Will "The Dying " Thrill

Ok, I am sure some of you want to know the "experience" I had with Will Clark.

After reading such a wonderful piece written about me on Mark Trombley's Talking Trash Blog,

I thought I would let my "partner in crime" relive one of my most memorable "run ins" with a pro athlete.

From Mark Trombley's "Dobber's Greatest Moments"

1. Orioles Game #2. This is a classic among classics. Elrod Hendricks and his trash talking to the umpire was good. Joe Carter(World Series Hero) sitting on the steps for most of the game was good. Eric Davis telling me to take pics outside the dugout, not in, was good. But none as good as this. Greg Myers tells Dobber and I to pack up and leave. Dobber says no and continues to do his thing. Myers Then walks over to Will Clark who comes over and tells us, with profanities, to leave. Dobber steps up and yells, "Were part of the Press baby!" and points to the sign. "Is that right?" yells Will the Thrill as they go toe to toe. I look back in amazement as Will smiles to Myers and tells us 'to behave'. Dobber, shaking, tells me we are outta here. His last battery just died and he doesn't want any trouble. I tell him we are holding our ground and to fake some footage. A few innings later, because of that argument, Mike Trombley comes over. A conversation about Vermont, Baseball, a handshake, and an introduction of a Mike and Mark Trombley take place where history is made. My favorite pitcher of all time, the only Trombley to make it to the show, becomes the only MLB player to start conversation with us. If we had left, known of the above would have ever happened. BooYah! I only have to thank one person, Mark 'Dobber' Dobson

Anyone who knows me understands I don't hold grudges, but this player will always be on my s@hit list. To this very day, I get POed when I hear his name mentioned !

ESPN Fantasy hockey---NEVER AGAIN !

Last night we held our annual ESPN Fantasy Hockey league draft.
This is the draft a friend of mine, and I have made a tradition over the years. It is normally held between 9:30 pm, and 1 am every year. The wives and kids have gone to bed. We are free to put our full energy into having fun. I usually even cook myself some good snacks, and have a beer or two.
To set the scene: ESPN charges $ 29.95. This used to be a good value. You had a Java draft room, and a little prize for the winner.
I spent several hours tweaking my ranked players. Something I find enjoyable. This year I used the Dobber Hockey Formula ( I paid 10 bucks for) and thought this could be my year !
Anyway, it's 9 pm, and I was eagerly awaiting to find which draft position I would have this year.
It could be Christmas Day, or it could be a bust. I log in to the draft room, and what to I find ?
Not the polished JAVA Live-Draft war room I have used for many years, but a bare bones HTML piece of s@hit. It took my buddy and nearly a half hour to figure out how to get into this
stupid thing, we kept thinking it was just a glitch, and the real JAVA war room would appear at draft time.
It's 9;20, and the first owner would be on the clock in 10 minutes. Meanwhile my snacks are still in the oven, and I still really don't know how to operate this garbage draft room. Once we finally get in, I find that I have the # 9 slot out of a 12 team draft. Making me twice as ticked off! I can't believe I paid 30 bucks for a
draft room that not only did not have a chat area, but all my pre ranks were gone, and there was no way to sort the players by name, or stats. How long do you think it took to find Erik Johnson in a mess of 500 players ? No, he was not at the bottom, he was in the lower 100. Just above the really crappy players. The way this thing worked, you had to open 2 windows, go to your teams roster, click one of the 3 position categories G-D-F search through what ESPN thought was a good ranking, and find the player you wanted. Then you had to click it, and hit draft. Now you have to go to the page with the war room and see if it was drafted. Sometime it was , and sometimes it was not. There we were, sitting for over 3 hrs with no chat or anything. After a while I called my friend, and we trashed talked the guy who had the number one position. He drafted Sydney Crosby with the number one overall pick, but never drafted a goalie ! Must be some new-wave strategy, or he was not able to use the piece of junk draft room. I think the latter.
After 3 hrs me swearing and ranting and raving I did think I drafted a decent team.


