Sound. Fury. Nothing.

No, really, don’t waste your time by clicking on…

Such a strange confluence of things in my head on the drive up Thursday night. (Including Lost. I feel for the poor folks who gave up on that show. They’re missing something wild.)

First draft of today’s story included…


…an anecdote from training camp, but it just didn’t quite mesh with the rest of the piece. Not that that’s stopped me before, but I cut it. (Though now I kind of think it might have worked, if I’d have framed it differently.) Rather than save it and hope… the gist is that, while they were waiting to go onto the ice at Shelton back on September whateverth, Drew Fata was telling some of his new teammates about the Aucoin punch last Feb. 23. He talked about how a couple of Rats jumped him in defense of Aucoin, and how the rest of his teammates paired up. Then he laughed and mentioned that one of his then-teammates beelined to cling to the Albany goaltender.

Meanwhile, a point for the man Thursday in the Show, and if you’re watching the replay, don’t read his lips when he gets sent to the box. (I laughed when I did at dinner. Then I said out loud what he had said. Then I realized no one else had been watching. I got some funny looks.)

It was a captain’s practice Thursday, Old Guys vs. Young Guys. (I shirked my duties and didn’t get a score.) One of Mark Wotton’s sons joined in afterward; I’m thinking ATO. But like last week, it devolved at the end into a game of baseball — one guy “pitching,” the remainder spread out as “fielders,” one guy from the other team “batting” in front of a net. And like last week, I’m amazed it didn’t end poorly/with bodies strewn all over the ice. And again, shirked duties, no score (Matt Keith had a solid homer, though). But Steve Regier came in concerned about his team’s pitching. Kip Brennan, Pascal Morency, Regier himself — it just wasn’t getting it done, he said. No bullpen. I asked if he thought there was any pitching talent down in Utah they could call up. I think he said he had to get scouting.

The baseball game reminded me that somebody added two Billy Joel songs to the pre-warmup tape Wednesday: “Scenes From an Italian Restaurant” to open the doors, and later on, “You May Be Right*,” which long ago became the song I’d want played when I came into a game if I was** a relief pitcher. I’ve had my batting song — “Uptown Baby (Deja Vu)” by Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz, or at least whatever clean part of it we could find — for a while, too; it’s kind of an inside joke. I always get stuck on the starting-pitcher song. Never had a really good, firm, solid one. Right now, I think it’s the “You Are Forgiven” part of the Who’s “A Quick One, While He’s Away,” the version from the Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus***, which is also used in Rushmore.

You know it won’t be “Sweet Child o’ Mine,” though.

And finally******… Happy 28th anniversary.

* – We had Glass Houses on 8-track. Probably still do, if I looked hard enough. I’m pretty sure “You May Be Right” was followed by “Don’t Ask Me Why” instead of “Sometimes a Fantasy.” Blew my mind when I got it on CD. I still like it better “our” way, like “Yes It Is” going to “Dizzy Miss Lizzy” on Beatles VI****, like “I’ve Just Seen a Face” going to “Norwegian Wood” on Rubber Soul. Then again, this whole post proves I’m weird.
** – Make that “were.”
*** – You ever seen that? Moon looks like he’s drumming underwater, he’s sweating so much at the end. Brilliant.
**** – Though “DML” really should close an album*****, the way it does the British Help!.
***** – Alan W. Pollack notes the brilliance of the actual Beatles VI closer’s lyric, “I remember the first time I was lonely without her.”
****** – Not really, if you still have footnotes.

Michael Fornabaio