Goodbye,Dayton

It's hard being a pet owner.
Oh, it is more gratifying than you can know (if you aren't one), but it always has the heartbreak at the end.

Tonight, I decided to make that decision with the consultation of my family and try to do what is best for Big Ed (Dayton).
The big boy was just in distress and I just couldn't stand to watch this anymore.
The diagnosis was terminal cancer early last week from his blood test and despite an initial boost from the medication, after a few days, Ed returned to being ill and I just don't want to see him suffer.

It's hard to believe the big guy was here just eight and a half years.
It seemed so much longer.
Long time readers might remember the short post-Welcoming Dayton   that introduced him after Battlin' Bob and I brought him home.
Dayton had some issues at his previous home (not mean ones at all), so his family was looking to move him away-we were willing to welcome him and we loved having him in our home as part of our family.

Dayton was the perfect fit in many ways for our home.
He liked things quiet and so do we, but the mildest disruption would send him barking and so many visitors would think he was this out of control dog that was crazy.
It was the opposite.
In many ways, he was the easiest dog to deal with that I have ever had.
He liked his cage, he felt at home there and I wanted to make him happy.
Ed did his job-he barked loud and he brought attention to people that were arriving.
He did his job to the very end-when Ryan came over to help me with the final ride, Ed hauled himself to his feet and barked to let me know someone was there.

I'll miss Big Ed more than I can say.
He did his job and he did it well.
Boxers are susceptible to cancer and Ed was no different.
We loved him for his eight and a half year run here and only wished it could have been longer.
I'll remember him best like this-in the picture that his previous owners advertised him with.
Some personality that few others got to see, but that those of us honored to have him with us were proud to be part of our family.
Ed loved to ride in the car and he was better in the car, despite his size than any of our other smaller dogs.
On his last ride, he was still going back and forth, looking out the window doing what he loved to do...

A lot has changed since January of 2009.
Back then, Teddy was the dog hanging around with Ed, now it's Posey.
Ryan was living here then and Ed's the final link to his days here.
Ironically, Ryan has an adorable new pug puppy named Oscar that we just met on Sunday.-Starts and Finishes.
Friends that were around a lot then, aren't around as much and new friends that we didn't know at all or barely knew at all have become a major part of our lives.
Life starts and ends and people and pets come and go, but it's important in times like these to remember how special they are before they go and be able to reflect on the good times as well.

Thanks to Ryan for being so helpful in taking Ed to vet appointments and the final walk.
Thanks to Doug Hopkins, Fred Landucci, and Derreck Chupak for calling almost every day to check on Ed and his family and being available if we needed anything.
You all are appreciated...

See ya' Big Ed, I hope I've lived a good enough life to see you again someday.
Give Teddy my best.

Editor's Note: I just wanted to add a brief note to this and thank everyone for their kindness at this time.
Facebook can be a crazy place, but if you have a certain level of decorum and if you pick and choose who you friend (I'm pretty choosy, maybe even to the point of snotty), it can be a really great thing.
I've gotten notes ranging from my best friends to family members to former players of mine to friends of mine in the graphing community today that offer condolences on the loss of Ed.
It makes me think of the importance of pets to all of us.
Almost everyone has felt the loss that we felt last night and I think that's why folks are so feeling when we lose these members of our family -they have been there too.
Today has been a very tough day and there is a vacancy where Ed used to be here (literally, Ryan took his cage last night with him, so we wouldn't have to look at it.
Still, even with it not there, it'll take a while before it truly "isn't".
It's tough walking to the kitchen and not seeing him looking at me, sniffing my hand and waiting for me to turn toward the fridge, standing at attention waiting for the always coming treat.

It'll get better, but I did want to thank everyone for their thoughts and comments-they mean more to me and my ladies than you can know.
Facebook can be a pretty nice place when used properly.
Today it was.
Thanks again.

