In the Wrong Place at the Wrong Time

I was watching Mike Francesa on the YES Network this afternoon, something I never do, because of his extended and informative interview with Mike Waters of the Syracuse Post-Standard. During the course of the interview, YES showed a picture of Jim Boeheim and Bernie Fine on the bench during a game, obviously taken from the broadcast of a Syracuse game. I noticed, in between the heads of Boeheim and Fine, seated in the first row, my [nephew] Roach.



It saddens me to see the likeness of Roach sullied by this ugly incident. Forever tied to the likely pedophile and his possible enabler.

I'm Amazed Tim Higgins Never T'd Up Roach

USC coach Kevin O'Neill fired team manager Stan Holt after he cursed at the officials over foul calls in the Trojans' game vs. Oregon. The box score shows 17 fouls against USC and 11 charged to the Ducks, but since Holt spoke up too frequently and too audibly, he was charged with a technical foul late in the second half of a close game. After that T, Oregon went on a 10-0 run and won the game, 67-57.

O'Neill pulled a George Steinbrenner after the game, firing Holt on the spot.

The call came with 4 minutes 35 seconds left and Oregon leading, 49-47. Stan Holt, a third-year manager, was deemed responsible.

"The referee told me he was screaming obscenities at him," O'Neill said. "That's on me and that will be rectified. It already has been. He's gone. If somebody's getting a technical foul, it's going to be me."
After Holt was slapped with the technical, the Oregon student section chanted "You're fired!" at him, causing Holt to leave the team bench and head into the bowels of the arena. Then, after the game, Trojan Dwight Lewis admitted Holt's technical changed the momentum of the game, and O'Neill apologized to the team for Holt's technical while Holt "stood 30 feet from the locker room" and was protected from reporters.

According to ESPN's Pat Forde:
Generally speaking, managers are expected to behave like Victorian-era children: seen but not heard. They do a ton of work behind the scenes, but the in-game sideline job description goes something like this:

Have water ready. Have towels ready. Have greaseboard ready for timeouts. Set up chairs for timeouts. Form human wall between timeout huddle and fans/TV cameras so they cannot see or hear coach ripping players for poor performance. Pick up shattered pieces of greaseboard after coach slams it to the floor during timeouts. Move back chairs after timeouts. Ardently cheer for your team without getting in anyone's way. Stoically endure sullen behavior of benched players when you try to hand them water. Don't lose anyone's sweats. Don't talk trash with enemy fans.

And do not, under any circumstance, get T'd up.

Roach was a team manager for SU, Boeheim's right-hand man and he never ever said a word during games or around the team at all, earning him the nickname Roach.

TON and Special K's Wedding

TON and Special K are now Mr. and Mrs. TON.
It was a nice, quick ceremony full of the requisite retarded/uncomfortable faces by TON.
A kind old judge led them through the paces they hit all the high notes "sickness and health, for richer for poorer," "with this ring I thee wed," and "you may kiss the pride," so TON did and then they were pronounced Mr. and Mrs. TON.





Then we went inside for some drinks and hors d'oeuvres. The best one was a shrimp wrapped in bacon, but it was a little messy. JLeary had a piece of bacon hanging out of his mouth, I had to go in the corner to eat one, but they were delicious. And the first time they came around four of us got them from the waitress and I was the only one to offer it to my wife. Not sure I would have if she weren't pregnant, but she declined. She knows how much I love food wrapped in bacon.

A little while later it was time for the best man's speech. Now, because I know TON from high school, but we also went to college together, I knew pretty much everyone.

It was nice to see good old BC again, RoachSU made it in for the wedding and Briles (formerly known as the Commish) was the 5th person from our floor freshman year at the wedding. I also got to see VinJuiceTang again. And the best part of that was that in a conversation with Vin earlier in the week I said he was going to be mistaken by everyone as a relative of the bride. Then when I was talking to him, someone came up to him and asked "are you related to the bride?"

And another SU alum, who made the trip in from Denmark was the best man P-O'T. He seemed kind of nervous but he was really funny and encapsulated TON and Kelly pretty well. Basically they like do crazy shit like skydiving, ice climbing and getting eaten by animals in Africa together.




One of the cooler parts of the wedding was when the band took a brief intermission and when they came back it was TON's dad on the keyboard along with his band he's been playing with for 40 years. Between the four band members they have ten kids, 6 of them have gotten married, and they've played a few songs and each wedding. They started off with "Pretty Woman" by Roy Orbison, then went to "Gimme Some Lovin" by the Spencer Davis Group and finished with the all-time crowd pleaser, "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond.



TON even tried dancing, something he does reluctantly, and not very well.



But TON's cousins got the dancing genes in the family. When they band played "Play That Funky Music" two of them started getting down on the dance floor, ending with one of them taking off his shirt. Apparently this is a wedding tradition for him.



The second coolest thing at this wedding was one of those little photobooths where you cram in there and the flash goes off and you get a nice strip of 6 pictures of you and your wife/girlfriend making funny faces at each other.

In this case you took 6 photos cut the strip down the middle put three in album for TON & Special K and kept the other three for yourself. Mrs. Poop and I did this twice, we got some nice photos including one with the Concierge's hand behind me.

Focks, TallSkott and I tried to cram into the booth with varying degrees of success. When you have a head as bag as TallSkott's it takes up a lot of room.

But that paled in comparison to the fact that instead of wedding cake, the served cupcakes. They were so delicious I must have had about four...teen of them man.

At first I planned to have two, then RoachSU and I spotted a couple lonely ones, than TallSkott offered me one that was just sitting on our table, and then the Conciergette yelled at me. But they were freakin delicious.





Here's the crew from left to right: Brother of the Bride, TallSkott, Reissberg, TON (how did the groom get sent to the back of this picture?), The Concierge, JLeary, The Poop, Focks and VinJuiceTang.



And the ladies in our lives: Zorf, The Conciergette aka TallJulie, Mrs. TallSkott, MayMay, Special K (the bride), Mrs. Reissberg, Mrs. Poop, Mrs. Nails and Bauer's Mom aka Short Julie.