BEST OF SMSS 4-22-2023

Coach chats with Maine Harness Driver Bruce Ranger as well as Mercy HS Softball Head Coach Tony Calcagni

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
I'm the coach, George Demail.This podcast of the Saturday morning sports show
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(01:49):
the country, my man, theonly insurance man. Flanagan Associates, Peck
Street, North Haven. And BruceRanger is my guest this morning. And
Bruce, of course is one ofthe top harnessed drivers in the country who
with three wins. Yesterday I sawmister Ranger. I check, of course

(02:15):
you are now right, you hadthree three yeah, yeah, lost a
couple of close ones. Well,Bruce, you know, let the other
guys one sometimes. But anyway,so now I have you up to nine
thousand, nine hundred and seventy threegetting closer, yeah, twenty seven wins

(02:35):
away, and as I told theaudience before you got on, it's twenty
seven more. You'll have ten thousandand folks, he's nineteenth on the list.
It's not like which is great.You won't believe. As I told
the audience, Dave Polone has twentythousand wins. I mean, it's like

(02:57):
unbelievable. But ten thousand and you'vebeen, according to this driving what started
nineteen seventy six, Bruce, seventyeight? I think it was seventy I'm
sorry, right, seventy eight.And how many in accumulating these nine thousand,
almost ten thousand wins? How manydifferent tracks have you driven at?

(03:21):
Oh? Boy, I mean,give me a ballpark, ballpark twenty five
thirty maybe with all the fair tracksand different things, I would think,
yeah, oh, Mike, Imean, and how many now you've obviously
you have you drive in Maine now, but you drove in Florida, right,
yeah, Florida was really good tome. I found a nice little

(03:43):
niche down there, and I stayeda long time. No, I'm in
New England guy, a Maine guy, really hot. But Florida, Florida
worked well for me. Now youdown there, what was it Pompano Pompano,
Yeah, that was the only highnesstrack in South Florida. They had
a two. Yeah, and thatjust closed, tearing it down. Yeah,

(04:03):
right, they they're tearing it down. And so you came back home
to Maine where And I have totell you, And I had Mike Cushing
on the show a couple of weeksago. I have to tell you,
Bruce, this is a star studdedarray of drivers. You haven't made probably
the best array of drivers at EddieHarness Track in the country. I mean,

(04:27):
you got some outstanding drivers here,now, would you agree? Yeah?
And it's it's always been that wayup here. We're a little bit
isolated from the rest of the world. And there's a lot of guys over
the years that had enough talent togo anywhere. But you got to get
the right breaks, you got toknow the right people. You've got to
be willing to go over the BigGreen Bridge and get out of Maine.

(04:48):
And I know the Brion, Iknow what you mean. I love Maine.
I go to Maine every year,been going up to Old Orchard Beach
for many many years. I loveit up there. But I always went
to Scarborough Downs. As I saidto Cushing, I went there with my
dad when Thoroughbreads were racing at ScarboroughDowns before the hard Yeah that was just

(05:12):
a little a little before me,the Thoroughbreads. But my head harness for
decades, decades now and I wasso sorry to see them close. But
now and Mike was on. Iasked them point blank, are we going
to get a new track in Socco? And he says, in his mind
and his heart he believes there's stillwill be one bill uh in Socco.

(05:33):
And in fact, I even Ieven told me where the new location is.
Yeah, I think I think they'vegot it all picked out. They
do, you know, as horseracing guys, I can only hope that's
the case, and that's going tohappen, and there's no no glitches in
their plan and and um, butI learned down in Florida's so much you

(05:54):
know, politics in the town andmiss and that it's just it's tough,
but it's way out my league.I sat in on some of those things
when the casino was coming and wewere just so undermatch from them. Guys.
It's, um, you know,they're casino people and they needed the
horses at a lot of places,but they're not really horse racing people.