A sad goodbye

It's a somewhat sad day here as I've decided to end the podcast for now.

The main reason is financial,but it's more along the lines of not being motivated to do the show alone and not having the time right now to recruit guests for the show.
Also,I'm having fun here right now as far as writing and making the time can sometime be difficult for this-let alone both.

The money layout at this time of year hits the worst spot for me and it's been a self-fulfilling prophecy since losing sponsorship-You can't get sponsorship without doing shows and I didn't want to do shows with paying out of my pocket right now.

I'm sad because I did enjoy doing the show and I also got to talk and meet so many really cool and smart people as well,but I may look at this as a brief interruption.
If I can find a free host or even a cheaper cost host,I'd like to continue to do the show,but we'll have to see if that is feasible or not...

If there was something that you'd like to archive,I'd get to it quickly because I think Podbean will take everything down on the 21st,which is next week.

Before I go,I'd like to thank the terrific guests,which was the main thing that I look back and enjoyed most and thank the listeners for listening and all the feedback that I received from you.
It always is so meaningful to hear when people enjoy the things that I do and I really appreciated all the times that you did listen.
I'm a lousy self-promoter and I just don't feel right about beating people over the head with "advertising" for this and /or the podcast,so those of you that listened,did so because you wanted to and that meant more than you could know.

Thanks again and keep the faith,one never knows when this could pop up again...

Cleaning out the inbox

Time for a quick inbox cleaning in an attempt to keep things clean.

First off,thanks to all of you and Ricky Cobb (of @super70ssports) for listening and making that our most listened to podcast!
The podcast numbers are added by me because some download off Podbean (those numbers are viewable via the public) and others play it here,so the numbers are added for the final number.
In any case,thanks and if you just visited for that reason,I hope to keep you around for future podcasts and of course the flagship here...

I also plan on returning to two of our most liked features from the past sometime over the next month as I will return to the Zabbies (boxers that I'm tired of seeing ) and If I ran a network.
Some things have changed since I did that last,some people that weren't on the past lists have dropped off and others jumped on.
Looking forward to re-visiting those lists....

This article is a few years old,but I found it interesting from the Charleston Post-Courier as Mike Mooneyham writes about the lives that still run together from one of the hottest pro wrestling feuds of the 1980's between Magnum T.A (Terry Allen) and Tully Blanchard.
It's a long and detailed article that discusses the feud,the wrestlers background and what they were doing (as I said the article is a few years old) then with Allen marrying Blanchard's ex-wife and the two being involved in raising Blanchard's children with his ex-wife.
It's an excellent article and well worth the read,if you are a wrestling fan or not.

Three recent passings of note.

Goodbye to Pat Conroy at the age of 70 from pancreatic cancer.
Conroy is famous for his fiction work including the Great Santini (made into an excellent film) and the Lords of Discipline (another good film),but my favorite of his was his autobiographical work in My Losing Season about Conroy's senior season of basketball at the Citadel.
I always enjoyed that book.
Santini dealt with a difficult relationship with a father that was occasionally abusive and I could relate to that at times.

Tony Burton passed away at 78 from undisclosed causes.
Burton was best known as his role as "Duke" in the Rocky films as first the trainer of Apollo Creed and transitioning into the trainer of Rocky Balboa.
Burton ,to this day, often appears on the internet when discussing a huge whipping in a fight that should be stopped or a really lopsided game with this..



Sonny James "the Southern Gentleman" passed away at the age of 87.
James was best known for his first hits "Young Love" and "Running Bear" or for taking pop and R & B hits and putting them to a country set which sent him to the top of the charts.
James (to me) was noted for his covers of Petula Clark's "My Love" and the Seekers "I'll never find another you",but was more than that as James set the music (not just country-MUSIC) record for 16 straight number one singles.
That might rate as the music world's unbreakable record!!

