BILLS WIN
“BILLS WIN, BILLS WIN, BILLS WIN,” shrieked the Facebook page of my friend Paul Long.
“Do you mean to tell me the lowly Billy-goats beat the mighty N.Y. Jets?” I asked.
“I’ll look it up,” my wife said from the other room.
(My wife has her own rig. In fact, our ‘pyooters aren’t even networked. We use e-mail.)
“Yep,” she said. “Bills 16, Jets 13.”
Paul Long was sports-editor at the mighty Mezz during the final years of my employ.
We worked in nearby cubicles; him the Sports-Editor and me doing their web-site.
The web-site ran local sports stories, and I was always trying to fly sports pictures — even though I had been advised not to.
He was a great guy to question; like if something had a misspelled word.
Sports was always kind of a mess at the Messenger the entire time of my employ.
When I first hired on, the Sports-Editor had loud angry temper tantrums, and would tear up what he had asked for, blaming us.
He moved on, but no one replaced him. Sports was done by two sports-reporters.
Then a guy hired earlier as a sports-reporter, but who went on to generate a lot of the paper, was made Sports-Editor, but it was like herding cats.
His sports-reporters had previously done the entire section.
Despite this, Sports was always a premier section.
It had local bias, so covered local sports.
Then Long was made Editor, but was saddled with two prima-donnas.
It wasn’t a marriage-made-in-heaven, but still Sports shone.
Long is from this area, so is a Buffalo Bills fan.
In fact, he’s a fan of just about every local sports team.
I remember Syracuse basketball made the National Championship during Long’s tenure; a fact he celebrated.
Also the Buffalo Sabres.
But sadly the Bills have become a laughing-stock, particularly after last week when they were beat by the lowly Cleveland Browns.
They made so many mistakes.
I rely on Paul, not being a sports-fan myself, and he said team-owner Ralph Wilson was too cheap to hire the talent needed to field a good football team.
Well, probably so; but he did hire Terrell Owens, whom I’m sure cost a pretty penny.
But one super-talented player can’t save a football team.
To me, the Bills beating the Jets is a fluke, much like when they beat the New England Patriots long ago in 2003.
Yeah, sure; what about next week?
I bet they lose. No confidence. They’re not winners.
“They lost everything when Flutie (“FLOO-dee”) left,” my wife says.
• The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired almost four years ago. Best job I ever had. I worked there after my stroke (October 26, 1993); almost 10 years. My stroke disability-retired me from driving transit bus at Regional Transit Service in Rochester, NY, which I did for 16&1/2 years.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• “This area” is Western New York.
• “Flutie” is Doug Flutie, a previous quarterback for the Buffalo Bills — a winner.
• Paul Long moved to near to Charlotte, NC, to become a sports-reporter at a local newspaper nearby.
“Do you mean to tell me the lowly Billy-goats beat the mighty N.Y. Jets?” I asked.
“I’ll look it up,” my wife said from the other room.
(My wife has her own rig. In fact, our ‘pyooters aren’t even networked. We use e-mail.)
“Yep,” she said. “Bills 16, Jets 13.”
Paul Long was sports-editor at the mighty Mezz during the final years of my employ.
We worked in nearby cubicles; him the Sports-Editor and me doing their web-site.
The web-site ran local sports stories, and I was always trying to fly sports pictures — even though I had been advised not to.
He was a great guy to question; like if something had a misspelled word.
Sports was always kind of a mess at the Messenger the entire time of my employ.
When I first hired on, the Sports-Editor had loud angry temper tantrums, and would tear up what he had asked for, blaming us.
He moved on, but no one replaced him. Sports was done by two sports-reporters.
Then a guy hired earlier as a sports-reporter, but who went on to generate a lot of the paper, was made Sports-Editor, but it was like herding cats.
His sports-reporters had previously done the entire section.
Despite this, Sports was always a premier section.
It had local bias, so covered local sports.
Then Long was made Editor, but was saddled with two prima-donnas.
It wasn’t a marriage-made-in-heaven, but still Sports shone.
Long is from this area, so is a Buffalo Bills fan.
In fact, he’s a fan of just about every local sports team.
I remember Syracuse basketball made the National Championship during Long’s tenure; a fact he celebrated.
Also the Buffalo Sabres.
But sadly the Bills have become a laughing-stock, particularly after last week when they were beat by the lowly Cleveland Browns.
They made so many mistakes.
I rely on Paul, not being a sports-fan myself, and he said team-owner Ralph Wilson was too cheap to hire the talent needed to field a good football team.
Well, probably so; but he did hire Terrell Owens, whom I’m sure cost a pretty penny.
But one super-talented player can’t save a football team.
To me, the Bills beating the Jets is a fluke, much like when they beat the New England Patriots long ago in 2003.
Yeah, sure; what about next week?
I bet they lose. No confidence. They’re not winners.
“They lost everything when Flutie (“FLOO-dee”) left,” my wife says.
• The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired almost four years ago. Best job I ever had. I worked there after my stroke (October 26, 1993); almost 10 years. My stroke disability-retired me from driving transit bus at Regional Transit Service in Rochester, NY, which I did for 16&1/2 years.
• “‘Pyooter” is computer.
• “This area” is Western New York.
• “Flutie” is Doug Flutie, a previous quarterback for the Buffalo Bills — a winner.
• Paul Long moved to near to Charlotte, NC, to become a sports-reporter at a local newspaper nearby.
Labels: mighty Mezz
posted by BobbaLew at 3:09 PM
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