthusiasm. There weren't many that fit that description. So, they sat in front of the set and flicked the channel selector, looking for something, anything, that they could tolerate. The network boys called it "the least objectionable program" philosophy.

I said that in a relatively wide-open political year, it's often not a matter of generating enthusiasm over a wide portion of the party. Sometimes it's enough to be a good second choice, someone voters can say "yeah, I could live with him." Or these days, her.

In the case of 1976, Jimmy Carter wasn't the ideal candidate, but he was the last man standing. Scoop Jackson had some flaws mostly centered on a pro-defense platform. George Wallace, with all his baggage, wasn't going to get the nomination. Mo Udall was hilarious but not that well known nationally. Fred Harris was too far left. Birch Bayh flamed out in no time in the primaries. Frank Church and Jerry Brown came along late in the process and made some noise, but it was essentially too late.

Let's compare that to what we have now in the Republican Party. The generic Republican Presidential candidate, John Doe, beats Barack Obama, mostly because of the weak economy. However, the declared candidates don't do nearly as well.

Rick Perry has generated some enthusiasm and is obviously shrewd, but he has said more than enough silly things over the years to drag him down. Mitt Romney generates no enthusiasm among the rank and file, and his Massachusetts health care plan is too close to "Obama-care" for the liking of many. Michele Bachmann has been totally unpredictable on the campaign trail, and not in a good way. John Huntsman is a former member of the Obama Administration, which won't sell well at primary time. Ron Paul has never shown that his libertarian views can capture anything more than a niche. Newt Gingrich mixed some good philosophical concepts and thinking with some strange ideas and enough baggage to fill a jumbojet. The other announced candidates are off the radar and don't matter at the moment.

So ... who comes closest to the generic candidate? Political candidate James Carville said in a speech in Buffalo Monday night that he's heard that both Sarah Palin and Chris Christie are ready to run. It's a little tough to take Palin too seriously. Her next interesting political thought will be her first, as her constant interviews on Fox News usually show.

But Christie, now that's a different story. He certainly has created a bit of stir with his work in New Jersey, leaving no doubt who is in charge. Christie is popular with Republicans. The drawbacks are that he said he wouldn't run, not a major inconvenience, and he's only been in office for a short time.

Christie sure looks like the least objectionable candidate to me. That means he probably could see a path to the White House, at least at this time. Anyone with enough of an ego to run for office obviously would notice that, and think long and hard about it.

By the way, the paper got an A-minus. I believe the professor, one of the toughest markers in the political science deparment, wrote, "I have no quarrel with your thesis."

The old college try

2011-09-15T00:29:00.002-04:00

The calendar year of 2011 hasn't been too good for college football so far.

The scandals and problems have been quite bad this year. Miami of Florida probably is the poster boy for the year, or more specifically, Nevin Shapiro is the poster boy. If you haven't been paying attention, Shapiro threw tons of money at Miami's players just so that they would hang out with him. Then when Shapiro was thrown in jail for gathering that money in illegal ways, the players never went to see him in jail. Shapiro was rather offended by this lack of loyalty, so he started to do his canary impression to Yahoo! Sports.

I wrote a joke for Five Spot in the paper about it. Basically, he paid people like Willis McGahee -- OK, not my favorite athlete -- to pretend to like him.

I never can understand the thought processes of boosters. Every so often you hear about someone who thinks he has the Constitutional right to throw money or other benefits at college players. Yikes, give it to the university scholarship fund. Maybe they'll give it to a kid who needs it to get an education; he or she is sure to grow up smarter than you are.

At least Ohio State's woes made a little more sense. Some of its players sold memorabilia for money or in exchange for tattoos. While that was good for proverbial slap on the wrist, coach Jim Tressel allegedly knew about some of these actions and then lied about it. That fact eventually led him out the door.

And recently, it was alleged that Fresno State's football players -- up to 24 of them -- had filed for false benefits from the government's social services program. Football players on food stamps? Jeesh. I wasn't crazy about dining hall food either in college, but I never went that far.

It's been obvious for decades that universities have an odd relationship with athletics. We've come a long way of the days where the students who happen to enroll at my school play the students from your school. There are millions and millions of dollars up for grabs, mostly in the form of television revenues. The players at the biggest schools see that money and wonder why they aren't getting a bigger share.

The schools throw scholarship money at people who aren't particularly interested in higher education; for reference, see the "one and done" guys in the first round of the NBA draft. Throw in the conference realignment that does things like put Texas Christian University in the Big East, and it's a rather headshaking arrangement.

Some times I wonder if the Europeans have a better idea. They have clubs for college age players. Some of them can play in their own age-group in sports, while others move up to the highest levels when ready. They earn their pay. The universities, I assume, stick to the education business.

And yet ...

When the games are played, college athletics are great entertainment. I attended a game at Syracuse a couple of weeks ago, a thrilling comeback capped by an overtime win by the home team. There was a good amount of school spirit on display, even though Syracuse isn't exactly Alabama or Notre Dame in that department. When I watch the SU football or basketball team, I'm brought back to the time when I went to school there, and to the friends I made and still have from that era.

It all leaves me a little torn. I love the excitement and emotion on display at collegiate sporting events, but I feel a little guilty about it if I give a second thought to what else is going on off the field.

Blast from the Past

2011-09-14T00:37:00.012-04:00

I saw some friends from my college days tonight.

The band Renaissance came to Buffalo on the third stop of its current tour. The picture here is of the group taking a bow at that show. My camera-phone wasn't up to the task of getting this good of a picture, so it was nice to see this one posted on Facebook.

Renaissance has a rather odd history that does indeed go back to the 1970's, when my hair was all the same color and I first became a fan. The English band was an interesting combination of rock, classical music and progressive rock -- somewhere along the lines of the Moody Blues crossed with Yes, although a friend at the show thought Pink Floyd sort of floated in there at times too. The band is mostly known for lead singer Annie Haslam, who in turn is mostly known for her five-octave range. Based on tonight, she can still hit all of the notes.

Renaissance was something of a cult band in the 1970's. I think its live album from Carnegie Hall of picked as the album of the year by a New York radio station in 1977, a year after its release. Wikipedia says the high cost of musicians shortly after that cost the band its orchestral sound; I'd also guess that the rise of the punk movement wasn't good for its bottom line either. In any event, the band more or less fell apart only to re-form somewhat and go through a variety of lineups every so often for the past 30 years or so. Haslam also has done some solo work; one of her songs will be on my annual holiday mix CD in December, which should do wonders for sales (hers, not mine).

We'll have to see how this latest incarnation works. Haslam and fellow original member Michael Dunford are giving it a shot with four new faces, and the band sounds as good as ever. Come to think of it, the sound was much better than the first time I heard the music played tonight -- which was on eight-track. I also have to say that it's fun to have followed their path to Buffalo this week on Facebook; a keyboard player posted updates on how the drive here was going.

The obvious problem for a band like this is trying to get heard. No conventional radio station would play the music today, sadly. It's not like SiriusXM would play more than the odd song or two once a month either. How do you get past that glass ceiling? Renaissance is trying, through social media, e-mail and good old-fashioned mailing lists at shows.

But despite those obstacles, fans can still enjoy good music performed live if they are lucky enough to catch the band on tour. As I listened, I thought back to the friends in college who opened my eyes, and ears, up to groups like this. For a moment, it was like being back in a dorm. It was fun to get exposed to new music back in the Seventies; there's less opportunity for that right now, it seems.

And it is nice to think that acts are still more or less performing now, just like they did 35 years ago. Back then, I always thought of bands as rather disposable. They came together for a while and then fell apart for one reason or another; the Rolling Stones and the Who come to mind as rare exceptions. I never would have guessed that some bands would still be at it this far down the road.

Good luck, Renaissance, on your latest journey, and thanks for stopping by.

Closing time

2011-09-08T16:54:00.004-04:00

Like every other avid book-reader in the country in a major metro area, I've been keeping an eye on the closing sale of Borders. The book store chain declared bankruptcy a few weeks ago, and it has been slowly selling off its stock since then. It's a perfect time to take a look at the game that such sales create.

I usually assign some sort of price tag to a book when I see it. Some books jump out at me and scream "pay full price." This might include, in my case, the annual NHL Guide and Record Book, the Baseball Prospectus, and the Best Sportswriting series in a given year.

Otherwise, though, it's something of a sliding scale. I'll see a particular book that's new and say, "It's not worth $26 to me, so I'll wait until it comes down it price." It might pop up in trade paperback, it might make it to bookcloseouts.com, or it may make the dollar store in a couple of years. I'm willing to wait; I have lots to read in the meantime. (I should note that I'm as cheap as the next person when it comes to books and thus like libraries, but the selection is obviously a little limited since I don't read my best sellers in the traditional sense.)

In Borders' case, the store obvioiusly wanted to maximize its income from the bankruptcy sale. That's only logical. But the process makes it a big guessing game from the consumer's point of view, as the amount of product is finite.

Readers have the decision as to where a book falls on the price-point scale, and the tests come weekly. Since Amazon.com usually discounts books by 30 percent or so, I obviously started there. When Borders got to 40 percent off of a book by Neil Peart (the drummer from Rush), a volume that doesn't seem to be discounted heavily among used book sellers, I bought it. Last week, prices were discounted 60 to 80 percent. OK, Ron Jaworski's book on significant football games seemed worthwhile at that price, as did a couple of others. But I also saw a copy of Y.A. Tittle's autobiography, which wasn't worth $10 to me.

But a few days later, when everything was down another 10 percent, Tittle's book was still there. That's the game you play in these sales -- would it still be there the next time around? I decided it was worth $7.50 to me. Plus a book featuring a close-up book on the Obama Administration seemed well worth $2.50.

Bargains are where you find them, naturally. Today in the Dollar Store, I saw three books of interest. I tend to think, "A book for a dollar? That's less than a bottle of Coke Zero," and buy it. I'm assuming Dustin Pedroia's autobiography is worth more than a soft drink.

The going-out-of-business sale is winding down this week. A friend said to me about Borders' demise, "It's kind of sad, isn't it?" And it is. I always knew I'd have a good time in a bookstore like Borders, seeing what new stories were out there. It just didn't sell enough product to keep up with Amazon.com (part of the problem), and couldn't move fast enough to stay with the e-book revolution which seems to be coming in some areas.

We'll miss you, Borders.

Travel tips from Buffalo

2011-09-07T00:39:00.004-04:00

There are all sorts of adventures waiting for those who need something to do on a Sunday from a Western New York base. Here are two in Canada:

Safari Niagara seems to be virtually unknown on this side of the border, even though it is about eight miles from the Peace Bridge. The place has gone through a name change in recent years, which couldn't have helped, and doesn't seem to have an overwhelming amount of money to spend. The old name, Zooz, still pops up in certain places around the park a couple of years after the change.

Still, it's a good place to look at critters on an afternoon.

This is something of a cross between a nature preserve and zoo. Some of the animals have a good-sized amount of land for play, which is always nice to see. Others, like birds and monkeys, are in cages.

The best chance to see some of the animals close up, without cage bars getting the way of photo opportunities, comes in the group shows. The picture taken here is from Zoo-niversity, with lots of cute baby animals like a timberwolf, fox and the shown tiger cub. Awww. Hard to get the cub to stand still for a photo, though.

I had visited this place in 2004 for a 5-kilometer race. The second-best part of the race was that as I ran around the circular path of the facility, a moose came over to the fence to watch as I ran by. He probably was wondering what my hurry was. The best part, naturally, was that I was second in my age-group and thus won a medal. And even more naturally, the race was never held there again because of the small field. Any time I win a medal, it seems they cancel the next race. It's enough to give a mediocre runner a complex.

After visiting Safari Niagara, it was clearly time for refreshment. Sources had reported (newspaper guys like this sort of talk) that Cows Ice Cream had come to Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, on the northern point of the gorge between the U.S. and Canada.

Again, not many Americans know about Cows, which was named the world's best ice cream stand in an article that was plastered on the front window. Speaking of advertising, they use a technique that is almost unfair. They make waffle cones right on the site, and then leave the door open. The smell alone draws passers-by in the door.

The ice cream seems loaded with ingredients, and the cones really are good. But it's also difficult to leave without buying something from the merchandise area. I thought the National Mustard Museum's stuff was clever, and it is. But this is in the same class. You really have to be a viewer of Hockey Night in Canada, with Ron MacLean and the well-dressed Don Cherry to get this joke: a t-shirt that reads "Cowch's Corner," with one cow in a normal suit and another cow in plaid (MacLean and Cherry, respectively). Sold. I passed up the Sidney Cowsby hockey shirt and a Moo Tube shirt. I also bought a couple of post cards with a drawing of a cow in a barrel, with the caption, "Common cow + barrel + Niagara Falls = Second thoughts."

Take a look at the link to get a better idea of what's on sale. There's a tribute to the Royal HoneyMOOn on Prince Edward Island.

I have had ice cream at a Cows in Vancouver, and one in Halifax. That about covers Canada. Nice to have one just up the road.

Either/or

2011-09-04T23:25:00.003-04:00

I'm coming off a vacation, which has left me more tired than work leaves me. This wasn't one of our relatively famous "if it's Tuesday, we must be in Ripon, Wisconsin" vacations. Instead, it included a number of smaller missions.

The week started in the air, literally. I headed down to Florida on some personal business for a couple of days. It was a quick trip by myself. When I travel alone, I find I pay even more attention to the surroundings than normal.

I have concluded that there are two types of travelers. Some like to bring their lives with them on the airplane, and some like to pack them up and forget about them for a few hours. I prefer to be with the second group.

The first group, you see, is in too much of a hurry for my tastes. I'm sure there are some business travelers in that category, but it's not exclusive to them. It's gotten very easy to stay in touch on the road these days, with cell phones, laptops, iPads, etc.

But mostly, those people come across as nervous. They are on their laptops just before boarding, and on the phone until the doors close. I once saw a guy who was ordered by the flight attendant to turn off his cell phone and end a call NOW! three times before he finally got the hint. These personalities prefer to sit in the very front of the plane, of course, so they can get out faster. Those three minutes of a head start in getting to the baggage claim are crucial, I guess. And often they bring large carry-ons into the plane, hammering the luggage into the bins above their seats. Hey, pal, it's free on Southwest -- check it and save us all the congestion. Once the plane stops, these people are on the phone and ready to dash out the door.

Me, I kind of like that feeling of being in a cocoon. I try to give myself more than adequate time to handle any unforeseen difficulties in flying. I usually don't use the cell phone much beforehand, and don't carry a laptop on trips (although I can see that day coming, if only for logistical help). I get some overpriced, less-than-nutritious food, buy a newspaper and/or magazine I usually don't see, have a book at the ready, climb into a chair and relax. From there, I'll head to the back of the plane, continue the book or publication, and wait for the plane to clear 10,000 feet. That's when the bell sounds, the iPod comes on, and I can be in my own little bubble. I'll stay there until we get ready to land. In this case, I got two books read by the time I got back.

It doesn't work for everyone, but it works for me.

Prime-time players

2011-08-25T00:15:00.003-04:00

There is plenty to like about youth sports. It can build confidence, form long-lasting friendships, develop skills, and so forth.

But there are drawbacks too. You've heard of parents who drive their kids too hard while either living out their own frustrated dreams or trying to get them to earn a college scholarship. There's the common sense of such matters as, should there be travel teams for children under 10?

And that brings us to Little League.

The World Series in Williamsport, Pa., right now, as the best teams from around the world are competing to be American, International, and Overall champion. While I'd hate to think that a 13-year-old can have a thrill of a lifetime -- kind of makes the rest of his or her life an anticlimax -- there's no doubt that it's an exciting time.

During the last few years, all of the games on the finals are broadcast on ESPN. Some of the regional tournament games are shown too.

That idea makes me a little uncomfortable.

OK, I get the easy part. The games must get ratings, or they wouldn't be on national television. I don't know what the rights fees involved, but it must help Little League do some good things with youth baseball.

Still ... it's easy to wonder if it is a good idea to put this much pressure on children who may not be prepared to handle it. Sure they say they want to be on television now. But I think of the young pitcher who gave up a walk-off homer to lose the championship for a few years ago. Think kids will bring that up for years to come when they need a verbal weapon? Think opposing players in his area will keep it in mind if they face him down the road?

On ESPN tonight, the broadcast showed a split screen of the Red Sox-Rangers game on ESPN2, and of a round-robin game from Williamsport. Is it fair to imply that they are equal in a way in that fashion?

I'm not sure I know the answers to all that. I just know that it's not in anyone's interests to ask the question, except in the case of the kids.

Great Caesar's Ghost

2011-08-22T21:09:00.004-04:00

The original Superman television series from the Fifties had a certain charm that is timeless. Some baby boomers (like me) grew up with the reruns that were shown over and over, and the program even landed on TV Land for a while.

But ... the reruns never included the charming advertisements that the cast filmed for Kellogg's Corn Flakes. Like this one:

This ad raises a couple of questions. One, if you were the editor of the Daily Planet, would you put your full name on your mailbox? Sounds like you'd be asking for trouble.

Two, why is Clark Kent hanging out in the front yard of his boss when Mr. White is eating his breakfast? You'd think Perry would consider that a little creepy.

Then again, the editor of the Daily Planet put out a great metropolitan newspaper with only three reporters -- Kent, Lois Lane and Jimmy Olsen. He must have known what he was doing.

Triple trouble

2011-08-21T20:32:00.002-04:00

Just when you've seen it all at a baseball game, a play comes along like this:

Nashville went on to win the game.

Nothing in the mailbox

2011-08-18T23:29:00.002-04:00

The Buffalo Bills have ended the public portion of their 2011 training camp at St. John Fisher outside of Rochester. They'll do their practicing in private now, away from the prying eyes of the public.

That seems appropriate. This is a team that seems to get more anonymous by the moment.

There's been plenty of excitement around many NFL teams in the past few weeks. The lockout came to an end, compressing an entire offseason into a week. Free agents were available, trades could be made, draft choices could be signed, etc. The possibilities seemed, well, if not endless, at least large in number.

But in Buffalo, much of the news seemed a bit discouraging. There were a couple of veteran starters from previous Buffalo teams who had become free agents. Donte Whitner was expected to depart, and he did for San Francisco. Meanwhile, linebacker Paul Posluszny opted to jump to Jacksonville for a big offer and a chance to play in a 4-3 defense.

Now, neither player is an all-pro. Whitner didn't seem to make many plays at safety; George Wilson seemed to find himself around the football more often in spot duty. Posluszny had a lot of tackles, although it's tough to say if that's a tribute to the lack of talent in front of him in the defensive line. Still, these are established NFL players.

On the incoming side, the Bills signed Tyler Thigpen to fill the backup quarterback role. He seems OK for that role, but he's not someone at the moment who might start a quarterback controversy. Brad Smith, a wide receiver/running back/quarterback, is an interesting player but probably is a complimentary part rather than a key ingredient.

During the course of camp, the news got odder. Buffalo's offensive line hasn't been very good in recent times. The team may have had little to lose, but Eric Wood moved over to center to replace Geoff Hangartner for the moment. That left Kraig Urbik as a starting guard, which was, um, surprising. And the other night Chad Reinhart starting taking snaps with the first team. That was a demotion for Andy Levitre, who had started most of the games for the last couple of years. Again, hmmm.

Then there was the surprising trade of Lee Evans to Baltimore for a measly fourth-round pick. A couple of years ago Evans was one of the few Bills on the lists of the 100 best players in the NFL. His numbers have dropped in the last couple of years. Was that due to decaying talent or the constant quarterback shuffling of the past few years? The Bills must have felt they wouldn't renew his contract in February, so they wanted to get something, anything for him now. Still, he was another veteran NFL player who had departed with nothing much of value coming this way in return.

Finally, there's the strange case of Aaron Maybin, who was the team's first-round draft choice two years ago. His playing time dropped off drastically as the months went by, to the point where he couldn't get on the gameday roster by the end of last season. Then, when told to bulk up in order to play linebacker at camp, he reported at 225 pounds. Maybin could be crushed at that weight by opposing 350-pound tackles. I'll miss him, though; he was an unfortunately easy target for jokes in The News' "Five Spot" column.

Last year, I wrote in a blog that the saddest part of the Bills' problems was that they just didn't seem to matter nationally. Yes, they had an NFL franchise, but it was filled with anonymous players and hadn't won consistently in years. I'm not willing to give up on the front office and coaching staff yet, but they still have some selling to do (in the form of better play) to convince me that relevance is around the corner.

The August blues

2011-08-12T19:33:00.003-04:00

It sure has been a great August so far for a nation's leaders, eh? Think they want to go back to July for a do-over?

We've had the debt ceiling debate, the credit rating drop, the death of 30 soldiers in Afghanistan, and the stock market bounces for starters. For those of you adding up the winners and losers here, a winner is tough to find.

Recapping, President Obama tried his best to be the adult in the room when it came to the debt limit. He even gave in on raising taxes as part of a broader settlement, and essentially got nowhere in the talks. Then again, he walked out of one session saying he was taking the matter to the American people, which didn't exactly look Presidential.

Then earlier this week, he made a speech that tied together, at least within the confines of his remarks, the Afghanistan tragedy and the credit rating cut. Not sure who had that idea, but there was no way to make it look graceful. Bad idea there.

(For the record, Obama's speech came in early afternoon, and the stock market continued its plunge for the rest of that day. The New York Post implied there was a connection in its stories and headlines for Tuesday's paper, which was silly and unfair. Tough to defend that, speaking as a fellow journalist.)

Most people don't realize that a President can't do much about the economy. If Greece and Italy have problems, the Americans don't have much control. But the casualties from the Afghan occupation and reconstruction (it's really that more than a war in most ways) is a reminder that we've been there for 10 years, and little seems to change from the eye of a distant observer.

Still, Congress looks even worse midway through the month. No one could agree on much of anything in the debt talks, even within parties. The tea party folks weren't thrilled with Speaking John Boehmer's efforts at "compromise," which the liberals thought the lack of tax cuts made it a bad deal. Not a grown-up to be found among any of the principals there. Even the idea of holding up the debt ceiling for political reasons seems silly. Didn't the country promise to pay its bills when it launched those programs? Don't we have a proverbial solemn obligation to do so now? No one really understands much of what deal was made, and no one has much faith that the 12-member super-committee can figure something out in the current political climate.

And the members of Congress paid the price in the public opinion polls. While Obama's approval rating is in the 40's, Congress' rating is down to about 14 percent. How would you like to manage a reelection campaign for any of those people? "No thanks, I'm busy in 2012."

A commentator appearing on C-SPAN the other day made a great point about the political situation in Washington these days (wasn't taking notes, sorry). He said all of the liberals are Democrats and all the conservatives are Republicans. There are few people in between any more. In the old days, Southern Democrats were conservative on some issues, while Eastern Republicans were rather moderate. Now there's not much room for negotiations.

That has led to the rise of calling people RINO's (Republicans in name only) who try to figure out ways of settling disputes. If you haven't noticed, when one side controls the House and the other side controls the Senate, there are disputes.

As usual, the American people seem to be way ahead of the politicians on the matter of the debt limit. Polls indicate they want a combination of tax hikes that affect the wealthy a bit more and close loopholes, combined with good-sized cuts in spending. They at least intuitively realize that tax rates are historically low, with few people in the bottom half of income brackets paying anything (would something like a co-payment hurt?) and the upper half seemed to do pretty well under President Clinton with a top tax rate at 39.6 percent instead of the current 35.

And that's what some of the arguments have been about -- 4.6 percent points. We're not talking about 35 versus 82 percent, like it was 50 years ago, or even 50, under President Reagan. You'd think reasonable people could reach a happy medium (I know, I know).

Focusing on the top at the moment, you'd think Obama should be in some trouble when it comes to reelection. Still, no one looks ready to gain the nomination in a right-wing party and then then go to win the Presidency. Are anyone besides donors enthusiastic about Mitt Romney? Would you love to campaign against Rick Perry, who shared a podium last week with a preacher who claimed New Orleans was hit by Katrina because it was a city of sin?

I'm not sure if we're going to come out of this with anger or apathy in 2012. But the political landscape is waiting to be shaken if someone or something can provide the energy.

Across the Atlantic

2011-08-06T18:26:00.003-04:00

I've occasionally shared here stories from my family tree. Here's a pretty good one.

With so many of my ancestors living in Massachusetts, I've often wondered if any of them had a connection to the Mayflower. Seems like the odds would be in favor of it. My cousins' mother did have such an ancestor, but I couldn't find one.

Until Friday.

Then I found a link back to the parents of Elizabeth Howland through Grandma Bailey. Ancestry.com lit up when I added those names to the family tree, as they both came over on the Mayflower.

It seems that John Howland and Elizabeth Tilley crossed the ocean blue in 1620. I was starting to feel a little snooty about the whole thing when I read that Howland actually worked as a man-servant for the Carver family while making the trip, although he probably was closer to an administrative assistant in some ways. In other words, though, he probably helped unload the Mayflower.

"Hey, Howland, get these trunks off the boat! Put them by that big rock on the shore for now!"

Howland almost died on the way, according to accounts, but made it to Plymouth. Tilley, who was around 14 upon arrival, came with her parents. Sadly, the winter of 1620-21 was a tough one, and both of Elizabeth's parents died in the spring of 1621. That left Elizabeth as an orphan. John Carver also died in the spring of 1621 he had been the first Governor of the group.

Within a few years, Howland and Tilley got married and had a daughter, also named Elizabeth, some years later. You've got to believe that John didn't have a whole lot of romantic competition for Elizabeth; not many other single men were in town. And the family tree goes from there.

Too bad my grandmother missed out on hearing this story. She would have enjoyed knowing that her great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents had made the trip to Plymouth.

The other side of the story

2011-07-30T21:39:00.004-04:00

Sometimes I hate learning the full story.

Eric Lindros might have been my least favorite player in the NHL at one point. He had a bad reputation as an enfant terrible during his junior days; the negotiations between the Lindros family and Sault Ste. Marie are the stuff of legend. Then he sat out a year instead of signing with the Quebec Nordiques, who drafted him first overall -- in Buffalo, no less. Lindros wouldn't even put on a Quebec jersey.

Lindros orchestrated a trade to the Flyers. He was big, tough and good, especially by 19-year-old standards. But injuries didn't allow him to live up to his potential, and his exit from Philadelphia wasn't a pretty one.

In other words, he was a tough guy to admire.

Then ... I read a story about how he got his number, the distinctive #88.

It seems that Lindros played junior hockey with the son of John McCauley. For those who don't know their referees, John McCauley was one of the classiest guys in the National Hockey League. He was an official for a while until he was assaulted by a fan after a game in the Soviet Union and had to give up his main job in 1979. He moved on to the league office, and eventually became the Director of Officiating for the league in 1986. He stayed in that spot until his death in 1989.

I worked for the Sabres in those years, and it was always nice to see John in Buffalo during hockey season.

It turns out McCauley served as something of a mentor for Lindros in the early days of the player's career. Lindros wanted to return the favor by using the number McCauley had on his back as an official -- eight. But that number was taken on the junior hockey team. So Lindros paid tribute to McCauley by doubling up his uniform number to 88.

It's really hard to hate a guy like that. Darn.

Dumb, dumber, dumbest

2011-07-29T01:00:00.002-04:00

We continue to inch closer and closer to a train wreck in the form of not raising the debt limit by next week's deadline.

And most of us outside of the Beltway wonder why.

Because how did this gala argument start? Over bookkeeping. We've always passed these increases in the debt limit before, because it was a simple matter of living up to our obligations.

Not now, though. Now Congress has decided to attach some strings, and the result is a battle that sets new standards for a lack of common sense.

Let's outline a few facts here:

* There was absolutely no need to do this now, and risk defaulting on our bills and sending the economy down the cliff. If Washington had done this during budget-making season, when we usually talk about such matters, no one would have had a philosophical problem with it. By doing it now and threatening a default, when the economic recovery (and there is a recovery going on, albeit a slower-than-hoped-for one) is fragile, is downright irresponsible.

I'm the first to argue that balancing the budget is a fine idea, and we need to take big steps in that direction while having a good philosophical discussion about it.

* The Republicans have basically won this argument. Higher taxes are off the table, so it's just a matter of cutting government expenditures. That's in spite of the fact that historically taxation as a percentage of GDP is quite low. So, GOP members, take your gains, get a bill that everyone can live with, and move along.

* Anyone who says he or she won't vote for a debt limit increase under any circumstances must not have taken Economics 101, and doesn't seem to have the best interests of the country in mind. This means you, Michelle Bachmann, but I'm sure there are others who think they are scoring points with the Tea Party. They may be doing just that, but they aren't doing the rest of us any favors.

* There's plenty of blame to go around here. President Bush took a budget that was in good shape in 2001, and then ran two wars and cut taxes during his years in office. When the economy tanked, expenditures suddenly were far higher than revenues. And while President Obama can make a good case for trying to pump some money into the economy to create jobs, he also did have a laundry list of programs he wanted to fund when he was running in 2008.

* Speaking of elections, I am forced to laugh (and cry a little) when politicians say that a vote means endorsing his or her entire platform with no exceptions. There are two main choices in the general election, and we pick the one that comes the closest -- in some cases without much thought. In other words, many voters last November said no more than "the economy stinks, I'm voting for the other guy" with their ballots.

* Attention, lawmakers: There is nothing wrong with compromise. It's the way we get things done.

I remain hopeful that a little sense will appear in the next few days, and a deal will get done. But if it doesn't, I get the sense that everyone involved will be pouring a giant can of gasoline on their chances for reelection, and there will be a long line of people waiting to light a match.

Two sides of the coin

2011-07-25T23:17:00.002-04:00

Those of us in New York State today received all sorts of news reports about the gay marriage law going into effect. A mass wedding was held in Niagara Falls, as 46 couples tied the knot. Apparently plenty of tears were shed, and not just by a small group that was protesting.

OK. Then this afternoon I got the day's mail. One piece of mail was from the National Organization of Marriage. Referring to a recent State Senate vote on the subject, the flier says, "Senator Mark Grisanti sold out our shared principles in a betrayal reminiscent of Benedict Arnold's plot to surrender West Point to the British."

I love good apocalyptic language as well as the next person, perhaps more. In this case, I felt like writing back and saying, "Whose shared principles? You know nothing about me."

But why waste a stamp?

How did she do that?

2011-07-25T19:19:00.002-04:00

Alex Morgan scored a goal for the WNY Flash that left even cynical sportswriters amazed on Sunday night. Here's how it looked, worthy of ESPN's #2 spot on the play of the day rankings:

Morgan and teammate Marta are quickly becoming known as the best athletes on a Buffalo team who never play in Buffalo. As I may have mentioned, they practice and live in Buffalo and play home games in Rochester because of a lack of a good facility here.

It's a new age

2011-07-18T20:57:00.002-04:00

If you want proof that we are in an entirely new era when it comes to information-gathering, here's another example:

On Friday night, I covered the Subaru Buffalo Four Mile Chase, one of the area's most prestigious road races. I got back to the house at 8:45, and dashed off a story in nearly record time despite the fact that the men's winner was nowhere to be found after the race. (I have a suspicion he showed up for the check ceremony.)

I e-mailed my story to the office around 9:30 p.m. When I did so, I looked in the inbox and noticed I had gotten a Facebook message from someone I didn't know. Hmmm.

The message said, "Luke Wiles!"

Hmmm. Luke Wiles is an indoor lacrosse player. He was with Washington last season. In fact, I interviewed him after the All-Star Game at Turning Stone. Good guy. But what was the connection?

I did a quick Google search, and sure enough, there was news on a couple of websites that Wiles had been traded to the Buffalo Bandits for two draft choices. There were quotes from the Stealth general manager, which sure sounded official. But nothing from the Bandits.

I typed up a few paragraphs and sent it into the paper for inclusion in Saturday's paper. Then I sent a note to my new friend, saying I liked the deal a lot. Thanks, pal.

Oh, the Bandits released the story the next afternoon.

There are all sorts of ways to stay on top of things.

Pet peeve

2011-07-15T01:20:00.003-04:00

It's been a pretty bad week for sports figures to rely on cliches when it comes to commentary. It may get worse on Sunday.

Last Sunday, the United States pulled out a thriller over Brazil in the Women's World Cup in one of the most dramatic games in recent history, especially considering the circumstances. The reaction to the game by the participants was pretty interesting. Here's a quote from a wire story:

"There's something about the American attitude," that kept the team going, said U.S. coach Pia Sundhage.

There were similar comments from the other players, and some of the analysis of the media followed that line. Now, I'm all for heart and teamwork and grit and all those other things. But most of all, I'm a big fan of talent. As John Wooden once said, not every team wins with talent, but no team wins without it. Somehow, talent -- not to mention what struck me, someone who is no expert in the game but who has watched some soccer over the years as a defensive breakdown -- got downgraded.

The Americans scored the tying goal in stopped time while short-handed. That's like tying the Stanley Cup's Game Seven while playing four skaters on five. Maybe harder, since hockey has less scoring. All credit to the U.S.A. for that.

Lots of credit should go to Megan Rapinoe. She launched a cross from, what, 40 yards?, with her wrong foot no less, to exactly the proper position. Abby Wambach was in that right spot, and buried the scoring opportunity. Is Rapinoe's pass something like an NFL kicker making a field goal from 40 yards away to tie the Super Bowl, except the goalposts are about five feet wide? Maybe.

Meanwhile, there was a replay of the goal that showed a defender and goalie from Brazil hurrying toward Wambach in a futile attempt to stop the play. Reviewing here, one of the best finishers in the world is in front of your net, and you leave her uncovered? Yeah, and let's give Michael Jordan an open jumper with the game on the line.

Here's, then, to the U.S. team that has some of the world's best players on it. Let's not forget to give them credit for that. They've earned it.

Sing a song

2011-07-08T18:33:00.002-04:00

A college friend of mine sent me an odd e-mail Thursday night.

She said she was going to be in the hospital for surgery early Friday morning. She didn't want cards or flowers, but she did want to be remembered in a unique way. So she asked her friends and relatives to sing a song, preferably in public, between 7:30 and 10:30 a.m.

I quickly forwarded the note around to other college friends. You have to know this woman to understand that such a request is in character. A couple of the chums responded by saying they had done spirited versions of "Born to Run" and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." My wife came up with "I'm a Little Teapot," which I don't recall being on the top 40 at any point in my life.

Me, for whatever reason the Carpenters' song, "Sing," came to mind. The lyrics start, "Sing ... sing a song ... sing out loud ... sing out strong ... sing of happy not sad ..."

The really discouraging thing was that I knew more words than I really should have known. There really should be a way to tell your brain to take such information and put it in the recycle bin, like a computer.

Cheryl's friend sent an update today, and her surgery went very well, so that was good. But also in the e-mail box today was a note from someone else, saying another friend had developed a potentially life-threatening form of leukemia. All of a sudden I'm afraid to turn on the computer.

You can bet this friend would not appreciate a Carpenters' song in public. Remind me to pick up a copy of some of Michael Jackson's lyrics. I just hope our singing has the same good effects on him as it did on Cheryl.

Bright idea

2011-07-02T20:40:00.002-04:00

On our recent vacation, Mrs. Inquisitive Mind and I paid a visit to the leading tourist attraction in Middleton, Wis. I probably don't have to tell you that it's the National Mustard Museum.

I'm sure the hits on my travel website will start piling up now that I have a listing for it. This tribute to mustard is done with a great deal of humor, from the wonderfully silly postcards to "Mustardpiece Theater" in the basement.

The brochure is even funny, and it has an interesting concept. The Museum says it is on "the National Register of Hysterical Places." I took the time to do a quick Internet search for such a register, because anything's possible on line.

Sadly, there is no such list. But don't you think there should be?

The problem is that one person's hysterical is another person's curious. Is Disneyland or Disney World hysterical? Joyful, I guess, but maybe not hysterical.

I can think of three places that might qualify for some, but not for others. There's the House on the Rock, a very odd collection of items in Wisconsin. Then there's the New Jersey equivalent, Northlandz. And finally there's Carhenge in Nebraska.

Then there's the Jell-O museum, which is certainly fun but maybe not hystrical. There are plenty of other places I haven't visited, such as the Barbed Wire Museum.

It's a big task, but your nominations are welcome.

Smarter by the hour

2011-07-01T19:12:00.003-04:00

The start of free agency in the National Hockey League has come and gone, and the Buffalo Sabres suddenly are big spenders.

They handed out $40 million to defenseman Christian Ehrhoff, and $27 million to Ville Leino. Add that to the acquisition of Robin Regehr back at the draft, and the Sabres suddenly have a new image as a big spender. Care to guess who the league leader in payroll is right now? Yup. It's like Jim Nabors putting out a rap CD.

What's more, Darcy Regier certainly is being examined by some in a new light. Remember the guy who dared to be cautious, who was afraid to make the moves that would change the image of the team? History. It seems the general manager of the Sabres has gained several IQ points in a matter of days.

Which raises the key point here -- sometimes things happen in pro sports in which we don't know the full story until well after the fact.

When I worked for the team more than 20 years ago, the Sabres came very close to acquiring Peter and Anton Stastny (one by trade, the other by free agent) at the deadline. General manager Gerry Meehan had the deal put together, but Sabres' management wouldn't spend the money to sign the two players. So the deal fell through, and Meehan took the blame for the team's lack of action at the deadline.

In another sport, then-Red Sox general manager Lou Gorman revealed in his book that sometimes he had to be the fall guy when management wouldn't take certain steps to help the team. He willingly took the blame for those actions, saying it came with the job.

Regier has suffered some hits in the past several years here, some of them deserved. But all of a sudden, it sure looks like he's had one hand tied behind his back for quite a while. Now with a new owner anxious to make an impact, Regier suddenly looks like Bill Veeck. I'm not planning a parade yet, but the Sabres acted aggressively and decisively at identifying and acquiring players. We'll see if their judgment is up to the task.

Regier always struck me a pretty bright person, and was at times a victim of some odd personnel moves instead of the perpetrator. He was rewarded for it with a large contract extension before the old ownership left, but his GM chair must have been warm if not downright hot at times. I'm not sure his image has been completely rehabilitated, but it sure took about four steps in that direction this week.

Good intentions

2011-06-28T23:51:00.003-04:00

I believe I wrote last year about thinking about foul balls while at a Buffalo Bisons' game. If it's not a Friday night game, the contest usually isn't that well attended, there's time to think about what you might do if you get a foul ball. It happened last year, and I got a nice hand when I flipped the ball to a nice little girl.

Fast forward to tonight. Mrs. Inquisitive Mind and I didn't have much company tonight in the upper deck. Sure enough, someone hit a ball in the seat just below mine, so it was no problem getting it as there was no one near me.

I grabbed the ball, walked over to the aisle, and handed the ball to a child who looked to be about four. He was wearing a Superman shirt; some of my friends know that I probably wouldn't give a ball to someone in a Yankees' shirt.

As I was walking back to my seat, the 4-year-old in question took a look at the ball ... and threw it back on to the screen that runs behind home plate to protect the fans from line drives. The ball slowly rolled down the screen toward the field, gone forever.

His father darn near fainted.

Too bad ESPN wasn't there. Definite Play of the Day material.

The Big Man

2011-06-24T00:11:00.005-04:00

Now, for my one up-close-and-personal, second-hand story about the late, great Clarence Clemons.

It was 1978, and I was attending a wedding reception in New Jersey. Sitting on my table was the stereotypical beautiful blond. I think her boyfriend was there as well, come to think of it.

When the band started playing music, I said brightly, "This is New Jersey. We should hear some Bruce Springsteen." She replied, "Oh, are you a fan?" I said yes. She answered, "It's really nice to see such nice guys make it."

I paused for a moment, and mumbled something about wanting more information. She told me that almost all of the E Street Band, except for Springsteen, used to come over to her house once a week. Most of the guys would play poker, but Clemons was sit and talk to the woman's father, and eat large quantities of chili. Apparently her dad was something of a hippy, and he and Clarence just got along great.

I was mighty impressed.

Like most fans, I can remember the first time I saw Clemons in person, and the last. The first was in February of 1977. The boys (all boys back then) were playing in Utica, having played the night before in Buffalo the day the driving ban was lifted from the Blizzard of '77. I suppose Clemons was wearing a white suit, as he often did back then, and served as Springsteen's on-stage foil. The man could play a saxophone, obviously.

The band only played for about 90 minutes for some reason -- the three-hour stuff was down the road, or something -- and the group left the stage after the last encore. The house lights came up, and practically no one moved. The crowd just stood and cheered some more. Finally, one of the roadies working on the equipment looked off stage and noticed that the band was still around. So he turned to the audience and made a "make noise" gesture that electrified the place. The band came back and played one more song, much to the delight of everyone. When Clemons left the stage, he gave everyone he could reach an enthusiastic high five.

Fast forward to 2009. The E Street Band was wrapping up years of touring with a show in Buffalo. Clarence and Bruce and the boys and a couple of girls were back. This show went for more than three hours. Clemons frankly didn't look too good at that point, and needed something of an elevator to get to and from his position in the stage. But when he stood up from his seat to play, it was still an dynamic feeling in the building.

There were rumors around the end of that tour that this might be it for the E Street Band. Springsteen did a couple of interviews in which he essentially said, "Give up, when we're playing so well? Are you nuts?" But, as we know now, that show will be remembered as the last of that particular lineup.

Clemons and Springsteen were always an interesting combination. The iconic "Born to Run" cover showed the two of them together in a now-classic post -- Springsteen, out front because he was "the Boss," but leaning on Clemons for support and friendship. It was a rock-and-roll relationship that stood the test of time.

And how many of those classic friendships crossed racial lines? Springsteen has always been color-blind when it comes to his music, inviting all sorts of musicians to play with him over the years. The core of the E Street Band, though, was all white except for Clemons, and so was the fan base. At that last concert I asked a friend, "Where are all the minority faces?" She replied, "They are working at the concession stands."

But the relationship between Springsteen and Clemons send a powerful message that, indeed, it wasn't a party unless everyone was invited. Clemons was one of the those larger-than-life personalities who was quickly loved by everyone he touched, even from a distance. Springsteen biographer Dave Marsh remarked after Clemons' death that the two of them were like Huck and Jim ever since Springsteen and Clemons came together in the early 1970's, a time when such a relationship was less common. They were going to be friends as they rolled down the Mississippi, or the equivalent Interstates, to the next gig, and what the rest of the world thought didn't matter.

It's easier to wonder what will become of the E Street Band without Clemons. Springsteen has played with other bands, although Clarence can't be replaced with this particular group. But that will sort itself out over time. As for now, I hope the Big Man is pain-free and in a place where the chili is tasty and the music goes on all night.

Four fans check in

2011-06-20T20:53:00.004-04:00

The news wasn't good when I was away on vacation, as Clarence Clemons of the E Street Band passed away. U2 paid tribute to the Big Man the other night:

... and new champion

2011-06-12T23:51:00.002-04:00

No matter where you are right now and when you are reading this, you probably can open up a window in your house and hear cheering.

From Cleveland.

Ba-da-boom.

The NBA Finals this year had to have one of the strangest dynamics in history. The Miami Heat became America's (Least Favorite) Team when it signed LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in the offseason, with James announcing at the time that he was after a string of championships.

Outside of South Florida, most fans were rooting for the Anyone But the Heat guys, and they got their way Sunday night when the Dallas Mavericks won their first NBA title. Yes, Dallas was thrilled, as you might expect, but I can't wait to see the TV ratings from Cleveland.

It's been quite a year in the NBA. Almost a year ago, James became a free agent after several reasonably successfuly but title-less seasons with the Cleveland Cavaliers. Looking at the move in hindsight, James gave the Cavs plenty of time to put together a winning team, but they just couldn't do it. If you can't put together a champion with one of the best players in the game who is from just down the road in Akron and wants to win in front of everyone from his youth, you may never be able to do it. Plus, James reportedly couldn't recruit another star to join him in Cleveland; Chris Bosh was said to be interested in playing with James, but not in Ohio 41 times a year.

If you remember, James decided he wanted to play for a winner and took less money in Miami so that the Heat could attract more talent. If he had done that in Cleveland, that statue would be finished by now. In a day when pro athletes are criticized for only going after money, James went the opposite way.

But James made a couple of mistakes. He made the announcement of his choice of a new team in an ESPN special that was designed as a way to raise money for charity but instead merely struck people as bizarre and self-serving. Then was the introduction of James, Wade and Bosh in Miami that was too over the top even for Vegas. James then piled the pressure on himself by announcing he had hopes of winning a string of titles.

The Three Amigos, or whatever you want to call them, had their ups and downs, but they did make it to the NBA Finals. There they ran into a Dallas team that was peaking at just the right time, and had a couple of veterans with something to prove. Plus, Miami never did seem to have an answer for Jason Terry off the bench. The Mavs showed a knack for rising from the dead throughout the playoffs, and came through enough times to get to four wins against Miami to take the title.

Not to take anything away from Dallas, but Miami looked as if the weight of a season's worth of expectations took their toll in the second half of Game Six. As for LeBron, he's now one championship behind Jason Kidd ... and Henry Finkel.

What happens next? James has enough issues now to keep a team of sports psychologists in business. The obvious one centers on his play in the fourth quarter, as James suddenly has a national reputation for disappearing at crunch time.

(Joke making the rounds: Don't loan LeBron James a dollar. He'll only give you three quarters; he vanishes when it comes to the fourth quarter.)

The championship window will be open for Miami for some time. The Heat had to scramble to fill the roster because of the salary cap last season, and that situation may get a little better with time. James is still a great player; that part is not going away.

On the other hand, if James thinks this was a tough time of year, wait until the playoffs open next spring. The magnification of the spotlight will get even greater, just when we thought that wasn't possible.

Stuck in a moment you can't get out of

2011-06-08T00:37:00.002-04:00

I've been through dramatic, breathtaking transformations in the world of electronics before. It comes with being an old guy. I'm not talking about hearing the 1920 election returns on the radio, or seeing television at the 1939 World's Fair. But I do remember when our family got its first color television around 1965, and how we all used to fight to watch our favorite shows in living color. (Funny how Dad eventually won all the arguments about prime time, leaving me with Officer Joe Bolton and the Three Stooges in glorious black and white.)

My most obvious example of this came in the late 1980's. I had an all-in-one stereo unit of sorts that included a radio, a turntable, and a -- gasp -- eight-track player/recorder. You used to see eight-tracks at flea markets, but they are even getting rare there. But at least I could tape the albums I liked and listen to them in the eight-track player in my car.

But then I got a compact disk player. As Glenn Locke put it, I jumped about 20 years in technology in one trip to the store. Like everyone else at the time, I bought "Brothers in Arms" by Dire Straits, which was practically a demonstration of the CD's abilities.

Now, the process is happening again. Sort of.

Our television in the bedroom recently died, a 20-inch Magnavox that was nothing special but worked well enough for some years. Now, it's silly at this point to buy a set that doesn't have high-definition capability. It's pretty obvioius that all of television will be there sooner rather than later. But I really don't watch enough television to justify a full switch to HD, and it's cable price-tag of more than $100 a month. I was merely counting on a somewhat better picture on the LCD screen for the same price I had been paying.

There was a surprise waiting when I installed the new set. It turns out that the cable company doesn't go out of its way to reveal that the HD signal for local stations is buried on basic cable. In other words, out popped NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox -- all in HD. Yes, the picture is a nice step up; I can tell how long it's been since Dirk Nowitzki of the Mavericks shaved by watching the NBA Finals. I told a local television personality that she'd better brush her teeth when her station makes the conversion to HD; she'd hear about it from me if she didn't.

The television in the den still has its picture tube, though, and I have to say that the "framing" of the picture size when going back and forth between sets can be maddening. The old, standard broadcast has a 4/3 ratio of width to length. I believe HD is in something like 16/9.

These days, when I watch a show in the den, there's a good chance that I get a picture that doesn't fit the screen. It's particularly evident when graphics come up. For example, I can never see the scoreboard graphic completely when Fox does a baseball game. When my wife asks what the score of the game is, I have to say, "Well, the Mets have three, but I can't tell about the Phillies." One time we were watching a PBS show, and singer "Ichie Havens" was listed in the opening credits. Does Richie Havens have a rash or something?

I'm a patient man; I still have a VCR because it works fine and I have no need to spend extra money for digital cable and its tricks. (Well, I miss C-SPAN2 and HBO, which was bumped to digital cable only, a little -- but that's another argument.) And when my den television dies, as it surely will in a couple of years, I'll upgrade to another HD set and probably break down and spend the extra money.

But in the meantime, I have a toe in two different pools of water, and one is hot and one is cold.

The NBA's turn

2011-06-03T18:03:00.002-04:00

In March, we had a version of March Madness highlights through the use of Legos. Now it's the NBA's turn.

Welcome back

2011-05-31T23:18:00.002-04:00

It's official -- Winnipeg is returning to the National Hockey League.

Manitoba's largest city is getting the Atlanta Thrashers next season. I'm not sure if that's progress for the NHL in terms of population, market size, etc. But I'm happy for the good citizens of Winnipeg.

The move sparks a couple of memories, since I went there once or twice while covering the Sabres.

I'll always remember Rick Dudley's speech about Winnipeg. Dudley played there at the end of his career. In fact, I think he wore #99 for the Jets.

When someone brought up Winnipeg, tales of cold weather followed. You think Minneapolis is cold? Winnipeg is 400 miles north of Minneapolis. When asked about the weather in Winnipeg, Dudley responded this way:

"The wind comes out of the Rockies. Then it sweeps through Calgary and out to the plains to the east in Alberta. The wind goes unchecked right throught the prairies of Saskatchewan. Then it heads into Manitoba. It makes a straight line for Winnipeg, and finally hits full strength at the corner of Portage and Main in downtown Winnipeg."

When I flew into Winnipeg for the first time, we took a bus from our hotel to the Westin downtown. I got off the plane, looked up, and saw the street signs -- Portage and Main. I believe I had a parka to keep warm, but I never doubted Dudley again.

I also got one of the great colds of my life in Winnipeg. That's not an easy spot when trying to cover a team on the road. Luckily, there are indoor tunnels between many of the buildings downtown. I believe I loaded up on every cold medicine in the province. Then I got dressed for practice, watched the practice, came back to my hotel room, took a nap, wrote my story quickly, and went back to bed for the next several hours. I couldn't tell you much about the city life from that trip.

What do most people remember most about the Winnipeg Arena in the Jets' days? The picture of the Queen at one end of the building. I guess it's not there now, so I am certainly glad I went down to the ice to take a picture under the Queen's gaze. It's shown above. Thanks to Pete Weber, ace photographer, for taking the picture. I returned the favor.

The good citizens of Winnipeg certainly love their hockey, and they will love their new team. I hope the economics work out in their favor.

The worst case

2011-05-27T21:08:00.002-04:00

Most people didn't mind when the federal government went charging after Barry Bonds for steroid use once upon a time. After all, Bonds didn't exactly go out of his way to be well-liked, and there were signs that he did lie to a grand jury -- which the federal government usually doesn't like.

And not many people complained loudly when Marion Jones lied about her steroid use. She eventually told the truth, gave back her Olympic medals, and went to jail. Jones was in track, and we tend to assume that many athletes there use illegal substances. It's damaged the sport's reputation, dating back to ... maybe Ben Johnson in Seoul in 1988.

But Lance Armstrong is different. At least, we want Lance to be different.

For those in a cave, Armstrong came back from cancer treatments to win the Tour de France ... not once, but seven times in a row. There's nothing more difficult than to win that event once, and seven times is super-human. Armstrong has been visible in the fight to get rid of cancer. He's been an inspiration to millions.

What's more, he's come through test after test over the years for illegal substances, while many other competitors in the same era flunked. Cycling became a cesspool over the past several years, as the chemists stayed ahead of authorities for the most part.

Armstrong's story is so compeling that we can't help but watch as it appears to be unraveling several years after the fact. Teammates have been giving very detailed accounts of how Armstrong beat the system when he was racing, and it's not as if there was much incentive to do so. I mean, who reads cycling books not written by Lance Armstrong?

We've seen this drama before, several times, and we have an idea about how it may come out. We've seen athletes lie about drug use, and then finally have the tearful news conference when all is revealed. We're waiting for this to happen to Roger Clemens.

But, we're not waiting for this to happen to Armstrong. If it comes, it will be one of the saddest stories imaginable. It's a bit troubling to see the federal government spend piles of money on a decade-old case, but we can almost see the ending down the train tracks. Almost.

But an unhappy finish seems inevitable, doesn't it?

Good samaritan

2011-05-21T18:39:00.002-04:00

It's not easy being a nice guy sometimes.

The other day I parked my car in a downtown ramp. As I entered the stairwell, I looked down and noticed that there was a wallet on the group as well as some surrounding paper, such as a Subway and Dunkin' Donuts card. But one other item did catch my eye -- a passport card.

Rather obviously, someone had made a robbery, taken the valuables out of the wallet like money, and discarded it. But the passport card has some value, having just spent money to get one. So ... what to do next?

I collected the stuff and put it in my car. My first step was to call the parking ramp authority. Since it was Saturday, I got a recording and was asked to leave a message. Oh well.

When I got home, I called the police and explained the situation. The woman who answered suggested that I go to the post office because they deal with passports. That didn't seem to be much help.

Luckily, we have a database for practically everyone in Western New York through our office computer. So I called the news room, and asked someone to look up the person's name from the passport card. We got a match, so now I had an address and phone number.

But what next? The consequences of follow-up actions are hard to follow. Will I be accused of actually doing the robbery if I call her directly? Should I suggest a meeting somewhere ... and if so, where? A neutral site?

Finally, I called a policeman across our street and told him the situation. He said for me to give him the wallet, passport, etc., and he'd take care of the rest.

"When we recover stuff like this, it's usually difficult to figure out where it should go. But you've done the hard part for us," he said.

I felt like Deputy Barney Fife, helping an innocent victim.

Game Six

2011-05-18T00:55:00.002-04:00

I think I wrote last year about stumbling on Game Six from the 1975 Stanley Cup Finals between the Sabres and Flyers on television. CBC shows long highlights of games that clinch Cups late Sunday nights.

Last week, CBC was at it again. Game Six, Buffalo vs. Dallas.

I believe they had a two-hour gap for highlights, and since the game went into the sixth period there was no way to get everything in. Besides, I missed the first half-hour, which in this case was the first two periods.

But a few things jumped out at me from a Buffalo perspective:

* Michael Peca sure was hitting everything that moved that night.

* Tie score, less than a minute to go in regulation time, and a faceoff in the Sabres' end. Who did Lindy Ruff send out? Wayne Primeau, Eric Rasmussen and Randy Cunneyworth, which was the fourth line. He either had a lot of faith in that group, or thought that Primeau was his best chance to win the faceoff.

* Alexei Zhitnik and Richard Smehlik must have slept for a week after that game.

* The Sabres just didn't have much offensive push in the last few periods; there weren't many players who could create much against Dallas -- especially as the game went on and on.

* The Stars had the Sabres running around for close to a minute leading up to the game-winning goal. You could see bad things happening from a Buffalo perspective. And Brett Hull (who was wearing number 22; I forgot that) did a good job of dodging Brian Holzinger in front of the net. But still...

* As the rules were written at the time, I don't think it was a goal.

There's probably a book to be written on that game and how everyone reacted. At least the title is done.

"No goal."

Everyone loves Big Papi

2011-05-16T19:02:00.000-04:00

Great stuff from mlb.com:

The silly season

2011-05-13T13:06:00.002-04:00

In golf, there is a time of the year from November to December in which the golf tour essentially shuts down. To give golfers something to do -- what are they going to do with their spare time, play golf? -- some special small tournaments are thrown together, in some cases with television in mind. It's called "the silly season," as no one pays attention but the checks are usually still good.

The concept applies to politics too.

Here in Western New York, we are in the midst of a special election. You might have heard of Chris Lee, the Congressman who went trolling for women on the Internet despite his married status, complete with a picture of himself without a shirt. Chris resigned in short order and has been rather, um, secluded since that incident. Can't imagine why.

Lee's district was heavily Republican. It's also a candidate to be eliminated in 2012, when the reapportionment comes along. Still, it's a seat in Congress, and there are only 435 of them are open. The Republicans have nominated Jane Corwin, a former businesswoman who has been in state politics. The Democrats countered with Kathy Hochul, who works for the county. Meanwhile, local businessman Jack Davis, who has run for Congress on various party lines before and lost, decided to try again for this one. When he couldn't get the endorsement of either party -- he's not exactly fussy -- he's collected enough signatures to run with the Tea Party, even though Tea Party leaders (note: possible contradiction in terms there) want nothing to do with him.

This should be an easy win for Corwin, based on registration numbers, but Davis has a populist message that carries well in some circles. That has thrown things into something of a toss-up.

The fun part is that there are several big shots in political circles who usually do their best work in the fall. An open seat to May is found money, to them and to television stations who have been running ads. The experts come in and tell the candidates what to do and say, even though sometimes it has little bearing in reality. Both of them follow the party themes and make pledges on what they'd do, as if the person who is at the absolute bottom end of the seniority system will be able to make a big difference in Medicare reform and the budget deficit.

When it comes to odd moments so far in the campaign, Corwin is pretty clearly in the lead. Corwin has attacked Hochul for being a -- gasp! -- career politician. I never understood what the problem with that was, if that person is good at the job. I'm a career journalist; should I make way so that someone who hates newspapers should take over now? Corwin also put on an ad with sound bites of her former employees saying how they'd vote for her. "Jane Corwin hired me and fed my family for 20 years, but I'm voting for someone else." Yeah, right.

Today some direct literature for Corwin came in the mail. She claims that "hundreds of big labor and downstate liberal special interest workers are being bused in by the Hochul campaign." Really? Remind me to buy Trailways stock, or prove it. And "Millionaire Democrat Jack Davis is paying temps to do his campaign work." Funny how being a Millionaire is bad news, even though Corwin certain qualifies too based on how much she has given to her own campaigns.

The other two aren't much better. Hochul has criticized Corwin for being part of the Albany gang that hasn't done too well with state government, even though Corwin hasn't been there long enough to know where Central Ave. is. Davis keeps supporting tariffs to protect jobs, even though any person who walked through an economics class in a college will remind you that trade restrictions only inhibit economic activity and are thus generally bad.

The funny thing is that Corwin and Hochul probably are pretty good candidates. You'd just like them to be a little less programmed in order so that voters can see what they are getting.

The election is May 24. Makes me wish May 25 was here already.

Still horrible

2011-05-07T14:48:00.002-04:00

Remember in the dark ages of the Internet, when most people had America Online? AOL was popular because it was big, so everyone signed up, and it had a lot of exclusive, "off-line" content which was valuable before the Internet became such a huge storehouse of information.

AOL got smacked when the rules changed on line, and all that was necessary was to get on to the World Wide Web. In addition, AOL was closely associated with busy signals for dial-up accounts, and with difficulties in trying to leave the service. There are recorded phone calls out there in which people tried to cancel their accounts, and 20 minutes later "customer service representates" were still yelling at consumers for trying to cancel.

"My grandmother died last week and I don't think she needs the account any more."

"No, wait, don't do anything rash. Are you sure you want to cancel?"

We were a little late to the party, but we cancelled AOL a few years ago. The instructions at the time said we'd maintain a free AIM mail account (same thing), but that it would go dead if it hadn't been used in six months. OK. After looking around at the AOL web site, fully cancelling service seemed difficult, so I let it go.

Fast forward to a while ago, when my wife's friends started to receive e-mails from the AOL address book, saying she was stuck in England and needed money sent to an address right away in order to fly home. Jody may have been to London, Ontario, but she hasn't been to London, England. In other words, someone hacked into the old address book. I went into the AOL accounts and found that they were still active, in spite of the six month claim. Sigh. So I took out the addresses.

But trying to figure out how to cancel the account completely is difficult. A search of the website proved rather fruitless. Then, I searched Google. Some company offered to clean it out for $10. I guess that shows you how bad AOL is if you need to hire someone to figure out how to do it. Another search engine had a fax number -- but that number had been disconnected. I finally found another fax number, in which I had to send my name, address, phone number and screen names and ask to be deleted. The fax, at least, went through. Action was promised within 10 days. We'll see.

Which leaves me with one question: Is this any way to run a business?

Not like the old days

2011-05-02T23:53:00.003-04:00

Ever wonder what a newspaper office is like when a really big story breaks?

It's actually pretty quiet.

I worked in the office Sunday night, and I felt pretty old when I described what would happen when something big would happen when I worked in radio.

First off, bells went off. The teletype machines would print out stories on actual paper. When a big enough story took place, we heard five or 10 bells. Sometimes we knew when a story was coming and sometimes we didn't, but we always looked to make sure what was going on ... and then turned off the alarm.

I still remember the day the Pope was shot. As you could imagine, there was lots of activity in the WEBR building that day. We had the Associated Press Radio feed on the air, which was piped all over the building, and suddenly the announcer said that a woman who had been wounded in the assassination attempt was from ... Buffalo. Our news director at the time, a man not known for his speed, moments later sprinted to the newsroom from his office. If he had run that fast in softball games, we would have won some more games.

Here in 2011, it's different. The wires are on computer feeds, so there are no bells. We saw a note shortly after 10 that President Obama was going to make a major speech shortly after 10:30 p.m., but we didn't have any idea what it was at the time. But CNN was hinting that this was going to be big, big news. There was discussion around the office, but it really only affected a few of us (none in sports, naturally).

At some point the decision was made to cancel the Niagara edition, which goes off at 10:45 p.m. We didn't think it was a good idea to sell a paper without the big news of the day in it if we could help it. By 11, the word had come that Osama Bin Laden had been killed. The speech came later in the hour.

Since the story comes from the Associated Press, it was just a matter of reworking the layout. While there are some journalism decisions to make in such cases, the actual reworking is a matter of moving shapes around a computer screen. You'd be surprised at how fast we can get that ready, and how the heart does race a little bit in such circumstances.

By the way, when CNN was speculating about 10:20, it said it was a national security story but had nothing to do with Libya. What, we wondered, would be worth a late Sunday night speech by the President. I said, "Catching Bin Laden would qualify." Lucky guess.

Let's hope Bin Laden was severely disappointed when he reached the after-life.

Game Seven

2011-04-27T16:16:00.004-04:00

A brief story seems relevant as the Buffalo Sabres pack out their possessions from their lockers after losing Game Seven to the Philadelphia Flyers:

Way back in 1993, the Toronto Maple Leafs and Los Angeles Kings were headed for Game Seven of the NHL Conference Finals. It had been a back-and-forth series until that point. But the Leafs were at home, and hadn't been to the Stanley Cup Finals in years and years.

Waiting, as it turned out, were the Montreal Canadiens. A Montreal-Toronto matchup for the Cup, something that was eliminated as a possibility because of realignment of the divisions, was at least possible.

You may remember how it came out. Wayne Gretzky had one of the great games of his life for the Kings, scoring five points and almost single-handedly beating the Maple Leafs.

Steve Dryden, my old friend from his days with the Hockey News, and I were talking about that contest a few years after that fact. Yes, I said, Gretzky was great and all that. But when you (meaning the Leafs) are in a situation like that, "You have to win that game!"

The Sabres know a little bit about that.

They had a three games to two lead over the Philadelphia Flyers in the first-round series. Game Six was in their own building. If that weren't enough, the Flyers' coach surprised everyone by starting a goalie who had been in the AHL for almost the entire season. In a game he had to have, Peter Laviolette went with a third-stringer. It was a stunning decision.

Michael Leighton was predictably shaky in Game Six. He gave up three goals in the first period, was pulled, and was never seen again in the series. I mean that literally. Leighton supposedly never showed up in practice on Monday, and didn't bother going to the game on Tuesday. I think he burned some bridges in Philadelphia.

So the Sabres had a 3-1 lead with 40 minutes to go, and a 4-3 lead with 20 minutes to go. Yes, Jason Pominville was already out injured, and Tim Connolly exited after a hit by Mike Richards that could have drawn a suspension to the Flyer. But even so ...

"You've got to win that game."

They didn't, losing in overtime. As my good friend and noted author Tim Wendel said, it looked like the Sabres ran out of forwards by the end of Game Six. Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff had little choice but to try Derek Roy and Jochen Hecht in his lineup as they recovered from injuries.

The Flyers went back to starting Brian Boucher, and opted not to take any more chances. They essentially stopped the Sabres from taking any shots in the first period, leaving nothing to chance. Philadelphia scored late in the first to take the lead, added a couple of more goals in the second, and never looked back. The Sabres' gas tank had hit "E" late in Game Six.

It was a sad ending to a magical run by Buffalo, which didn't appear to have any playoff hopes four months ago. The finish won't do much to slow the growth in enthusiasm in the team, which built throughout the run and incorporated the spark provided by new ownership.

The Sabres probably were too banged up to give Washington a good series anyway. Still, a playoff win in Game Six would have given everyone a huge spring boost. You learn in the hockey business how precious opportunities are, and we'll see how this team reacts to this one getting away.

Holiday time

2011-04-24T23:39:00.003-04:00

My wife and I celebrated Easter in our traditional way. We had lunch at Chili's.

I know, I know. It's not exactly a ham at someone's house, or a buffet at a nice restaurant with family. This tradition does work for us. They serve up a fine chicken sandwich at Chili's. I don't have any more demands from this particular holiday.

The day got me to thinking as usual. Is there an odder holiday than Easter in terms of its celebration?

I remember from my Sunday School days that it is the most joyous day of the Christian year. I don't know why someone decided to peg the date to a phase of the moon rather than put it on the second Sunday of spring, but greater minds than mine figured that one out.

Easter is also the easiest holiday of the year to ignore, or at least not see coming. That's only in part because the date always changes which means I always have to look at my datebook to know when it falls.

I'm not a church-goer, so there are no major references to it in my life. In the past week a couple of writers have mentioned Holy Week, and I said, "Oh yeah." I guess I notice when Peeps have gone on sale at the supermarket. But then, I hate the taste of Peeps. At this time of the year, I don't have to do any gift shopping for anyone. I don't mail out Easter cards. I don't make up Easter CDs for my friends. I don't write a holiday newsletter. No one said "Happy Easter" to me in person.

It's on a Sunday, so most people have it off anyway. But for those who work weekends, like me, we don't get any sort of extra compensation for working that day. No extra pay, no day off in the bank to use later. It's just another day.

Driving around the area on Easter Sunday is a slightly odd experience. I'm old enough to remember a time when many businesses were closed just because it was Sunday. Those days are over, but Easter is something of a throwback to that era. We wound up at Chili's some time ago because it was open. Some restaurants, like Ted's the hot dog stand, are closed for the day. Target is closed, Kmart is open. There's less traffic, but the streets aren't empty like on Christmas. And so on.

It's almost as if those who want to celebrate Easter can do so, in their own way and with people of their own choosing. There's no pressure; it's just out there.

All in all, while it feels a little bit like I'm on the far side of a bit of a cultural divide, this seems a pretty sensible approach. Anything more would be, as they say at Chili's, "Margarita Madness!"

Visting speech-maker

2011-04-23T14:14:00.002-04:00

You just never know who might pop up in your town from time to time, if you are paying attention.

Chris Matthews, the host of "Hardball" on MSNBC recently spoke at Daemen College, a small school in suburban Buffalo. You could tell someone important was there because of the limo out front.

A few quick observations about his visit:

* He's taller than you might think.

* He has a list of credentials longer than a city block.

* Matthews is a lot like he is on television, of course. When he took questions and someone rambled -- someone always rambled -- Matthews was quick to say "What's the point?" or "What's your question?"

