Life and Stuff

Dear Friends:

While perusing Facebook earlier this afternoon I saw an advertisement for a new website called Bleacher Report that was looking for passionate sports fans to write articles for their website. In essence, it's sort of an online community for sports fans to come together and formulate opinions on the world of sports. I have always wanted the biggest audience possible to read my work, because I believe that I'm better than 90% of the yahoos that write sports columns for a living. Therefore, since a vast majority of my work revolves around the sports world, and because several other writers for Bleacher Report have rabid fanbases that have taken the time to read and comment on their work, it only seemed natural to me to make the obvious move there in the hope that I will obtain a larger and more passionate group of readers than I had here on Blogger. And so, I have regretfully decided to cease writing sports columns for Blogger and start writing them for Bleacher Report instead. I firmly believe it was a logical move for me to make because it has been almost a year since I went to school full time and I still do not have a job. Perhaps with a wider spectrum of sports fans on Bleacher Report, someone will be willing to pay me to write about sports for a living. I will still write in this blog occasionally when my thoughts take me outside of the athletic realm, but for the most part, this blog will now merely serve as a portfolio of my prior work and a place where interested parties can see my resume.

I invite all of you, to continue to read my work at Bleacher Report. Please go to bleacherreport.com and do a search for Dan Pieroni to access it. Thank you for three great years of your support, and I hope to see your comments on the new blog.

Dan

Daniel C. Pieroni

11 Hawthorne Road

Greenville, Rhode Island 02828

COMPUTER SKILLS

• Microsoft Office
• Adobe Acrobat
• Avid Editor
• Final Cut Pro
• Associated Press ENPS
• AP Newswire
• DAD system v 5.0
• Instant Replay

WORK EXPERIENCE

Blockbuster Video, Greenville, Rhode Island (2001 – 2007)

Customer Service Representative

· Assisted customers with video selection and check-out

· Maintained inventory

· Performed bas maintenance duties

· Maintained in-store displays

There comes a time in life when something you thought would never happen does, and you don't know how to react to the situation. This is especially the case when one of your heroes has been doing his thing for so long that you take him for granted. As the months and years go by, they remain a constant in their profession you start to believe that there is no way someone can replace that person, and you hope the bigwigs who call the shots feel that way too. Whoever said life isn't fair hit the nail on the head. Something I thought would never happened occurred last Tuesday at WBZ-TV. The longtime sports anchor had been given his walking papers. The Reason? What else, the station wanted to save money. To be fair, the sports reports on the local evening news have become irrelevant. There is no need for local newscasts to devote time to sports news and scores when the diehards can get up to the second highlights on the internet or ESPN. Local sports reports these days are nothing more than an extended promo for local sporting events. If you're lucky, maybe you get a brief highlight or a soundbite that the national media didn't pick up. I wouldn't be surprised in the least if local sports staffs start to dissolve in the next couple of years. In theory, this was a rational move, but in practice, it made a living legend expendable.

The typical local sports guy is a smiling, good-looking youngster with a gee whiz attitude who wouldn't dare say anything negative about the local sports teams. He exists to preach to the casual fan, which is to say that he's there to provide just the facts. Therefore, he's not creative with his approach or verbiage and comes across to the passionate sports fan as being rather bland. That's the way it was, until Bob Lobel came along.

Bob Lobel was not your typical sports guy. At his best he was an anti-establishment maverick who loved making local athletes and sports executives cringe. He was the first guy to have the guts to say what we were all thinking when the going was tough. In essence, he made himself the attraction and a must view every night at 6 and eleven. The ability he had to speak his mind, and take a creative approach to his storytelling, endeared him to his audience. At one point in the early 1980's it can be said that he was probably a bigger star than the athletes he covered. For you knew that there's a pretty good chance that Lobel was going to say something that would stir the pot and provide fodder for conversation the next morning. His approach won him accolades from all over, he even made a cameo in a couple episodes of Cheers back in the day. Before I had cable, Bob Lobel was my knight in shining armor when I needed to know what was happening. His humorous laments and fearlessness of the establishment inspired me in both my aspirations as a sportscaster and a sportswriter. While I haven't reached either one of the goals as of yet, Lobel showed me the way in helping me to find the inner voice inside of me. To someone who is passionate about their craft, that kind of guidance is invaluable. As the years went by, I began to take his presence for granted, but as the time for local sports reports started to dwindle, I started to wonder about his staying power.

