I was on the radio today

I will try to make this short story long (or is it the other way around ?).

For starters, I dealt blackjack (yes I am a "professional" blackjack dealer) at a charity event this past weekend and on Monday I sent an email to the party planner / guy who hired me to say how well I thought the event was run and that I appreciated being involved. On the bottom of my email, as some of you may have noticed, is a tag line (signature) that promotes my blog (this blog that you are reading).

Unbeknownst to me this guy also does a sports talk radio show on AM 1490 in the Sarasota, Bradenton area from 5 - 7 pm on Wednesday called "Out of Bounds". He noticed my signature and called me to see what my blog was all about and then asked me if I wanted to be on the radio as a guest to talk about my collection and the Cubs. Naturally I said yes. This might be a good time to say that I have been told I have a face for radio - sorry for that old joke.

So this evening at 6:30 pm I called as instructed and was his guest for about ten minutes talking baseball, the 1969 Chicago Cubs and baseball cards. For me, this was exciting.

I think I did well (that is according to the two people who listened to me, my wife and daughter) since he did call me after his show was done and thanked me for being on. He also invited me back to talk "anytime". That only means he likes me or is desperate for guests. I would like to think that I did ok for my first time on the air.

The bulk of our conversation was about the cornerstone of my collection; the Cubs of 1969 pennant and the cards from 1970 that are framed, but he also asked me about the "Bartman" incident and our hopes for this year. He even plugged my blog on air !

I hardly doubt this will turn into anything regular but it was fun to be on the radio today.

Ripped-off Post continued: the All-Steve team

As many of you have been reading about the All-"state your name" pots the last few days I thought I would give it a try myself. It was not as easy as one would think with a common name like Steve but here goes: my All-Steve team.

I must start with my pitchers; this will be the team strength boasting a starting rotation of four, two righties and two lefties with 671 career wins and 7623 strikeouts !

LHP: Steve Carlton (HOF, 329 career wins, 4136 K's and the key to this team)

LHP: Steve Avery (career 96 wins and 980 K's)

RHP: Steve Trachsel (former Cub and career 143 wins / 1591 K's)

RHP: Steve Blass (103 wins and 896 K's)

In the bullpen will be:

Steve Howe

Steve Reed (every team needs a submarine pitcher)

Steve Searcy

Steve Trout (former Cub)

Steve Ontiveros (same name as bench player but different person)

Steve Busby

Steve Bedrosian

As far as the defense goes:

the outfield

Steve Kemp

Steve Henderson

Steve Hosey (1st round draft pick that never made it - I am giving him a second chance)

the infield

3B: Steve Buechele

SS: Vern Stephens (please allow this last name liberty; he was an 8x all-star with 247 HR's during his career 1941-55)

2B: Steve Sax

1B: Steve Garvey

C: Steve Yeager

off the bench:

Steve Ontiveros (former Cub and the more well known of the two same name players)

Steve Lake (former Cub)

Steve Swisher (former Cub)

So as you can imagine we wont score many runs, have limited power, little speed, short resources on the bench but . . . we do have starting pitching ! We also have too many Cubs and Dodgers represented but . . . did I mention we do have starting pitching !

If we ever do make it to the All-"state your name" Team playoffs, rest assured we will be "cursed" with our favorite fan rooting us on in the front row . . . Steve Bartman. And in the booth announcing the games will be former Cub, Cy Young award winner Steve Stone (he will have his uniform ready in case of injuries)

Have mentioned our starting pitching . . .