* He's a lot funnier than he is on television, perhaps because he doesn't have those annoying guests on his show trying to get in a word or two here and there.

* I think I laughed the hardest at a quick aside about Sarah Palin. "Sarah Palin -- there's a role model for you college kids in the front. Don't bother studying! It only gets in the way." He then moved into something along the lines of "Palin thought Katie Couric asked her trick questions about what she read. Katie Couric has never asked a trick question in her life!" Matthews also made fun of Michelle Bachmann's remarks about Lexington and Concord being in New Hampshire, which is so easy and tempting that I did it here.

* As he looks over the Presidential field for 2012, he's not overly impressed with the Republican contenders. I think he used to word "Looney Tunes" to describe the field. Then again, the concept of "Donald Trump -- Presidential candidate" does lend itself to laugher. Meglomania doesn't come any bigger than Trump, even when talking about a profession that lends itself to such personalities.

It was a fun hour and 15 minutes. We need more speakers like that in town, particularly on nights when I can attend such events.

It only took a sentence or two

2011-04-17T12:51:00.002-04:00

I have the standard clock-radio that is only used for waking up. FM reception is a little dicey in my part of the world because of an antenna close by, so I tune the dial for AM. Once I'm awake, I shut off the radio -- which is something of a comment on the quality of programming on the dial.

The other day, the radio came on in the middle of a bit of a monologue by the right-wing host. It didn't take long for him to say, "the government doesn't do jack for us."

This host was talking on a radio station, in which the frequencies are regulated so that not every radio station is on the same part of the dial. Otherwise, chaos would result. When the show was over, he probably looked at his mail, delivered by the U.S. Postal Service. He hopped in his car, driving on roads built by the local and state governments. He might stop for lunch, where the food and drink have to pass health standards in order to keep customers safe. The garbage from that meal goes into a bin and might be picked up by the city or town sanitation department.

Perhaps our host will go home and plan his vacation. When it arrives, he'll go through security, so that his plane will be safe to fly in the skies. He'll take off and land through the work of the air traffic controllers (yes, a couple of have been dozing lately, and the resulting publicity shows what an important function they have). Then maybe he'll hop in a car, built to safety regulations that help get him to his destination in one piece. He'll drive on an Interstate highway, a government-built infrastructure device that is crucial to the economy. Maybe he'll head for a National Park Service site to get away from it all.

I'm obviously scratching the surface here.

Nobody wants more government than is necessary, and we want it run efficiently. We also don't want to pay for it all, which is why we've had deficits for most of the past few decades. But to say government doesn't do anything for the population is either not paying attention or out of touch with reality. Or both.

The boss

2011-04-14T23:33:00.003-04:00

Work long enough, and you encounter all kinds of bosses. Chatty bosses, friendly bosses, micromanaging bosses, mean bosses, intelligent bosses, bossy bosses. Often those qualities are combined into one complex person.

I'm losing one of the good ones today.

Steve Jones, sports editor of The Buffalo News, accepted a buyout offer from the company and is departing. He's been at the newspaper for many decades, although I've only known him since we covered the Stallions indoor soccer games together and played softball against each other in a media league 30 years ago.

Being a sports editor sounds like a fun job from the outside, but I'm certain it isn't in this day and age. Newspapers are losing readers and profit margins right now, ramping up the pressure on anyone in a management position.

Steve did his best to isolate the sports staff from those pressures, probably flirting with an ulcer in the process. What's more, he probably sent out more notes of support and praise to his staff in three years than the rest of my bosses sent out in the previous 30 combined.

Along the way, he gave his staff some room to try new ideas out when possible. I've always worked better under the Bill Walsh approach as compared to Vince Lombardi -- cerebral vs. military discipline -- and I think I did some good work under Steve's guidance. I'll bet others would say the same thing.

But it's on a personal level where Steve came through in a big way. Back in the fall of 2008, sports writer Tom Borrelli fell down a flight of stairs and landed on his head, dying about 10 days later. Forgetting the aspect of personal loss for a moment if that's possible, I can't think of a worse tragedy to hit a workplace. Steve was there for Tom's wife, Karen, as often as possible to offer support and to do what he could.

Then about two years later, co-worker Bob Summers essentially dropped dead right after a Saturday night shift. Steve was once again provided comfort where possible.

From a professional point of view, Steve wasn't even allowed replacements for Tom, Karen (she had been a clerk, and moved after Tom's death) and Bob, stretching a thin staff even thinner. Throw in a couple of other deaths, as two ex-staff members passed away, and a serious illness, and you have a rather star-crossed tenure.

Steve deserved a better hand than he was dealt, and here's hoping that he gets it in his days after One News Plaza. Steve probably doesn't have to work any more, but he's young enough to do so if he so chooses.

No matter what he does from this point, I'm hoping that Steve has a long, happy and stress-free time in his life starting tomorrow. He certainly deserves it, just as he deserves to read the words "thank you" from me.

Simplified sports rooting...

2011-04-11T17:53:00.003-04:00

It's much easier than I thought to figure out which baseball team you should root fot. Just follow the flow chart through this link:

If I had been a fan of chowder, er, chowdah, I would have been a Red Sox fan. But instead, I came out a Blue Jays fan.

Tweet, tweet, tweet

2011-04-04T22:34:00.003-04:00

I've finally found a couple of uses for Twitter, and they don't involve telling people where I am or what I had for breakfast.

My spiffy phone isn't exactly a competitor with an iPhone when it comes to Web access. I can get to certain mobile websites, but those with a lot of type jams it up. Therefore, I have to pick my spots on what I view.

Twitter is pretty much perfect for it. So, I registered for an account, and signed up for updates from such places as the Buffalo News sports section and the Buffalo Bandits. I can't read the stories, but I can get the headlines to that I'll know generally about the stories of the day.

It's funny to see the Bandits' tweets. Every tweet during a game that's associated with good news for the lacrosse team gets an exclamation point. Enthusiasm is not a problem there!

After using it on a road trip to Philadelphia, the light bulb in my head went off at some point. Why couldn't I send out word that I had updated a couple of my blogs?

So I do. If you want the latest in sports book reviews, you can sign up for SportsBkReviews. I post the URL whenever I write a new one. Then when I do an update of a hockey statistic, word goes out at HockeyAbstract.

The book site already has three followers, which puts me just behind the Butler Bulldog in terms of popularity. We'll see how it all works, but I can't see that I have anything to lose here.

Wish me luck, even if I've already spotted Snooki of "Jersey Shore" a big lead in followers.

Quote of the day

2011-03-28T21:15:00.004-04:00

ESPN the Magazine has a regular feature in which it asks athletes from different sports a question, and wants the answer to include a mathematical rating from one to 10 as part of the answer.

This week's question is: "How do you feel when you pay your taxes?"

Adam Jones of the Orioles answered this way:

"Three. If it went to a good cause, I'd be happy. But our tax money goes to lazy people who don't want to work."

Um, excuse me, Adam. You might have forgotten that 80 percent of our federal tax bill goes to four areas -- medicare, social security, national defense and interest on the national debt. The other 20 percent covers everything else, from the National Parks Service to the Interstate Highway system to, yes, social services such as food stamps and welfare. (Thanks for the push, commenting visitor.)

Congratlations, Adam. Usually it takes athletes more than three full years in the big leagues to be completely out of touch with reality.

On the other hand...

2011-03-27T19:16:00.004-04:00

Chris Collins, Erie County Executive, recently announced his candidacy for a second term. He's considered the big favorite to win reelection, mostly because he has a large campaign war chest ready to come out of hiding, while possible opponents won't be nearly as well financed.

Collins has admittedly gotten the county's finances in better shape than they were before he arrived, which isn't saying much. He reported in his State of the County address that the County has a fund balance of about $70 million.

I've been a fan of the always fascinating political process for many years. I have laughed this month when a Jane Corwin for Congress ad talks about Kathy Hochul as Nancy Pelosi's hand-picked candidate. Think Pelosi even knows Hochul's name at this point? Hochul probably will link Corwin to Michelle Bachman's knowledge of history in response any day now.

From this view on the sidelines, I could see the advantages of working on a campaign for Collins. For starters, you'd probably get paid -- which would be a step ahead of Carl Paladino, according to reports.

But wouldn't it be more fun to work for a Collins' opponent? The mischief-maker in me might have fun with ads concerning some of the other parts of Collins' record on the job:

* The classic moment in Albany when Collins told a woman that she'd have to give a lap dance to get a seat at the State of the State address. He later apologized.

* Collins turned down federal grants that would have funded jobs and programs without strings.

* Collins called for medicaid to not pay for clients' eyeglasses and hearing aids. Ever try to function when you can't see or hear?

* Collins thought it was a good idea to give full-time work to part-time workers, handing out less pay, more hours and fewer benefits for the same job. A court disagreed.

* Speaking of courts, Collins has consistently refused to follow the legislation passed by the County Legislature, leading to millions left unspent and a string of lawsuits. His record in those suits makes the Bills' record seem almost shiny.

* There's only one agency charged with oversight of the County Executive's financial activities, and Collins cut several auditors from the Comptroller's office out of his last budget.

There are others, but you get the idea. Throw a tagline in -- I'll let you write that -- and it's an instant campaign. We'll see if the so-called experts do better in the months ahead, and if it makes a difference.

Just Gus

2011-03-25T17:09:00.000-04:00

Another video that's too good not to share...

Great Moments in History with Gus Johnson from Gus Johnson

A good tip

2011-03-24T00:56:00.002-04:00

It's that time of the year again. I've done my taxes and sent in the returns. Can't wait until I get my state refund back; that check for $18 hopefully won't damage Governor Cuomo's efforts to get the New York State budget back in order.

Sometimes I sit back and marvel at the whole system of collecting (or, in some cases, not collecting) tax revenues in this country. For starters, the classic 1040 form has all sorts of trap doors and loopholes.

Or, put another way, have you tried to figure out your capital gains income without the use of a computer lately?

With that on my mind, I recently finished reading Bill James' new book, "Solid Fool's Gold." (Review here.) When I was sailing along, reading about pitching rotations and the Hall of Fame, James snuck in a short essay about, of all things, tipping. And how ridiculous it has become.

It's become ever-present, if you haven't noticed. James points out that the number of services that expect/seek tips has grown quite a bit over the years, and so has the percentage that we're expected to pay out. And if we don't pay out something, we're cheapskates.

I always get a laugh out of the December newspaper articles that list the people who should get a holiday tip every year. The list gets longer and longer, and includes people like the mailman who probably earns more than I do. That's in addition to the dollar here and dollar there that come out of the wallet. For example, it's rather common to leave a tip for the cleaning staff of a hotel now, even though you'd think a clean room ought to be expected when you check in.

I'm not saying that many of these people don't deserve some sort of "thank you" for good service. But it's pretty interesting that the government more or less looks the other way for many of these payments, meaning the "underground economy" continues to grow with the practice.

In addition, it's always interesting to see what businesses come up with the tag line, "please pay in cash," when they quote a price. I'm not here to out anyone in this sense, but frequently it comes in an area where I'm just happy to find someone to get someone who can do the job for me. Therefore, I'm in no position to argue.

How odd is it, then, when you frequent the business of a one-person independent contractor (use your imagination), and pay that person for a service -- and then give an extra couple of bucks for a tip? It all goes in the same cash register. I have no idea how it is reported to the government, and it's really none of my business. As James points out, it adds up pretty quickly.

Even odder, sometimes the government even encourages such tax evasion. I'm not sure how the laws work from state to state, but some places allow restaurants to pay the wait staff less than minimum wage with tips making up the difference. Yes, I guess that those tips are supposed to be reported to the IRS, but there's not exactly a strong monitoring system in place.

James argues that tipping will eventually stop, because the trend can't continue to grow forever. I'm not sure if that's going to happen to all involved in that trend. But in an increasingly cash-less society, and in times when governments are looking harder and harder for revenue sources, you wonder if a bit of a reckoning for the practice is coming.

You never know what's going to be in a baseball book -- particularly when Bill James is writing it.

Back to dreamland

2011-03-24T00:35:00.003-04:00

It happened again on Tuesday night. I couldn't go to sleep. When that happens, I tend to get up and flip around the dial and search for something that will make me doze.

Ah, Glenn Beck's 2 a.m. rebroadcast. That always works.

Tuesday's show was particularly odd. He had some tape of Steven Lerner, a former union (SEIU) leader, spouting about how bad things were in this country and that we needed to essentially blow up the system and start over. The way to do that, he claimed, was to urge people not to pay their mortgages -- particularly if they were affiliated with JP Morgan Chase.

Hearing this guy actually brought back memories. When I was in college in the Seventies, there were always left-wing newspapers floating around campus, preaching something close to economic revolution. No one took them seriously.

Then Beck had a clip of Barack Obama addresses a SEIU meeting at some point, saying that he stood with the union. From there it was on to a recap of facts, with our host saying that Lerner wanted to practice economic terrorism, was a former union leader, and had actually been in the White House a few times.

So reviewing here:

1. One former union member preaches some silly economic tactic, and everyone in SEIU will follow it.

2. Since Obama has worked with SEIU, and Lerner used to be a member, there's an obvious connection between the two men.

3. President Obama is responsible for making sure absolutely no radicals set foot in the White House grounds, which I guess means we soon will be giving loyalty tests to anyone who shows up for a tour.

Remember when Sarah Palin thought that since Obama and William Ayers were on the same college faculty and had run into each other a few times, Ayers was obviously successfully spreading his evil world view to Obama? That type of thinking is alive and well.

Tell me again why this guy draws five million TV viewers.

Unless they need the sleep.

Surprise package

2011-03-20T18:42:00.001-04:00

As the cliche goes, sometimes you can't tell a book by its cover. You have to open the darn thing and look at the first page inside.

Here's why:

A while back, I was in "Big Lots." This is one of those closeout stores, medium size, which sells discount merchandise. It has everything from sofas to Diet Coke. There are a few items that I purchase there, such as blank compact disks.

On this day, I checked out the supply of closeout books, which usually isn't fertile but is worth a look just in case. Buried in the romance novels was a book called "Garden of Dreams." It's a book designed to pay tribute to the 125th anniversary of Madison Square Garden, published in 2004.

The book is mostly driven by the work of George Kalinsky, who is the official photographer of the Garden. He has shots of all sorts of events, everything from basketball to the dog show. The pictures also are enhanced by essays from a variety of people. Woody Allen writes about the Knicks, while Mary Tyler Moore prefers dogs.

Now, I wouldn't pay $35 for this book, which checks in at about 200 pages. But the price listed on this particular copy was much better - $3. I'll read a lot of sports books for $3, especially a handsome coffee table book. As I grabbed one on top in the pile on the shelf, I noticed that the top copy had a sticker with the words "autographed copy." Hmmm. It was a sticker that Barnes & Noble uses for such pronouncements, so at least I knew where it came from.

When I opened up the book, I saw that it was indeed signed by Kalinsky on the inside front cover. However, there was another signature underneath it.

Joe Frazier!

I have several autographed books at home, and one signed by Smokin' Joe was definitely worth $3. Sold.

The next time someone tells me about how great the Kindle is, I'm going to tell them about Joe Frazier and his signed book.

March Madness, Lego-style

2011-03-17T23:43:00.002-04:00

Did you miss some of the great moments in college basketball history? Good thing tauntr.com was around to recreate them in Lego figures:

On the other hand...

2011-03-16T23:29:00.002-04:00

You want an argument about why the government shouldn't be in the business of supporting certain broadcasting outlets, even if they are commercial-free? I'll give you one, and I used to work in public radio.

Philosophically, it's difficult for me to argue that public television and radio deserve such funding. When there were three television channels on my set, an extra choice was welcome. Now that there are dozens and dozens, if I'm willing to pay my cable company for the right to see them all, that function has disappeared. The number of radio stations on the air hasn't increased much over the last few decades, but there are plenty out there. If you throw in satellite radio, though, there are lots more. Those public stations aren't fighting for ad dollars, but they are looking for listeners.

On the other hand ...

I'll keep it simple to start: Have you seen the competition lately?

On radio, listeners who want to hear some sort of long-form, in-depth news coverage have one choice: National Public Radio. Here in Buffalo, one or two stations do some local news in the morning in any depth (depending on the definition), but the rest barely or don't try. For the rest of the day, stations offer a few minutes of headlines in some cases, some local, some just national. And talk shows don't count; most of the hosts are in the entertainment business.

On television, no one is doing what PBS does. The children's programming alone probably is worth the price tag, but it does offer some other alternative shows that are unique.

Way back in the 1980's when I worked in public radio, I thought that advantage might go away. Cable television was cranking up, and I was afraid outlets like Bravo would steal the programming approach of PBS. When I asked the station president about that in a worried tone, he said that he was confident that PBS would continue to carve out a niche.

Now 25 years later, he was right, and my fears were groundless. Every time I turn in Bravo, it seems to be showing a marathon of "The Real Housewives of Omaha," featuring people that are so artificial they could be made of plastic. "American Masters," it isn't.

Besides, cable and satellite television aren't available to everyone. We still have a limited amount of choices over the air, so PBS still offers a clear alternative to those people who only have rabbit ears and a converter box.

