How to weather the storm

The east coast was ravaged by Hurricane Sandy. Berkshire County took its hits, people lost power, but for the most part, we dodged another howitzer. The upcoming winter will bring other storms, so we must be ready to survive and persevere.

So, when the next one hits and you are confined to quarters here are some tips:
1) Avoid boredom. Find things to do you have been putting off, and you may discover that you have things that you were not aware of. This happened to me when I decided to organize and clean – or clear – out my office.
Does a person really need over 50 magic markers, 53 highlighters and 75 Sharpies? We will not even get into the pens.
2) Review collectibles (exclude writing implements) and see if they actually have the anticipated value that you thought they would have when you started collecting them.
*Two 18-oz. unopened boxes of Wheaties with Arnold Palmer on the box
*McDonalds’ all-time greatest team baseball glass, with Nolan Ryan in a Mets jersey, with career stats: Ryan had 383 strikeouts in 1973 with the Angels; that is twice as many strikeouts than most pitchers have innings pitched in current baseball.
*Flintstones’ glasswear (with dust)
*Replacement golf spikes for shoes no longer being made
*Pepsi Michael Jackson tour glass
*Sleeve of Tiger Woods Wheaties golf balls
*1962 signed NY Yankees team baseball (Mantle and Berra on the sweet spot)
*1990 Manny Ramirez Dominican Republic, World Baseball Classic jersey, name and number on back, patch on sleeve
*50 official programs, mint condition, from the 2004 Belmont Stakes (If Smarty Jones could have held on another 100 yards…)
*Any collectors out there that may want to contribute to my retirement fund while adding to their stash, please contact The Beacon.
Also found was a copy of the Dec. 31 , 1999, Springfield Union News with the 50 greatest athletes from western Massachusetts being featured. That will be a future column – many Berkshire County names on that list.

2012 Breeders’ Cup tidbits

Everyone who watched or invested will have heart-breaking tales. It is not an easy day to make money, but if you get lucky you can make a bundle. Let’s hope nobody got hurt too badly.
*On Friday, Debbie Little of the New York Post gave out the trifecta in the marathon, in order of finish: payoff $1,100-plus.
*Most impressive female horse: Royal Delta, winner of the Ladies’ Classic
*Toughest beat, in spite of great efforts, is a tie: My Miss Aurelia, second behind Royal Delta, and Mucho Macho Man, second to Fort Larned in the Saturday $5 million classic.
*Best weekend for a jockey: Mike Smith, one of the good guys – he surpassed Jerry Bailey to become the all-time leader in Breeders’ Cup races with wins 20 and 21.
*The old play, “the jockey with only one mount” theory, was again on display. Bets on Brian Hernandez on Fort Larned and Aaron Gryder on Calidoscopio would have gotten you a nice profit for the weekend.
*The rider’s share of the $5 million purse in the classic was $270,000, a nice birthday present for Hernandez.
*Veteran Hall of Fame trainer D. Wayne Lucas sprung another surprise when his Maiden Hightail won the Juvenile Sprint and paid $32.80.
*Sports talk show host Jim Rome got the money when his Mizdirection won the turf sprint and rewarded his backers with a $15.80 payoff.
*On Friday the attendance was down by 3,000 fans from last year.
*It was nice to see actress Elizabeth Banks of Pittsfield at the Santa Anita festivities. She said her father used to take her to Saratoga.
I guess she is not old enough to have attended the races at Berkshire Downs and Great Barrington Fair. Poor girl, she doesn’t know what she missed.
*The life of a jockey: Javier Castellano, John Velaquez and Ramon Dominguez were back at Aqueduct to ride on Sunday. From races with multi-million dollar pots back to the East Coast for $20,000 claimers, that is what they do.
I remember Lafit Pincay Jr. being interviewed years ago and saying that on a cross country flight his meal was one peanut. He was always fighting to maintain his weight so he could ride. Tough way to make a living.
*Quote of the weekend: Hall of Fame jockey Jerry Bailey saying, “Rosie Napravnik she, she…well, she rides like a guy.”
*Have to wonder if Bob Baffert will feature Raf Bejarano on any of his horses in the future. By not getting heavy favorite, front-running Game on Dude out of the gate aggressively, every chance the horse had of winning was eliminated.
*The Breeders’ Cup has been around since 1984. Total purses have increased from $10 million to the current $25.5 million, total handle from $16 million to over $150 million. So much for our recession.

Posted by Dick Syriac on November 8, 2012. Filed under Berkshire Sports Guy,Columns,Opinion,Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry