Lockoot foolies
Nov. 1st, 2012 07:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
captainsblogThe local sports station decided over the summer to drop a 2-hour syndicated midday ESPN show in favor of restoring "Sabres Hockey Hotline"- a beloved former component of the longlost Empire Sports Network, which died as a result of the Adelphia bankruptcy a decade or so ago.
While I'd prefer a 2-hour-long Emergency Broadcast tone to being subjected to Collin Cowherd, I feel for the guys who have to come up with two hours a day of content for this show when there's nothing going on in the NHL. The other shows on the station are also short on content, since the Bills (a) are coming off a bye week and (b) sucked, even when they were playing. So they have to resort to some creative stunts to get through the shifts.
Here was one from today, perhaps inspired by the tragic story of the home-invasion death reported earlier in the day of colorful former baseball player Pasquale Perez:
Boy, they don't make hockey players like they used to. Who do you think was the most colorful player in Sabres history?
Obvious choices quickly arose. Rob Ray, noted goon (andcurrent once-and-future Sabres game-day analyst), known for his shirt-ripping brawls. Matthew Barnaby, another feisty one (more so in retirement, including earlier this year when he got busted for DWI after driving his luxury sports car several miles up the Transit with one tire blown off, leaving a trail of sparks in his wake). One they couldn't remember the name of (Al Smith, it turns out), a 70s goalie who literally quit during the playing of the National Anthem.
And then they got a call- about Brian Spencer. I'd forgotten about him, not even remembering him as a Sabre, though he played for the Islanders when I still followed them earlier in the 70s. The caller remembered him from his days working in a bar band, and after a late-night Niagara County gig, he saw a monster of a vehicle in the bar's parking lot. Turned out to be "Spinner" Spencer his own self, holding forth in a tank-like structure surrounded by a harem of pretty women. As he told this tall tale, the hosts were googling it- and it turned out to be true:
While off the ice Spencer was often found working on his vehicle, dubbed "The Hulk". He began with a 2½ ton Army convoy truck and removed the body. Next, Spencer installed a 651 Cummins diesel engine and placed the shell of a 1972 Dodge van and hood of a Mack Truck atop. The dashboard was taken from a DC-3 cockpit, and all the gauges were functional. Brian also had a small black-and-white television monitor in the dashboard, which was connected to cameras in the back "sleeping" area of the Hulk. The hood ornament was a horse's jawbone.
All they could say after that was, So, anybody still voting for Matthew Barnaby?
Sadly, Spencer died in 1988 at the young age of 38, in a drug-deal-gone-bad gunfight. I do hope they settle this damn thing before the backstory gets even more depressing.
While I'd prefer a 2-hour-long Emergency Broadcast tone to being subjected to Collin Cowherd, I feel for the guys who have to come up with two hours a day of content for this show when there's nothing going on in the NHL. The other shows on the station are also short on content, since the Bills (a) are coming off a bye week and (b) sucked, even when they were playing. So they have to resort to some creative stunts to get through the shifts.
Here was one from today, perhaps inspired by the tragic story of the home-invasion death reported earlier in the day of colorful former baseball player Pasquale Perez:
Boy, they don't make hockey players like they used to. Who do you think was the most colorful player in Sabres history?
Obvious choices quickly arose. Rob Ray, noted goon (and
And then they got a call- about Brian Spencer. I'd forgotten about him, not even remembering him as a Sabre, though he played for the Islanders when I still followed them earlier in the 70s. The caller remembered him from his days working in a bar band, and after a late-night Niagara County gig, he saw a monster of a vehicle in the bar's parking lot. Turned out to be "Spinner" Spencer his own self, holding forth in a tank-like structure surrounded by a harem of pretty women. As he told this tall tale, the hosts were googling it- and it turned out to be true:
While off the ice Spencer was often found working on his vehicle, dubbed "The Hulk". He began with a 2½ ton Army convoy truck and removed the body. Next, Spencer installed a 651 Cummins diesel engine and placed the shell of a 1972 Dodge van and hood of a Mack Truck atop. The dashboard was taken from a DC-3 cockpit, and all the gauges were functional. Brian also had a small black-and-white television monitor in the dashboard, which was connected to cameras in the back "sleeping" area of the Hulk. The hood ornament was a horse's jawbone.
All they could say after that was, So, anybody still voting for Matthew Barnaby?
Sadly, Spencer died in 1988 at the young age of 38, in a drug-deal-gone-bad gunfight. I do hope they settle this damn thing before the backstory gets even more depressing.