Thoughts on pro wrestler attacking fan

I have so many thoughts on this. Not a show goes by without me interacting with wrestlers. That was the point of the afro years ago - to draw their attention. That said, I never cross the line into personal, racial, or religious. Gotta keep it character based.

I can make a long list of wrestlers who have "interacted" with me at indy shows. Whether its yelling back, ripping off the afro, or grabbing a sign from me, it's all been part of the show. And you have to roll with it. If you want to be "part of the show", you have to know the line. Heels are assholes. They flip hats, they rip signs, they insult your mother. Touching the wrestlers is wrong. You don't throw watermelon back at Gallagher. 

By the way, the whole thing looks like a work. Look how the fan feeds his back to Joe Black who clubs him with forearms. No uppercuts, no chokes, no real fight moves. Compare to when Seth Rollins choked out a mark who jumped the rail on RAW.

If it is not a work - life is a work, btw - that fan should be barred from that promotion forever. But there are other promotions and the odds he and Joe Black cross paths again will be pretty high. Then when Joe Black and the boys whoop his ass (the whole locker room, because if you mess with one, you mess with all) , the way wrestlers would have back in the day, he will learn not to teach the wrestlers.

Curveball at the Crossroads on BallNine.com

 

A few months ago I connected with Chris Vitali and the folks at BallNine.com. BallNine is a new baseball website that focuses on the stories of people involved in the game. They have interviewed many interesting former players, coaches, and other personalities. And their graphics are top notch. They are definitely recommended.

As the lead of a website dedicated to the stories of baseball and as a former musician, Chris was very interested in my novel Curveball at the Crossroads. We talked for a few months about doing a podcast or video interview. Unfortunately, BallNine suffered some personnel setbacks that set Chris and his team back, as setbacks normally do. But a few weeks ago we finally made it happen.

This was a fun interview. We covered the influences of the book, how it came to be, how to purchase it, and of course, we talked a little Rays baseball.

Great interview, great host, and great subject matter. But I might be biased.

The Tallahassee bar scene when FSU was a top party school

Hard to believe 20 years has past since I was a college student. Those days seem so long ago. Days of classes on the weekdays and football games on the weekend. Nights of college bars and local bands and drinking. A lot of drinking.

From 1995 to 2005, Florida State University was regarded as one of the best party schools in the country. Florida State and partying went together like lamb and tuna fish, peanut butter and jelly, and spaghetti and meatballs. The party scene was so insane, it spawned the career of comedian Bert Kreischer, whose entire schtick early in his career was drinking and partying. It also spawned the band Creed, but that's an article for another day.

I arrived at Florida State in 1999. After a year of hanging out in the dorms, by my second year I was part of the bar scene in Tallahassee. Looking back, I am not sure how I survived the debauchery. Drinking and going out was one of my main hobbies.

Another one of my hobbies was recording any show that featured Florida State. I left college with several VHS tapes of FSU-related shows, from WWF events in Tallahassee to a show that ranked FSU as one of the most progressive protest schools in the country. But the highlight of my video collection was a 2002 MSNBC investigation on college drinking that featured Florida State in more than half the show.

A few months ago, I finally digitized my VHS collection. This weekend, I finally uploaded the FSU college drinking show on Vimeo. I would have put it on youtube as well, but it is too long. Maybe if I get 1,000 subscribers to my youtube I will put it there too.

So without further ado, not that intended to ado, but if I did ado, I will ado no further. Here is MSNBC Investigates: College Drinking.

College drinking 2002 - Florida State, etc from JordiScrubbings on Vimeo.