Republicans love to throw the "liberal bias" label at public broadcasting, probably to feed the political base more than anything else. I've made this point before here, so I'll shorten it this time -- while media members are a little to the left philosophically than the public at large (we have a bias for action, because inactivity makes for more boring news), there are far fewer chances to slant the news in a particular direction that people think.

That brings us to the controversy surrounding the departure of NPR executive Ron Schiller, caught by Ron O'Keeffe's hidden camera as saying the Tea Party members are seriously racist people. It was a stupid remark by Schiller considering his professional situation, but he did have no input into editorial decision-making. Besides, it's difficult to feel anything but nervous over a filmmaking situation that would be called entrapment in a court case.

And how much money are we talking about here? President Obama has proposed a subsidy of about $450 million to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. That works out to about $1.50 per person per year. I'd pay that for a week of "American Experience" on PBS and "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" on NPR. A week, not a year. And, I do, since I contribute to the local public broadcasting outlet.

Public broadcasting is always going to be under siege at times because politicians love to threaten funding cuts to gain political capital. It certainly would be nice to come up with a business model to eliminate such subsidies down the road to avoid such pressure. In the meantime, I trust that the Sarah Palins of the world will only make ideological, and not philosophical, arguments about the matter, and thus cloud and not help solve the argument.

Tidal wave

2011-03-14T18:33:00.006-04:00

It's funny what goes through your mind at various times, particularly when faced with unprecedented disaster.

Back in 1975 or so, Roger Corman picked up the rights to a Japanese movie called "Tidal Wave." He chopped out some of the scenes, did some dubbing and added some scenes with Lorne Greene, and released it. The advertising did plenty of screaming and was all over local television for a few days leading up to its release.

In spite of that, I never went to see it, although the ads were the subject of jokes for a week. I just read a review of it on line (thanks for the movie poster image), and apparently it was bad enough that no known copies of it ever made it to home video. And there were few scenes of an actual tidal wave.

The real-life version in Japan this past week was a lot more serious. This footage from MSNBC is particularly chilling. I just wanted to tell the cameraman, "Get the heck out of there."

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Gift from the comedy gods

2011-03-13T23:35:00.002-04:00

On Saturday, a co-worker was reading the newspaper when she burst out laughing. Hard.

Why? She was reading this story about a quote from Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann.

Ms. Bachmann seems to have more trouble with facts that Sarah Palin, which is an accomplishment. According to Politico.com:

Speaking in January to an Iowa anti-tax group, Bachmann claimed that the authors of the country’s founding documents sought to end slavery. “The very founders that wrote those documents worked tirelessly until slavery was no more in the United States,” she said. While some of the signers of the Declaration of Independence were in favor of abolishing slavery, they were, of course, dead when the institution was ended following the Civil War.

As someone who is always on the lookout for material for an occasional joke column in the newspaper, I can only hope she runs for President.

Well-deserved plug

2011-03-11T23:31:00.006-05:00

Can't say I've been to many flower shows over the years. In fact, I can't think of one.

But if you're going to go to one, the Philadelphia version is definitely the place to go -- if only to see the work of Michael Petrie. That's what my wife and I did this week; it was something of a retirement present for Mrs. Inquisitive Mind.

The Philadelphia Flower Show is held in the Convention Center, and it's the world's largest indoor show. It runs through Sunday. There are the booths from vendors -- a few hundred of them, in fact. Then there is some competition for plants, miniature designs, etc. (The judges' comments, by the way, are so pretentious that the judges must work dog shows at other times of the year.)

But the third of the hall that greets visitors is certainly the high point. Several special exhibits are set up in that area, all centered on a specific theme. In the 2011 case, the theme was Paris in the springtime. The bottom of the Eiffel Tower was recreated in it, and I particularly liked the floral representations of the movie "An American in Paris."

As for Petrie, he married a good friend of mine from college. (Kathye and I have writing in common.) Michael kept winning best of show awards in the Philly show, and has been written up all over the flower world. Finally, the show got smart and simply hired him to do the main exhibit. This year, he also did the exhibit for the presenting sponsor.

Now, what I don't know about flowers can fill the Convention Center. Heck, it could fill the Eagles' football stadium. But I do know creative, imaginative stuff when I see it, and it was pretty obvious that Michael's work was by any standard clearly ahead of anyone else's who showed off stuff in the building.

The picture is of a representation of Monet's garden in Paris. I'm not sure even how to describe the end of the display; it's something of a screen with a reflection of plant life on it. Whatever. It was clearly spectacular. (For more information on the work this year, click here.)

Michael is the owner of Handmade Gardens. He's gotta do something the other 50 weeks of the year.

By George

2011-03-03T15:09:00.002-05:00

One of the few good points about getting old is that you can sometimes put events into historical perspective. The really smart people write books about such comparisons; the rest of us tell our friends and write a blog.

That brings me to the situation in the Arab world right now.

Back in 1989 or so, the Eastern Bloc nations were crumbling one by one. You could literally turn on the television each night and find out about the progress of yet another Soviet satellite falling off the edge into democracy. For those of us who thought the Cold War would last forever, it was a pretty interesting time.

We're going through something like that now. First Tunisia, then Egypt fell. Libya is closing in on joining them.

What we might not remember now is how peacefully that collapse in Eastern Europe took place. There were no major conflicts, no large amount of bloodshed seen. That's in spite of the fact that there are some rather nasty dictators involved.

I'd submit that this was not an accident, and that then President Bush had something to do with how those events took place. It was a delicate process, and it was handled nicely as it turned out. I don't think Bush got enough credit for that, which is one of the reasons why he is currently an underrated President.

President Obama is currently learning that some heads of state won't go so quietly into the night. We know Col. Gadhafi is a little nuts, and sometimes he doesn't want to go where he's pushed. And, he's not above shooting his own people.

It's a tough job, and there may be false steps taken along the way. So let's remember that the outside world at least has an historical example on how to do this right.

Changing the subject

2011-02-22T19:35:00.002-05:00

Something has happened in our national political discussion in the past few weeks, and it seems to have slipped under the radar.

The Republicans changed the subject.

Remember all the way back to the fall of 2010? The Democrats were the party in charge, so they were the ones who took the fall when the unemployment rate hovered in the nine-to-10 percent range. That's the price of being in charge in this country; parties (and Presidents) get too much credit for economic affairs when things go right, and too much blame when things go wrong.

Besides, as I think I've written here, the Democrats did a poor job of explaining their actions in 2010. They needed to say how bad the recession was, and that government programs and bailouts such as the one for General Motors lowered the unemployment rate by a few percentage points. If anything, the financial wizards did a very good job of preventing much more pain than we actually suffered.

Then, after the election, the numbers started to turn more drastically. Unemployment dropped down to nine percent -- still very high, but headed in the correct direction. The Dow Jones continued going up. The industrial average has doubled in the past two-plus years. It's not where it once was, but it's headed in the correct direction.

Suddenly, we've stopped hearing about jobs, jobs and jobs. All of a sudden, the conversation has shifted to budget deficits. House Speaker John Boehmer talked about the need for cuts in federal spending. In a quote that may stick with him for a while, he said that if people lose their jobs along the way, "so be it."

The reaction to President Obama's proposed federal budget goes along with that. You've seen the pictures of copies of the budget, bigger than the Manhattan phone book. I assume this means that a lot of work went into it, and that preparation for its release was done months in advance.

It sure looks as if the Obama proposed budget was based on the fall of 2010 conversation -- prop up the economy with deficit spending to give it time to continue its recovery. The reaction of some on the right was based on the new winter of 2011 conversation. I suppose I'd expect Sean Hannity to use the word "cowardly" to describe the proposed budget, because he has to constantly raise the rhetorical stakes in order to keep his audience engaged. I thought ex-Reagan budget director David Stockman, who had been pretty quiet for a quarter-century, might do better than using that word, though.

It's always a good idea for anyone and anything, including government, to try to spend only what you take in. Government, however, isn't allowed to save up much for a rainy day, and the political climate rules out attempts to raise more revenue no matter what the circumstances are. That doesn't leave much wiggle room.

We need to get together and figure out roughly what we absolutely need to do and how to pay for it, with any option on the table. I'm not holding my breath waiting for that to happen.

On Wisconsin

2011-02-19T19:02:00.003-05:00

It's time to give a little credit where credit is due.

Wisconsin Democrats recently scored big points when it came to political theater.

For those who haven't been paying attention, the state of Wisconsin has been in the not-so-exclusive club lately of states who are having big trouble balancing a budget. It's a hangover from the economic woes of 2008, which still haven't disappeared, particularly on the employment front.

There's general agreement out there that some belt-tightening is definitely necessary. When it comes to state workers, that can mean not filling vacancies, reducing pay raises, and increasing worker contributions to their medical and pension benefits.

That's fine; it's all part of the game. But Governor Scott Walker led a proposal through the state legislature to take away the public employee unions' right to collectively bargain. (Walker was staring at a nine-figure budget deficit, just after he gave businesses more than $120 million in tax breaks.) That struck a lot of people -- obviously the workers, but a lot more -- as changing the rules of the game without warning. Protesters turned out in large numbers in Madison.

This might have been a minor footnote to the news, but this is where the stagecraft came in. Democrats knew that Republicans were ready to pass the bill, so they simply left the state -- leaving the legislature short of a quorum and unable to pass anything. That gave their side of the argument even more time to build momentum. That has happened.

And the workers' side certainly has had the better of the television pictures. There have been plenty of shots of them carrying signs and filling the state capital, asking simply to maintaining the bargaining rights that they have held for decades. We had almost three weeks of pictures of protesters in Egypt on our televisions. While the situation obviously was much more complex and important there, it was easy to make a mild connection.

These are obviously difficult times for public workers, who don't have a great public image for a variety of reasons. But taking away their right to negotiate is going to strike practically everyone but the far right as changing the rules of the game while the game is still taking place.

Walker may have started something in Wisconsin, but not what he intended to start by overreaching past common sense. This is one battle that is going to spread to other states which try the same techniques. I sense we are in for a bumpy ride.

The downside

2011-02-12T17:52:00.003-05:00

It's popular these days to encourage people with a business background to run for office these days. The theory, at least, is that they are used to running a business efficiently and can bring some fiscal discipline to government.

I'm starting to think there's a downside to this theory, though.

And the discussion starts, naturally, with ex-Congressman Chris Lee of Western New York.

Here's a fine way for a sophomore representative to gain attention -- take part in the fastest scandal in Congressional history.

At 3 o'clock or so, gawker.com published an e-mail exchange between Lee and, um, a potential new lady friend. He made several mistakes along the way -- sending a shirtless photo to the woman (at least he was in good shape), using his own e-mail address, and lying about his marital status, age and occupation. The e-mails were traced to Washington, D.C. Busted.

A friend posted the story on Facebook, and I noticed it a little after 4 p.m. I printed it out and left it for my wife, who was suitably stocked when she saw it at 5 p.m. Then at 6 p.m., we tuned into the local television news to see what had happened. Within the first few minutes of the program, Lee had resigned and was headed back to Buffalo from Washington. Within a day, there was a story out that he had been warned in the past about risky behavior by Republican leadership.

I particularly liked an interview with a psychologist who tried to explain Lee's risky behavior. She spouted a series of "mumbo-jumbo" (a word I don't use often enough)phrases that merely came off as excuses somewhat justifying his actions. That's instead of calling him a bum, which he seems to be by the evidence at hand.

Reviewing here, Lee was a Congressman when he finished lunch, and his reputation was in tatters before dinner. Pretty impressive.

Yes, Lee didn't do anything illegal by trolling on the Internet for dates; that's a subject for his family to handle. But he showed an amazing lack of judgment in this episode, and we do expect our public officials to have that quality as they make important decisions involving our lives. Lee's warnings to his constituents about the dangers of the Internet became hypocritical in an afternoon. Republicans always have trouble when this sort of matter comes out because some have spoken about the sanctity of marriage in the whole gay rights issue.

It all might raise a bigger issue, though. In the last several months, other politicians have suffered from a severe case of foot-in-mouth disease. The most obvious name is candidate for governor Carl Paladino -- do a search for him and "gaffes" and you'll find a long list of results on Google.

I don't want to imply that all businessmen-turned-politicians can't hold their tongue or their urges here, because that wouldn't be fair. But businessmen are often used to having things completely their own way in the private sector. I used to work for a few. Anyone who thinks the public sector can't live without them, and is willing to spend lots of their own money toward that goal (see Donald Trump's current Presidential aspirations), is clearly not ego-deprived. You have to raise your standards a bit and give up some privacy when you leave One Corporate Drive, a lesson that a few may not have learned.

It would be interesting to know if this is a trend, or just a few isolated cases. We'll be watching.

The Abdul Rahman Trophy

2011-02-08T23:43:00.008-05:00

Here's a story that was about 38 years in the making, and eventually leads to the Super Bowl that was completed on Sunday and climaxed when my high school pal Mark Murphy, the president of the Packers but much better known as my lab partner in advanced biology, was handed the Lombardi Trophy:

Way back in 1972, early in my senior year, I was put in charge of the weekly student newspaper at Clarence Central High School. It was a great vehicle for someone interested in journalism who was bursting with energy when it came to investigating non-academic aspects of the school. In other words, it sure beat worrying about my sinking calculus grade. In no time at all, I developed a literary "voice," met a lot of different people, and sometimes made them laugh.

Anxious to try out practically any stunt to call attention to the newspaper, I remembered something from programs from Buffalo Sabres games. The first star of a home game, if it were a Sabre, got three points in a season-long competition. The second star earned two points, and the third got one. The Sabres kept track of the point totals in the program, and at the end of the season awarded a "Star of Stars" Trophy. Since I was going to basketball games, home and away, anyway, I could pick the stars for all the games and create a contest.

I couldn't name the award "Star of Stars," of course. That would be cheating. And there was only one name at the time in Buffalo for such a basketball award.

Walt Hazzard had been an All-American while at UCLA, and he was a starter for the next several years in the NBA. In 1970, his Atlanta Hawks' team drafted Pete Maravich, and it took a season for the Hawks to realize that they had one too many point guards. And they weren't paying Maravich a relative fortune to be a benchwarmer. The Braves swooped in during the summer of 1971. They traded Don May, a 6-foot-4 small forward who was a little too small and slow to repeat the year that he had in 1970-71, and Herm Gilliam to the Hawks for Hazzard.

In the fall of 1971, Hazzard called a news conference. He announced to the media that he was changing his name to Mahdi Abdul-Rahman, although for some reason he was only known as Abdul Rahman. Hazzard had a good year in 1971-72 at 15.8 points per game. The next season, he seemed to age by about 12 years for no apparent reason. The Braves waived him nine games into his season.

For smart-aleck fans of basketball in Clarence, like me, it -- the name change, the sudden drop-off, the odd exit -- was quite strange and provided fodder for jokes. Remember, when you are 17, everything is fodder for jokes. So, the Abdul Rahman Trophy was born.

The competition went on through the season, and Mark won the title. I took a picture of Rahman out of an old Braves' program, typed out some sort of appropriate script, and put it together in a $2 frame bought at Woolworth's at Eastern Hills Mall. We had the "presentation" after a home game in late February (I looked it up). Jim Feldman, photographer for the school newspaper, took the picture you see here. As we lined up for the shot, I can still picture classmate Kris McClellan also taking a picture of us; maybe I was just surprised that someone else thought this was a history-making occasion. Kris showed me her version of this picture at a 2005 reunion.

It was all pretty light-hearted, although I was happy to discover when I visited Mark at home that the Abdul Rahman Trophy was on a shelf in his room, next to the other trophies he piled up over the years. Maybe he figured that it would be the first and last Abdul Rahman Trophy, which it was.

The years went by, and Mark put on quite a campaign to get last-minute votes for "most likely to succeed in the Clarence Class of '73." He played in the NFL for several years, won a Super Bowl ring with the Redskins as a player, worked for the Department of Justice, became athletics director at Colgate and Northwestern, and a few years ago became president of the Packers. I think we can declare a winner in the class election.

When the Packers reached the Super Bowl this season, three of Mark's classmates headed to Dallas for the Super Bowl. And they were all thrilled when he took the stage after the game to accept the Lombardi Trophy on behalf of the organization. The owner usually has that job, but the Packers are publicly owned (meaning Mark is one of the poorest men ever to be handed that trophy) and thus Mark had the honor.

After the game, the classmates were chatting with Mark about winning the Lombardi Trophy. One of them, Bill Irr, said to Mark out of absolutely nowhere, "I bet winning this game feels almost as good as winning the Abdul Rahman Trophy."

They laughed the laugh that only 40 years of friendship can produce. Then Bill asked Mark if he still had the Rahman Trophy, and Mark said, "Yeah ... somewhere."

Some people will be asking Mark for a look at his Super Bowl ring down the road, but they really should be asking about the Abdul Rahman Trophy. It's much more rare; he'd better go find it.

Congratulations, Mark. Let us know when you're ready to come home and turn the Bills around.