(06:15):
So it's it's it's tricky, tricky, I guess right now, he said,
Mike. The biggest thing is allis all the permits you need to
get. Yeah. Yeah, it'sdriving him crazy. Now we're coming up.
I mean, as I say,come up there for years, I'll
be up there and going to Curmberlin. And uh. I asked Mike my
two sons. They've always asked,and of course they're all grown up and

(06:36):
everything, but could they ride inthe pace car you know before with the
gate? And he said, uh, he said we can make that work.
And then he said, you knowsupplies the cars, Bruce Ranger.
I said, really, Uh,and that's because of a relative in the
family. Yeah. Yeah, mycousin Joe Morris. He's uh, he

(06:57):
actually works for a Caesar as heruns who's your park in Chester? And
oh yeah, and a few otherracetracks and yes, he's the one that
bought these starting gates and I justkind of oversee him and they did a
little starting for a while. ButI just get him moved around between me
and my wife and a couple ofbuddies and get him set up at each
fair. And uh, it's quiteas it's a lot more work than you'd

(07:19):
think. I'm sure. Listen,I've seen these guys. There's a lot
of work. Uh, just goingon the track and driving and every day
and you know, uh Friday Saturdayat Cumberland Bangor is going to be open
soon again, and that's Wednesdays andSundays and some of the guys go to
Plane Ridge Mondays. I go,oh you got you go Mondays. I

(07:43):
think it's Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Tuesday. So you're you're basically in
my engineer, you know, myproducer said, when they drive every day?
I said, yes, yes,they do. Basically. They you
get downtime in the winter, youknow, the weather gets tough and bake.
They schedule all the racing where youcan miss some of the tougher months.
But um from now, from fromearly April to the end of December,

(08:07):
Christmas and yeah, so yeah,as I say sometimes j is there
Where can you go in the winterif you do, because you used to
go to Florida. Some of theguys now you can't. Where do they
go in the winter if they dowant to harness drive? Now? Is
there any track? Yeah? Ohiostill goes a lot. They got a
ton of racing out there. Itgot real good. You got New York

(08:31):
Manastello goes, Young Chris is going, Meadowlands goes some. Um. I
think Pocono closes through the winter.But you know there's some spots, you
know, if you're if you're willingto move. A lot of the old
Florida guys they just went down toa training center's down there and just kind
of wintered it and wrote it outand then they come back up north in
the spring. Yeah, why notyou do that? Oh I don't do

(08:56):
it anymore. No, No,I'd actually stopped racing for about three years.
He did. About all the goodnessthat had for me had had come
out of Florida. You know thatthe racing wasn't wasn't as good, And
there was a lot of guys therein the winter and you're driving about a
half a card and uh, andI forget what year it was, but
four or five years ago, andI stopped for about three years. I

(09:18):
didn't know that. Yeah, yeah, I just I didn't know what I
was going to do. But ifFlorida wasn't working, so I shut down
my barn and um and moved backnorth. And how I got back racing
was my cousin bought them starting gatesand asked me if I wanted to be
a starter, how about that?Yeah. I came back as a starter.

(09:39):
Yeah, yeah, I learned howto do it as Scarborough downs Wayne
Dumphy taught me. And Scarborough wasreally good to me as far as letting
me get out and ride and usethe cars and uh. And then I,
uh, you know, I gotstarted with qualifiers and then doing the
fairs, and I had a guydriving the car that's done a lot of
starting, Wes Brown, and uh, you know, if you don't have
a good car driver, year trouble, especially if you're green. But he

(10:01):
made it really easy for me.So that was good. But about three
weeks in the starting gate and startedto get the itch again, and I
says, oh boy, And thatsame cousin that had the cars, he
says, after the Freiburg Fair,which is first week in October. He
says, I've got a Philly thathe's a driver in the stakes final.
He says, if you want adriver, called the trainer And that was
it back had it ever since?I said, right, well, good,

(10:24):
yeah, good, I'm glad.Well, I'm glad I worked.
I'm glad you did. We're gladthey're glad to have you back in the
sport. I'm sure, um howmany now they're judges at these things,
you know? And when Scarborough was, I actually got a chance to go
up and I met Charlie was oneof the judges. Yeah yeah, he's

(10:45):
a presiding judge, he's the bossup there. Yeah. So I went
up to see him and all Iwas enjoying watching him the other judges and
they had to make a call downto the paddocked after the rage and I
was I was just you know,stunned. I'm going, oh god,
who they calling? What's going on? Have not listen? Every driver goes