I didn't receive WBZ on my cable system anymore from the late 1990's on. So I didn't get to see Bob as often as I would have liked to. When I was accepted to Curry, one of the things that excited me was the opportunity to see one of my heroes again every night. However, this was a different Bob Lobel than the one I grew up with. He talked in a slower tone and began to slur his speech. He also made mistakes quite frequently, perhaps too many for a sportscaster in a rabid sports city. He also had the reputation of being both a booze hound and a womanizer in the local press. Thankfuly, the sarcasm and sense of humor remained a constant. I will never forget the time that he refused to show Bruins highlights for a game against the Penguins because he did not want to inflict any anguish on the audience for their horrible play. Instead he showed about thirty seconds of the film The March of the Penguins in the spot that would have been occupied by the Bruins highlights. Only Lobel had the guts to do something like that. I'm sure it made Jeremy Jacobs turn red in the face. Sadly, his reports became more tedious to watch and gave me as the viewer the impression that he was just going out there and winging it. I didn't want to admit it, because his style and flare were so inspiring to me, but I felt his days were numbered.

And so it has come to this. Lobel didn't do anything that would have warranted his firing, he just became a victim of a rapidly changing business. Local sports reports are irrelevant, his heyday is long gone, and people do not watch the local news just for the sports anymore. Despite his departure, Bob Lobel is a legend in Boston and his impact on sports reporting will be long felt.

If you are a sports fan, or a fan of such schmaltzy garbage as Extreme Makeover Home Edition, you've seen it all before. In the context of athletics, a child is dieing from a debilitating disease, and his one wish before he passes is to meet his athletic hero, or see his athletic hero in action live. While these cases are all uplifting to the spirit, they're so numerous that you begin to grow tired of them quite easily. So many children stricken with a debilitating disease have had their athletic dreams come true that it has become a tired cliche. But every once in while, a story likes this comes along and provides a twist so shocking that it must be documented in the national media. Such was the case in the February 11th issue of ESPN Magazine. In it, writer Eric Adelson profiled a young 12 year old boy named Braxton Davis. His story is just like any other in the endless stream of dream come true stories. Young boy dieing of rare disease asks for a chance to see his favorite team play in person and meet his favorite player, and so it goes. What makes this story interesting however is how it ended, leaving one organization and its star player to believe that they had been had.

Braxton Davis was born to Karrie and Brant Davis in Salt Lake City Utah in March of 1995. Soon after he was born, doctors discovered that there was a problem with Braxton's eyes. It seemed that one of his pupils was larger than the other. After running several different kinds of tests, doctors gave the Davis's some horrifying news. Braxton had a rare nerve disease called neuroblastoma, which is a cancer of the nerves in your eyes. Many specialists gave the young only a short time to live. Brant was determined to make the most of the time he had his son. Being a big hockey fan, Brant gave Braxton a small Vic hockey stick made of wood to symbolize a bond between Father and son. Braxton made it to his first birthday, but soon afterwards his parents divorced with Karrie gaining custody and Brant visitation rights, Soon afterwards, Mother and son moved from Salt Lake City to Denver, with Father close behind in order to be closer to doctors. It was then that the Davis men developed a loyal bond with the Detroit Red Wings, Biter rivals of the city's beloved Avalanche. Brant claimed he liked to stand out in a crowd and be different and he passed the same trait along to his son. As it turned out, Brant had another trait within him that almost got him in big trouble.

