The AVP is Still Around in 2014?

Time to go Darren Rovell on you.  I was just flipping channels recently and came across something that I thought had ceased to exist as of a couple of years ago.  I'm not sure why it never caught on; because beach volleyball was always a big draw during the Olympics, but it never caught on between the Summer Olympics.  The party atmosphere had to attract affluent 20 somethings with money to spend.  The athleticism and sex appeal had to draw in both men and women, alike.  It would seem to me that this a is recipe of success for edgy and enterprising companies.  And some well intentioned capitalists took advantage securing some sponsors, finding a TV contract and attracting the best volleyball players in the world.  After years and mergers, the AVP was born. 

In fact, it was just a couple of years ago (it seemed at least) that the AVP made a stop in Quincy at Marina Bay.  We were thinking about going since it always looked like a big party and Marina Bay was 20 minutes away from us.  What's not to love about that - drinks, men and women in bathing suits playing volleyball, and a raucous atmosphere, just 20 minutes from the house?  Alas, it was way too hot for the kids (DLG was just a baby, I remember) when we decided to go.  AVP would have to wait until next year.  That plus I really did not want to wear a pair of Crocs out in public.

Shortly after that, I watched Beach Volleyball once in a while on TV.  It was amusing to watch and I still like the raucous attitude that.  Maybe we could go the following year.

And I kept my promise.  Just a couple of years ago, I checked to see if the AVP was coming back to Marina Bay and discovered that the AVP had gone under.  Just like other fringe sports that sought to capitalize on Summer Olympic glory for the Americans, mainstream beach volleyball just could not secure the crowds or the corporate sponsorships to survive.  I have to admit that I didn't understand.

So I forgot about it.

Until tonight.  Flipping channels, I see that the AVP had magically reappeared on the CBS Sports Network.  What I was watching was the St. Petersburg Open that was featuring a couple of stars from the 2012 Summer Olympics.  Kerri Walsh-Jennings and April Ross, who both won medals for the USA back in 2012 were playing a couple of other women who I had never heard of.  And of course, I looked at the AVP website and found that this was a recent tournament, not some sort of ESPN Classic sport.  It got me thinking how this league could be sustained.

First, seek corporate sponsors that fit in with sport.  Hey I get that the AVP wants us to worry about being healthy, but a sport played on a beach begs for alcoholic sponsors.  Bud Light, Michelob Ultra and Smirnoff Ice make a lot of sense.  Energy drinks, water enhancers and water sports make sense here too.  Paul Mitchell does NOT make a lot of sense.

Second, market the players better.  I'll stay away from the obvious way to capitalize on the sport.  But Kerry Walsh-Jennings and Misty May could do a lot more to be ambassadors of the sport.  More marketing of international championships might make this a little more exciting by bringing in some nationalism.

Finally, look to barnstorm a little more.  During the Summer, the AVP can play anywhere in the U.S.  During the Winter, play in Hawaii, Florida and Southern California.  Reduce ticket prices a little bit but offer higher priced concessions.  Look to bring in more people, rather than overcharging the fans who do want to come in.  And these players are looking to stay fresh for the Olympics so prize money may be reduced with little in the way of resistance.

Before you know it, we'll be back to Marina Bay.

Dominic Moore's Cautionary Tale Speaks Volumes

This goes a little differently than usual.  I don't write about hockey that often, but Dominic Moore's story made me sharpen the pencil again to discuss it.

It's really not a story about hockey, mind you.  And it took a strange post in Boston Barstool Sports to make me write about this in the first place.  Thinking it was just click bait, I decided to click on a story that made one of the writers of that site admit that it was the "Saddest Thing I Had Ever Seen In My Life."  Who wouldn't want to read or watch that?  Especially on a Sunday morning when I was just sitting on my couch watching the morning come and go. 

It turned out that that writer was right.  The segment about Dominic Moore's leave of absence from the NHL to tend to his sick wife is one of the saddest things I have ever watched in my life.  But it might also be one of the kindest.

The piece, which aired on ESPN's E:60 program a couple of weeks back, tells the crushing story of Dominic Moore, a journeyman center who had been toiling away in the NHL for over 10 years, and his wife, Katie Moore.  The lede to the story begins with one of Moore's teammates talking about Moore's come back after he had to take care of "something."  Then we saw pictures of Moore playing hockey spliced together with pictures of presumably his wife.  Immediately, I knew that this one was not going to be an easy one to watch. 

The story begins by taking us through the Moores' meeting at Harvard University, traveling to play in various NHL cities and their eventual marriage in 2010ish.  They bought a home in Cambridge, they were talking about starting a family, everything seemed right.  Unexpectedly, during San Jose's play off run in 2012, Katie Moore was diagnosed with a rare and incurable form of liver cancer just days after complaining about feeling ill.  Moore abruptly left the team to care for his wife leaving the playoffs to the side.  The story then takes us through Moore's diagnosis, and the procedures done to prolong her life and, sadly, her eventual death just 8 months later.  To see the metamorphosis of Katie from a beautiful woman to a frail shell of herself in just 8 months is tragic.  The scene where they walk into their Cambridge condominium after friends had finished the work that the Moores had started was poignant and saddening.  Dominic Moore skipped the strike-shortened 2012-13 season to deal with his tragic loss.  But the story comes around to tell of Moore's reemergence with the New York Rangers this year.

