Football, Baseball, Fishing, Too!

This is a Riddell helmet that I got months ago through eBay and let it just be while I decided which of the National football League teams logos I wanted to use. Since the seller had done such a great job painting the helmet white, I was determined that it should represent a team that wears a white helmet.

I considered the Tennessee Titans, the Indianapolis Colts, but ultimately I ordered the Miami Dolphin logos from 1990 to make a representation of Dan Marino's helmet worn during the "Silver Season" -- Don Shula's 25th year of coaching in the NFL.
I have always admired Dan Marino, another one of the National Football League quarterbacks that came out of Pennsylvania's mining country.

Marino held the completed passing record until this past season when Brett Favre outdid him with a slant to # 85, Greg Jennings, who took it in stride and ran untouched in for the score.

Marino went on to have an excellent career as a television star for HBO's "Inside The NFL". It is difficult to believe that with all his accomplishments, a Super Bowl ring eluded him.

As you can see, the helmet is still not finished. That's because it took me a really long time to locate the exact style face mask he wore and in the correct "aqua" color.

That mask is no longer being manufactured at this time. It is basically a line backer's mask. the type also worn by New York Jets QB Chad Pennington.

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Tis that time of year when my thoughts should be turning to baseball. Truth be told, it is difficult for me to get excited about major league baseball. Oh, I would imagine that there will be at least one trip to Milwaukee this summer to catch a Brewers game but that is more for the sociability than anything else.

Miller Park is a great place to watch a game. The design is such that when you walk in you say to yourself: "I'd best watch the game today because there is not a seat anywhere that a screaming foul ball would not be able to take your head off!" the park is laid out with an intimacy that I have only experienced at Wrigley.

But as I say, going to the ball game is more of a social occasion, be it with family or friend. getting there early and joining the others that are busy setting up their charcoal grills and laying out the brats and the beans and chips. And of course, the beer!

I am drawn much more to Carson Park to watch not The Express (too rowdy -- too many non-supervised brats running helter-skelter, thither and yon) but my favorite team The Cavaliers.

My mother, little Alice, God rest her soul, loved to be whisked out of the Clairemont in her wheel chair and out to the game where we always had a great time together -- making memories to cherish forever.

the other day, while I was cleaning the back room, I came across mom's diaries she kept the last couple years of her life. I couldn't read more than a page or two without finding tears rolling down my cheeks. Not a day goes by when I don't miss her. We were such good friends, she and I, in those last summers of baseball.

I am hoping to put the band back together to play an hour before one of the Cav games start. They set us up between the grand stand and the first base bleachers and we play not for money but for fun! Oh -- and for pitchers of Leinie's and hot dogs and brats.

It is worth it just to come out and watch Dave "Barney" Barneson eat a brat and drum at the same time.

I also have promised myself that this is the summer that I change the line on my spinning reel, oil it up, pack my little two man tent and talk either Jay Moore or my chiropractor Chad into taking an overnight small mouth fishing excursion on the Jump River near Jump River Rosie's club.

Enough already! got stuff to do!

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