Bless me bloggers for I have failed to write.......

Well, first off, the hand is a bit better. I have the thing in a splint which has covered three fingers which has made it virtually impossible to type. As I have some work to do today I have removed the stinking thing (Trust me, it reeks) for a couple of hours. This not being able to write thing is a pain in the arse.

I have come to the conclusion I need to hit some ballparks this year, so being in Florida, I am going to try and hit as many as I can and write them up for Our Sports Central. I went to The Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville last week and am thinking of going to Daytona and Savannah as well. Any suggestions for Florida parks to go to?

In a couple of weeks I will be in San Jose, CA to cover a game there. Really, it is a much needed vacation as I spend some time with my nieces, sister, mother, father and brother-in law, but I will get some work in there as well. From what my brother in law has told me, Municipal Stadium is a nice park, but a bit old. We shall see when I head there for a game against Modesto a week from Sunday.

My first impression of the Baseball Grounds was a good one. The sight lines are very good, the amenities are plentiful, and I daydreamed about catching some rays on the berm in left field while taking in a ballgame. The park is in a good location and there are some good views of the Saint John's River and a couple of the seven bridges that connect Jacksonville to the rest of the world.

The staff was friendly, the seats were nice and the level of play is pretty solid.

The only criticism I have of the park is there are not enough beer stands for $1.00 Thursdays. I had to wait in line for 15 minutes for a cheap beer before I headed to the next stand and got a Bacardi and Coke for a mere two bucks. (When freelancing, I can get away with contributing to the local economy with an adult beverage. Shhhhhhhhhhhh, don't tell Paul at OSC this.) More to come in an upcoming article, but this is a wee bit of a teaser before I hit a game in the next few weeks.

Remember folks, Jacksonville Admirals basketball at 7:30 on May 6th at Edward Waters College. Yours truly will be behind the mic doing PA duties.

This one will be brief

This is brief as I am a pucking klutz, fell down the stairs and now have a broken bone in my hand. If I was to list my injuries, it would fill up a medical journal on how not to treat a body.

So, I go to the hand surgeon on Monday and I get the full damage. The X-Ray revealed a small fracture and maybe some ligament damage. We shall see when the swelling goes down.

I have color duty for the Florida State/UNF baseball game tonight at 6:45 Eastern Time. It is at the Baseball Grounds of Jacksonville which from the outside looks like a great ballpark. The game will be on the web at www.1320wbob.com. Thankfully I only need a voice and the good hand to write to broadcast.

I have a strange idea for a book that could irk the female fans out there. The working title is "WIFE Radio--The nagging station". The thought is to write about some of the characters I have worked with in radio with myself being the host of a show on how wives nag their husbands to no end. It is the station where husbands are in the nag free zone and can whine about their wives like they do about us all freaking day. Hmmmmmmmmm, this could be good.

I survived.......

Yes folks, I actually did survive my first televised and nationally televised at that basketball game. Honestly, it wasn't as difficult as I thought it would be, but it certainly was nerve racking.

Here is the timeline of the day of the game and the aftermath:

7:00am--Wake up with flop sweat picturing I have to do the game naked which would turn straight women into lesbians. I then go back to sleep for about ten minutes in which Dick Vitale had a chance to scream, "You are terrible baby" in my head. I then decided that sleep may not be such a great idea.

8:30--Head to breakfast with Horace and Jason the killer agent. We yap, I ingest massive amounts of coffee and then the phone rings with a USBA disaster. Tension builds, I chew through a steel bar and eat that for a snack.

10:00--Head back to the room to continue with the USBA disaster and shower. Ponder hiding underneath the bed.

11:00--Production meeting at the arena in which I come to the realization that holy puck, I am going on national TV. The producer and the director were awesome at putting my mind at ease as these guys are total pros. Not a thing was left to chance and every detail was laid out for us. That is when I started to relax until I realized my spot charts still weren't printed out.

11:45--Leave meeting and try to find a printer.

12:00--Some very nice woman at the front lets me use her printer but the stupid *#^@ing computer doesn't print "docx" documents. I print what I can and smoke a carton of cigarettes to calm down.

12:15--Hacking up a lung, I head back in to watch the ODU shootaround.

1:00--We leave, and thankfully the Bradley SID will have a laptop connected to a printer so I can print the Bible known as my spot charts. I then declare March 31st "Bobby is God Day" and we head back for lunch.

1:30--I eat at the WORST buffet my stomach has had the displeasure of digesting. The chicken had more grease than an auto repair shop, sausage was plastic and the coffee was so strong it tried to walk away from me.

2:00--Vomit up the lunch from hell and head to the casino to watch the old people and have the traditional pre-game glass of red wine.

2:30--Back to the room to study, shower, study and get dressed. Man I hate ties.

4:00--Head to the arena but not after getting my pre-game pep talk from the King of the 49ers Matt Maiocco. Matt gives me great advice, cracks me up a bit and I relax.

4:20--Get to the arena and let the fun begin!!!!!

4:45--Get a breakdown of the pre-game from the producer and I get to head to the truck. Now if you haven't seen the inside of a TV production truck, it is a sight to be seen. There is more equipment in there than I thought was possible. The guys and gals went over everything they did, what each piece of equipment was and we went through the pre-game shots AJ and his gang shot that day. We go over the teaser for the game and I head back to the arena.

5:15--Down time which makes me nervous. Jason the agent keeps asking me if I am ok.

5:16--Jason asks again.

5:17--He asks again and I threaten to throttle him as he is making me nervous.

5:30--Quick interview for a documentary on the CIT. Four questions and out.

6:15--Record the teaser and it only took two takes. (I am picky, I didn't like the first one.)

6:35--SHOWTIME!!!! We record the intro which took three takes as I kept messing it up. Really, those are not as easy as they look. I kept looking at my notes and even then things got messed up a bit. Finally, we settled on the second take and it was gametime.

7:00--We are on the air and I relax as I am finally back in my element.

As the game went on I became more and more comfortable. I thought having the producer talking in my ear for replays and graphics would be distracting, but it really wasn't. AJ is such a pro that I knew he was speaking, but it was so to the point and so quiet that it didn't break my flow at all. AJ, if you are reading this, you are one of the best and you did a FANTASTIC job of putting me at ease.

I did make a couple of mistakes, and I did trip over my words quite a bit, but after reviewing the game, I did better as the game went on. I was not used to a three man booth, and the arena was LOUD so I had a difficult time hearing myself talk.

Overall I give myself a "C" for the game. It was a decent performance but I could have done MUCH better. (Oh yeah, getting the name of the network correct is usually a good thing. I called it "Fox Sports College" twice in a row. Sorry Fox guys.......) Hopefully I get more chances to do TV because man alive it was fun.........