Friday, April 27, 2012

This ‘n’ That… Again

Once again I have decided to write about a few things that have been bouncing around inside my ginormous head. Just some random thoughts, a little of this ‘n’ that. First, “This” - What’s with all the nicknames in sports? Nice question coming from a guy nicknamed “Puddles” while working at Koos Inc. When I became involved in softball, managing the legendary 400 Club, the name stuck. I was in good company though, because heaven only knows the number of other nicknames that are hung on softball players.

Maybe it was a testosterone thing, but it seemed like everybody had a nickname back in the day. Sure there was vanilla ones like Richie or Reggie, but there were many with considerably more style and panache.

Here are some of the more colorful nicknames from the Golden Age of Kenosha Softball:

Art “Shorty” Llanas, Bill “Mountain” Griffiths, Billy “White Shoes” Johnson, Bob “The Guru of Softball” Dahl, Bob “Stud” Rossi, Brad “Chili” Breiling, Brian “Goon” McGonegle, Bruce “Eddie” Edmark, Bruce “Hollywood” Meyers, Carmen “Noots” Pillizzi, Chris “Swammy” Wade, Chuck “Chooch” Portillia and Chuck “Doc” Lange.

Dale “Bear” Kolmos, Dale “Hummer” Landree, Dan “Ozzie” Ausloos, Dan “The Hole” Tencate, Danny “Love” McGonegle, Dave “Pin” Meier, Dave “Rocky” Roehl, Dave “Smiley” Johnson, David “Uncle Munchie” Aiello, Dennis “Doc” Kalberg, Dennis “Satch” Lumley, Dennis “Tura” Lura, Denny “The Gangster of Brats” DeLoria and Domenic “Rocky” Tirabassi III.

Ed “Buddy” Ade, Fred “The Hammer” Parham, Fred “Wally” Altergott, Gary “Juice” Andreucci, Gary “Speed” Paskewicz, Gary “The Wizard” Petersen, Glen “Munk” Ekern, Glen “Smooth” Marescalco, Glenn “Rock” Evenson and Howie “Cow” Olsen.

Jeff “Cat” Kaeppler, Jeff “Herman” Clark, Jeff “Lumpy” Perrault, Jeff “Red” DiCello, Jeremy “Whammer” Kalbfell, Jim “Ax” Berberich, Jim “Doc” Nehls, Jim “Downtown” Brown, Jim “Downtown” Brown, Jim “Mr. Clean” Wilson, Jimmy “Slash” Gentile, John “Chops” Goodwin, John “Kool Papa” Schwarz, Johnny “Tank Top” Tracy and Jon “Atomic Dog” Naumann.

Kim “Roy” Myers, Kris “Nightmare” Ray, Kurt “Cooter” Sinclair, Larry “Laredo” Weiss, Mark “Bwana” Issets, Mike “Derby” Brown, Mike “Goon” Matuzek, Mike “Itchy” Griedanus, Mike “Worm” Selovich, Neil “White Cloud” Boniface, Pat “Hollywood” Hegewald and Paul “Puddles” Vagnoni.

Randy “Ducky” Aulwes, Rick “Cardo” Bloomquist, Rick “Rollo” Perrine, Ricky “Cousin” Llanas, Rock Jurvis, Rocky Witzman, Roger “Worm” Wermeling, Ron “Big Bird” Danoski, Ron “Mort” Zeith, Ron “Nosh” Rossa, Ron “Pig Pen” Greb and Russ “Cat” Guerra.

Sam “Finney” Perry, Steve “Beaver” Griffiths, Steve “Blade” Hess, Tim “Cupcake” Gascoigne, Tom “Bads” Beth, Tom “Boom Boom” Keating, Tom “Buzz” Pinzger and Willy “China” Yee.

Now for “That” – Back in February when season 24 of the award-winning reality shows Survivor premiered, I announced a contest for my Fellow Survivor Geeks. It is my way to not only celebrate this great show, but also say thank you to the loyal readers of this blog.



Here are the (hopefully) self-explanatory and understandable contest rules of the contest:

1.    Predict the Survivors who will make up the final three. Please use only full names as they appear in the list. No nicknames!


2.    As a tiebreaker, predict who will be voted off in the second episode. If know one picks the correct person for week two, whoever predicts the earliest one evicted after week one wins.

3.    If there is still a tie, the earliest entry wins.

First place will get their choice of the prizes with second place choosing next and third place will receive the remaining prize.

Want to know what they are playing for? Check out the graphic:


Sweet, huh? It will be interesting to see which prize the winner chooses. Here are the current standings with only three episodes remaining:

Jo: Sabrina, Kim, Chelsea
Greg: Christina, Kim


Patty 4-Names: Alicia

England Sue: Sabrina

Jamie: Chelsea

Jeff: Alicia

Karen: Kim
Alaska Karen: eliminated
Mary Beth: eliminated


Auntie Janet: eliminated

Kudos to Jo who sailing along with all three of her picks alive. Currently in second place, Greg nailed the tiebreaker by picking Nina to be the first contestant voted off after week one. Patty 4-Names is in third and is second best if a tiebreaker is needed. She chose Matt who was eliminated the week after Nina. All of the official entries are posted on the right side of this blog directly below the polls.

Well, the contest news was that and the nicknames were this… or something like that. Oh never mind, I’m going to watch the Brewers try to knock off those dirty Red Birds.

Until next time…from the booth.

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