The All-Worlds Fair

So I got a new phone today and called my dad to tell him to expect his new phone in the mail... and he told me there was some show on with Michael Jordan in a Birmingham Barons uniform on TV. As I was sitting in front of the TV, I checked and found out Ron Shelton's "Jordan Rides the Bus" was on ESPN, part of their 30 For 30 series of important sports events that happened in the 30 years of ESPN's existence. I had heard about this film but not seen it. (I saw the one about the Fab Five Michigan basketball players and it was really good.)

If you don't know, Michael Jordan was a phenomenal basketball player. Probably the best of all time. After he won his third straight NBA championship, his father was killed and Mike decided to retire. But something he talked about with his dad nagged at him: could he be a professional baseball player, too? The film was about this with old footage of Mike himself as well as new footage of the other players in the story.

A lot of the first half of it was basketball, blah blah blah (I was a big Pistons fan at the time and despised the Bulls). Once the story got to Birmingham - for Mike played for the Barons in 1994 - it was really good. I recognized Bill Hardekopf's voice immediately. And Curt Bloom's. Not so much some other people. There was Joe Drake. I was there - but not in the film. I worked for the team that year, parking cars or sitting at the lower parking entrance just to make sure Mike drove in without being bothered. He waved to me whenever he came by in his Corvette, Porsche or SUV. Ah, thanks Mike, for taking four of your fingers off the steering wheel long enough to acknowledge my existence!

The film even showed Mike's first home run, which was in the late innings on a late July evening. I had worked until the fourth or fifth inning, as was typical, and Donny, a friend of mine who also worked parking for Ralph Comer, went with me into the stadium to watch the game. But, being who we were, it was boring, Mike was 0-2 and we said forget this, let's go to Mata's and get a grinder. So we left and I drove. I had and do still have a love of listening to sports on radio when I can so we listened to the game on the way, with CB belting it out every time. We were on US 31 south, almost to Mata's when Mike connected for his first homer, in the "Unleaveable Yard," so christened earlier in the year by the team's first baseman at the time, either Mike Robertson or Kevin Coughlin (thanks baseballreference.com). The celebrations went well into the night.

Of all the years I worked for the Barons (a total of eight), 1994 was the most satisfying. We had and still have a great stadium, a hard-playing team, and a LOT of fans who came out to see the team. Yet it was also tough. The staff had never seen anything like this before. To operate above capacity for most of the season would try most people's souls and it did for the people we worked with. No kidding, it wasn't easy. And it wasn't fun. Working parking is NEVER fun. But free baseball and getting paid for working for a baseball team smooths over a lot of the hurt.

I have only been back to Birmingham during the baseball season once - in 2008, when my wife and I were moving to New York. The first thing I did after getting a good night's sleep and going to the Golden Corral was head to a baseball game with my wife, my dad and a friend of the family. I don't even remember what happened - don't care. But we loved it, every minute.

Before I wrap this up, I have to mention my second strongest baseball memory. My first was Kirk Gibson's stupid behind hitting the home run in 1988. Hated it so much and still do. But my second strongest memory is of a Barons game against the hated Huntsville Stars, at the time our only instate rival. Barons down 5-0 AND being no-hit into the bottom of the ninth. Impossible, you think? Touche! Barons win 6-5 IN NINE INNINGS! Unbelievable, you say? Nay! I was there and Curt Bloom was there, as were a number of other people who can tell you it really happened. Best. Baseball. Game. Ever.

Best basketball game ever: Duke 101, Kentucky 100.

Second best basketball game ever: Alabama 92, Arkansas 90.

Best recent basketball game: LIU 82, St. Francis 80 in the St. Francis Battle of Brooklyn this year.

Best hockey game: Game 7 of the Tampa/Calgary Stanley Cup final.

Second best: Any clincher for the Pens - and the Tampa/Boston Game 7 last week.

Enough! You get the idea. I probably should have mentioned something about Memorial Day - but I can always work my way back around to it next year.

1) the owner, who was there, did not speak one word of Cantonese the entire 2 1/2 hours I was there, for the first time in nearly three years; and

2) a young man came in and asked for a "case quarter" at a laundromat. A case quarter. At a laundromat. And the owner told him they didn't have one. Ha! (Thanks to Dr. Hadley for educating me what a case quarter was many years ago, otherwise it wouldn't have been funny.)

