Hot Dogs, Baseball and the National Anthem

June 9, 2016

CHARLOTTE, NC – I honestly can’t remember if I’ve ever played the National Anthem before at a baseball game, so I believe Wednesday, June 1, 2016, marked a first for me.

I do remember playing the Star Spangled Banner prior to a few Tulsa Fast Breakers basketball games, when I was the mascot, “Bubby Breaker,” for Tulsa’s former CBA franchise. That was interesting because I actually did it while in the costume, which really surprised the Fast Breakers fans.

I’ve played the National Anthem hundreds of times as a member of one band or another, however, this time I was alone and not hiding behind a mascot head. Admittedly I was very nervous about playing in front of 7,309 fans at BB&T Ballpark in Uptown Charlotte, but thankfully it went real well.

On this night, former Major League Baseball player and manager Lou Piniella was on hand to sign autographs prior to the game and to throw out the first pitch. I didn’t get a chance to meet him, but would have loved to. The autograph line was very long, as there are many transplanted New Yorkers in the Charlotte area who remember Piniella’s glory days with the Yankees.

Piniella was an outfielder who spent 18 seasons in the majors with the Yankees, Royals, Indians and Orioles (1964-1984), then he managed another 23 years with the Yankees, Reds, Mariners, Rays and Cubs (1986-2010). He won World Series titles as a player with the Yankees in 1977 and 1978 and as a manager of the Reds in 1990.

The Knights ballpark is a beautiful place to watch a game, much like Tulsa’s ONEOK Field. It’s nestled in between large office buildings in what is known as the “Uptown” section of downtown Charlotte. BB&T Ballpark opened in 2014, and this is the third season for the Knights in this ballpark. The stadium features picturesque entryways with brick walkways. The bricks are for sale to the public to have their family name, business or message inscribed. The ballpark also is laid out a lot like ONEOK Field in that it is in the new style of “open-air” ballparks, where you can watch the game from the concourse that surrounds the seating area.

The Knights used to play in a stadium just south of Charlotte across the state line in South Carolina. I’m told by a 20-year season ticketholder that the team hardly drew over 1,000 fans on weeknights, so the move to the city center has certainly paid off.

I would have liked to go up to the press box to get a look around, but since I was playing the Anthem, I decided to not request a press pass this time.

The Knights are the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox and play in the International League. Their opponent this night was the Syracuse Chiefs. I had to refrain from cheering because I was a guest of the Knights, but I am from New York state, and the Chiefs are the Triple-A affiliate of my favorite MLB team; the Washington Nationals. I had my nephew Brandon with me, who lives in Northern Virginia, and he too is a Nationals fan, so he enjoyed seeing players who have spent some time in Washington.

We had dinner at a restaurant with family before heading to the ballpark, so I wasn’t hungry enough to get any food at the game, but I was thrilled to see they serve Sahlen’s brand hot dogs, from Buffalo, New York, in the concession stands. That’s the hot dog I grew up eating at old College Stadium in Jamestown, New York. When I worked for the Jamestown Expos, we sold Sahlen’s hot dogs, and the company has been around since 1869. Sahlen’s is the official hot dog of the Buffalo Bills, Buffalo Sabres, Buffalo Bisons and WNY Flash. The Knights are the only team outside of Buffalo that serves Sahlen’s and it’s likely due to the fact that, as I mentioned earlier, there are a lot of Western New Yorkers living in the Charlotte area, including my wife’s parents and several of my cousins. Not only that, but they also sell Sahlen’s hot dogs at Harris Teeter’s grocery stores in the area, so you know I’ll be doing little shopping and bringing some back to Oklahoma with me.

Sports Broadcasting Feeds Desire to Travel

February 28, 2016

CINCINNATI, Ohio – FORT WAYNE, Ind. – It’s a good thing I love to travel, and over the past 27 years since moving to Tulsa to continue my broadcasting career, I have had the opportunity to travel quite a bit with various local sports teams and the Harlem Globetrotters.