Another Goodbye-Superior Ice Cream

Time for another goodbye,but not to a passed athlete,actor or politician.
This time,the goodbye goes to a business as Superior Ice Cream (nee' Dairy) ends its business today after 80 years in Hagerstown....

To almost anyone above 25,Superior has meant ice cream in Hagerstown and when either as a child or taking your child there,Superior was the place to go when you were in the mood for ice cream or other sweet treats.
Superior had to have taken hit after hit over the last 20 years or so as competitors to its kingdom arrived in Hagerstown and each created its own niche'.
The Big Dipper showed up first with an ice cream challenge not far away and others such as The Meadows (Frozen Custard),Sweet Frog (Frozen Yogurt) and Rita's (Italian Ice) each took a slice of the territory and between those and the lack of foot traffic near the Superior location in a residential neighborhood,one could see how tough keeping things going at Superior could be...

Small businesses are having a rough time today and I doubt that places like Rita's or the Meadows (as good as they are!) will have the same endurance in the area like Superior did,although the type of memories that are made with children are more about who you made them with than what you had as a snack.
I'm starting to think that the chain places (as good as some of them are) are just too big and every time that a Superior goes down that a place of its type isn't going to go up.
What will survive that my kids remember fondly?
It's a sad thing to think about-any time there is growth,something gets pushed aside.

I'm sad to see Superior go by and even sadder that there is one less neighborhood place to go to.
I used to take the kids there (Ryan especially after a ball game) a decent amount,but in recent years,I didn't go as much.
It feels like a loss and it is,but I wasn't a regular customer of late.
I still remember going after shopping events or church as a kid on our weekly trip to Hagerstown.
I usually ordered a banana split or got a orange sherbet cone and yesterday when I stopped in for the last time,I made sure to get a banana split.
It was one final tip of the hat to the past.
A past that we aren't getting back-guess that just means I'm getting older....

Goodbye to Bob Foster

Former light heavyweight champion Bob Foster passed away at the age of 76 in his long-time home in New Mexico recently and I wanted to write a few words about the dominant 175 pounder of my youth.

I asked Showtime's Al Bernstein (my favorite boxing commentator for years) for his thoughts on Foster- "Bob Foster was one of the greatest light heavyweights who ever lived.
Great power, especially in the left hook-he is one of the top five light heavyweights of all time"

It's too bad that one of the top five light heavyweights ever (That gives me a future blog idea or even podcast) is more remembered for his heavyweight failures than his light heavy championship reign,
In fact, if you remove two losses from an ill-conceived comeback in the final two fights of his career, Bob Foster lost just once at 175, only a loss to the talented (and consensus number one contender) Mauro Mina on the road in Brazil blots that ledger.

Foster was generally avoided by the best light heavys (other than Mina) as he moved through the ranks, so he took bouts against heavyweights of world-class talent such as Doug Jones (too close to call vs Muhammad Ali), Zora Folley (World title challenger vs Ali) and Ernie Terrell (WBA champ and lost a unification bout to Ali) for money and exposure.
All beat Foster as, despite his height (6-3), his frame just didn't lend itself to the heavyweight division in a time before the existence of the cruiserweight division (175-200).
1967 saw Foster devote himself to 175 with wins over former top contender Eddie Cotton and Sonny Moore among five victories to send Foster into 1968 as the number one contender to two division (middle and light heavy) champ Dick Tiger at Madison Square Garden.
The size difference was startling as Foster was clearly the naturally larger man and crushed Tiger with one left hook in round four.
As huge of a punch as that hook was, Foster would throw another later in his career that has been a boxing staple of pictures and videos for years.

