Two Cup Rings in his Sock Drawer! 8-2-08

Even when I try not to bring Islanders hockey into every conversation I have, it seems to find me, and sometimes in the most unusual places.

Last night my family and I headed down to Summer Fest for a few corn dogs (Big Angry Man) some Gyros (Big Angry Man) and pulled pork. (Okay that was me.) My daughter had been in town all day with her friends, so we (along with all the other parents we know) were doing a little cell phone “re-con” on our young teenagers.

“I saw your daughter. She’s over by the Zipper.”
“I saw your son; he’s by the band stand.”
“Your daughter is with my daughter, they just bought ice cream.”

Parents… I know… we’re all the same. But then the parents congregated in the parking lot while we waited for our kids to get bored and tired of the fair, or just run out of money; whichever came first.

While I was standing in the parking lot with some of Sayville’s finest Fire Fighters, my conversation with one of them (a Canadian by the way) did venture over towards hockey. He was telling me the story of how he was a very young man, barely of legal age at the time, and had his pick-up truck parked on Hempstead Tpke during the Stanley Cup parades with a full keg of beer in the back. We laughed and laughed about all the Islanders greats during those years. I told him I still see “Jethro” occasionally along with Nystrom and Morrow.

And then it happened. A man standing with another group of parents in the dark shouted out to me, “I know you! You’re 7th Woman! You’re DEE! I should have known seeing you in orange like that!”

Busted! Yeah, yeah. It’s August, I’m still wearing blue and orange. So shoot me. I really didn’t do it on purpose. It’s just what was on top of the drawer at the time.

The man who emerged from the darkness looked so familiar, but I didn’t know him. He looked like every Irish bartender I had ever adored for their quick wit, friendly smile and great stories.
“Dee, this is my friend Jerry. He worked for the Islanders back in the cup days. He was their stats guy.” Slack told me as Big Angry Man just rolled his eyes with that “Oh please don’t encourage her” look.

“I was the assistant PR director and stats guy for a few years when I was younger.” His face lit up in the dark knowing he had a willing, enthusiastic audience here.

“He has TWO Stanley Cup rings, Dee. TWO!” Slack continued knowing that I was basically the only woman in that group of parents that would find that more than special and almost mystical.
Jerry laughed. “It’s funny you bring that up. I had someone over the house a few weeks ago and they asked me to see them. It took me 20 minutes to find them. I had them somewhere in my sock drawer.”

I think I may have let out an audible gasp. “But I found them.” (uh... THANK GOD!)

He has never lost the passion for the sport or the team. We chatted in rapid succession about the past, the present and the future of the franchise. He told me the funny story of how he applied for the PR job so many years ago after only reading that the position had been vacated the day before. He talked about Joanne Holewa, one of the only employees from the glory days left at the team, and how wonderful she is. (I really have to meet this woman. She must be the Islanders version of “Money Penny” from the James Bond movies. Everyone has nothing but wonderful things to say about her.)

We talked about our beat writer Greg Logan and the great job he does, and then we talked about draft day and how we both felt about it.

We talked about Garth, and again, my husband rolled his eyes and let out a groan. We seem to have a bone of contention between us regarding our expectations of Mr. Snow’s abilities.

“Jerry, she drinks the kool-aid. You won’t get anything out of her.” I glared at my husband and gave my usual answer.

“Yes. It’s cherry and it mixes very well with vodka.” That always gets a laugh and I can quickly put the conversation back on track.

“I believe in Garth. I have to. What choice do we have?” Jerry said to me in all seriousness. “But you know who better be right?” I tried to think about where he could be going with this. “Ryan Jankowski.” Then I understood.

At the end of our conversation, since he had been in PR, we switched gears to the departure of Blog Father, Chris Botta. “You know, I never worked with him, but every time I was there, he knew exactly who I was. The guy was amazing. He knew everything. He was brilliant in that position and I know how tough it is.” Then he chuckled a little. “As good as he is, I’m surprised he stayed that long.” Referring to the turn-‘em-and-burn-’em corporate atmosphere of the PR biz.

Just as I was leaving, Jerry stopped me, “Hey, when you talk to him, tell him I send my regards.”

Thanks Jerry. I just did. I'm sure CB will appreciate it.*

*Note: After giving this some thought, I mentioned to Tiger Track Tom today that if CB had been able to end up with a Stanley Cup ring.... it probably would never leave his hand.

Bloggers & NHLers in the "Off Season"

So, what do you think they do when it's 90 degrees outside? Think hard. Golf? Yeah. They do that. But what do the "real men" do when it's hockey's off season? Um... They PLAY hockey. Even if it IS Roller Hockey, it's hockey.