(11:09):
have you ever had any violations ina race? Have you ever gotten called
after a race? And say ohyeah, oh you really? Yeah yeah
of course, Oh no, kid, I Bruce, what the heck were
you doing here in the stretch?You know, well were you you know
what I mean? Did they questionyou? Really? Yeah? Yeah,

(11:30):
no call. Have you ever beensuspended? Oh I've been suspended lots.
Yeah. Yeah, Well, youknow, interference and that, and you
know it's tough. It's like NASCAR, there's always wrecks and NASCAR. Fortunately
the horses. The horses we don'tgo down like they wreck them cars.
But it's tight out there. It'sreally tight. It's tight. Um.

(11:52):
Do you besides being a driver,do you? I'm sure you own horses
as well. My wife and Iwe have have three. I live in
Westcot now and there's we're out inthe country and there's a little farm.
I'm there right now this morning.Actually, I just got a couple turned
out this morning that are racing todayat Cumberland and we had one that yeah,
we had one win yesterday. Andit's a nice place for a horse

(12:13):
out here. That's just peaceful andquiet. You know, they're not tending
in at the stalls like at theracetrack, and and they really thrive on
it. Oh. They I havea guest every week from sports Haven here
in New Haven, Connecticut that picksraces all over the country. You know,
he picks out I don't pick.He picks them out and their thoroughbread.
But once in a while, youknow, if it's a big race
at the meadow lands or something,they'll pick it. So I said to

(12:35):
him. And of course I'm fortunateenough because as I told Mike Cushing,
you want to get get this outthere everybody, and make these pots bigger
than everything, you know, getmore people watching. You gotta put it
on the birds. We can watchhim down here in which he did,
and so I can reach all theraces here in New Haven. I'm a

(12:56):
satellite Cumberland, et cetera. Andso I asked him, I said,
last week, I said, youknow, we've never done it. Pick
a race from Cumberland, you know, next week. So he picked one
of the razors, and let mesee if you're in. I think he
picked the seventh race of Cumberland.And you have oh you're driving here,
you have a horse. What's theodds four to one? You're riding a
horse, driving horse Broadway giant there, Yeah, yeah, really really nice

(13:22):
trotter hasn't raced yet this year.That'll be a factor outside post and uh
yeah, seven hasn't had a start, so sometimes they need one, sometimes
they need a couple, depending howmuch trainers work them. Yeah okay,
but but when you again the drivers. I got to be good friends over
the years with Drew Campbell. ActuallyI met Heath first and then Drew came

(13:46):
along and Drew just became good friends. We talked to him during the year
winter time. Uh and then ofcourse we go up and we usually see
him. And every time he wonat Scarborough, my two sons that I
would be in the Winter's circle withhim, and my son had shirts made
up called Drew's Crew with the blackin the yard. So we took pictures

(14:07):
and everything. And your colors,I got to ask you where what are
your colors? Bruce, the red, gold and black, And those are
my uncle's colors as a farm inFalmouth, Maine. That Mike Graff,
I'm Nick Graff, I'm Bethan naveAir over there. Now that's a grandfather
and great grandfather, but that wasmy uncle. That's how I got started.
So I just used his colors andput an ar on the sleeve.

(14:30):
And Nick does the same thing.Yeah, Nick, yeah, okay,
yeah, So Nick Graffam. Okay, so you and Nick Graffham obviously the
Grapham family very very close. Yeah, yeah, no, that's we all
grew up right there in Falmouth,right, We all all our parents had
houses around the farm, and that'show we gotta go right there. There
was always horses there and that's howwe got started. I guess I saw

(14:52):
the other day. I'm sure youdid. Ingraham started race number fifty three
thousand the other day. I sawthat start. Yeah, I mean that's
a lot of starts, right,yeah, yeah, I guess they mount
up pretty quick anyway. So youprobably you probably get between a thousand and

(15:13):
two thousand a year, depending onyour racing opportunities, and then you add
that up over did you say twosome times got two to three thousand a
year? Well times, if you'vegot the Uh, there's a guy out
in Ohio, Aaron Merriman, maybeRonnie Wren. They drive so many races.
It's just I don't know how theydo it. They might even be
four thousand. Do you think that'sunheard of? How many? Yeah?