It was my play-by-play duties with the ORU men’s basketball team in the early 1990s that first took me to places around the country to broadcast games. However, since then, I’ve had the good fortune of visiting many places life may not have taken me if it weren’t for this career path.

This past weekend, I found myself in Cincinnati, Ohio, where I’ve been before, but briefly to visit family. I did get to attend a Reds baseball game on one occasion, but have never broadcast a sports event in the city until the Tulsa Oilers played the Cincinnati Cyclones last Friday night. The hockey team plays in the US Bank Arena, which is right along the Ohio River. It is just east of the Bengals’ Paul Brown Stadium, and the Reds’ Great American Ballpark.

It’s quite a setup to have the three sports venues, practically side-by-side, in this area that was once known as the Riverfront Sports Complex. The arena used to be known as the Riverfront Arena and the Reds old “cookie cutter” ballpark was called Riverfront Stadium. That was torn down years ago, and the current home of Major League Baseball’s oldest team is spectacular. There is such a great view from the seats, looking out past the outfield wall, toward the Ohio River and Kentucky, on the other bank.

The US Bank arena has been around since the mid-1970s and is due for a renovation which will begin next year. But, it has some character. The first thing I noticed was there wasn’t a press box. Instead, two rows of tables were set up in Section 211, for the off ice officials and the media. I was told they rarely sell the seats around and behind those rows, however, the next night they were expecting a sellout crowd and were moving the tables to another location on the walkway, because all the seats in Section 211 were sold.

On this night, the Cyclones jumped out to a 2-0 lead over the Oilers in the first period, and it remained that way until the closing minute of play. While on a power play with less than a minute remaining in the third period, and with Tulsa’s goalie on the bench for an extra attacker, the Cyclones scored a short-handed empty net goal to seal the win.

An interesting thing happened to the team roster while here. We left Tulsa with 19 players, and in the ECHL each team is permitted to dress 18 for the game. We traveled overnight, and arrived a day early. The next morning, game day, two players were called up to the Winnipeg Jets AHL affiliate in Manitoba; Axel Blomqvist and Jimmy Lodge. That gave Tulsa 17 players, but with Andrew Johnston meeting the team at the hotel, completing a trade with Indianapolis, we dressed 18 for the game. Then that night after the game, two more players were called up to Manitoba; Brennan Serville and Jiri Fronk. That left Tulsa with only 16 players to face Fort Wayne the next night.

While in Cincinnati, I did get to enjoy a couple of very good restaurants; both were a bit pricey. There’s a Mexican restaurant downtown called Nada’s, at the corner of 6th Street and Walnut. Their fish tacos and crispy pork belly tacos are fantastic. My cousin recommended breakfast at a French bistro on Vine Street – A Taste of Belgium. I had a wonderful waffle that was exactly like what I enjoyed on my trips to France. They were so good, I splurged and bought several to bring home with me. I also enjoyed a banana and Nutella crepe, with a great cup of coffee.

After the game in Cincinnati, we traveled on to Fort Wayne – my first time to this city in Northeast Indiana. The Comets play in the Allen Country War Memorial Coliseum.

One odd thing about this arena is the visiting team’s bench is on one side of the ice, while the home bench and penalty boxes are on the other side of the rink. That’s a very strange set up, and I don’t think I’ve seen it that way anywhere else. Another interesting fact is this building was expanded several years ago, but instead of being expanded outward, it was expanded upward with the roof literally raised all at one time and then the upper levels were built to meet the roof.

My broadcast vantage point in this arena was on the seventh level – that meant riding in two different elevators just to get to the very top of the coliseum. This may have been the farthest up and away from the ice I’ve ever been for a hockey broadcast, but it really was a great view and a very comfortable press box facility.

The hotel we stayed in is right across the street from the Coliseum and next to the IPFW campus. The Mastodons of IPFW are members of the Summit League with ORU.

Unfortunately, the Tulsa Oilers lost for the second night in a row, falling to Fort Wayne, 2-1. This weekend, the Oilers will be on a three-game road trip with a pair of games at Evansville, Friday and Saturday, then a game at Missouri on Sunday.