Foster would defend the title four times over the next two years with plenty of non-title bouts to keep busy before a heavyweight title shot vs Joe Frazier.
The tank-like Frazier disposed of Foster in just two rounds and Foster returned to the light heavyweight division without his WBA title.
Even in the era of just two sanctioning bodies, they did stupid things as Foster was stripped for not fighting their top contender-Vicente Rondon.
18 months and four defenses of the WBC belt later. Foster stepped into the ring with Rondon to unify the division and Foster conclusively unified in his favor with a two-round demolition of Rondon.
Now that his throne was solidified, Foster took on Mike Quarry on ABC on the same card as Muhammad Ali vs Jerry Quarry.
Remember when the networks televised great fights on free tv?
Jerry Quarry was a top contender at heavy, while Mike was more of a fringe contender at 175, but "the Quarry brothers vs the world" angle was a decent one, and putting Foster on the bill as a showcase for an Ali fight was good for buildup with an expected Foster win.
Quarry was competitive for three rounds before being dispatched with one left hook for what perhaps was the knockout of the decade as Quarry's foot uncontrollably twitched as he lay on his back on the canvas.

After a trip to England with a stoppage of Chris Finnegan in the 14th round in what was voted the fight of the year by Ring magazine, Foster would be given his fight vs Ali (Ali was not the champion at this time) and lived up to past form as Ali, not known as a huge puncher, dropped Foster eight times and finished him in round eight.
Foster would take two bouts with South Africa's Pierre Fourie by unanimous decision in 1973 before struggling to a draw with Jorge Ahumada in 1974 that many thought could have gone to the Argentine challenger.
Foster then was having issues with the sanctioning bodies as both the WBA and WBC were demanding that Foster fight their top contender (Victor Galindez and John Conteh) next or lose recognition as champion.
Being that both were excellent fighters and had a decent chance of defeating the 36-year-old Foster, yet neither would bring Foster a large payday,a frustrated champion decided to retire.
Foster would come back in two years, winning five and losing two against less than tough competition before hanging the gloves up for good.

Bob Foster would work full time as a detective with the Albuquerque police department and train fighters in his spare time during his post-boxing days.
No matter whether you rank him as the all-time best light heavy or not, Foster certainly ranks as one of the game's all-time best punchers and his highlights certainly ensure that his career will not be forgotten...

Goodbye to Nick Bockwinkel

Here is the first of our looks at two recent passings from the squared circle-one from boxing and today from pro wrestling.

Nick Bockwinkel passed away at the age of 80 and the long-time champion of the Midwest-based AWA was remembered by many as one of the best wrestlers in the game during his day.
Bockwinkel was very smooth yet not overly rough in the ring.
You couldn't see through his style, so it wasn't an expose of the business, but he wasn't known as one of the rougher wrestlers either.
The sharp dresser with the huge vocabulary was a constant annoyance to the wrestling fan because of his high opinion and arrogance-all of which made him an excellent heel.

Bockwinkel was known for years as being the leader of the AWA, but not for the reasons that you would think.
You see, the AWA was owned by the aging Verne Gagne and the majority of their stars were on the older side as well as being lesser "workers" in many cases, such as Mad Dog Vachon, the Crusher, etc,
Bockwinkel was a top-level wrestler up until his last match, but the others were limited in the ring and only could be top contenders in the AWA, which used nostalgia heavily because of the pre-cable television.
The AWA did have some young talent come through, but were usually steered to the tag team division and away from Bockwinkel in favor of the veteran contenders.
Bockwinkel was able to make the older wrestlers look like reasonable contenders due to his ability in the ring.
Bockwinkel had an incredible money-making run with the first incarnation of the "Incredible" Hulk Hogan as a "good guy: in the AWA with Hogan chasing Bockwinkel for the title.
Hogan never a classic star in the ring, nonetheless had good matches with the classy veteran doing whatever it took to retain his title with a few times that Hogan had seemingly dethroned the champion only to have results overturned by a referee or AWA commissioner Stanley Blackburn.
Bockwinkel also defended the AWA title as the world champion in places that had issues with the NWA and therefore didn't use their champion such as Houston (Promoter Paul Boesch had problems with Harley Race), Memphis (Promoter Jerry Jarrett didn't like that Jerry Lawler wouldn't be given a title reign), Southwest/San Antonio (Not an NWA member) and Continental/Alabama (Not sure why, but I bet using Bockwinkel was cheaper than using Ric Flair or Race for a territory often down in dollars).