(15:39):
When you go now, is thereso many you'd like to get in a
day? Like you know, uh, you don't want to drive in every
race, But how many do you? Oh yeah, oh you do want
to draw? Okay, I'm sorry, Yeah, yeah, No, I
go there to work and I don'tgo there to lose it, because you
lose more than you win. Butyou got pretty well over with it.

(16:00):
You do pretty well. Yeah,you know, you're you're a sports guy's
kind of like a baseball average.You know, if you can stick around
three hundred training and driving, that'syou know, you're you're gonna you're gonna
be all right. And sometimes youget on a roll and things go a
little better. What's the most winsyou've had in one day? I might
still be the record. There wassome Florida Fair races I drove, I

(16:22):
drove I think I drove nineteen racesand I won thirteen. Yeah, and
it was all non betting Florida Florida'ssteak races Sunshine Steaks. But I haven't
come close to that sense. Maybeeight or nine A couple of times.
That's not that Jay Bros. Givesomebody else a chance. Uh yeah,
no, No, I know youdon't know. I'm only guy. I

(16:45):
know you don't do that. Um, but it is a great what happens
now you got twenty seven away fromten thousand? You're gonna keep? Is
that? Is that a mile?It'll be a milestone? How much more?
Yeah? Whose ranger want to drive? Well, I'm gonna do it
till it's not fun. Ten thousands, ten thousands a good number. The

(17:08):
money's really good at Plane Ridge thefirst Monday down there with their Christino and
and it's the only game in townas far as horse racing, it's a
real good spot. Hopefully you know, a couple more years, a couple
more years, or you know,one more I've been banged up a lot
over the years. One more goodspill that might do it, and that

(17:30):
might just be it. Anyway,have you had a lot of a spill?
A lot of what do you callhim? Hacks? Have you had
a lot of Yeah, got injuries? Have you had m I broke my
nose a couple of times, brokea couple of collar bones, broke my
bunch of ribs more than one,a lot of concussion, broke my back,
broke my pelvis. Yeah, Ohreally, just a few incidentals there.

(17:56):
Uh yeah, Well when they extra, I may if I go in,
if I get dumped and go in, they'll say it's this, that
and the other thing. I says, no, those are all the old
ones, and then they'll have tolook somewhere else. That's very good.
Yeah, Now, how many areyou driving today? I don't have the
whole card in front of me.Yeah, you know, you know,

(18:18):
I'm I'm at a point. Idon't study much. The racing's changed a
lot from when I was younger.A right, and I find out what
time I've got to be there.If I study, you study long,
you study wrong, So I've learnedtoo wrong. I like that very good.
Yeah. Yeah, you got togo by the feel of the horse,
get a quick report from the trainer. Post position at Cumbling. You

(18:38):
know the half mile that means alot. Yeah, it means a lot.
And you could have a great horseout of seven and eight. And
it's so easy to get in troubleout there if you you know, the
first turn comes up so fast youcan't get to where you need to be.
So it's it's it's pretty intense.And these young fellas. I get
a buddy in Ohio that watches alot of races. I talked Awaim often

(19:00):
and he says they race with suchurgency up there and they do they race.
Yeah. The one thing I knowmy son, My son follows harness
racing a lot more closely than Ido. But enough And he said,
there's something that I asked my cushingabout which is very expensive to install,
that passing something down the stretch tohave a passing lane or they don't have

(19:22):
one there. Right, The passinglane would be like when you when you
straighten up at the head of thestretch last the second time around, you
could there would be a room forone horse to go inside so we could
pass the lead horse on the AndI've never really raced with just a couple
of times where there's been one ofthose. Okay, yeah, yeah,
Florida didn't have it, and uh, you know up around here Plane Ridge

(19:45):
doesn't have it. So yeah,yeah, it tends to tends to,
Yeah, it tends to. Thosepassing lanes can tend to make the make
the racing just a little bit lessexciting because the guy in the two three
hoole around the last turn isn't squirmingto get out because he knows he's going
to get roomed down the inside.So well, and they get lined up