VISITING VIRGINA BEACH

SANDBRIDGE ISLAND, VA - Virginia Beach is a lovely area, and I'm sure it's even nicer in the summer. However, I found myself there last week in the middle of January, with my family, for a very special event. We were in Virginia to celebrate the retirement of my brother-in-law Ken. He retired as Master Chief in Navy after 30 years. What a celebrated career, and I'm truly appreciative of his long service to our country. Ken was active duty on several tours at sea, and on several different ships, mostly aircraft carriers; including the U.S.S. George H. W. Bush and the U.S.S. Theodore Roosevelt (where his retirement ceremony was held).

It was so neat to be given a tour of the Roosevelt. I was amazed at how huge that ship really is. We only got to see a small portion of the ship, but even at that it seemed we walked for miles. The ship normally employees as many as 4,000 sailors for each tour/cruise. It is literally a small city at sea. I was awe struck while standing on the flight deck and seeing how massively large the deck area really is, but at the same time, how small of an area is really is when you have fighter jets landing and taking off in quick succession, one right after another. We saw the catch wires as well as the catapults; pretty impressive. For something that I've only seen in photos or on television, it was pretty cool to actually be on a working aircraft carrier.

In regard to food; we found a great little seafood joint right down the street from where we stayed. If you're ever in that area, I highly recommend Sandbridge Island Restaurant, Raw Bar & Pizza. We liked this place so much, we went there twice. I had the same thing both times; the steamed combo platter on the "Blue Plate Special" list. This included steamed shrimp, crab legs, clams and oysters. I loved it. Others in our party really enjoyed the fried flounder, the fried calamari, and the She Crab soup got rave reviews from all that tried it. I didn't try the pizza, but some family members did and they said that was even pretty good. The restaurant is located at 205 Sandbridge Road, Virginia Beach, VA. Find them online at: www.sandbridgeislandrestaurant.com

RICHMOND, VA - Reporting in from Richmond tonight, as the first week of the Harlem Globetrotters North American tour is winding down, although it is far from over. This is, after all, the 2014 Fan's Rule World Tour. However, I do get to go home for a couple weeks in just a few days.

This is how the tour has gone thus far; Christmas day I flew into Pittsburgh, PA, and we had a full practice that evening at the CONSUL Energy Center. The next day we practiced all day, 10 a.m. - 4:30 p.m., then had the game there that night. On Friday, we bused to Indiana, PA, and went straight to the arena for practice and the game. After the game, we traveled to Baltimore and got to the hotel at around 2 a.m. Following a short 5 hour sleep, it was off to the arena for a double-header, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. games.

It was great getting to see my cousin Todd, his wife Calla, and their three boys at the day game in Baltimore. It's always nice to see family or friends along the way, when traveling with the Globetrotters. I get to go to a lot of cities all across the U.S. and Canada, and I have family and friends almost every where. If we're coming to your town, I hope to see you at an upcoming game.

Following the night game in Baltimore, we traveled on to Atlantic City, NJ. It was another short night of very little sleep, as we had a 2 p.m. game on Sunday at Boardwalk Hall. That evening, my ORU roommate, Mike Phelps, came over to the hotel in Atlantic City to visit me. We watched the Eagles/Cowboys game on television and had the opportunity on catching up on family news. We hadn't seen each other in almost 20 years, and we only talk on the phone about once a year.

Monday (today) was a travel day from Atlantic City to Richmond, where we play a day game on Tuesday. I guess that's so the local fans can come to the game and still enjoy ringing in the New Year in the evening.

I did have a good meal today; delicious tamales from Sabor Latino. We stopped for a quick break in Dale City, in Northern Virginia, off I-95.

I am reviving this blog, as soon I'll be hitting the road again with the World Famous Harlem Globetrotters. I will share stories from the road, traveling across the U.S.A., Canada and Puerto Rico. Also, great places to visit, sights to see, and some of the great restaurants and food along the way. I will also keep you up-to-date on our tour itinerary, so hopefully I'll be able to see you when we come to your city. My next blog post will include tour dates and locations, so check back in the next few days.