In March of 2001, Brant wrote an e-mail to the Wings community relations department that stated he was living with a 6 year old boy with cancer who was loyal to the Wings in a sea of Avalanche fans, and who loved Steve Yzerman. The request was simple, the Wings were coming to town and he asked if they so kind to set aside tickets for a Father and his ill son. Within hours, Brant got a phone call with a blocked number on his caller ID. Deciding to take a chance on who might be on the line, Brant picked it up. It was Yzerman. The Wing legend not only invited them to the game but also invited them to the team's private morning skate. Once there, they met with the team's director of community relations and then with Yzerman himself who was classy enough not to ask about the disease, a point which will become relevant later on. Brant was savvy enough to stay in touch with the Wings over the next five years and eventually Yzerman invited them to Detroit for a playoff game and a visit in the Red Wings locker room. By then, Braxton had turned eleven, which is considered remarkable for a child with cancer. Yzerman also paid for them to stay at the tallest hotel in Michigan, all out of his own pocket. It was during the locker room visit that Yzerman gave the youngster an autographed stick as a memento for him to remember him by. An article was written by the same writer who wrote this one in which Brant talked about the rising hospital costs and they grueling bouts of chemo his little boy endured. Braxton was consider courageous, Yzerman was considered a hero, but in the blink of an eye, it all changed.

Fast forward a year back to Salt Lake City, where Karrie Nash-Hanberg produced for Adelson a manila folder containing a letter written by the director of pediatric oncology at the University of Utah. Within the letter's context it was written that Braxton had received his final check-up in January 1998, when he was two. The doctor also mentioned that the chance of a recurrence was extremely low. This meant that Brant Davis had suceeded in duping the Red Wings into thinking that his son was dieing of a rare form of cancer, when in essence he was perfectly healthy. According to his ex wife, this was not the first time he had a run-in with the law. In 1994. he used a stolen check to pay for baseball card at a collectables show. Soon afterwards, he was in an argument with a cop over a traffic incident. When the cop ran his name, Brant turned up an outstanding warrant, and Karrie divorced him. Brant was given visitation rights once a week and every other weekend. Every time Karrie has moved her son, Brant has followed and she has not tried to get the visitation rights revoked because she still feels that Brant has a right to be in her son's life and that she would not want to deprive her son of a chance to see his Father. Karrie said she grew suspicious of what Brant was doing when she saw that her son had shaved his head, but Brant would always tell her it was none of her business. When a personal friend e-mailed Karrie the original article, Braxton admitted that his Father had forced him to lie to Yzerman even though what he was saying wasn't the truth. Nor was the fact that Yzerman has actually made that first phone call to Brant, it was actually John Hahn, Red Wings director of community relations who made the call. Hahn admitted in the article that when he sees a lot of Fathers and kids with cancer, the Fathers are usually exhausted when they're with their kids because of the work involved. Hahn said that he spent too much time looking at Braxton and not enough looking at Brant to realize that he had been duped. And then there's Yzerman, the man who paid for tickets for Brant and Braxton every time they came to Denver out of his own pocket. Classy Stevie Y said that he's not going to stop helping kids or ask for the money to be repaid to him. He still has a fondness for Braxton, but he hopes that Braxton realizes he was manipulated to lie and that there's still time for his life to be turned around.

In conclusion, all I have to say is this. Brant Davis is a sick and twisted individual. Maybe this is a little far fetched, but Davis belongs in prison for defrauding the good charity of a professional sports organization. This moron even the gall to tell Eric Adelson that he still believes his son has cancer even after medical have proved the contrary. if Prison is not an option, a psychiatric examination should be done to give this guy a sense of reality and make him realize that what he did was wrong and immoral. Hopefully he'll see the light.

Do you want to know how I'm feeling right now? Look at the subtitle of the column, there's really no other way I can put it. For those of you who don't live in New England, you'd probably tell me to get over it, and you'd have a right to. After all, if you take a look at some of my back columns, I was gloating about how good this team was practically all season. I even had the guts to proclaim the Patriots Super Bowl champions as early as week 3. That is an act I now deeply regret as I'm writing this column. Both myself and my fellow Patriot fans honestly felt that there was not a team in the NFL that could beat them except themselves. I sit here at this computer desk today stunned, shocked, and appalled. A team beat us all right, and to add to the sour taste in all Patriots fan's mouths, it was a team from New York, albeit the tolerable New York football team. Why did they beat us? I believe that they beat us simply because the intensity they played with led me to believe that they wanted it more. The intensity was evident is the constant rushing of Tom Brady by the Giants defense. They were the first team all season that forced Brady to think quickly on his feet. It was a task that Mr. Brady simply could not perform. The Brilliant play of people like Justin Tuck and Osi Uminyura continually disrupted any rhythm the Patriots offense might have had. By the time they hit their stride, it was too late. The fact that the Patriots lost doesn't pain me so much as the fact that this team will now be a footnote in NFL history. It also stinks that the idiot known as Mercury Morris will just come up with another lame rap to tout the fact that the 1972 Dolphins are the greatest team in NFL history. While the latter fact may be true, let all you Patriot haters be mindful of the fact that the Miami Dolphins only had to win 16 games for perfection while the Patriots had to win 19 games. The Dolphins also played in an era that was devoid of million dollar contracts, inflated egos, and guys who wanted to play the game just because. What this team accomplished in the modern era is nothing short of remarkable. While I as a Patriots fan am willing to admit that the 1972 Dolphins are still the greatest team in the history of the game, I'd ask all you haters to at least respect the fact that this team almost did the impossible within the modern era. That in itself is an incredible achievement. Having said that, I'd like to prove to you now that I believe that Patriots were jinxed because of three things.

