|
 |
I was born in a small Canadian city in 1964. I am unmarried. Miss Right has not yet come along. I'm beginning to think she never will.
As a kid, I love acquiring knowledge on a variety of topics, hence my love of trivia.
My father got me interested in history by making me watch documentaries when I was eight years old. I am truly grateful he did this.
I developed my own passion for sports history. My favorite sports are baseball, boxing, tennis, hockey, football, and soccer. Baseball is far and away my favorite. I live and die with the exploits of the Boston Red Sox. (I was a Red Sox fan long before it became fashionable.) I play fastpitch softball as a kid when that was a popular pastime in Canada. I was a second baseman. Good glove, weak arm, decent contact hitter, not much power, I normally batted second. I have been a softball umpire since 1978. Last time I counted, I had worked over 2,300 games.
I've always loved words and the English language. It's possibilities are truly limitless. I modestly say I am a writer of some repute. I began writing pieces for sports encyclopedias at age 19 and really haven't stopped penning sports articles since then. I used to write a weekly sports nostalgia column for a local newspaper. I allegedly had half a million readers at one time. (My column ran for five years before a dim-witted editor took over the sports department and dismissed all the freelance columnists and replaced them with hand-picked toadies. Accordingly, I have put a curse on him and his family.) I've had three books on baseball history published. All have received kind reviews. I still write the occasional piece for nostalgia publications. If anyone is really interested in my stuff, I sell collections of my columns on demand. My books are available through mail order from my publisher in North Carolina.
I am a tournament Scrabble player and official. I have an expert rating (which I am quite proud of) and I'm usually ranked in the top 40 in Canada. I help run a local club and local tourneys, and, for some reason, I am much in demand to officiate and organize tournaments in many places. Scrabble has allowed me to travel to Las Vegas, Reno, Phoenix, New Orleans, and this summer...Orlando. It's nice work if you can get it. It must be my aptitude for organization which I acquired from both my parents. Scrabble is quite a diverse and odd subculture. Nevertheless, my best friends are Scrabble players. The game helps me retain what is left of my sanity.
Along those same lines, I enjoy all competitive endeavors. I always play to win. This is why I love game shows too, I suppose.
Occasionally I do real jobs too. I've been a private tutor since 1994. My students think I'm brilliant. I always try to live up to their expectations.
I think I have a good sense of humor. It's a hybrid of American and British mirth. I especially love puns. I am cuddly.
Tags:
Featured
Member-
Lava1964
Added: 1st May 2008
Views: 183
Rating: 
Posted By: Steve |
 
|
 |
American League baseball umpire Ed Hurley appeared as a challenger on What's My Line in this episode from October 4, 1953. In the early days of What's My Line, the panelists were each permitted a free guess as to what the contestant's occupation was. Even though Hurley signed in with the alias 'John doe,' Dorothy Kilgallen correctly guesses Hurley's job. Hurley relates a funny story about an incident that occurred that day in the fifth game of the World Series between the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Yankees.
Tags:
Ed
Hurley
baseball
umpire
Whats
My
Line
Added: 10th May 2008
Views: 141
Rating: 
Posted By: Lava1964 |
|
|
 |
On June 4, 1974 the Cleveland Indians held the most short-sighted promotion in pro sports history: Ten-Cent Beer Night. There was no limit to the amount of 10-ounce beers one could buy for a dime each. Hey, what could possibly go wrong? A crowd of about 25,000 people chugged down more than 60,000 cups of beer. The effects of the discount brews caused rowdyism to break out in the stands and spread onto the field. The game was abandoned by the umpires in the ninth inning with the score tied 5-5. The visiting Texas Rangers won by forfeit.
Tags:
Ten
Cent
Beer
Night
Cleveland
baseball
Added: 4th June 2008
Views: 300
Rating:
Posted By: Lava1964 |
|
|
 |
On April 1, 1996, the Cincinnati Reds opened the Major League Baseball season by hosting the Montreal Expos. Seven pitches into the game, 51-year-old umpire John McSherry staggered away from home plate on unsteady legs and collapsed face-first to the ground. He likely died immediately of a massive heart attack, but he was officially pronounced dead an hour later. Another umpire, Tom Hallion, accompanied McSherry to a Cincinnati hospital. The remaining two umpires, after consulting with the Reds and Expos, decided to postpone the game. The decision did not sit well with outspoken Reds' owner Marge Schott who was unhappy about having to issue rainchecks to the 50,000 spectators. (She later sent flowers to McSherry's funeral, but reports claimed they were second-hand flowers she herself had received on Opening Day from a local TV station.) McSherry, who tipped the scales at over 300 pounds, was a stereotypical out-of-shape MLB umpire. Beginning in 1997, MLB insisted on tough new physical fitness standards for its arbiters.
Tags:
death
John
McSherry
baseball
umpire
Added: 26th June 2008
Views: 413
Rating:
Posted By: Lava1964 |
|
|
 |
Remember flamboyant American League baseball umpire Ron Luciano? During the 1970s he was the sport's most colorful arbiter. To relieve the tedium during dull games, Luciano would call runners out by pumping his fist numerous times. He would chat and joke with players, pat them on the back when they did well, and engage in bits of mischief. He had a long-running feud with Baltimore Orioles' manager Earl Weaver, whom he once ejected from both ends of a doubleheader. When Luciano quit umpiring to become a baseball broadcaster for NBC in 1980, Weaver said, 'I hope he takes this job more seriously than he took his last one.' Luciano authored five books of baseball anecdotes that were well received. So it came as a shock to the baseball community when the good-natured and well-liked Luciano inexplicably took hs own life in January 1995 at his home in Endicott, NY. He was 57. He left a suicide note containing detailed funeral instructions, but gave no reason for why he had decided to kill himself.
Tags:
Ron
Luciano
Added: 21st July 2008
Views: 124
Rating:
Posted By: Lava1964 |
|
|
|
|
Browse Media