Bob Ryan from the Boston Globe

Bangor’s sports station, WZON, has again had another successful event. This time it was having Bob Ryan, long-time sports reporter for The Boston Globe, come and speak to a group of 350+ sports fans at the Bangor Event Center tonight.

For only $10 per ticket, we were treated to over 90 minutes of Mr Ryan’s incredible knowledge of all things Boston-sports. While a majority of the conversation was focused on the Red Sox (AL Wild Card team) who are getting ready for the post-season, and the New England Patriots, who have started their new season decently while questions about Tom Brady’s recovery from the off-season knee surgery continue to bounce around the great Northeast, he also touched upon the Boston Bruins, who will be starting their season tomorrow night, and the Boston Celtics who have just started training camp.

Mr. Ryan was asked “which Boston athlete has/had the biggest ego”: Roger Clemens. He was asked greatest Celtic player: Bill Russell. Regarding Boston Bruins #4, Bobby Orr, Bob Ryan feels that he was the greatest hockey player....EVER. While tipping his cap to the incredible talent of Wayne Gretzky, he singled out that in Orr’s days, the defensemen pretty much stuck to defense and would only score 15 or 20 points a season. But Orr came in and would get 100 points in a season, and would give a check as well as he would take one, something that Gretzky didn’t do very much of.

He also discussed other Boston sports related topics such as Celtics announcer Johnny Most (“some stories I just can’t tell”), Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski, Celtic Larry Bird, Fenway Park’s upgrades, his honest opinion that the Yankees are the likely team to win the World Series this year (and since they’ve spent over $423 million trying to buy another championship, it seems that this year they’ve finally bought their best opportunity in the past 10 years, he said), and his inside info on the ESPN show Pardon The Interruption and hosts Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon, crediting executive producer Erik Rydholm with creating the countdown-clock format, the games on the show, the 5-Good-Minutes segment and others. Bob did say that Kornheiser and Wilbon have been friends for a long time due to their jobs at the Washington Post and apparently they would have these sports-talks, going back and forth on a topic and then switching topics. Somewhere along the line, it became a show for ESPN, and Rydholm was instrumental in giving the show it’s format, a format that is copied by so many other shows now. And by the way, PTI has been on the air for 8 years now!

Prior to his presentation, Ann Marie’s Kitchen had a buffet (part of the ticket fee) which was great. I mention this because in addition to WZON, there are other sponsors who help bring these types of events up here to our area. Thanks also to EBS Building Supply, Eastern Maine Medical Center, Charles Dean Memorial Hospital, Dunnet Inc, and the Bangor Daily News for making this one happen.

Before his presentation ended, Bob was asked: who is the better writer, him (Ryan) or Dan Shaughnessy (another Boston Globe writer). Bob acknowledged that they’re both good writers and the Globe is lucky to have them! haha! He did the straighten-my-tie move as he said it. Good stuff.

WZON's Jeff Solari (left) with Bob Ryan (that's my Bruins jersey on the wall, by the way)

Thanks always to the WZON crew - Dale Duff, Clem LaBree, Jeff Solari, Pat Spekhardt, Toby Nelson, and the sales staff (Bill, Carrie, Kenny V and Jim), the interns and anybody I missed. The biggest thanks go to Bob Ryan for taking time out of a very busy schedule to come up to our little neck of New England: Bangor, Maine.

Wednesday’s Word

Word: Used up (Adj. phrase)

Definition: exhausted; worn out

Usage:

“Them carnival fellas looked pretty used up after the Wagstaff boys got through with them.”

“Ayuh. I guess they took quite a thrashing. Maybe that’ll learn ‘em not to cheat.”

Or:

“How’d you find your Uncle Harold?”

“Well, he says he’s all used up, but I see where he’s got in his next winter’s wood already.”

“Sounds about right. Harold always was tougher’n a bagful of hammers, for all his complaining. How old is he now?”

“Just turned eighty-three. He’ll see another round one, though.”

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you know that Maine is the only state in the United States whose name is only one syllable?

Monday Morning Chuckle

All the 'dudes' from The Big Lebowski. I love this movie.

Wednesday’s Word

Word: More to do than a man on the town (V. phrase)

Definition: affecting industriousness

Usage:

A person who is on the town receives financial aid from same. Someone who has more to do than a man on the town might pretend to be busy in order to escape workfare. Or he might be disguising his discomfiture at being unemployed.

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you know that only 1 in 4 students in the Oklahoma public school system know that George Washington was the first president of the United States?

The survey was conducted by the Oklahoma Council on Public Affairs. One thousand students were asked 10 questions taken from the US Citizenship Test and the answers, including the one above, are revealing: only 3 percent of the students would’ve passed the US Citizenship Test.

Yikes. No child left behind? In Oklahoma, it sounds like most of them have been left behind. I hope that changes.

Monday Morning Chuckle

Wednesday’s Word

Word: Godfrey mighty! (Phrase)

Definition: Oath

Usage:

“Godfrey mighty! I never seen anyone so bowlegged!”

“He wouldn’t stop a pig in an alley; that’s for sure.”

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you know that in 1990, the Steve Miller Band’s song The Joker went to #1 in Europe? The song was originally released in 1973 as a single from their album of the same name. The song reached #1 in the US that year.

Sixteen years later in 1990, The Joker was used in a commercial for Levi Jeans in Europe and it went on to top music charts in the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Sweden, Ireland and France, just to name a few of the countries.

Monday Morning Chuckle

Wednesday’s Word

Word: Frog (V.)

Definition: To labor in a wet area

Usage:

“We frogged around in that swamp for three or four hours before we finally found the beaver flowage.”

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you know that it was 150 years ago (this November) that Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species was published? His book showed that creatures evolved through a series of changes over a period of time and caused great controversy with the religious groups who fought his findings.

So yes, we descended from apes. Although I swear there must be some proof that some human beings came from jack-asses.

Monday Morning Chuckle

Bob Marley is a Maine comedian. He's not the wicked awesome reggae master, but as I said earlier, a comedian. He's short. He's white. He's as far as you can get from a Jamaican reggae icon. Regardless of this, he's funny. Wicked funny. Here's a whole lot of his CD, Uptacamp. NSFW

Wednesday’s Word

Word: Nooning (N.)

Definition: lunch break

Usage:

“We took our nooning about 11:30.”

(Definition from: "How To Talk Yankee", by Gerald Lewis & Tim Sample, copyright 1979, 1986 by The Thorndike Press; copyright 1989 by the First North Country Press)

Did You Know Tuesday

Did you know that it was 30 years ago (as of September 7) that ESPN debuted? The first show was on a pretty lame set, and the audio didn’t sync up too well with the video, and the schedule included an NCAA preview, slo-pitch softball (between the Kentucky Bourbons and the Milwaukee Schlitzes...yes, Schlitzes), wrestling and college soccer.

Debuting in the evening, it was up against The Incredible Hulk, Fantasy Island, Facts of Life, Diff’rent Strokes, Rockford Falls and The Dukes of Hazzard. How the hell did ESPN survive against so many classics, right?

To look at ESPN nowadays (including the numerous offshoots...EPSN2, ESPNU, etc) you would be hard-pressed to think it started with such humble beginnings. But I still gotta wonder: when did fireman olympics become a sport that warrented TV coverage? Or cheerleading competition? Or friggin poker tournaments?

Check out the brief clip of the first show here with host Lee Leonard.