Evgeni Malkin, Pit
Marc Savard, Bos
Zach Parise, NJ
Andy McDonad, Ana
Petr Sykora , Pit
Jonathan Toews , Chi
Eric Perrin, Atl
P. Bouchard, Min
Antoine Vermette, Ott
Ryan Whitney, Pit
Andrej Meszaros, Ott
Erik Johnson, StL
Andy Greene, NJ
Niklas Kronwall, Det
Lee Stempniak, StL
Ryan Clowe, SJ
Michel OuelletD ,
Colby Armstrong, Pit
M. Fleury, Pit
Vesa Toskala, Tor
Manny Legace, StL


No matter how this thing shakes out, I doubt I will ever use a ESPN product again!

Tri State Football League Beat Down !

Well, I knew it was coming, but I did not think the freight train was going to be the Cripplers !
I took over a TSFL franchise this fall, and made it my "project" to overhaul the "stinking pile of poney loaf" that was C'est La Bev. This roster was so bad, it had David Carr as it's QB, Warrick Dunn as RB, and Joe Horn as WR. It's pretty bad when your D is the best thing about your team. (New England)
I am not sure if it was dump trading, or just not giving a S*hit made this by far the worse roster I have ever seen. If that was not bad enough, this long standing keeper league allows "lifetime"
contracts. Which means Tom Brady is a Crippler as long as he wants him to be.
You are only allowed 5 draft picks per draft, so you know it's gonna be a long term project.
After spending hours researching for the draft, I picked WR Calvin Johnson to be the "face" of my franchise. Picking second, I could have grabbed Lynch, but I knew this was not going to be a winning season, so I looked down the road a couple years, thinking Megatron was going to give me the best long term value.
I then traded for Tony Romo, and Julius Jones. I am very pleased with Romo, as he has pretty much carried my club on his back the first three weeks. JJ is much better than anything I had, but really...................... Wes Welker has turned out to be a starter, but my second rd pick Patrick Crayton has slipped down the depth chart, and may be a total bust once Terry Glenn returns.
Maybe the win the first week gave me a tad of false hope, but this weeks drubbing dumped a whole bucket of gateraide and ice down my back.
It's an honor to be in such a long standing league with a rich tradition, and great bunch of owners!
Hey, the bright side is Program and I have the same record 1-2. Somehow I don't think it will stay that way.

My goal this season is 5 wins, and a few stud college RB's in the draft next year.

Hockey Pool 2007-08

I was asked to participate in this years Hockey Pool by the great folks who are in my College Street Fantasy baseball league. With help from my favorite fantasy hockey website DOBBER HOCKEY( I guess he is the Canadien Dobber) , and my Pittsburgh Penguin bias, we will see how things shake out. I will post updates throughout the season good bad or ugly!


NHL 2007/2008 Pool

Pick one player from each box for a total of 12 players (8 forwards, 2 defenseman, 2 goalies). Scoring is one point for goal, one point for assist and 2 points for a hat trick. Shootout goals will not count for any stats per NHL rules. Goalies get 2 points for a win, 2 points for a shutout, 5 points for a goal and one point for assist. You are allowed to make 3 trades, dropping one player and picking up another from the same box. Trades will take effect on the following day and you will get the points for your dropped player up to and including the trade date and pick up the new players points starting the following day. Multiple trades are allowed in the same box.

Please note Crosby is broken up in box 2 with just his assists and box 8 with just his goals (2 points for hat trick applies as well). If you take him in both boxes and he gets hurt, you would need to make 2 trades.

Prize money will be determined by amount of entries. In the event of a tie, the tiebreaker will be most goals. There will also be a $50.00 prize for the Stanley Cup winner. If there is more than one correct prediction, a name will be drawn from a hat. If nobody picks the Cup winner, $50.00 goes to first place winner.


Here is my entry form.


Stanley Cup Winner: Pittsburgh Penguins


Category One: Heatley, Thronton, Lecavalier , Spezza, Briere, Igilna , Kovalchuk, Jagr, Hossa, Sakic, St. Louis, Ovechkin.


I selected Marty St. Louis in the first point scoring category. I know he is not projected to score as much as many of the others listed, but I got to know Marty a little bit while working on " Hockey Talk". "Hockey Talk" was the weekly magazine style show featuring the UVM Catamounts back in the 90's. I'll take a "friend" over a 100 point scorer every time!



Category Two: D. Sedin, Vanek , H. Sedin, Datsyuk, Alfredsson, Malkin, Jokinen, Savard, Tanguay, Brind'Amour, Whitney, Crosby ( assists).