• Number one, after all those games in which he wore a gray pullover on the sidelines, the almighty Belichick decided to wear a red pullover on the sidelines. Why would he mess with success, not to mention the fact that he looked like a giant Elmo doll.

• Number two, Gisele was watching her man from the luxury of a private box. Didn't Brady learn anything from Tony Romo? It's bad luck to bring your chick to the game.

• Number three, my future sister-in-law was wearing a t-shirt that said perfection in Patriots lettering. When I mentioned to her that it could be bad luck, she said she was wearing it because there was no way they were going to lose. Thankfully, she agreed to burn the shirt once they lost. If you're driving through Coventry Rhode Island and you see a t-shirt on fire, don't be alarmed.

• To me, the first half was as dull as the old "Universe of Energy" ride at Disney World. If you remember that ride, you know what I'm talking about.

• Memo to Paula Abdul, the song stunk. Stick to dancing and telling no talents that they're actually good singers.

• Randy Jackson's bass playing looked phonier than a Chinese redhead.

• Jordin Sparks did a nice job with the anthem, However, I still believe the beat rendition of all time is Marvin Gaye's version before the 1983 NBA All-Star game. It's on YouTube if you want to check it out.

• Astute football fans will no doubt remember that Sparks's Father once played for the Giants. Perhaps that was another harbinger of bad luck for the Pats.

• What will be remembered most in the minds of Patriots fans for years to come was the inability of the Pats defense to sack Eli Manning on the final drive. Manning was able to complete a 30 yard pass play that set up the winning score.

• Asante Samuel should have picked off that pass about two or three plays later. He would have if he had jumped high enough. By the way, look for the sequel to "White Men Can't Jump" entitled "Asante Can't Jump" coming soon to a theater near you.

• The Patriots should have run the ball more on the final drive. They left too much time for Eli. and he was able to do to the Patriots exactly what Tom Brady did to the Rams in 2002.

• Shame on Belichick for leaving the field with one second left. If there's anyone who I would expect to know the rulebook inside and out it's him. He should have sucked it up like a man.
  

• Those of you who know me, might be wondering how I took the loss. I admit that I took it pretty hard at first because I didn't think they would lose. I watched the game at my step-brother Scott's house. Once the Giants started celebrating I buried my hands in my face and starting moaning, that's when the dog came in. Apparently she sensed that I was upset and came over to comfort me. She kissed me a few times and I honestly felt better. Maybe I should get a dog, they're good stress relievers. Nah, who am I kidding, too much work.

• And so, we have come to the end of a long football journey. It also marks the end of this column. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank some very special people for their love and support of the project.

• To my boy Jadd Naamani, thanks for your support and your constant plugging on the radio and Facebook. We'll be big someday dude, I promise you that.
  

• To Travis Libman, I may not be as well known as Bill Simmons, but you're right I kill him in every way.

• To Bass Fishing Bob and his crew at Southern Union Gas, thanks for your support.

• To Bobby the Cheesehead, you taught me most of what I know. Sorry about the Pack, but they'll be back.

• To Terry Banyard, thanks for reading. I hope you got the web address so you can bookmark it.

• To Don Coyne at ABC 6, your professional opinion meant a lot to me. I will keep knocking on doors because I know that I'm that good.

• To my brother Devin, thanks for reading, and hail to the Redskins.