The gorilla in the room

2011-02-05T11:40:00.003-05:00

The about-to-be-completed sale of the Buffalo Sabres brings to mind one of the true quirks of the sports business.

Sports teams are in a very odd business situation. They are something of a cultural draw, considered good for the quality of life in a particular community. In the case of Buffalo, the Sabres offer a chance to Buffalo to compete on relatively equal footing with cities such as New York, Toronto and Boston on the sports playing field. As a result, these businesses receive government funding, mostly in the form of subsidies for stadiums and surrounding infrastructure. Theaters and art galleries also receive those subsidies in certain circumstances for the same reason.

Yet, the Sabres are a business. As we saw a few years ago, if they are badly run they can come close to folding or moving. But, they can make money too -- maybe not much from year to year, but sometimes on the back end of an ownership era. This isn't a non-profit organization, like the Albright-Knox Art Gallery. When Sabres owner Tom Golisano agreed to sell the team, his profit was relatively close to nine figures. (In fairness, when the Knox family cashed out of the hockey business, its return was very, very small -- so there are no guarantees.)

And it's a very odd business in terms of its relationship with the public. All fans make an emotional connection to the team, which usually means they have strong opinions on how the franchise should be run. Rule number one is: win at any cost. The ideal owner plows millions into the franchise in pursuit of a championship, keeping ticket prices artificially low in the process. After all, the reasoning goes, the owner is a rich guy and can afford it. Is there any other business that judges success by something other than profit and loss in that manner?

That brings us to the gorilla mentioned in the title. Any discussion between a team and its town starts with one basic, sometimes forgotten fact. The owner of a pro sports franchise puts up large amounts of money to acquire the team. It could easily go into more profitable places. The fans, at least in the case of the smart ones, remember that. They know Ralph Wilson could sell the Bills to Los Angeles interests for one billion dollars right now, which would earn him $250 million more than he could receive for a team in Buffalo. But he doesn't. They heard that Golisano could have sold the Sabres for $70 million more than he received for them if he was willing to let the team move somewhere -- we assume Hamilton. Instead he found an owner that would keep the team here.

We accept all that, appreciate that, and feel a sense of debt.

The outgoing management team of the Sabres held a news conference on Thursday to discuss their status. The session was a lot of different things, but the one word that would never be associated with it would be "gracious."

Golisano and Larry Quinn spent many of those 60 minutes reviewing their accomplishments during their time running the team. They made the Sabres financially viable again, which without doubt is impressive and important. And they are about to be rewarded for it from new owner Terry Pegula. OK, that's business.

Golisano and Quinn also seemed to remember every slight thrown at them during the course of their tenure, as they brought up some of them during the course of the news conference. As exits go, it wasn't going to make anyone nostalgic for their presence.

Remember when their tenure started? Golisano was considered a rich gadfly who had spent millions in a relatively hopeless quest to become the Governor of New York. I believe he once said he had entered the hockey business in honor of a late friend, and ended up enjoying the sport immensely. Golisano's public appearances were few and far between, which seems like a mistake in hiindsight. But no one believes that it was bad for Golisano to wind up with the team instead of Mark Hamister, the other bidder for the franchise when the Rigas empire crumbled who was clearly in over his head. Golisano's time with the Sabres did wonders for his public image, too, which could have some value as he apparently gets ready to return to the political arena.

Quinn, meanwhile, made an amazing comeback. He left the Sabres with a legacy of the John Muckler/Ted Nolan era, spoiling his reputation in the process. Everyone was surprised when he came back into the picture, but -- give him credit -- he learned some things from the first time around. Still, Quinn was combative to the end, never learning the old lesson that while "it's nice to be smart, in the long run it's smarter to be nice."

Golisano and Quinn move into hockey's sunset now, exiting the sport's pages for good. Their contribution to Western New York's sports history won't be forgotten. But they sure made it difficult for fans to feel warm and fuzzy about them, particularly when they said goodbye.

Movie Memories

2011-01-31T19:33:00.003-05:00

Sometimes you have to reach out to your old friends when you are reminded of great times of the past. Today was such a day for me.

"The Thing With Two Heads" was on television.

If you like your movies bad, or at least campy, you've probably heard of this 1972 classic. Ray Milland plays the proverbial slightly mad scientist who is dying. His way to achieve immortality of sorts is to transplant his head on to someone else's body.

The catch is that the professor is also a racist, so he is surprised after the operation to find that his head has been placed on the body of former football tackle Rosey Grier. It seems that Grier had been charged with a murder that he did not commit, and was on death row.

Grier was big enough so that Milland could hide behind him and put his head on his shoulder, thus creating the "illusion," at least for those willing to play along, that a thing with two heads had been created. The two of them argue as they go through the consequences of the operation. Spoiler alert -- the good doctor decides to do another operation himself to separate his head from Grier's body. At the end, Milland's head is hooked up to some sort of machine, with the voice demanding another body. Grier and his girlfriend drive off into the night singing, of all things, "O Happy Day."

There are two particularly memorable parts of the movie. One is when the two-headed creature looks up Grier's girlfriend. After the initial reaction, she comes up with the memorable line, "Do you have two of anything else?"

Then, when Milland attempts to take control of the body, Grier winds up punching himself in the jaw and knocking himself out. It's quite a right cross, and an unmatched moment in cinema history.

My friend Glenn once threw a Halloween party, and dressed up as "The Thing With Two Heads." He put on one of those Styrofoam heads used by wig-sellers, and put on some hair and coloring. It was rather conceptual for those who had never seen the movie, which is practically everyone, but I liked it a lot.

Glenn almost made one mistake. He realized he needed to go to the grocery store for supplies, so off he went ... while dressed in character before the party. Glenn went shopping with an African American's head on his shoulder in an urban neighborhood, realizing that he had a chance to perish right there in a Tops if someone didn't get the joke. Luckily, everyone did or was simply used to odd behavior on Halloween.

We have a television station in the Buffalo area that shows movies most of the time, and "The Thing With Two Heads" came on at noon today. In these days of cable movie channels and Netflix, it's kind of fun to have a film like this come on over the air again.

I called Glenn today and asked how fast he could get back to Buffalo to see the end of the movie, complete with the knockout punch. It was a little distant for him, but he agreed that the thought of hundreds of thousands of Western New Yorkers watching this movie together was a pleasing one.

He also suggested that such a movie would be a good entry for my upcoming book, "Things to Do in Buffalo When You Have a Weekday Afternoon Off."

Taking the high road

2011-01-27T12:40:00.002-05:00

Barack Obama did something very clever on Tuesday night during his State of the Union speech.

He grabbed the high road.

Obama talked a lot about the future in his speech, and he did it in optimistic tones. The President laid out his map for keeping America as an economic power as we rebound from the worst fiscal crisis since 1929.

A pep talk is always welcome, but this has the added advantage of improving his chances of reelection in 2012.

One of the best pieces of political wisdom about Presidential campaigns I've ever read is that the most optimistic candidate usually wins. There are exceptions, but for the most part sunshine usually beats gloom and doom. Obama ran on change we can believe in during the 2008 campaign, while John McCain sometimes acted as if he were trying out for a remake of "Grumpy Old Men." (Note: The "old" McCain reappeared after the election, relaxed and funny, albeit it too late to help himself.)

Bob Dole never seemed to happy when he was running in 1996. In 1992, all George Bush could do was talk about Bill Clinton's character -- instead of running on his record of achievements, which is much more impressive in hindsight than it seemed at the time. And then there's the best example -- Ronald Reagan, with his morning again in America line, selling better days in vivid contrast to Jimmy Carter and Walter Mondale.

Obama's supporters often point out that the new President in 2009 inherited a great many problems, including a huge financial crisis. Obama and his team worked with George Bush's team in 2008 and then took over in 2009, and -- in hindsight -- things could have been a lot worse. The banks didn't melt down; indeed much of the TARP money has been repaid with interest. The American auto industry has been given a second chance.

We came out of that as consumers a little scared, which usually translates to keeping money in the piggy bank and under the mattress. But there are signs of better economic times ahead -- stock market rising, corporate profits up -- so a pep talk about better times wasn't a bad idea at all.

Contrast that to the Republican responses. Paul Ryan had a lot of gloom and doom in his speech, implying that we may not be able to reclaim our glories as a nation over the past century unless we take severe measures now. While certainly we have to get serious about cutting the deficit -- and we'll see if either party has the political will to do that after showing a tendency to sprint away from such decisions -- Ryan's message sure wasn't "feel good."

And then there's Michele Bachmann, who became well-known in 2008 for saying members of Congress who have "anti-American views," whatever that means, should be investigated. Bachmann gave a State of the Union response to the Tea Party crowd, repeating some of the usual conservative talking points (note: If the stimulus package lowered the unemployment rate by two or three points, did it really fail?) and then giving an alternative view of colonial history that made Sarah Palin look scholarly. Bachmann has been visiting Iowa this winter, a sign of the Presidential itch that can only lead to more opportunities for her revisionist history.

I have figured Obama would rank as the favorite in 2012, mostly because he has a base of supporters who are loyal and will turn out at the polls when his name is on top of the ballot. Those same people didn't show up in 2010, but they haven't gone anywhere.

But after this week, Obama's chances of reelection just got better.

What's next?

2011-01-24T13:39:00.003-05:00

I never told you about my one conversation with Keith Olbermann.

It was back in the early 1980's. Erik Brady of the Courier-Express had written a column about Olbermann. It seemed that Olbermann, then of the RKO Radio Network, like to collect sound bites of athletes saying "you know." Olbermann's current champion was Flynn Robinson, a basketball guard, who had said "you know" six times in one 10-second actuality. That comes out to a you know per second ratio of .6.

Paul Hamilton and I were working at WEBR at the time. Paul read the column like I did and said to me, "I think we can beat that." He had interviewed Dee Hardison, a Bills' defensive lineman in that era, and Dee was obviously a little nervous about speaking into a microphone. We played the tape, and sure enough, Hardison had said "you know" eight times in 12 seconds, including one memorable double clutch ("you know, you know). I called Erik, who wrote another column about how Buffalo was, you know, talking proud about having the record in its midst.

A short time later, the phone rang in the WEBR office. It was Olbermann himself, who had heard about Erik's column and was thrilled to hear about the new champ. We chatted for a couple of minutes, and it was pretty obvious that this was a nice, sharp, funny guy at the other end of the phone. I played the tape of Hardison down the line, and a short time later I received a check for $25 from RKO. I think I bought Paul lunch or something with that check; it certainly was the least I could do.

Ever since then, and it's been almost 30 years, I've been watching Olbermann's career from a distance because of that brief connection. He eventually made his way into television and earned a job as an anchor at ESPN. There Olbermann revolutionized the sportscasting business with his co-host Dan Patrick on SportsCenter. The two were smart and hip, and brought a certain attitude to the show. It not only attracted millions of viewers, but a legion of young imitators who carry on the tradition today without the smarts Olberman and Patrick had. As Olbermann once said, he knows that the show will be in the first paragraph of his obituary no matter what he does with the rest of his life.

I've talked to a few people who knew Olbermann in those ESPN days, and read about others. All agree that Olbermann was brilliant, talented, and not particularly missed, mostly because he didn't suffer fools gladly. And, apparently, there were a lot of fools out there. He seemed on his way to nowhere-ville, in terms of broadcasting, when he left ESPN and landed with MSNBC to do news -- right in the middle of the Monica Lewinsky scandal -- and later jumped to to jump to Fox for sports work.

Olbermann came back to MSNBC in 2003, and -- low and behold -- carved out a new niche for himself. At a time when his new network was generally nondescript, Olbermann slowly turned himself into a raging liberal on the air. MSNBC became something of a counterpoint to Fox's right-wing tilt, at least during prime time, and gave it an identity. Olbermann's style wasn't exactly in the news tradition of impartiality, but it was tough to look away when he was on. His special comments were filled with rage and big words that were rarely heard on national television.

He also took delight in pinpricking (that might be far too light a word) the actions and statements of people like Bill O'Reilly, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. It did look a little like the upstart trying to raise himself by taking aim at the big kids -- not that those four don't deserve some criticism. I learned that he was starting to make an impact when people started telling me that I looked like him, depending on his hairstyle and glasses at a particular moment.

If anything, Olbermann's major problem on the air was that he was too intense, too committed. Guests who were on the conservative side were almost never booked, and questions were sometimes so loaded that it was difficult for the guests to respond with anything but a repetition of Olbermann's viewpoint. His reputation got to the point where some people didn't know or forgot about his days as a sportscaster. In other words, this American life certainly had a second act.

Olbermann was suspended last year for making campaign contributions to candidates, a decided bad move for most people in the business. Then on Friday, he resigned suddenly and without warning. I always figured it might end badly, particularly after the suspension, and it sure looks like it now.

Many journalists enter the news business because they want to help change aspects of life. When they can't, they often turn quietly cynical. Olbermann was never that, and his exit certainly was right in character.

I'm not sure what's ahead for Olbermann. He has tweeted something vague about baseball, a first love for him. I'm not sure if he'll have a Third Act, but I'm not going to bet against him either.

A split-second of fame

2011-01-20T00:35:00.004-05:00

So let me tell you all about my "appearance" on MTV Wednesday.

There is a show on that channel called "Made." In this case, the focus of the hour-long show was a Rochester-area teen who weighed about 245 pounds. The show brought in a personal trainer, and had footage of the young woman working out and losing weight.

The goal: lose 25 pounds and run a 5-kilometer race without stopping in Seneca Falls in December.

The woman actually dropped 30 pounds to get to 215. So she was ready for the "It's a Wonderful Run" in Seneca Falls. Which, I happened to run.

When everyone else registered for the race, we were told to sign a waiver so that we could appear on television. Check. There were a few cameras around the during the race, and we didn't know where any of them were from. Heck, we didn't even know when the show might air.

Today was that day, at 4 p.m., as the race officials sent out an e-mail a couple of days ago letting us know it was coming. I recorded the show for my wife, who wouldn't be back from work yet. The Seneca Falls portion of the show took up about two minutes at the end, as I found out while watchign the last 15 minutes live. I looked for familiar faces, including mine, as we had a group of 25 go. But it was difficult to pick anyone out. I did notice a bright, light blue windbreaker from the Medaille College race earlier in December go rushing by the screen -- and that's what I had on -- but there were a few of them there that day.

Curious, I went back and watched the race portions again ... in slow motion. There's a scene of the runners just getting started, with the focus on the woman in question. Suddenly, I ruthlessly go running past her for a few moments. In stop action, you can see me from about my nose down to my elbows. The woman is in the front and the focus of attention, so you have to treat it like the Zapruder film in order to make me out.

I was wearing an orange, big Syracuse Santa hat for the race, as many had silly costumes on for the occasion. Since I'm taller than most of the runners, that hat stood out in a couple of other scenes for an even shorter period of time.

I guess that leaves me 14 minutes and 59.8 seconds to go before I use up Andy Warhol's 15 minutes of fame. What's more, I guess I'll have to keep watching MTV now that I've "appeared" on it, something I haven't done in years.

But I have one question: When does Martha Quinn come on?

Nice and tough

2011-01-13T11:42:00.014-05:00

Dawn Hamilton was one of the nicest people around. She also was one of the toughest.

That's not a contradiction. Dawn, who passed away Wednesday night, displayed both qualities in large quantities throughout her too short life.

Dawn first came into my life when I worked at WEBR Radio. She had been the pride and joy of Medaille College, as I don't think she had a B on her report card while she was there. It didn't take Dawn long to move up the ladder in the news business. Not only was she smart, but she was so nice to everyone that it was difficult not to like her. I'm not sure I ever heard her swear, and the radio business sometimes gave people reason to do that if they needed one.

Along the way, she also showed plenty of interest in the sports field. This was in part because she had liked sports since she was much younger. I recall her telling one of the Sabres of the early 70's, "Remember those little girls who used to pester you around town for autographs? Well, I was one of those girls." I believe the player said something like, "Wow, you've really grown up."

Dawn also turned wandered into the sports office a lot for another reason. We had an intern by the name of Paul Hamilton at the time, and they seemed to get along pretty well. The younger people at the station all bonded quite well at that time. We'd sometimes after softball games go over to her house in West Seneca. Dawn was living with her parents, who were as gracious and friendly to us as people could be. We'd hop in the family pool to cool off and sip legal beverages on fine summer days.

Sure enough, Dawn and Paul got married in 1981; you can see them coming out of the church in the picture above. The wedding was noteworthy for two reasons. One, the minister was extremely pregnant; her due date was the very day of the wedding. Everyone sort of stared at her at the wedding, wondering if she was going to make it through the ceremony. (She did.) Two, of all things, MTV came on the air that day. Whenever the music channel celebrated an anniversary back in those pre-Jersey Shore days when MTV had relevance in our lives, Paul and Dawn's friends could say, "Oh, right, it's their anniversary too."

The tough part about Dawn went on display a little too soon in that era for anyone's tastes. It's been quite a while, but I believe Dawn got bounced around in an auto accident. The mishap caused some problems that doctors never could seem to completely fix. Indeed, the pictures I have of her from that era often show her in some sort of neck brace. She usually needed some sort of special chair to be a little more comfortable at work, and had a variety of healing contraptions at home. During that time, I never heard her complain, never heard her discouraged.