So 7/23 I get a text message from none other than Islesblogger.com Mike S. "So I just found out that Asham is in my hockey league."

Pretty matter-of-fact, don't you think? I'm not surprised by this because I happen to know that Aaron currently has ties to long Island in diapers, so it makes sense.

"Mike. Find out when you play." I text back.

"I missed a game last night, but one of the guys called me to tell me he is in our league. We play them soon, I think." he texted back. "We're in a higher division this season." Uh... You trying to IMPRESS me Mikey?

I know Mike is a good hockey player, and an avid one. We talk about it all the time. But he never plays at hours that I can get out to watch. (I'm on a very short leash you know.)

So a few days later, I get another text.

"Playing Asham on Tuesday at 8." SON OF A .........I actually have a date with Big Angry Man on Tuesday. There's no way in hell I can get out and go to Bethpage to watch an NHL enforcer play against a fellow blogger, even though I'm dying to!

So while I'm making dinner on Tuesday, I'm feeling my husband out about the balance of the evening. Would HE like to go with me? Um. Not a chance. So I waited till he fell asleep to get the report for the evening.

"MIKE!!! How'd you do??? What happened???"

I emailed hoping he was home while Big Angry Man was snoring on the couch watching the baseball game (isn't that all it's good for anyway?)

"Well, I cut my leg pretty good tonight on my out of the house to go play, but I wrapped it in gauze and headed to the rink anyway." EWWEEEE... But of course he did! He's a hockey player. And we all know that a hockey player will play as long as he's breathing. Bleeding.... that's no big deal. But the fact that he took a box cutter to the leg and decided to play a game anyway, well, that's pretty cool.

He continued: "I stole the puck from Asham a few times and rode him into the boards in the corner. I also beat him to a loose puck and somehow out skated him while breaking into the offensive zone. I lined up against him during face-off, which was an interesting feeling for sure."( * Somewhere here I'm supposed to say Mike plays Wing, but I don't know where. I guess he thinks he's telling someone else. He forgets it's ME.)

Okay. Let's revisit the reality here. This is average guy, Islesblogger.com playing on the same surface and taking face offs against an ex-Islander, ex-Devil and current Flyer. Let's discount for a second that Asham is two, maybe three years away from being out of the league. Let's just remember when he did some cool things for the Islanders. And here's our own Blog Box boy Mike, taking face offs against him. So he continued.

"We won 7-6, but it was really 7-0 because he (Asham) had all six of his teams goals. Yea, I can hang with NHLers. I said it."

Yes you did Mikey! And Mommy is very proud. While some of us just talk about the sport, you can live it. You understand it from an ground level that most of us can only dream of. You have a feel for it that we can't truly comprehend. Don't ever lose your passion. It's a godsend.

7-30-08 Movie Night at the Coliseum

For some reason, I had to make my way to the Coliseum tonight. Don't ask why. I have no answer. Guess it was curiosity. It wasn't the movie showing of "Miracle." Uh... I own it. Makes me cry every time, no matter how often I watch it. But with the summer being what it is, I wanted to see who would show up.

Well... it was all sorts. Families came with strollers and little ones. You really have to love the inflatables. The kids get such a kick out of them. Even Mr. Bill was there. And I, like Mr. Bill, just had to be there. I couldn't help it. All the new ticket reps, smiling and eager to help. It looked like Disney world with clip boards.

Once inside the arena, with the Jumbotron down in the center, you were allowed to sit anywhere to enjoy the show. But you had to careful where you were walking because you were apt to trip over a rug rat.

"I love hockey!!" one 4 year-old told one of the ticket reps. "Well, hockey loves you!" he said. Every kid who walked through the doors was handed a street hockey stick. They were smiling from ear to ear. As we walked in, we were also handed a bag of Indiana Popcorn and a flyer about the next I.C.E. tour stop.

There was a table set up with minimal merchandise, some of it new. Yeah... so damn new that they had Weight and Streit jerseys along with Campoli jerseys. What was missing? Ahem. How about the damn Bergenheim jerseys now that he's been signed for two years?? Uh... HELLO? Okay, I digress.

Chris Campoli was doing his due diligence during his tour of duty sitting by the RV and signing autographs.

"Did you see? He has off on Saturday. I was trying to get him a booking." I got a sly smile. It was a joke. "Sure, maybe there's a sweet 16 or something he can do." I laughed.

"Did you notice we're going to have one of the best looking teams in the NHL?" Okay, so yes, we've got some NHL darlings on our team now, but my answer, "Yeah, but can they SKATE?" I was told Chris' shoulder is doing well and he's looking forward to getting going.

My favorite announcers were not at this event, but I did find out that we will probably be seeing a little more of Billy Jaffe next season, which is definitely a bonus for us fans.

