Boston Strong

The Bruins hosted the Sabres tonight in the first major sporting event since the Boston Marathon bombing. Boston icon, Rene Rancourt, came out to sing the anthem and the good people of Boston took it from there:

And here is a pic from the NBC Sport Network broadcast of a kid's hockey jersey draped from the Bobby Orr statue in front of the New Boston Garden.

It's for 8 year old Martin Richard.
He was a huge Bruins' fan and
was murdered in the bombing.

Well played Boston. Great. Now I think I've got something in my eye.

De Plane(s)! De Plane(s)!

No sports. No baseball. Just airplanes. They fly over the stadium and I have a camera so I take pictures. Here are a few:

A V-22 Osprey squadron is in town training. Cool looking plane thing.

V-22 Osprey. Flying South ready to land April 11, 2013

V-22 Osprey looking like the jump-ship from Aliens

They come out at night, mostly

And on the same day this 747 landed and took off. It wasn't Air Force One, or Two, due to the fact the President, or Vice President, wasn't in town, but it was pretty sweet none the less.

Big jets are so much quieter now days
Twenty years ago this would have rattled the whole town

Aye. 'Tis a big airplaneApril 11, 2013

And here are a few others from past years (baseball is a slow game that allows one's thoughts to...drift).

Lots of C-130s fly by April 18, 2012

Lots
May 19, 2012

And commercial jets like this MD-80
May 22, 2012

A big, giant C-17
June 19, 2012

F-18 looking bad-assed
May 20, 2012

Air Force One
(President Obama came to meet with the survivors
of the Aurora theater shootings)
July 22. 2012

The awesome! A B-25 Mitchell!
May 20, 2012

Thank you for humoring this train planespotter. Now back to the "sports".

Here's Sox the Fox and some other freaks doing the Harlem Shake
at Sox's birthday celebration on April 7th.

Among The Thugs

Just finished re-reading Bill Buford's excellent book, Among The Thugs, a look at England's soccer hooligan, and fan violence, culture of the 70-80's. Disturbing, well written, but a bit dated (although with the violence at yesterday's FA Cup semi-final between Walsall and Milwall, perhaps it is timely. Milwall has a long, long history of fan violence and once played at a stadium call The Den, located on Cold Blow Lane in London. They now play at The New Den, but it move a couple of blocks away from the awesomely named Cold Blow Lane). This book is an up close look at life on the terraces in what was a very different era in sport.

If you like sport, or violence, it is well worth the read. PengoSports says check it out!

Heil Hotdog

Shooting the mascot roundup at the stadium the other day when Hotdog Brien busts out the fascist salute! He went full Heil Hotdog on us!

Hotdog Nazis. I hate Hotdog Nazis.

How could this happen? Just how did this Lord Voldemort of Hotdog mascots come to live among us? Where did he come from? And what was his ultimate plan? The answers are disturbing. Everything about his Hotdog past, Like Otto von Bismark said, "Hotdog Brien? It is better not to dig too deep into his dark, sordid past." Screw Bismark! The truth must be told! Here is his resume of evil:

In 1890 he helped with the assassination of some French general.

The President McKinley assassination?
Yep. He was in on that!

Guess that bastard Hotdog was a Nazi.
A no good, dirty Nazi scum!

And he was in the inner circle of some
of the World's more heinous, evil men.
Like this dude.

Here is Hotdog Brien, following the direct orders of Hitler and Mussolini,
trying to stop the production of the Chaplin anti-fascist classic,
The Great Dictator.

Idi Amin counted Hotdog Brien as one of his closest advisers.

As did Kim Jong-il (nothing to confirm this but we bet he's helping
Kim Jong-un drive his crazy train right off the tracks).

Saddam? They were like brothers. Brothers I tell ya!

And finally, Hotdog Brien his a dear friend, and close confidant of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Dude looks like Schneider the handyman from One Day At A Time.
How scary can he really be?

With fiends like Hotdog Brien wandering among us are any of us truly safe? Dark days are upon us. Dark days indeed.

More Unfortunate Bat Placement

Today contestant in Unfortunate Bat Placement is Dean Anna from the Tucson Padres!

Hey! It just like a kickstand!

And look who's catching! It's our last contestant in Unfortunate Bat Placement, Mr. Matt McBride! What are the odds of that happening? (if I were a sportscaster I would call it ironic, when everyone knows it's just coincidental. Dudes. It's not that hard. Heh, heh, heh. Get it?).

Run Matt! Run!

Congratulations Dean! And congrats to Matt for being such a great champion of Unfortunate Bat Placement!

Get A Haircut Punk!

Sox the Fox begs for a ball while Reno Aces' manager Brett Butler
ignores the giant rat and tosses it to someone else.

The Sky Sox and Reno Aces split the first series of the 2013 season. Weather was great for early April and the baseball (except the 4th game that Reno won 14-1) was competitive and entertaining. But we have to ask, what's up with Brett Butler, manager of the Aces, hair? Is a 55 year old man trying to grow a rat tail?