We didn't see prime Bockwinkel, but we did see him in the mid-'80s when ESPN added the AWA to their "slams and jams" lineup with roller derby.
Bockwinkel was the champion for years but was surrounded by controversy twice over the belt.
Both of these were from becoming the titlist without winning the title in the ring, but only one of them was done outside of the storyline.
The first was in 1981 after Bockwinkel had dropped the title after five years to the owner of the territory-Verne Gagne, who wanted one final run before a planned retirement.
Gagne won his retirement match and vacated the championship, but AWA commissioner Stanley Blackburn ruled that a title tournament would have taken too long to play out and gave the title to the top contender-Bockwinkel, who was such despite being beaten all over the territory for the ten-month Gagne reign.
This is another of the gaping holes in wrestling credibility to anyone who watched real sports. Anyone who lost to the champion as many times as Bockwinkel did certainly would not be the top contender, but that's wrestling...

The other and more fun to the insider wrestling fan was in 1986 when Gagne scheduled then-champion Stan Hansen to lose the title to Bockwinkel in Denver.
Hansen as the major American star in All Japan Pro Wrestling wasn't going to lose by pin to almost anyone, refused to lose the title, and left the arena with the actual belt.
The AWA created a new belt for Bockwinkel but threatened to sue Hansen for the old belt as he was "Defending" it in Japan.
Hansen sent the belt back by UPS with massive tire track marks over where he had run over it with a truck,
Bockwinkel did an interview where he concluded with "I'm happy as hell"!
That statement with inflection has been quoted by the author more times than I can count over the last 30 years.

Bockwinkel would feud with Larry Zbysko and enter a rare babyface turn during the years as the AWA died on the vine.
Bockwinkel would then drop the belt for the final time to Curt Hennig in his first time as a heel before his Mr.Perfect years in the WWF.
Bockwinkel went to an hour draw on ESPN with Hennig at the age of 52 on a New Year's Eve show, which was amazing considering his age.

Bockwinkel left the AWA to go to the WWF as a road agent, as they weren't interested in him as a wrestling talent, despite still having ability.
Between his age and a physical appearance that wasn't what they wanted at the beginning of the steroid age, Bockwinkel wouldn't have been a star even if he had wrestled for them.
Other than that and a short run as WCW commissioner, Bockwinkel was finished in the wrestling game...

Nick Bockwinkel was the type of wrestler that you don't see anymore and he will be missed.
Look for our other feature on a recent passing-Bob Foster in a few days...

Giants lose the Panda

The  San Francisco Giants thought that they had a chance to re-sign Pablo Sandoval after the post-season.
Turns out that the free spending Boston Red Sox had other things in mind as New York lite signed the Giants third baseman away with a five year deal (6th year on an option) worth 95 million dollars.

Now I'm not going to complain too much about the spending-if you really care,go back and read this from four years ago-nothing's changed,so I'll instead discuss what the Giants need to do and a little about the Panda that Boston bought in their latest trip to the carnival.

The Red Sox had a gaping hole at third base and Sandoval is a good fit there-for now.
Five years at that cost is a hefty amount for a player with weight issues,injury problems (although none in the last two seasons) and for a player that looks like part of a power hitter,doesn't have the production of such,although the move from AT&T Park to Fenway might solve some of that.
An underrated defender,Sandoval will be fine at third for a few years until he may eat his way off the position and for the Red Sox talk of Sandoval transitioning to David Ortiz's DH spot after Ortiz retires,I'm not sure if that's a sure thing either.
Players of Sandoval's size and plate discipline tend to flame out fast and that could happen here.
I think Sandoval is a fine player and could fare very well in Boston,but this is a contract that does have its risks for the Red Sox.

