Saying goodbye to a trio of good folks

Hi There. The past seven days have been kind of surreal. The Colts and Saints making the Super Bowl. Filling in for Pete and doing the morning show with Dan, (It was fun) and in all of the chaos I find myself writing about the passing of 3 more people who touched my life in some form or another. First we'll start with Tom Brookshier. Before John Madden teamed up with Pat Summerall there was Tom Brookshier. A former defensive back for the Eagles, he was part of the CBS NFL team and was as good a color man as there was in the business. If you grew up watching football in the 70's like I did, there were 6 names on Sunday afternoon you knew. Pat Summerall, Curt Gowdy, Dick Enberg, Charlie Jones, Merlin Olsen, Al DeRogatis, and Tom Brookshier.
The second person I'm mentioning is Jane Jarvis, the organist at Shea Stadium. The Yankees and Madison Square Garden had Eddie Layton, the Mets had Jane Jarvis. She was an accomplished jazz musician and also worked for MUZAK. To me though she was part of my youth listening to her playing the Thomas organ in the background as Murphy, Nelson and Kiner would call the games of Seaver, Koosman, Grote and Co.
Finally the last but most important of the three: Francis Carl Leccese or as I knew him, Uncle Frankie. My Dads older brother had been suffering from Alzheimer's disease and his agony finally ended. He was a golfing buddy, a friend, a mentor and just a great person to be around. On Tuesday I had to make the 3 hour drive to Connecticut to say goodbye and then be back later that night, so I could be on air with Dan the next day. I told my Dad how lucky I was to have his two older brothers as uncles. I hope he, like all my other relatives are looking out for me in some form.
On to some more uplifting positive news. I admit I love watching the PBA tour on Bristol Tech and last weekend before the football games Kelly Kulick won one for the girls. She beat Chris Barnes and all the other guys in a PBA Tour event. Nice going. While watching this weeks tour event, I saw Walter Ray Williams bowl with the ball that we'll be auctioning off in March for Bowl for Kids Sake.
On to the football games, went one for two. The Jets gave it there best shot, but Peyton Manning is on another plane of football being and existence. I feel relieved though that the flailing the arms and pointing out the defenses runs in the family. Now I know where Eli gets it. As for the Saints/Vikings, you don't win football games fumbling 6 times, losing three of them and for the second straight time Brett Favre threw a pick at the most inopportune time. I'm happy for the Saints, but if I hear for an inordinate amount of times how winning will help with the recovery from Hurricane Katrina, I'm gonna have a nervous breakdown. The fact that my birthday is also on Super Bowl Sunday and I'll be depressed as it is won't help the cause. For all you crazy betting line folks. What's gonna be the over/under on how many questions will Reggie Bush get on media day that mentions his girlfriend Kim Kardashian? Should be interesting.
Does anybody really care about the Pro Bowl? I didn't think so.
Question for Phantoms fans. Do you worry like I do when the team scores 5 goals in game like they did Wednesday that in effect it uses up their goal scoring quota for the week in just one game?
If you haven't being paying attention to the Adirondack League, check out the Argyle Scots boys team and the Whitehall Railroaders girls teams. Both are having great years. There are a lot big important games coming up in all of the three major area leagues during the first two weeks of February that should make for some interesting watching and will have some effect on sectional seedings.
Super Bowl prediction on Friday...Leccese out.