Get a haircut hippie!

Really. It would be kind of cool to see him when Reno returns in July. But he is 55 and probably shouldn't have a rat tail. 

Maybe it's just kind of like a reverse widow's peak.

Meanwhile, new Sky Sox skipper Glenallen Hill came out to make a pitching change in Sunday's 14-1 loss (he made a lot of pitching changes on Sunday) with a big old glob of gum on his helmet.

Glenallen Hill heading back to the dugout.
Hey. What that on his helmet?

Golly! It looks to be a big wad of gum!

Yup! That's gum alright!
Looks like someone got 'pranked'!

If this keeps up it's going to be a good year for PengoSports at the old ballyard!

Hey Sox! Don't spill Jill and Stephen's beers!
(even though they are Reno fans - booooo!)

Mike Trout's A Liar!

Hey! It's 2012 American League Rookie of the Year and MVP runner up Mike Trout from the Los Angels Angels of Anaheim, California USA 92806! And he's standing in the stands of a stadium, holding a bat wearing an Angels like uniform while hawking the new Subway Black Forest Ham Sandwich!

Look! It's Mike Trout! NOT!

And he's nothing but a dirty, filthy LIAR! Mike Trout has built his commercial acting career on a foundation of LIES! Quick Sherman! To the evidence:

• LIE #1 - Take a close look at the stadium behind him. Go on! Look dammit! That's Security Service Field at Mile High right here in Colorado Springs, home to the Colorado Springs Sky Sox! And that's a shot from the press box and there's no flippin' way he could be standing in that position without being about 18 feet tall.

Where's your giant Mike Trout now Subway?

•  LIE #2 - We know from his MLB bio Mr. Mike Trout stands only 6'2" tall and we know baseball heights are lies so he's probally only about 6' (I know they are lies because I stand about 6'4" and I tower over players listed my height).
• LIE #3 - And the biggest LIE of all! Mike Trout has never been to Security Service Field at Mile High! NEVER! The jerk-wad got called up from Salt Lake before he could ever play here (April 28, 2012 after playing only 20 games). Said he was too good for AAA baseball! Well, what's he done since? Oh. Besides the ROY and runner up for MVP thing? Huh?

Don't eat it! It's a sandwich of LIES!

Here's the commercial:

Opening Day!

Opening day, May 22, 1950, for the first incarnation of the Sky Sox.
No snow today my foul weather friend! Not snow today!

It's opening day for the Sky Sox today. Usually I dread opening day. Usually it's cold, and windy, and cold, and windy, but not today! It's gorgeous out there! Sunny and in the high 60's! Not like the picture above. (Click here to read about the 1st Sky Sox opening day way back in 1950).

Best guess, there won't be a marching band.
Too bad. That would be cool.

Here's hoping for a great upcoming season. This team is loaded with talent, at least until the Rockies start to suck and raid the cupboard leaving us with these guys:

Hey cows. Whatcha doing?
Just playing these kettle drums.
Oh. That's cool and all.

2013 Sky Sox Head Shot Contest

The leader after day 1 of the 2013 Sky Sox Head Shot Contest is...

Hey, wait a minute, there's no birthday party for me here!

...Charlie Blackmon! Congrats to Charlie and we hope you can hold your lead for the entire season. Just better hope that Edgar Gonzalez doesn't get re-signed.

Hall Of Fame level head shot,
Edgar knew how to rock a pose.

Cobras Get Gowzdecky

(As a life long CC Tigers fan this is tough for me to write. I grew up knowing, just knowing, that DU Sucks! Everything about them SUCKED! Except maybe their great tradition, coaches, players and academics. Yeah. Other than that, oh how they suck! But they do make wonderful rivals and CC Hockey wouldn't be CC Hockey without DU).

Here is Coach Gwozdecky, last year, watching DU thump Air Force

Denver University head hockey coach, George Gwozdecky, was fired Monday after 19 seasons in charge of one of the most successful college hockey programs in the country. Gwozdecky's Pioneers went 443-267-64, won two national championships, 03-04 & 04-05, had only two losing campaigns, 97-98 & 99-00, and won twenty or more games for the last twelve seasons. In short, the man was one hell of a coach. Plus. PLUS, when his players stayed for 4 years they graduated. So, obviously this man had to go! What a menace!

DU at CC in November of 2004. CC won 3-1.
DU won the 2nd of their back to back championships
later that season.

Great rivalry. Great tradition. Great game.

Denver Athletic Director, Peg Bradley-Doppes, has not yet given a reason for Gowzdecky's firing. Whatever she finally comes up with it won't be good enough to justify his termination.  Hope DU sucks under it's new, still to be hired, coach and Peg Bradey-Doppes gets kicked to the curb as a result of this. 

Another great thing about Gwozdecky was he allowed
one of his healthy-scratch players at last year's
Air Force game wear these shoes!
Look at these shoes! Just look at them!

Vaya con Dios coach. Best of luck in your next job. May you'll be able to go out on your terms with that one.

Coach Gwozdecky walks off to greener pastures.