• To Ed Pieroni, I glad you enjoyed my opinions and your efforts to persuade me that hockey stinks were greatly appreciated.
  

• To Dr. Sanford Kaye for believing in my talents as a sportswriter before I did.
  

• To my Mother, thank you for your love and support in every endeavor that I conquer.

• Last but not least, thanks Dad, Father, Padre. Your comments told me what to work on to make this column better. I really appreciate the fact that you were willing to share this blog because you were that proud of me. You are truly my biggest fan. And Maggie good for you that you watched the Super Bowl.

• Please check back often for general sports columns when I have the time and when something strikes me enough to write about it. Until next fall, goodbye and Godspeed.
  

10 years! It's been ten long and frustrating years since the Boston Bruins have won a playoff series. Within that time, he have witnessed numerous coaching catches, talented players squandered for stiffs, and team executives that are more than someone can't find Waldo when he's staring him right in the face. It's has been enough to deplete a once proud fan base whose paradigm nows consists will we finish the season with a winning record. It didn't used to be this way.

The paradigm used to be that of how far are we going to go in the playoffs? For you see, the Bruins made the playoffs every year from 1969-1996. At the time of it's completion, it was the longest continuous streak in NHL history. It pains me to say that at the time, we took all those appearances for granted. If we knew then what we know now, we would have appreciated even the teams that were one and done. Nowadays, the Bruins are the least popular sports team in an area in which they were at the top, at least in the early seventies anyway. Now, we are left with a far from perfect team with a miserly owner, a clueless GM, and the owner's soon who had the audacity to stage a meeting with what few season ticket holders were left, telling them that they were committed to putting a winning product on the ice. To me, that's like a generic soda brand telling consumers that their soda is better tasting than Coke or Pepsi. As expected the team was reneged on their promise, and has continued to swim in a sea of mediocrity.

Do they care, no! As long as Mr Jacobs and friends make a profit off the team, they're content. So how do we solve this problem. It may be more simple than you think. The best way to solve it is i two ways, stop attending the games, and call into the talk shows demanding change. However, simple solutions are not always easily executed. The Bruins still draw reasonably large crowds and I haven't heard a Bruins fan call into WEEI since the Stone Age. I am imploring those people to wake up and smell the foul stench of your hockey team. Aa long as the Bruins are in the black, they will continue to be mediocre. If you're mad as hell and you're now gonna take it anymore, write letters, stop watching the games, stop going to the games, and start using sports radio as a soundboard. The Celtics got the message. It's time for the Bruins to as well.

Somehow I knew it would come to this. In order for the Patriots to complete their perfect season it only seems natural that they have to go through a team from New York. New York and Boston are brothers in arms when it comes to culture and sports. One has better museum, the other has more history. One has better basketball team, the other has a better hockey team. They gloat about how our championship are tainted, and we do the same. No matter how hard we Boston fans try, we just can't break the stigma of New York breathing down our backs. Another thing to point out is that in order for the underdog to truly be considered a champion, they must go through the best. In 2004, the Red Sox may have won the World Series, but it just wouldn't be as meaningful as it is if we didn't go through the Yankees. Had we beaten the Twins for the pennant, we would still have to hear the obnoxious cries of Yankee fans saying that they may have won, but they didn't go through the best to get there. In the same vein, what Eli Manning has accomplished this post-season may be extraordinary, but if he does not beat the best, Patriots fans will believe he got lucky. So now it stands, A week from Sunday in the Phoenix suburbs an event that used to be a football game but now has become a national holiday full of meaningless entertainment and false hype will take place. This game will have an interesting rooting interest in the New England area. There are two kinds of Giants fans in New England, those who were born before 1960, who grew up Giants fans because their Fathers did or those who couldn't accept the Patriots as a New England's team because they were too used to the Giants. There will be divided loyalties and friendly wagers I'm sure, but who will prevail? Sadly, we have to wait almost two weeks to find out. How did the Patriots and Giants get here? It's time to let the bullet points do some explaining.

• For those like me who thought the weather was going to be a factor in hindering the performances of the visiting teams, chalk it up as a oversight. While the Chargers were not able to sustain a drive into the end zone, the Giants proved they can play in the coldest of temperatures.