But why write about it?  It's a terrible story, and although Moore emerges to play hockey again, start a foundation in his wife's memory and generally move forward in a positive way, its an awful story that I hope no one has to go through.  But this story, to me at least, is a cautionary tale about how life sometimes gets in the way of itself.  And more importantly how one can try to make sure that it doesn't get in the way.

What the Hell does that mean?  It's easy to take a lot of things in your life for granted.  It manifests itself in a number of ways.  You count the days until the weekend or the Summer.  You come home from school or work and you think you're too tired to do anything but sit on that God damned couch.  You watch as the days pass you by, thinking that there will be plenty more of them.  The problem is that that might not always be the case.  For me, it takes a story of some hockey player and his wife, to remember that life is filled with changes, all that needs to be explored.  For you it might be something else.  It doesn't matter, so long as you find it.

Maybe "cautionary tale" is bad term to use.  Maybe "wake up call" is better.  The point is that all of our lives are short, some more than others.  And if we always worry about the small stuff, the big stuff slips right by us.  We all need to try to relish every second that we have.  It's not easy, and neither is life.  That's what Dominic and Katie Moore's story means to me.

Oh and one more thing, I think I'll root for the Rangers this year.

Kazoo Guy is Still at Fenway Park!

I don't sit in the Bleachers that often when I visit Fenway Park, anymore.  Nowadays, I go with the kids who are always looking for foul balls or autographs.  And I need to be able to see the game with my terrible eyesight.  These two ingredients do not lend themselves to an evening in the bleachers.  Back when I was in school, my buddies and I would always scam seats in the bleachers.  Back then, the tickets were cheap and the beer was plentiful.  When the Red Sox came back to play after the 1995 strike, the ownership group even sliced the ticket prices in half for those bleacher seats.  We went every chance that we got back then. 

But then jobs, wives and kids made going to Fenway an annual tradition, instead of a weekly tradition and my time spent near the Williams Red Seat dropped considerably.  The last time I was in the bleachers, in fact was about 5-6 years ago when I went with a couple of friends of mine to see the Sox play...the Angels, I think.

But never mind those details.  One thing that I vaguely remember about those seats in the bleachers was the sight of this guy with a Kazoo always trying to get the Red Sox - and us bleacher bums - to rally.  If the Red Sox got a couple of guys on base, the Kazoo guy would stand up and play his Kazoo proudly.  I thought it was amusing and made a mental note to revisit this guy the next time I was in the Bleachers for a game.

Boston, MA.  6pm.  Lo and behold, that next time was last night.  A couple of friends of mine invited me to the game against the Rangers.  No work, no spouse and no children to be found.  Just a couple of old friends and some ice cold beers (well somewhat cold beers, we're at Fenway after all).  And by luck, our seats were about 14 or 15 rows behind the Visitor's bullpen.  The weather was a little off, so the question became whether we would see the "Kazoo Guy" this time around.  I even made a crack about it to my friends.  My memory of that last game here was not of the score or even the team the Red Sox played, it was of this guy who played a Kazoo with red socks pinned to his hat.

It was a long time ago that I saw this guy at Fenway. And I don't remember exactly where I was sitting that day all those years ago.  So I thought it would be pretty funny if he was still here trying to rally the (often drunk) troops. I told my friends to keep an ear and eye out.  It would make for a good laugh.

As we sat down in our seats, I thought about a lot of things, one of which was that I would have to wait for a rally to start to see if this guy still came to the games.  After about 10 minutes, I found out that I would not have to wait for that rally to start after all.  Unless there was a Red Sox player with the last name of "Kazoo" who had his jersey purchased by this older gentlemen, I think I found the right guy when he sat down.  He was sitting about 2 rows ahead of us. I deftly pointed out to my friends that this guy was still here and we had that good laugh.  I even snapped the picture above (pretending to take a picture of the field, of course).

During the couple of times that the Red Sox were rallying (they were down most of the game), there he was doing his duty, Just like a fife and drum before the scene of a battle, the Kazoo Guy stood up on his seat, played Garry Glitter's "Rock and Roll (Part 1) on his kazoo, rallied the nearby fans with a couple of shouts of "Hey" and then pointed at the security guard near our section, ostensibly to thank him for not making him sit down.  It was perfectly short and left us wanting more.  He went on to do this a couple of more times.  To no avail it turned out as the Red Sox lost 10-7. 

And we had a couple of more laughs.  I'm going to have to take the kids here next time.  Foul balls and eye sight be damned.

Harlem Globetrotters 2014 - Where is Special K?

Welcome back Trotters' fans!  Here we are again for the fifth installment of the JMR Harlem Globetrotters blog!  See, every year since 2010, the family and I have witnessed the glory that is the Harlem Globetrotters.  Now originally, we went to the Globetrotters because we had nothing else to do on Spring weekends between basketball and baseball.  We were looking to just pass the time.  After having been entertained by the dunkers, the ball handlers and the showmen every year since, this is a destination now for the JMR family. Not a way to pass the time, it is now the highlight of the early Spring season.