"Where did those suits get the beers?" I said to myself while I was sitting in the stands taking notes. Along with the rug rats were a group of young business men meeting up to watch the movie. Somehow, they found out the one concession stand that was open was selling beer. Bet you $5 there was no wine at that concession. But I couldn't stick around to find out.

There were so many new faces around the coliseum, I'm feeling a little lost.

Oh, and PS, the Where's Morrow thing that was running around our NYIC board? Well, Ken was invited to be there personally but he couldn't make it. He lives in like Kansas, or something. You know with Dorothy and Auntie Emm.

Tim Beach did the honors on the microphone, and as the lights were dimmed he told us that Aug 9th would be the next open house from 10 - 12, and the first official appearance of Doug Weight as an Islander. It was also the date of the Ice Girls try outs, if you're interested.

They will also be unveiling their new partial ticket plans with something for everyone to afford.

This was a very interesting concept in marketing and family entertainment. I think it worked. Everyone looked very happy. I did have to leave, so I don't know how it all ended up. But I'm thinking that even better than watching Miracle on the jumbotron would be to have an ADULT movie night and have a screening of SlapShot and invite Steve Carlson from the Hanson Bros. back to Uniondale.

But then again... I'm not marketing... right? Hell... I'm not even employed there.

BTW... the popcorn was awesome. Big Angry Man ate it in a heartbeat.

Media Monopoly? Newsday Buyout Complete

Real quick as I'm running late as usual. (yeah, what a surprise.)

So today is the day the Newsday buyout by the Dolan empire is complete. The cover of Newsday has the heading "What the Deal Means to LI," there's a letter entitled "To Our Readers" on the inside cover and a two page spread on A4 & A5 reporting more coverage on A16.

Okay, so is this overkill, or are they really worried about the perception the Long Island citizens will view this buyout as? We all know that the Dolans don't have exactly the 'best' reputation on Long Island. Sure, there's plenty of good things to come from their family, but the most press is on the jaw dropping antics of their offspring. This combined with the jaw-dropping view of our cable bills every month, PR may be their toughest task ahead.

I especially liked the "5 Big Questions" article where #4 is "How will the ownership change impact Newsday's editorials and opinion pages?" The answer made me chuckle

"Little is known about the role that the Dolans intend to play in Newsday's editorial board. Family patriarch Charles Dolan, a devout Catholic, is believed to be more conservative than his children. Cablevision contributes to candidates on both sides of the aisle and has clashed frequently with state and New York City leaders over the Garden."

I'm sorry, but that has "Danger! Danger, Will Robinson!" all over it. But certainly, everyone is innocent until proven guilty, so we'll just have to see where this takes us. Let's see if the first sports writer to criticize the Knicks is taken out to the Newsday parking lot and flogged or if Zippay or Best gets to fly with the Rangers charter every where they go while our own Greg Logan makes his own way out of MacArthur airport.

Will advertisers be FORCED to sign contracts that put them not only in the print ad world but also on the public access channels? Will readership and revenue go UP or Down? All I know is ... this is a lot of power for one family to have. So for me, and my opinion, this is just the Evil Dolan empire spreading out a little further, and personally... it scares the crap out of me.

What Could Have Been.... 7-28-08

Ughh!! This may have been my dream job! If not for a handful of reasons why I can't apply. In the latest issue of the Sound Tiger e-Newsletter, there was this Want Ad:

The Bridgeport Sound Tigers are seeking a qualified chef to prepare wholesome meals for the team at practices, pre-game skates, and after each Sound Tiger home game.The ideal candidate will come equipped with their own cookware and cutlery while the team will provide all of the ingredients required. He or she will play an instrumental role in maintaining the health of the Sound Tigers players and insuring they are well nourished prior to and after games. “Our goal this year is to make our team healthier,” said Sound Tigers’ president, Howard Saffan. “Having a chef will enable our players to learn how to eat well and gain the benefits of health and nutrition throughout the year.” As compensation, the selected chef will receive recognition through public address announcements at Sound Tiger home games as well as their own cooking show on Sound TigersTV where the chosen chef will explain how to prepare a healthy meal that benefits a player’s performance on the ice.If you enjoy “cooking up a storm,” contact info@soundtigers.com.

Considering my first love is cooking, considering I've owned a catering company and a restaurant, considering how I feel about hockey, this really made me wish things were different. IF I was independently wealthy, IF I lived closer to Port Jeff, IF I was a few years younger, IF I was uh.... single. Yep. Dream job for sure.

Sigh... but it's another manic Monday. Guess I should start heading into work in the "real world." After all, it's Payroll Monday for me... Oh Joy, Oh Bliss. Accounting is just SOOOO creative and fulfilling.