• Admit it Patriots fans, once you saw them try a reverse with Randy Moss, you thought it was going nowhere. Weren't you glad when you saw him juke a defender and turn it into a sizable gain?

• Moss wasn't a factor in the passing game. I hate to do this, but I must ask if his impending legal troubles had an effect on his game?

• You can't fault the Chargers for not scoring a touchdown. When Tedy Bruschi runs like a madman to swat a ball away from Antonio Gates, you know it's going to be a long afternoon.

• Yes I still believe my Grandmother could kick better than Nate Kaeding, but he did kick four field goals. Although two of them looked like they barely got through the crossbar.

• If you still think Mike Vrabel isn't a valuable player on the Pats defense, take a look a the leg sweep he gave Phillip Rivers in the second quarter. The play led to a Asante Samuel interception and a Patriot touchdown. Yet again, I must remind you that Bob Sanders won Defensive Player of the Year. He's now on a golf course somewhere warm.

• Tom Brady has the vision of a fighter pilot. To see that Jabbar Gaffney was running a route up the middle when his eyes were on Wes Welker takes precise vision and impeccable timing, both of which Brady has.

• If nothing else, the phony LT is resilient. You've got to admire the fact that he was at least able to carry the ball a couple of times before his knee gave in.

• After Rivers had found Chris Chambers on a nice catch, on the very next place the ageless Junior Seau tackled RB Michael Turner. The play adverted the touchdown drive and forced the Bolts to kick another field goal. How does he do it? Maybe Geritol and Ensure shakes do work after all.

• What's more surprising, the fact that Tom Brady threw 3 picks in a game, or the rumors that Wham might reunite for a tour?

• Lawrence Maroney is quickly showing why he was worth the gamble for the Patriots to take him in the draft. With the passing game going nowhere, Maroney stabilized the offense, and prolonged drives with his power running.

• The world will end before Bill Belichick singles out a specific player in explaining why the Patriots won the game.

• The Packers and Giants have played a combined 82 playoff games. You know you've been around a long time when your playoff history spans from from the era of the flapper and the depression to Britney Spears and Guitar Hero.

• Bart Starr was an honorary captain for the Packers. If there's anyone who knows what it's like to play in the freezing cold in Green Bay, it's him.

• If there's one thing you've got to admire about the Giants, it's that they are a tough team, and they're going to be dismissed as as bunch of lightweights. The play of Ahmad Bradshaw best illustrated that point on Sunday.

• Plaxico Burress reminds me of a chameleon. You think you have him covered but he so quick and elusive that by the time he's got the ball, you're wondering where he is. He's going to wreak havoc on the Patriots secondary.

• Yes Donald Driver was open on his touchdown catch, but I think he ran so fast because he was freezing and desperate to go back to the sideline for some warmth. Of course leaping into the arms of some warm fans to celebrate the score couldn't of hurt.
  

• Lost in the shuffle of Manning, Burress, and Tynes is the heads up play by Kevin Boss to recover a fumble at the Packer 1 yard lines in the third quarter. That to me was the biggest play of the game.

• If I hear that obnoxious loudmouth Chris Berman refer to the Giants as the Geeeee men one more time, I think I'll go postal on my television.

• Maybe Lawrence Tynes would not have been the goat had the Giants lost, but what about Sam Madison? If the Giants don't answer the Packers last touchdown, Madison's penalty for unnecessary roughness would be long remembered in a city that never forgets.

• Another play that would not have been forgotten in the annals of time had the Packers won is the fumble by the Giants RW McQuarters after he intercepted Brett Favre.

• What will be remembered though is the fumble recovery by Domenic Hixson on a Green Bay kickoff. If the Packers recover, it's likely over for the Giants.

• If Lawrence Tynes is an NFL kicker, he's obviously going to make one of three kicks. Thankfully, Tynes is still looked upon as a hero in New York for giving the Giants the victory.

• There were plenty of potential goats on the Giants side but only one on the Packers side. Sadly, the man's last name is Favre. An off balance throw in overtime led to an interception and a Giants victory.

• So there you have it, a New York New England Super Bowl that will be glossed over and hyped endlessly. There will be no column on football next week because there will be no games to comment on. But look for a regular column anyway someone next week. Enjoy the game, and see you in two weeks for the final column.