(20:08):
and the race. Race can bequite a lot quieter than it would be
if you didn't have this could positionunderstand, uh nine thousand, nine hundred
and seventy three. If you geta chance watch this guy. You can
see Cumberland down at Sports Haven.Uh oh, you can watch it even
on your computer like I do,as long as you go to my winners

(20:30):
dot com check it out, andyou can watch Bruce drive today. U
and I know in this particular racewhich he's going to pick the seventh And
I said, Aaron Hall is theone of the drivers here, Drew camp
Drew Campbell, Dan this Lands,Nick Grafham, there's your Grafham, Andrew
Harry, Michael Stevenson and Kevin anotherone of my guys. I met Kevin

(20:53):
Switzer Junior. My goodness. Yeah, yeah, Kevin's got a great set
of hands. He really does,he does. Kevin is one of the
kindest human beings I've ever met.Really well, ye haven't met pros Well
I will. I'm sure I'm gonnamake sure I plan to see it when
I get up to Maine in months. Anyway, thank you for your time

(21:14):
today. And if you run intomy man Walter Case Junior, because I
have him, tell him he wasall worried maybe coming on just tell him.
Uh, it's a lot of fun. We talked just like we do
now. And I want to getWalter if I can. Walter of course,
over one eleven thousand wins up andwhat a career he's had, he
said, He's just one of themarks of harness racing. So were you

(21:38):
continued success and I will see youin a few months. All right,
sounds good, coach, Thank youvery much. Tony Calcatney, who was
the softball coach at Mercy Mercy Mercyoff to a pretty good start to six
wins, two losses. One ofthose was a non league affair to know
the name of Fairfield. The otherwas too unbeaten north An. Uh.

(22:04):
Still flying high right now, buthaving a good year six and two,
Tony, how many years head coachat Mercy. I think this is the
overall my sixth year here six okay. And of course you helped Tim cos
Uh in basketball girls basketball, atleast you attempt to restrain him at times.

(22:26):
Yes, I knew my best coach, I said, I said,
uh god, uh, we haveour pieces of work out there. He's
a beauty, but he's I lovehim. Um, anyway, coming into
this season, what'd you think,Okay, what are you gonna have here?
Right? Right? Exactly? Youknow, I think we we met

(22:48):
at a basketball game sometime during thewinter, and you know, I knew
I had a you know, agood core returning. They were very very
young last year, Um, youknow, and I knew we'd be a
little better. But the kids havestepped up. We've we're still you know,
very inconsistent. We're very young,but um, they're coming along.

(23:10):
I'll tell you one thing. You'rewinning these games. You're not at a
shortage for runs there offensively. Matterof fact, let me look at this.
Even in in your wins, youhave been in scored in double figures
in all of your wins. Yeah, you know, I mean offense is
there? Yeah, you know,coach, I wish I could tell you

(23:34):
exactly what we're doing right, Butyou know, sometimes you know, this
is a game where if you hithim where they're not, you know,
you you're able to score. Soyou know, we're rather be lucky than
good. Sometimes I agree with that. I'll agree with that. Uh,
this week you have coming up,let's see, you've got to who you
Obviously we're doing your game Monday night, uh at West Stavin. You got

(23:57):
wolbur Cross East Taven on Thursday,and then you have a Sunday game because
yes, they finally figured out whenthey're gonna play this Walton All Mercy game,
and you'll be at Walton next Sunday. So Monday, Wednesday, Thursday,
Sunday. I'll say one thing foryou all. It'll be May anyway,
and basically the season, regular seasonends in May. Isn't much more

(24:21):
after that, you know, coach, you get the nail on the head.
That's that's something that we you know, empher Tex with the kids.
I'm sure everyone does. It's sucha compact short season that you know,
trying to tell the kids to youknow, you put a lot of hard
work in, but enjoy the momentbecause it's really, you know, pretty
fleeting compared to some of the othersports. Oh yeah, like winter sports,