I shyed away from Crosby's assists, as I felt I may be able to grab more points using his team mate Evgeni Malkin. If I grabbed both Crosby's and he got hurt, I would need to use 2 of my 3 moves just to replace him. Having followed Malkin as a Pen's fan, I know he has several more levels left in him.


Category Three: Gaborik, Kariya, Sundin, Langkow, Drury, Zetteberg, Bergeron, Hadjuk, Shannahan, McDonald, Marleau, S. Kozlov.


I selected Marian Gaborik. When healthy, Marian is a Category One talent.


Category Four: Cheechoo, Elias, Gagne, Koivu, E. Staal, Straka, Smyth, Richards, Afinogenov, Demitra, Pominville, Frolu.


I almost grabbed Cheechoo, but I have so much faith in Gaborik, that I have to believe he will drag Demitra along with him.

Category Five: Blake, Murray, Dumont, Rolston, Gomez, Havlet, Modano, Cole, Nash, Parise, Naslund, Recchi.

One of the guys over at Dobber Hockey projects Parise to get 90 pts. Should be fun to see.

Category Six: Kovalev, Tkachuk, Roy, Langenbrunner, Erat, Ribiero, Weight, Ryder, Fisher, Zubrus, Sullivan, Hemsky.

With Briere gone, look for Roy to net 70-80 pts.


Category Seven: J. Staal, Schaefer, Samsonov, Doan, Prospal, Guerin, Strum, Tucker, Satan, Bouchard, Stumpel, Gattlaf.

Almost nabbed Prospal, but Staals' second half last year made me believe we have only begun to see this young studs potential!


Category Eight: Lang, Morrison, P. Sykora, Crosby (goals), Arnott, Knuble, Holstrom, Boyes, Smolinski, Avery, V. Kozlov, Kassel.

The Hat Trick bonus that Crosby is able to bring to the table ought to help me balance the fact that I picked Marty in the first category.
I think "Sid The Kid" can garner 150 pts.


Category Nine: Phaneuf, Souray, Boyle, Zubov, Pronger, Whitney, Gonchar, McCabe, Rafalski, Lindstrom, Visnovsky, Kaberle.

Gonchar is the cog of Pittsburgh's high powered offense.

Category Ten: Redden, Chara, Lies, Jovanowski, Pitanen, Bergeron, Poti, Campbell, Markov, Bouwmeester, Bouchar, Scheider.

Bouchar has developed a scoring touch, my sleeper of this years Pool.

Category Eleven: Nabokov, Turco, Lundquist,Fluery, Hasek, Miller, Kiprusoff, Luongo, Giguere, Emery, Dipietro, Lehtonen, Raycroft.

Luongo is a no brainer IMO.

Category Twelve: Huet, Holmquist, Kolzig, Fernandez, Legace, Mason, Biron, Toskala, Khabibuilin, Vokoun, Backstrom, Roloson, Ward.

Defering to http://dobberhockey.com/ again, they Backstrom him as an elite goaltender this season.

There you have it !
Feel free to offer up any opinions, or teams yourself !
Dobber

Gagne with a spoon !

Well, I have tried to keep from venting about the latest Red Sox swoon. After Eric Gagne "spit the bit" last night, I just had to "blog out my frustrations"
When the trade deadline came and went, and the Red Sox were the only team to really do anything to improve their pitching staff, I was hopeful. Eric Gagne was once a great closer, so maybe he could be a good fit for the Sox to trot him out in the 8th, to hold onto a lead until the could bring in Paps. Boy , was I ever wrong ! Gagne has been terrible, and what makes me more concerned is Tito keeps trotting him out there to blow games. Sure one or two terrible outing can be attributed to rust, but hell, last night I heard Francona say he as going to keep putting him in those situations, as "they needed him" Cripes, I could go out there and toss up home run shots. Hearing him say this made me think that maybe the problem was deeper.
Could the Japanese imports be crapping out due to the long season ? Hell I hope not!
I am not one of those Red Sox fans who think the sky is falling, but I have to turn off the TV every time I see the bespectacled one trot to the mound.
God I hope they can get Manny back, and put this foolishness to an end !