If I Were to Lose My Salvation; It's Not What You Think

[This post doesn’t have anything to do with travel, but bear with me; I promise you’ll find it quite humorous. Note to my employers: regardless of the title, this has very little to do with religion, so don’t judge until you’ve read the whole essay.]

If I were to lose my salvation it would happen while mowing the lawn. (What did you think it would be?)

Today I mowed the lawn for the first time this year, and it’s not a task I enjoy. For those that know me, you know it would be extremely rare that you would hear a curse word come out of my mouth.  However, there are several reasons why mowing the lawn can get me to spew a few “darns” and “craps” from my filthy vocabulary.

Here’s my list:

1) I hate mowing the lawn. I think this stems back to my childhood when I was forced to mow my parent’s yard with a push-rotary blade mower. As a kid, I thought that was my father’s way of torturing me. All the neighbors had these fancy gas mowers, and here I was going back and forth, back and forth, with these dull blades. Eventually, my father relented and we graduated to an electric mower. Now I was scared to death of cutting the cord and electrocuting myself to death. So, I have this engrained disdain for mowing the lawn.

2) Several years ago I bought a rider mower for about $700. We have about a quarter-acre lot, and there’s an empty lot next to us, so it just made it easier to mow all this in the 100-plus degree summer heat. However, after only two years of operation, the transmission went out on the rider and I was told it would cost $500 to replace and repair. I couldn’t see spending almost as much as I paid for the mower to fix it. So there it sits in our shed.

3) My father gave me a practically brand new mower last fall; I guess he feels guilty about the old rotary mower days. Today I tried to use it. It wouldn’t start. I went to the shed and got out our old mower, and after only a few pulls of the cord – it started. Ugh! The new one was supposed to make life easier.

4) For the past several weeks we have had an armadillo digging all over the backyard. He has systematically dug a hole in every square foot of the yard. My wife said, “It’s no big deal.” Yeah, right. Mowing out there was like mowing on sand. The wheels of the mower kept hitting holes, and my feet kept sinking every-other-step. What a mess the backyard is now. I’m going to have to drive our SUV all over the yard to try to flatten it out and stabilize the turf. If I see that armadillo again, he better have his heart right with God, because it will be his last digging expedition.

Some people have these big grandiose goals of making millions of dollars; me, I just want to make enough money to be comfortable with paying someone to do my yard work for me. That would indeed be a glorious day, and will help to keep me happy, healthy and holy.

It has been way too long since my last post, and to those that care; I apologize. We have done a lot of traveling and little time in hotels.

While in Phoenix (over a week ago) I had the opportunity to see my old friend Kenny Evans, who happens to be a former Globetrotter mascot (Globie). He took me to get some laundry done, I badly needed to get some clean clothes back into the mix. We got lunch and spent some time together just talking and visiting.

The weather was beautiful in Phoenix and a big difference from the freezing weather in Calgary. We played a Friday night game and a Saturday afternoon game at the US Airways Center, the home of the Phoenix Suns. It's a great arena downtown, just a few blocks from our hotel. and right near the arena is the Arizona Diamondbacks' ballpark. Close by is a restaurant owned by sports fan Alice Cooper; "Cooperstown." I didn't get to eat there but would have liked to. I opted for the Hard Rock Cafe one night, and a pizza joint another day. While in Arizona, we also played games in Prescott Valley and Tucson. We also had a day off, which was nice, that was the day I was able to get laundry done.

We then flew to Spokane, WA, and bused to Kennewick for a game there last Thurs. (2/23), then on to Eugene, OR, on Fri. We had a double header on Saturday, in Portland at the Rose Garden (home of the NBA Trailblazers). That was a long day! It was nice to see my cousins Priscilla and Leroy Moody. They came to the afternoon game and we had a chance to visit and pose for a photo after the game. Right after the night game we bused to Yakima, WA, for a day game there on Sunday. That night, it was on to Seattle to get a little sleep and head to the airport early in the morning.

Monday we flew from Seattle to Denver, and now I'm enjoying a couple days off in Denver! Looking forward to seeing friends and family in the area this week. More later...