My kids are frontrunners too, and not surprisingly, the Globetrotters are undefeated in the five games we have seen.  C knows what the real deal is, but G and DLG think that they are honest to goodness good luck charms.  They don't ask me who I think is going to win anymore, the only question the boys asked me on the way in was whether we would see Special K or Big Easy - their favorites from the last two games we went to.  Mom and DLG were mostly disinterested observers.

Because of our schedules this year, we had to see the Saturday night game.  While not ideal with the kids, we thought that we would see the best that the Globetrotters had to offer.  The anticipation was building as we took our seats.

Boston, MA 7:30pm.  As the Global All-Stars came out to warm up, I was struck by how ragged they looked.  Usually these guys can play ball and then they have to let up to let the Globetrotters win at the end of the game (err, I mean they run out of gas as the game wears on).  But this team could not shoot.  Basketball clanged off rim after rim.  They were stretching like old men on a Sunday morning shoot around.  Jesus, it looked like they just picked 8 guys up from Causeway Street to play tonight.

The boys didn't care though because we weren't there to see them play, we were there for the Globetrotters.  As they were introduced, we all noticed that there was no Special K, and no Big Easy.  I was unsure who the Showman was going to be.  I went to the Globetrotters' Website to see if I could tell from the roster who the Showman was going to be.  I couldn't tell from the website either.  All I know is that G was disappointed though that neither Big Easy nor Special K would be there.

"But they were soooo funny, Dad!" G reminisced.

New blood is good for everyone though, I thought to myself as we sat down to watch the game.

A couple of thoughts about the game.

• Hi-Lite was the Showman this year, it turned out.  I remember him as one of the featured players a couple of years ago so obviously they promote from within, just like State Street. 

• Little Globie looked especially creepy this year.  I'm unsure if they created a new mascot or if I had never noticed him before, but man, does he need a makeover.

• Big Globie was a hit, as usual.  I still crack up when he falls down to that Chumbwamba song, "I Get Knocked Down."

• They had some different twists on the changes to the game.  No more penalty box, but they had the "Trick Shot Challenge" (Funny, none of the All Stars were asked to make a trick shot, just the Globetrotters), wear the orange shirt and make double the points, and a spin on the make it take it game where missed shots resulted in the player being sent to the bench.

• The Trick shots involving the foot dunk was impressive.

• The four point shot never gets old.  No one can make them despite the fact that the shots are never defended.

• The instant replay trick was impressive.  I liked the touch of substituting the basketball with a beach ball so it looked like the ball was going in slow motion as well.

Needless to say, the Globetrotters won going away.  86-70.  And as with every year, I have to talk the three kids from buying a basketball, program or jersey. And I have to tell them that we cannot see them again until next year.  The kids tucked that information away until next March when we do this all over again.  And I wouldn't have it any other way.

The 2014 JMR Bracket-Busting NCAA Pool

If you know anything about me, you know that I love the NCAA brackets.  I love seeing Cinderellas try to make it into the Sweet Sixteen or the Elite 8.  I like seeing the best players show their stuff on the big stage.  Most of all, I like the fact that I can watch College Basketball anytime that I want today and tomorrow with no repercussions.

Now it took me a bit to understand what I needed to do to ensure that I can watch basketball without issues from the spouse and kids...include them in the family pool!  So we all put 10 bucks into the pool and the one with the most points wins the pot.  Now I understand that if I win or Mom wins, we don't really win.  And I think I have to contribute DLG's 10 bucks, but who cares.  The Basketball games stay on.

I admit that I have no hope of winning Warren Buffet's Billion Dollar challenge or even Sports Illustrated's Million Dollar challenge.  But I do have a good chance of winning this JMR family pool.  Now 5 strong.

Where am I?

Here are the Final Fours for each of us:

DLG:  Florida, Virginia, Oregon and Duke.  Now I think she picked Oregon to make the Final Four because her uncle lives in Oregon.  She may have picked them because they have pretty uniforms.  I don't know, but it's not the worst pick in the world.  I like the Duke pick too.

G:  Florida, Virginia, Arizona and Wichita State.  When I told G that Wichita State is undefeated because they didn't play anyone good, he wanted to change his pick.  I felt bad for deflating his hopes of winning, but I still took his $10 bill. 

C:  Kansas, Villanova, Arizona and Wichita State.  Ditto.

Mom: Kansas, Michigan State, Creighton and Wichita State.  Ditto.  Also, Creighton?  I think she picked that team because Doug McDermott is on the cover of Sports Illustrated.  When I asked her where Creighton was, she picked Missouri, California, Alabama and Ohio.  When I told her she was close with Missouri, she was even more befuddled.

As I'm sitting here watching the St. Joseph's vs UConn, I am in heaven.  Eventually everyone will filter in and we can all watch the games together.  I'll start by gloating next weekend.