Less importantly, I also noticed again how little people in Brooklyn seem to regard other people's time, money and just about anything else. And yet, here I sit, waiting for my landlord to come fix my toilet and I'm watching "Raid on Entebbe" on my DVR while working on my thesis stuff. Terrorists, book learning and broken toilets. Oh dear lord, give me a break.

I had thought about it every time I received a spam message and then it was past. I didn't do anything at all yesterday, just keep trying to kick this spring allergy thing that keeps holding me down.

Mom was always more interested in celebrating her birthday than Mother's Day after I was big enough. When I was a kid, the family went to the Botanic Garden with my grandmother and there were lots of pictures snapped and floral vocabulary used (none of which I know, even now). We'd also go to some nice, mostly upscale place for a brunch. I don't know if they still have Mother's Day brunches in Birmingham restaurants - so many of the ones that would do it are gone now - but it's a good idea.

Phone calls were my best way of keeping up on Mother's Day. I never forgot it but I never remembered early enough to send a card from overseas. E-cards sufficed... but here's the thing: if I forgot her birthday, it wss most unpleasant for me. I did that once... Once. That's just the way it was.

I miss her every day. I know it will all catch up with me sometime, that she's gone, but it hasn't yet. It's like one of us is on a really long vacation and we're just marking time until the other one arrives.

You know, sometimes, when you talk about things (write about things), it makes you feel better or at least it assuages you somehow. I've talked to folks about it and written about it now and none of that has made me feel any better at all.

First, Monday, I had a "final" presentation to give for a class (quotations because it was part of a "final" overall project including the presentation plus a pair of papers). I wasn't too sure what I needed to do but by the time it was over, I felt pretty good about it overall. Our CG guru got me the 3D stuff for our wrestling trailer, which is perfect as the time is nearing for it to be done.

Tuesday, tornadoes in Alabama. (This is a recurrent theme in the week.) Plus, I had to read another act from my horror script in class. My changes were well-received with extra notes for this week. (That's a good thing.)

Wednesday, lost my voice from sinus, allergy and seasonal problems. Also, produced the sponsor promo for the internet show I'll be producing this summer. THAT was fun. Good people, good time, everybody moving as a part of a well-oiled machine. And the Pens lost Game 7 to the Bolts. This coincided with the real bad tornadoes that rocked the entire Southeast, horrible twisters that moved over miles, not just the usual up-and-down ones that drop in and then leave but 16 mile x 1/2 mile swaths of destruction. Mini-hurricane. My wife likened it to the tsunami damage in Japan. Unbelievable.

Thursday, dropped all the promo footage off at the editor's office and... AND... found the next volume of the Pittsburgh Penguins greatest games. It's what I have to content myself with in the absence of the Pens from the latter rounds of the playoffs. What's more, Thursday started my odyssey of NFL Draft this past weekend, with Cam Newton getting picked first by the Panthers, Marcell Dareus third by the Bills, Julio Jones sixth by the Falcons, James Carpenter (OG, Alabama) later in the first round and Mark Ingram going to the Saints. Oh and there was some other DT/DE going to the Lions that really blew my skirt up. LOVED IT! What a great draft for the state of Alabama. My sinusy thing continued.

Which all fell apart Friday as the damage assessments came in from the tornadoes. And my business partner's father-in-law passed away after a lengthy illness. But I still couldn't talk. The editor of the afore mentioned wrestling trailer had a death in the family. And there was some... wedding... in England...?

Saturday, Greg McElroy (and Lee Ziemba) were FINALLY chosen in the 7th round of the NFL Draft and the first edit of the promo came through. The first edits of the promo came through and they were really good, and there was a quick second which was even better. Plus I spoke to my dad and he's fine, as is the house.

Sunday, we went to my business partner's father-in-law's funeral and went to a Japanese restaurant in Staten Island - which nattering Chinese people ran and were very un-nattering to us once we showed them our coupon. It was not so good. The funeral was well-done and I feel very bad for my partner's family as they are very close.

Then... I wake up to today's BIG NEWS. I don't even have to tell you what it is. I hope. I don't even know what to think. Plus I saw the final edit of the not-wrestling trailer and it's really REALLY good.

And there you go. Wow. Lots of crazy things happening. And my voice still isn't back yet.