I guess my first blog post should feature the first time I ever witnessed a no hitter!Yes, I was one of the 36,108 people who actually attended Clay Buchholtz's no hitter September 1, 2007 at Fenway Park in Boston. To set this up, I have to start at the beginning. Way back in February, when we had 3 feet of snow on the ground, I received an email from the Red Sox informing me that I had won the lottery for being able to purchase Monster Seats at Fenway! YAHOOOOOOOOOOO ! I jumped up and down in front of my computer ! A few short days my buddy Pete Gordon, and I would be sitting in front of a computer for 12 hrs hoping to get the coveted Monster Seat Tickets ! After 11 hrs of staring at a constantly refreshing message in the ticket office waiting room, I gave up for the night. Feeling down, I went and grabbed some food, checked my email, and decided to try one more time.It was now 9 pm, and I found myself staring at the ticket purchase screen !!!! I frantically went from game to game looking for seats. For 20 minutes, I scrolled through the entire home schedule, only to find they had been sold out. Finally, I got to the September 1st game, and it offered me 2 standing room only monster seats !!!!! I called Peter, and we decide what the hell, we would still be on the Monster ! Months went by, and the exciting Red Sox' season was slowly creeping toward the playoffs. After my summer vacation, I remembered to check into finding a hotel for our game.I was excited, but a little bummed that we did not have the "sitting seats" Anyway, September 1st came, and we had an uneventful trip to Boston, and it was finally time to climb up to the Monster. I tell you even without seats, just standing above the famed scoreboard was absolutely incredible !! We took our time, and hung out during batting practice, watching the Orioles try to hit balls our way. Most of the batters failed, and Jay Payton ended up tossing balls up to our seats. The only batter that actually hit some our way was ex- Red Sox player Kevin Millar. he was laughing an pointing at us as he drove 5-6 shots our way. You could tell he was having as much fun as we were!The game began, and I was still frantically snapping pictures from our venue. I wanted to make sure that if this was our last time up here, we had plenty of memories. The game cruised through the first 6 innings, and it seemed kind of like a dull game, nothing much going on. Then Kevin Youkilis hit a 3 run home run, only a few feet from us !!! We could feel the energy from the front row seats ! After Buchholtz retired the side in the 7th, a few drunks to our left starting talking about the no hitter. Can you believe that ? The people around us gave him a raft of crap, and this just made him be more of an A - Hole. He retires the side in the 8th, and Pete and I were starting to think about it. I grabbed my cellphone, and called friends to tell them I was on the Monster with a no hitter going into the ninth! I had one of my good friends Tom Fraser on the line and I just held out the phone, and he could tell by the unbelievable roar, I had just witnessed a no hitter ! I got a lot of joy out of this gesture, as he is always calling me from concerts, ballgames etc sticking out the phone, asking me where he thinks he is ! This event trumped all the calls from the Rollings Stone concerts etc. It really sucked that I had to take the "pig pile" shot with my cellphone. Damn those cheap batteries! Words can'nt explain how crazy Fenway was at that moment! I can only imagine if the Sox win the World Series at home ! After the excitement wore off a little, we realized we were still on the Monster, and 36, 000 drunk, crazy fans were pouring out of the stadium. We somehow had to get to the Kenmore Subway station before the hoards of people piled into the subway.We made a made dash, full speed down Landsdown Street, and sprinted across the I-90 bridge crushing all the vendor's selling the 'YANKEES SUCK" tee shirts. I sort of felt sorry for them, as they had no idea the wave of drunk people piled into the streets, all headed to the subway.We go to the turnstile, and my buddy used the pass to pay his way, he handed me the card, and I inserted it into the machine, and it spit it back to me.. Says insufficient funds. Damn, I know we put the correct amount in. The lady at the turnstile said, you must put the card in the slot! I tried again......then I just grabbed the ticket, and bolted through the gate. Yes MTA, I may owe you a dollar. I would never had gotten to the pay machine with all the people crushing in. We got back to the car around 11 pm, and we were in the hotel in Salem, NH by 11:30. We got to watch the rerun on NESN...............Years from now hundreds of thousands of people will have claimed to have been at this no-hitter. I have the ticket stub, and pictures to prove it !

Video Highlights can be found here: http://mlb.mlb.com/media/video.jsp?video=200709012184163