Meanwhile for the Giants,a huge loss as now a team that was already looking for improvement in left field and a starter for the rotation and has added third base as a must need.
The Giants are going to have to do something about third base and other than maybe Chase Headley,there isn't really an answer from free agency.
Not sure if the Giants will get into that race (The Indians are reported to be interested though) and if not the Giants are going to have to make a deal as the only players on the roster that can play the hot corner is veteran utility infielder Joaquin Arias,minor league slugger Adam Duvall and Matt Duffy,who appears better suited for the middle infield positions as far as his bat goes.

The Giants need another arm to slot in behind Madison Bumgarner,the returning from injury Matt Cain,Tim Hudson and Tim Lincecum.
Jake Peavy and Ryan Vogelsong are free agents and unless one of them returns (Please don't let it be Vogelsong),the Giants will have to get an arm from somewhere because most of the arms that are highly thought of would be rushed to join the rotation,
The Giants have been linked to Jon Lester,who would slot in rather nicely.

The Giants are involved in the race for Cuban defector Yasmany Tomas,who is reported to be perhaps the best power hitter yet of the Cubans to hit the big leagues.
Tomas will not come cheap and a signing of him and Lester might mean the Giants might have to try to get by at third with a bargain basement plan of Arias,Duffy, Duvall or a veteran signed off the scrap heap.
Tomas would more replace the Sandoval bat and give the Giants a chance to have an above average hitting outfield for the first years with Tomas,Angel Pagan returning from injury and Hunter Pence,

It's going to an interesting few weeks in San Francisco and just how and with who they patch these holes with just might determine if the Giants have a chance to repeat or even make the playoffs....

Losing a friend.

Sorry for my absence and this departure from the usual format.
We lost a member of the family today.
Chancellor passed away today after a short illness.
He was a loved member of our family, and we all will miss him dearly.

To be fair, although Chancellor was a family dog, he really belonged to one person- Ryan.
There was a connection between the two of them that was fun to see.

Chancellor came to us five years ago with several handicaps and as time went on, his hearing and vision, which were limited when he arrived had worsened as time went on.
He passed away at the Veterinary Hospital this afternoon, and in his own way, Chancellor gave us one final gift.

He allowed us to avoid making the difficult decision of whether or not to end his life.
Chancellor had a good quality of life, though, as Ryan and his running buddy Teddy helped him get around very well until the last 5 days of his life.

He was a quiet and unassuming friend to us all, and he will be dearly missed.
I know that some think they are just animals and all, but they become part of the family, and the one thing that a dog and to a lesser degree, a cat gives is unconditional love.

After all, how many of us get that from our fellow man?
The scary thing for me is this- if I am this upset over Chancellor, how will I handle the loss of Teddy, with whom I have a deep connection?
That is a day that I greatly fear.

I would like to thank a few people involved with this sad day.
The staff at Park Circle Animal Hospital were kind, caring, and professional.
From the nurses to Dr.Benjamin Byers, all did wonderful work with Chancello,r and I would recommend them highly, although I cannot say the same for the weekend "on call" vet, but that is another story for another day.

I would like to thank all the people who have been there for us over the last few days.
Mike McKain, along with Joe and Autumn Plum, were available for our family all night Saturday and Sunday, when I was at work, and if Chancellor needed emergency care, they were there for us.
Thanks to all of you.

I would also like to thank the various people who have called today, but especially my dad.
His call was unexpected yet greatly appreciated.
He likely doesn't even know this blog exists, but he will never know how much his call meant to me today.

Finally, Thanks to Chancellor for allowing us to bring him into our home and share his life with us.
I hope we made his time here as happy as he made ours.

I will be back tomorrow with the usual format, with the nastiness and caustic wit that you all expect.
I wouldn't want you guys to think I am getting soft!

Photo Credit
Chancellor-Ryan Heimberger