This has been a crazy week and obviously I haven't had much time to post any news recently. We began the week by flying to Calgary on Monday. We had an off day, so I was able to get a press pass and go to the Calgary Flames vs. Toronto Maple Leafs NHL game on Tuesday night. Ever since the Saddledome hosted the Winter Olympics in 1988, I've been wanting to go to that arena and actually see a hockey game there! That was awesome, although the arena is definitely showing its age.

Wednesday night the Globetrotters had their game at that same arena, so there I was announcing the game at the Saddledome. Pretty cool! (See the photos in this blogs' photo album)

While in Calgary, I ate one night at The Palomino (109-7th Avenue SW), right down the street from our hotel. This place is similar to many Barbeque joints in Texas or Oklahoma, except for one thing; they serve poutine. What is poutine? This is an amazing dish that originated in Quebec and has spread throughout Canada. It is layers of french fries, cheese curds, and gravy. The hot gravy melts the cheese, and The Palomino adds their own twist by topping the whole thing with barbeque pulled pork. It was fantastic, and I couldn't eat the whole thing. This is certainly one dish barbeque restaurants in the U.S. need to pick up on. How can you go wrong with fries, cheese and barbequed pork?

We flew from Calgary to Phoenix on Thursday, and I'll tell you more about the Valley of the Sun in my next post...

Sunday afternoon, the Globetrotters played in the Rimrock Auto Arena, in Billings, MT. This arena may have had the best sound system we've worked with since I joined this tour. After the game, we jumped on the bus to head north. We made a stop in Great Falls, MT, just to spend the night in the hotel, and on Monday morning we left for Canada.

The border crossing customs process went very smoothly and considering we had two buses full of players and staff, it didn't take very long; no inspections, and no individual questioning. As we were getting off the bus in downtown Calgary, it began to snow. It has snowed quite a bit here, 10cm in some areas, and the city is dealing with covered streets and over 40 accidents in the area. Not sure what I was thinking, but I walked four blocks from the hotel to the Chinese Village Restaurant this evening, in the blowing snow and 20 mph winds. I got my order to go and took it back to the hotel to eat. The wonton soup was some of the best I've ever had. It had pork stuffed wontons in it and large chunks of zucchini, mushrooms and other vegetables.

I was fortunate enough to get a press credential for Tuesday's Calgary Flames vs. Toronto Maple Leafs game, so I'm looking forward to see an NHL game at the Saddledome. Then Weds. night I'll announce the Trotters game at that same arena. Pretty cool!

By the way, check out the photos from the tour that I've posted on the new "Photo Album" page on this blog. I'll try to add more photos soon. Also, please subscribe to this blog, and don't be afraid to make comments and keep in touch.

It has been very difficult to find time to actually post something new on this blog. It has been a whirlwind tour of Montana with the Globetrotters over the past four days. We played games in Butte, Missoula, Bozeman and Billings. After the game in Billings today, we bused four hours to Great Falls. We are only spending the night here on the way up to Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Are game in Calgary isn't until Weds. night, so we'll have a couple of days off.

I've had the opportunity to be on the mic now for five games, and although some of the players and staff have told me that I'm catching on and learning the show relatively quickly for someone who just joined the tour, I'm a bit upset with myself, because I thought I would have it memorize and flawless by now. I'm not trying to put any undue pressure on myself, but I just didn't think it would take this long to learn it all. There are just so many elements to the game; between the music cues, the comedic bits the players do, the sound effects that I have to play at the right time (not early or late - that's happened a few times), the sponsorship copy that I have to some how squeeze in, etc. I'm also a bit stressed because we only have one game this week (in Calgary) before we do four shows in Arizona. The Globetrotters headquarters is in Phoenix, so I know the brass will be at the games and they'll be checking to see how I do.

Dizzy is one of the veteran players on this squad and he has been kind enough to befriend me. We have met in the past, but we never really got to know each other. He has been very helpful and supportive of my learning curve, and is just a fun guy to be around; on and off the court.

I'll try to add some photos to the blog during our day off in Calgary, so until late, safe travels...