Friday follies

 

I don't have much to offer tonight. It feels like it was a play-by-play type of day.

My primary focus was on Brunswick hosting South Kent in hockey. The Bruins lost 5-4 in overtime and you can hear the winning goal here. You can listen to the rest of the broadcast here.

Once again, I gave myself an overall "meh" rating but figured there's another game next week. I had moments that I really liked and I had moments where I'd slap the railing in front of me. It happens.

Sometimes my brain got ahead of my mouth and vice versa.

But there were other hits of the headset around the day -- from my listening to some play-by-play to looking into other opportunities for me. You know, just kicking the tires.

One never knows, of course.

The reality is that I'm not under contract to anyone. Brunswick knows I enjoy calling games for them. Greenwich High should know that also (and the football team certainly does), with a former Cardinal telling me this week, "You'll always be the 'voice' of GHS." I certainly appreciate that.

Of course, I am quite beholden to the Renegades and I can't make that clear enough.

But the freelance life (trust me, it's not my favorite way to live) means having to dig for things. Sometimes you find pearls.

Anyway, there are no great things to be revealed tonight. I called the game and am back home.

There's a football game sometime this weekend. After that, bring on baseball!

Along with hockey and basketball, of course.

There will be no trip to Virginia. I heard from Nick Bozzuto today, who told me that Liberty University's club hockey team had found a spot for me near the team benches -- essentially at ice level -- to call the game.

I wouldn't be allowed in the press box and, apparently, wouldn't have been allowed to find some space in the stands either. Not that that would have been ideal.

Look, I get it. COVID. But, it took until the morning of the day before the game to get this resolved. I'd still have to book a hotel room and pull things together. Then drive roughly nine hours to the game. Then set up at ice level? 

I've called games at ice level a few times. In short, it's not fun. 

It just seemed to me that we were more trouble than it would be worth.

So, with Nick's understanding, I elected to stay home for the reasons above and because of another possible foot of snow on the way. And to take care of this silly cat I live with.

I'm bummed. Definitely. I'd never been to this part of Virginia and I was excited to get away and call more games. But the fates just didn't seem to be working in our favor.

This situation reminded me of the old press box situation at Dutchess Stadium. There was a small booth and a larger booth. In fact, that's still what it is. That larger one (which is what we use now) was generally for TV on nights when they were there and the small booth -- barely wide enough for two people -- was for the "home radio."

In theory, anyway. So, I can recall nights when a visiting team would have radio and we couldn't access the larger booth. In that case, former Gades' lead voice Sean Ford would set up outside.

He and I would basically use folding tables and stand at the top of a row of stairs in a breezeway. That became the "home radio" booth. Really.

We were, for the most part, in the crowd.

I'm not saying any of this is applicable to Liberty. They have their student broadcast and we all have to start somewhere. COVID didn't make our presence in the press box possible. This just didn't make much sense for me.

Like I said, the fates didn't line up. 

Nick is awesome. We'll catch up with him and his great family again.

The stars have a funny way of aligning.

So, Sean and I are now working on a father/son 19th birthday weekend getaway.

Our date with Waffles and Wawa shall not be denied!