Riding in Elevators with Teddy Baseball, Joe D., Yogi & The Boomer

In the early 90's, I was following my dream to be a sportswriter. I started off covering high school bowling matches (I'm not kidding) until I worked my way up the ladder to be the sports editor for three of the Forbes weekly newspapers, notably South Plainfield and Bernardsville. During that time I developed a close friendship with my editor, Scott Zucker, who later moved on to be an editor for UPI (United Press International). One day Scott called me up and asked me if I would be interested in covering the Yankees and Mets home games. I couldn't say "yes," fast enough. So, for the summers of 1996 & '97, I walked among the baseball Gods; Jeter, Bernie Williams, O'Neill, Rivera, Gooden, Cone for the Yankees, Jeff Kent, Johnny Franco, John Olerud, and of course the irrepressible Butch Huskey for the Mets.

But during these days where I was afforded the opportunity to interview the likes of Joe Torre, Darryl Strawberry and Wade Boggs, it was really the run-ins in elevators with baseball immortality and a broadcaster that will forever stand out in my mind.

I can't give you the exact dates, most likely one or both of these elevator rides occurred on "Old Timers Day" or "Opening Day," at Yankees Stadium. The first that stands out is a time I was taking the elevator up from the locker room level to the press box....I am alone...the elevator "bings," the doors open and in walks Ted Williams. I hope he didn't see my jaw drop to the floor, but maybe he was used to it. Without even looking at me, heck I didn't even think he noticed I was in the tiny room, he said, "how you doing son? great day for a game, right?" I barely mustered, "sure is," and before I knew it the doors opened, he walked out and he was gone.

The next run-in was with good old Mr. Coffee, Joe DiMaggio, himself. I was riding in the elevator with some of the Yankee brass, when in came Mr. DiMaggio and I would guess his assistant. I could actually feel the cowering in the corner from the Yankee workers, avoiding all eye contact. I didn't know better, it was like looking into the sun. Not a word was spoken and in seconds, my brush with immortality was gone. Other elevator rides included the likes of Yogi Berra and Phil Rizzuto and having dinner with Mets broadcaster Fran Healy. Yogi and the Scooter were effusive, both asking me all kinds of questions about who I worked for, what I thought of the team and were genuinely interested in my responses. Ironically, I never liked Healy as a broadcaster, but left dinner that night impressed with our conversation and grateful he sat with me and broke bread.

My last elevator run in, was actually my first. In 1994, Scott asked me if I'd like to go with him to Pittsburgh to write a few of the sidebar stories at the All-Star game. Standing in the elevator at our Pittsburgh hotel, Scott at a whopping 5'-8" and myself towering at 5'-10", in walks ESPN announcer, Chris "Boomer" Berman, looking down at us from his 6'-4" perch. I seriously thought he was going to bend down and say, "hey little buddy, how ya doing?"

Those days are over now...no more riding in elevators with famous people....although I did share one with Indy Car Hall of Famer, Mario Andretti at Monmouth Park this summer....so who knows? Maybe there is more to come! I can only hope.

Horse Racing in NJ

I admit it, I am not much of a Blogger, LOL. I have a friend, I'll call him "Adam," and quite frankly it baffles me how he is able to articulate such prose on an almost daily basis, while I can barely put a thought together one month at a time. That said, the following was recently submitted to the Asbury Park Press as a letter to the editor or commentary. They are much better than the Star-Ledger at printing letters, so let's see what happens. So, here it is:

           "The state of racing in New Jersey is currently in serious flux. Hopefully in the coming weeks differences will be resolved and solutions will be reached so that the “Sport of Kings,” will not only survive, but thrive in our state. If common sense is not used and calmer heads do not prevail, I fear it will be the end of an era in the Garden State.

            There are some whose reaction to such dire predictions can be summed up in two words, “who cares?” The fact is everybody in this state should be concerned over this situation. The bottom line is that horse racing is responsible for over 170,000 acres of open space and more importantly, is the impetus behind injecting billions of dollars into the state’s economy.

            Opponents to horse racing like to point out that Monmouth Park lost over $6 million in 2010, but they fail to mention that the Woodbridge OTW (1 of 3 OTW's in NJ) made over $5 million last year and is the number one OTW in the nation for highest volume of wagers. They also fail to note that horse racing is relied upon for over $100 million in state and local tax revenue and generates over $1.1 billion per year for the state’s economy.

            A legislator once said that he highly doubted that if racing died that the acres of open space from horse racing would be at risk, that he could not believe that the breeders would pick up and move to another state. I cannot speak for every breeder and horseman/woman, but I can outline what would be at risk from my own standpoint.

            My family owns Tee-N-Jay Farm in Monroe Township. Our farm is 125 acres in size and generally we average between a 12-25 horses on our property throughout a given year, which makes us mid-ranged in size and activity for most horse farms in New Jersey.  In 2010, we spent over $535,000 on goods, services and labor in New Jersey.

            If racing and breeding are not supported, I can, without hesitation, declare that we will close up shop and look to sell our property to a developer. But how do we define “support?” At the moment there is a $30 million supplement earmarked for racing for 2011-2013. I would implore the governor to not veto the usage of this money for racing. And while it will fall on deaf ears, it would be prudent to install slot machines at the racetracks and to make every effort to overturn the federal ban on sports wagering and bring it to New Jersey.

            Personally, I do feel that racing needs to stand on its own and on a national level needs to do a much better job of growing interest in our industry. I would rather that we not have to depend on an outside economic source, such at slot machines or video lottery terminals, but the fact remains that our neighboring states of PA, NY and DE, all have them and in order for racing to compete with them, the playing field needs to be leveled. At this time, the state is not heading in that direction, but you can mark my words, 10 years from now, the residents of this state, the racing industry and yes, even the casinos in Atlantic City will be ruing the day that it didn’t take this pivotal step.

            The next time you drive past a farm with horses grazing in its pasture, don’t take it for granted…it may not be there much longer."

I have a great number of ideas on how racing can make itself more attractive to the betting public and some other thoughts on racing in NJ, but alas, I don't want to put any of you into a coma, so stay tuned, in a month or two, or six, I'll be sure to write them down in my next BLOG.

TS