Dawn just adapted. While she had been a member of the co-ed WEBR softball team for a short time, she simply switched roles to scorekeeper. If you can make an impression in that job, Dawn did it. She quickly became known as the toughest scorekeeper when it came to earning a hit in the business. One time Greg Mott complained about not getting a hit on a play. When I pointed out that the ball went into the glove of the woman fielder and then came out, Greg replied, "The ball ripped the glove off her hand! Shouldn't that be a hit?"

Dawn came out to softball, week after week on different teams through the 80's and 90's, to cheer us on. Often she was our only fan. She shared in our occasional triumphs, and didn't laugh -- at least outwardly -- when our fielders treated the ball as if it were radioactive. Her level of devotion to Paul was obvious and was always returned by him, as he always carried a lawn chair and other equipment to the field and tended to her needs. The rest of the team, being manly men, wouldn't have expressed it, but appreciated just how loving a couple the two of them were.

When my softball days ended about 10 years ago due to age and a shift in job hours, I stopped seeing Dawn on any sort of regular basis. What's more, when I stopped covering Sabre games I stopped seeing Paul. So news about either of the Hamiltons was hard to come by. But I did get the devastating news some years ago that Dawn had cancer, and the prognosis was not good.

Still, I knew Dawn would attack the illness with a combination of determination and optimism. Whenever I ran into a common friend or a co-worker of hers at WNED, I'd ask about Dawn, and hear how she was working as regularly as possible and not complaining. My last gesture, if that's the right word, came in the fall when a couple of our former WEBR co-workers went into the Buffalo Broadcasters Hall of Fame. I asked Paul if Dawn would be up for attending, and he said she was pretty wiped out most of the time by the chemo treatments. So, I sent along the program from the event, hoping it would put a smile on her face. From there it was a matter of waiting for the crushing but not surprising news that came Wednesday. At least she's no longer suffering.

Life, it's said, isn't necessarily fair, and it certainly wasn't for Dawn. Someone that nice deserved a longer, fuller life. But she'd be the first to say, no doubt, that she had a husband, friends and family that loved her and was loved by her. Dawn probably wouldn't have been interested in trading lives with anyone.

(Donations can be made to Ebenezer United Church of Christ or Hospice Buffalo, Inc.)

"You idiot"

2011-01-12T22:59:00.002-05:00

Back in December of 1976, I was sitting at the press table during a Syracuse-Maryland basketball game at Maryland. During a timeout, Hank Nichols -- one of the few officials in America whose name was known to veteran basketball fans, because he always seemed to be on television -- walked over to my coworker with the student newspaper and me during a timeout.

"See that guy a few rows back, who has been yelling at me tonight?" he asked.

We nodded, wondering where he was going with this.

"When Maryland plays an ACC game in here, there are 15,000 fans just like him."

We laughed, and then I asked, "Do you mind?"

Nichols replied, "Nah. That's what makes it fun."

Sometimes there are a handful, sometimes there are thousands. But when fans are watching a basketball game in which there are officials and a score, chances are very good that there will be fans yelling at the referees in nearly nonsensical fashion.

I guess I first really noticed this sort of behavior in high school. One of the parents of a junior varsity player was one of those loud fans who was sure that the referees hadn't made a good call in their lives. What's more, his son was at the age at which, as my friend Glenn described it, "Everything your parents do in public tends to embarrass you." That means that the son looked as if he wanted to dig a hole at the foul line whenever his dad called the ref "a knucklehead." By the way, the varsity games, which didn't include the son, also included some knucklehead officials.

Somewhere along the line after that, I'd like to think I learned some lessons about officials. They weren't going to see everything, and were bound to make the odd mistake. I just wanted them to know the rules, whether I was watching or playing. I remember one time in softball when my team was on the field, and there was a play at second base. "He's safe! He didn't make the tag!" yelled the umpire. I calmly said, "It was a force play." "Yer out!" the umpire replied.

The standards are higher when dealing with a game like college basketball that bar-league softball, in part because the stakes are higher. It would be nice if the refs were close to perfect every night. But the officials still have dozens of calls to make every game, and they seem to do the best they can.

This all came to mind Sunday when I went to see Canisius play Rider. I was sitting near the top of the seating, which isn't very high in the Koessler Center. Just down the row were three or four middle-aged men, who were straight out of the textbook. Every call that went against the home team was a bad one.

At one point a Rider player was trapped along the sideline by a couple of players. Suddenly, a Canisius player went flying. The problem was that none of the officials actually saw the contact, but they realized something had happened. At the next whistle, they walked over to a television monitor while my friends were yelling things like "You idiot!" The officials saw an elbow had been thrown by the Rider player, assessed a technical foul, and moved on with the game.

Whenever I'm around these people, who in theory are relatively mature adults, I wonder about them. Do they come from dead-end jobs in which they never have a chance to talk back to authority? Are they ex-basketball players who didn't play enough and are frustrated by that fact? Does sitting in some sort of crowd give them the chance to revert to the behavior of 12-year-olds? Is there any other authority figure or public office-holder who they would call an "idiot" during a chance meeting? (Now, I can think of a few who might deserve that title, but you'd show them a little respect during an actual meeting.)

I can appreciate their passion, and I know they are part of the landscape of the sport. Still, their puzzling behavior remains a constant of my basketball-watching life.

The Arizona shootings

2011-01-10T23:33:00.003-05:00

Saturday's shooting of Representative Gabrielle Giffords of Arizona and several others is one of those terrible moments that is just difficult to process. There is so much going on, so much passing through my thought processes that it's difficult to put observations together -- not now, and maybe not ever.

We start, of course, with the basics. This, by all accounts, was a lone, crazed man. I'm not blaming anyone or anything else for this action. But it does tie in to the current national conversation on a number of issues. So a few thoughts...

* One point that hasn't received a great deal of coverage is that the fact that a couple of news television outlets and at least one radio network reported that Rep. Giffords had died. What's worse than that in my business? I imagine the pressure to be first among the all-news channels is overwhelming. It's good to remember that it's better to be right.

* Speaking of confusion, the descriptions of the political views of the assassin were all over the map. I saw one report that had one high school classmate call him something of a liberal who was no supporter of government, while others moved him way right. I'm found of reminding people that the political spectrum is more of a circle than a line, that it's not much of a jump from the far left to the far right and vice-versa. But who's to say where this guy fit?

* The fact that Giffords was one of the targeted Congressional districts by Sarah Palin -- targeted by a map with crosshairs -- is a coincidence. No one, but no one, is associating Palin with this violent action. But ... she was wrong to use such a violent symbol then, and it remains indefensible. And to the person on Palin's staff who tried to claim it was just a surveyor's symbol, you aren't helping the discussion one bit. Sigh.

* And finally, Rush Limbaugh maintained his standing in the controversy business with this quote: "In continuing this template and narrative that the Tea Party and Sarah Palin, that talk radio and Fox News, are inspiring violence, they forget that, in the process of so doing, they are attacking what is now a majority of America."
Um, um, has the majority ever been wrong in this country? Well, OK, maybe on civil rights, Vietnam, and a few dozen other things. Meanwhile, Glenn Beck happened to post a message attacking all violence ... just to the right of a picture of him holding a gun. How do you spell mixed message?

Jon Stewart's message at his rally remains true: We need to learn to talk to each other.

End of the season blues

2011-01-07T19:17:00.003-05:00

The National Football League season isn't over in general -- the playoffs start Saturday -- but it sure is in Buffalo. You probably could argue that it ended two weeks ago.

And you've never seen a season end with more of a whimper than this one.

The Bills finished 4-12 this season, missing the playoffs once again as they have throughout this century. They lost their first eight games, won four of their next six, and then were the subject of a pair of beatdowns (it's a silly word, I know, but it fits) against the Patriots and Jets. Yes, the Bills had about run out of players by then and were recruiting wide receivers from pickup games, but it was still tough to watch. So it's 4-12 and the third overall draft choice for the locals.

My usual line of thinking is that sports teams go into seasons with several questions that need to be answered, and the season provides the answers. What have we learned?

* The coaching staff eventually made the right decision on quarterbacks. You could argue that it took a little too long to figure Trent Edwards wasn't the answer, but that's an easy second-guess. Ryan Fitzpatrick will never be great, but he was at least OK at times.

* The selection of C.J. Spiller looks a bit worse in hindsight, although no one should give up him. Clearly the Bills had bigger needs than a running back, even though the team probably figured (correctly) that Marshawn Lynch had worn out his welcome. Just as clearly, Spiller showed flashes of great ability. Even so, it would have been nice to get a clear starter and impact player with that first-round pick and some were taken after Spiller was picked.

* Two coaching staffs have decided that Aaron Maybin just can't play in the NFL. I hope he's not cut anytime soon, though, as he's a convenient target for Five Spot lines at work. I guess John McCargo is in the same class.

* The conventional wisdom about the Bills entering the season was that they didn't have much talent. I didn't see anything to change anyone's mind. Is there anyone on the roster who might rank in the top 100 of NFL players? Lee Evans hasn't played at that level for a while, although he sure doesn't have much help.

* Is it too much to ask to see a second-, third- or fourth-round pick come through in a big way once? In other words, Torell Troup, Alex Carrington and Marcus Easley still look like projects a year into their careers. (To be fair, Buffalo did do better with second-rounders last season.)

* And just who is in charge of scouting tight ends, anyway?

The rebuilding process is not going to be a short one, and considering the possibility of a lockout in 2011 and the Bills' stadium lease expiring after the 2012 season, time doesn't seem to be on anyone's side.

Hall of a day

2011-01-05T23:46:00.002-05:00

It's always a great day when the Hall of Fame inductees are announced in any sport. This was such a day, as the voting in baseball was announced. Bert Blyleven and Roberto Alomar made it over the 75 percent voting threshold, and will see their names placed in Cooperstown in the summer.

Baseball seems to take these things a bit more seriously than the other sports, at least in terms of the fan base. With, essentially, 24 positions to consider (11 offense, 11 defense, two kickers), football probably could select 10 guys a year without anyone noticing a lack of quality in the picks. Basketball's shrine in Springfield doesn't differentiate by level, so a great college player can get in even if he or she wasn't a star pro. Bill Bradley strikes me as a good example of that, but there are others. Hockey standards traditionally have been lower and odder than the other sports, meaning I'm still trying to figure how Dick Duff got in, but at least the bar has been raised in the last decade.

The baseball picks are always scrutinized thoroughly though; it's a great way to spend time after New Year's while killing time until pitchers and catchers report. I always thought the best formula for picking a Hall of Famer is the simplest. Did you look at that player during and right after his career and say, "He's a Hall of Famer, without question"? If the answer is yes, he gets a vote. Albert Pujols has been a Hall of Famer since since his third month in the majors. He only needs to stay healthy. As Bill Parcells used to say, it's not the Hall of Pretty Good.

But we don't get many years where the decisions are so clear-cut, like in 1999 when we had George Brett, Nolan Ryan and Robin Yount. The invisible line for inclusion is different for every voter, and does a little moving as the years go by.

For example, Blyleven received less than 20 percent of the vote in his first year of eligibility. No one looked at him during his career and was ready to put him with Tom Seasver. However, he won close to 300 games, struck out a ton of batters, and played with a couple of champions. Longevity is a virtue for most, and Blyleven had that argument on his side. Eventually and finally, it proved decisive.

Some people believe that if someone is the best player in baseball at some point in his career, that should be good for strong Hall consideration. At least, that's the argument some give for Don Mattingly, who held that title briefly but who saw his career unravel due to a bad back. But if Mattingly goes in, then Dale Murphy has a pretty good argument too.

There's also the "least common denominator" theory of voting. It's the "well, if this guy is in, that guy should be in because that guy was about as good as this guy." Jim Hunter was 224-166. Luis Tiant was 229-172. Hunter is in, Tiant is out. Go figure. But if there's one bad pick, that lets in a few dozen other possibilities at the least.

And then there are the Steroid Boys, who no one seems too sure how to handle. It's easy to vote against Mark McGwire and Rafael Palmeiro now. But what to do with Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens, who were clearly headed toward Cooperstown before they allegedly started cheating?

If I had a vote in this discussion, I probably would have gone with Alomar, Blyleven, Barry Larkin, Jeff Bagwell, and Tim Raines. Lee Smith, Jack Morris and Edgar Martinez would have made me think for a while. But I'm like everyone else except for a few hundred writers -- I get to argue about it for the next 364 days.

Pick a side

2011-01-01T19:18:00.003-05:00

One of the highlights of the holiday season for me is that I get to see some old friends in the suburbs. Being a city-dweller for some time, the trips come less frequently these days if you don't count shopping excursions.

And during holiday gatherings, either close or far from home, I was almost afraid to bring up anything politically oriented.

Because I knew the discussions could get heated. I'm not sure I could ever say that before.

Talk to city people, and I hear one side of a story. One person did a video slide project in which she took pictures of a collection of homes that house school children in Buffalo. Take my word for it, you'd think you were looking at, well, not quite Haiti, but maybe Mexico City. Would you like to spend a Buffalo winter in a house with gaps in the outside walls?

Talk to suburban people, and I hear another side of the story. I hear complaints about taxes, whether it be corporate or personal, and how wrong it is to keep adding to the burdens of the relatively wealthy.

The problem, of course, is that both sides have some truth to their argument. Some of the suburbanites here point to President Obama and claim he's taking us to socialism, while also pointing to County Executive Collins and claim that he's working hard to keep government spending in check. The city dwellers say Obama is more in tune with realities, while Collins only is concerned with not raising taxes at all while pushing his own vision by such moves as laying off the only people who can keep an eye on him, auditors in the comptroller's office -- and costing taxpayers money in the process as he unsuccessfully defends his illegal actions in court.

That leaves with with us vs. them, Republicans vs. Democrats, Fox vs. MSNBC, Red Sox vs. Yankees. The problem is that if we don't listen to how the other half lives, we'll never understand their position. It will always be us vs. them, and not just plain "we."

Guess what? We're all in this together.

It's an off-off-year for elections, which means there will be some significant local races. Can't wait to see how the political conversation turns out as we go through 2011. I smell some rage getting ready to boil over.

In the meantime, Happy New Year.

Holiday gift

2010-12-22T12:34:00.006-05:00

It's December, which means the holiday music is out in full force. Particularly if you are a friend of mine.

My friend Jay Bonfatti used to do a special holiday CD and hand it out as a gift to his friends at this time of year. He did it for about 16 years, going from cassette to CD. They were always a treat, as Jay had such a wide range of musical interests. When Jay died, I figured I'd do a CD as a small tribute to him.

Here we are then, in year four of making such compact disks. I still get a laugh out of the idea of my friends throughout the country all listening to the same music that I picked out. One is even using it in her family's store as background music. Nothing like picking out flowers to "Christmas is Cancelled." The job of coming up with a playlist is in some ways easier and in some ways harder than ever before.

First of all, more music arrives every year, and a lot of it is available on line for free. Such websites as Stubby's House of Christmas does a great job of keeping up with all of it, and his genuine enthusiasm shines through with every mini-review. But on the other hand, I still have to listen to a lot of it in order to find out what's good and what's not worthwhile for my purposes. That means the new Bruce Springsteen CD, "The Promise," hasn't been thoroughly played yet. Call it a 2011 resolution.

It also means I'm a year ahead of everyone. The 2010 disk was made last December and then stored away. I've been working on 2011 for the last six weeks or so; I barely remember what was on 2010.

The reaction to the 2010 disk has been pretty funny. There are certain songs that jumped out of the speakers when I first heard them, demanding to be heard again. That includes "Everything's Gonna Be Cool This Christmas" by the Eels (you should hear the punk rock version sometime, featuring the brief comment, "Baby Jesus, born to rock"), and "The Christmas Song" by BR549, a country band I once heard open for Brian Setzer. There are others but you get the idea.

But few people mention those songs when saying how much they enjoy the music. I had a friend lean back before the start of a funeral and say, "The Drifters' version of White Christmas is the best ever." So you never know. And that's great.

Now comes the gift mentioned on top. With 2011 in the proverbial can (if you have heard of more than five of the groups, I'll be impressed), I'm still listening to new, interesting tunes for down the road. Donnie Iris has made a most remarkable version of "The Hallelujah Chorus." He did all of the voices himself. In other words, he put down something like 84 tracks over the course of four months to come up with a song. A critic described it as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir meets Queen, and that's pretty close to the truth.

What's more, you can get it for free on his website. Call it a preview of 2012.

And happy holidays.

Old job, new job

2010-12-17T22:17:00.002-05:00

Mark Murphy, currently the president of the Green Bay Packers but certainly better known as my biology lab partner in high school, wrote a commentary for the Washington Post today. The subject is the need to limit rookie salaries in the NFL. You can read it through this link.

Mark obviously was heavily influenced by the writing style in his high school newspaper's sports section. The obvious question: If Mark is getting stories written in the Post, does that mean I should try a hand at running the Bills?

No, it doesn't.