(24:42):
which goes to what four months?For God's sakes, h you know
what I mean? This is quick. Um, obviously a couple of more
wins, you'll be in the uC I C State tournament. But I
know, looking at the standings andcounting games, uh, to see is
one of the teams looking to makethe SEC tournament as well. Top eight

(25:04):
make it there, and uh,you know, was it four division winners
and four wild cards? Is thatwhat it is? I believe so yeah,
correct, I think every division winnerautomatic qualifier. Okay, so you're
looking to get in that, ofcourse, and right now I think you
have a pretty good chance. Whatdo you think? You know, I
think we do have a chance,coach, And I'll tell you though,

(25:26):
you know, you never take anyanyone likely or whatever that you know,
the strength of our league is thatthere's a depth of good athletes and really
great coaches. So you know,on any given day, anyone can can
beat you. But coming off youknow, last year we you know,
we only had six wins, andyou know we struggled to get those stakes.

(25:47):
So you know, we really willrelish just trying to make States,
and if we're fortunate enough to makesccs, that's that's really you know,
I've accredited to the kids. I'mreally, you know, very thankful.
I can understand the effort. Nowtell us about you've been waiting and it
must be almost over for a transferpicture to start throwing. You know,

(26:11):
yes, we have you know,a kid that transferred from you know,
out of our lead into our school. She's you know, she's a I
think she's gonna be a great additionto us. And you know, her
name's Brooke Hickman. She's from HK. Yeah. And what year is she's
a junior. Okay, so youhave but by rules she has to sit

(26:33):
out. She had to sit outor has it out ten games? Correct?
Okay, correct, So you'll haveher, but then you'll have her
again next year. So obviously that'sa good thing. Let's face it,
tog uh in baseball softball, Uh, pitching is uh imperative? Oh,
no, doubt imperative. I forgetwhat that old, that old yogism about

(26:56):
pitching is, you know, whateverpercentage you put on it. But he
was absolutely right. Well, Imean, you know, he got it.
And not only that, but picturesand the thing I see sometimes pictures
that can throw strikes, pitchers thatcan throw strikes. I mean, the
nice to say, but if youdon't know where the ball's going, it
makes a little difficult too. AndI'll tell you right now, I'd rather

(27:19):
see hits than having a girl ora boy. When I see, you
know, walk the ballpark, youknow what I mean. Yeah, no,
you know, coach, you're absolutelyright. And you know, one
of the reasons we've been, youknow, scoring a lot of runs is
you know, our you know,no one wants to make a mistake,
no one wants to make an error, and certainly no one wants to walk
anyone. But you know, thingshappen, and you know, we we're

(27:42):
very fortunate our offense has carried usfor the most part of this season.
So you know, we're hoping totry and put all those pieces together and
the stuff mass you get upset duringthe game. To you get upset during
the game, I'll see on Mondaynight. But a little upset. You
know, I never get upset whenthe kids are giving me their best effort.

(28:03):
You know, Um, I geta little upset with the coland in
the air. I'll have to excusemy voice. Rain Now, Yeah,
it's fine. Now. The kids. The kids are you know, I
have been, you know, reallyreally given us a great effort. So
you know, we'll just roll themout there and see what happens. Oh
no, I don't right, Andthat should be a great game on Monday

(28:25):
with was that's the fact that shyour only meeting both need another game,
the only meeting of the year betweenthese two teams, which ought to be
pretty good. Uh, down atBEYONDI, which is, you know,
one of the nice fields around thestate. Coach. Yeah, you know,
first of all, you know,very thankful for coach you know,
coach Morele and West Taven in generalfor all the hosting they do of all

(28:49):
these you know, the tournaments andeverything like that. And you know,
to me, it's a real honorto play down there. And the reason
I guess we're playing this is anon league game, uh mercy. You
know, we weren't part of theFDAC SEC Challenge, so um, this
is a you know, we pickedthis game up, and to me it's

(29:10):
you know, it's gonna be agreat test for you know, for our
kids. So um and under thelights on the radio with wy come on,
is there nothing better than that?Is there? Not? Come on
here? Absolute sport. In fact, I think later on, I think
you played. I think you playedNorth Avon and I game too, don't
you, Yes, we do.I think it's on on the eighth,

(29:32):
Yeah, right, I think Igot that too. Um, I look
forward to that. Uh, Iknow, been scoring these runs. Uh
probably as men. You haven't neededto, But do you does Tony Calcagney
play small ball? You know,we we have it m available. Uh,

(29:52):
you know, I'll be honest withyou. You know a lot of
our kids. You know, twentyyears ago kids were more small ball than
they are now. You know,yeah, I think it's uh, you
know, it's becoming a little bitof a lost art. But um,
but we do. You know,we know they're going to be tight games
down the road, so you know, we're hopeful that you know, we

(30:15):
can we can play you know,all parts of the game at some point.
I mean it's two one, bottomof the sixth inning, he runs
on first and second. You maywant to move him over. Coach,
We do whatever it takes to wina game. You're right, and pray
a lot. You can say praya lot because you're not at Mercy High

(30:37):
School for cats sackerrect that's very good. Um, you enjoy coaching. I
know you do basketball with Timmy aswe said in softball, but softball your
first love obviously the head man.You love that, you know, coach,
even the kids asked me that,and and really, you know,
whatever hat I'm wearing is the oneI love you know, I really you

(31:00):
know, I grew up over inthe Valley and Anthonia, and you know,
we enjoyed every sport and that's whatI try and you know, tell
our kids here, right, Iencouraged kids to play multiple sports at the
stage, you know, and andyou know, I think some of our
best athletes you know, do that, and you know, so you know,

(31:22):
I enjoy this. There's a lotof good things happening in the spring.
It's a little bit more of it. To me, it's more of
a challenge because of you know,last night we had to move our game
because of proms and things like that. But but it is nice to be
out there on great weather days,especially you know with all those coming up.
So um yeah, it does have, you know, some really great

(31:44):
points. I've never coached anything elsebesides baseball and softball. I'm a softball
or basketball. Uh well, youknow, I I officiated you know on
you know, uh New Haven board. You were football you know football,
Yeah that for about fifteen years,that's right. You know. It's funny
you say that because going to thegames when we first just started going to

(32:06):
the games. Yes, who isuh what what kind of an official?
Warrium back judge side and well,you know, I started as a lineman,
ended up as a referee. Youback, Oh, coach, coach,
I have to give you credit.You you did one of my games.
This was going back. I thinkit was one of the last years
of the Housatonic League. Oh boy, we had a seamore lineman hall games

(32:30):
that ended up somewhere sixty four tofifty six or whatever. And the late
le the late Viny the late VinneyRiley was listening to the game and I
was the referee in the game,and he he just thought, you know,
you said, oh, the officialshave really stayed out of this molest

(32:52):
the kids play well. I guesswe were too tired to reach into our
back pocket exactly. So well,but I just wanted that was a great
you know why? And it hadto be at Seymour, right because back
then, when I first started doinggames, afternoon games and stuff on Saturday,

(33:13):
Seymour played afternoon games. So Ifound myself doing several Seymore games in
a season back then. Uh yeah, it was guy. Yeah, um,
well listen you six and two.We got your Monday night, so
if you uh have your lineup cardready, make sure you text it along

(33:35):
to me early early on because Iknow you, I know you got a
lot to do. Uh I'll sendit on coach, you know, I'll
always take I know, and we'llget ready and uh so who will I
mean, don't say who's who willbe the starting pitcher that on? When
does this girl do to? Orten games are up? Brook will probably

(33:59):
her ten games are after our wolverCross game on on Wednesday, Okay,
so she'll probably pitch you know,ADDIE's taven Um you know on Thursday.
Okay, Brooklyn, I'm okay.Who is your pools on Monday night?
Probably Gwen Roligo and she'll be youknow. And our other picture going that
movie in reserve is um Jamie Eisler. So I have a yea three pictures.

(34:24):
Yeah, pitching Corey is not toobad, very good, very good.
Well listen, look forward to seeingyou on the Monday night, Mercy
west Stave on our first broadcast fromBeyond the Phield. Best of luck of
course throughout the remainder of this seasonas always, and look forward I'll see
you on Monday night. Thanks coaching, Thanks for everything you do for for

(34:44):
high school sport.