So let’s go back to 1998, the Broncos getting set to play the Packers in Super Bowl XXXII in San Diego. It was early in the week and not many clients were in town yet. A few work colleagues were looking for a place to go to dinner, and I recommended we hit the Kansas City Barbeque in the Marina District, most famous for being the site of the “Great Balls of Fire” scene from the movie “Top Gun,” featuring Tom Cruise, Kelly McGillis, Meg Ryan and Anthony Edwards.

Four of us headed to the KC BBQ and grabbed a table. Sure enough, there was the piano against the wall. After we ordered, I asked our waitress, “Can you play the piano?”

She responded by saying, “I don’t know, can you play the piano?”

“Well, yes, I can play the piano,” I replied.

“Then you can play the piano,” she said while strolling toward the kitchen.

Wow... what an opportunity. Now, mind you, my three friends, Lisa, Matt and Paul, didn’t really know I could play piano, but quickly found out I knew a thing or two about entertaining a party. I pulled out all the classics, and of course played “Great Balls of Fire.” Little did I know my friend, Paul, was working the cell phone, telling all of our work friends to come to the Kansas City Barbeque because, “Tommy Lay-Down is tickling the ivories.”

Before I knew it, maybe five or six songs in, our group of four had become eight, then ten, then twenty, then nearly forty. The Kansas City Barbeque was the place to be for NFL employees, and the piano was the center of attention. I played almost every song I knew - people were singing along, others were making requests, and I certainly didn’t have to buy a beer. One problem..... I ran out of songs.

“Hey, Paul - I don’t know any more.”

“Play ‘em again!” he screamed as he raised a single finger in the air. Always a man with solutions.

Now, I didn’t play all of the songs again, but I did reprise “Great Balls of Fire,” and “Piano Man,” before taking a final bow. It really was amazing to feel the energy in the bar and know I was playing the same piano that had been used in a famous movie.

Guess what.... it got better!

When we were done, I sat down next to my colleague, Pete, and with him was Mark Bavaro, one of my childhood icons. If you were a Giants fan, you absolutely loved Mark Bavaro. Even if you weren’t a Giants fan, you probably liked him, and at the very least respected him as one of the game’s toughest and most reliable tight ends. I had never met Mark before, and as he shook my hand, he said, “That was fantastic man. Great job!”

Really? Who would have thought that’s how I’d meet one of my favorite athletes of all time... that he’d say, “Great job,” to me. I told him there were plenty of times he’d done a “great job,” too, and we shared a couple of drinks together. Down-to-earth dude - from Danvers, no less. Sometimes your favorites don’t disappoint.

Yes, it gets a little better.

The next morning, I’m still on cloud nine and walking through my hotel lobby as I prepared for a busy day of work. Who’s walking right toward me but Mark Bavaro, and what does he say?

“Hey... you’re the dude who was playing the piano last night.”

Yes, Mark, that’s me, and that’s a story that keeps getting better - even three decades later. You know what’s funny? No camera phones. No visual proof. My, how times have changed.

Instead, I’m trying to set a base for the amazingly wild timeline of sporting events and stories I’ve been privileged to witness firsthand… and where things really started taking a turn toward WOW for me was from 1981-84 at Boston College.

You see, I was but an eight-year-old child when my sister first attended school on The Heights. Our first game at Alumni Stadium was in a rainstorm in 1980, when the Eagles hosted Army and the skies opened when toe met leather. Dad wasn’t happy we had to leave the game. Mom wasn’t happy Dad was being unreasonable. Tommy wasn’t happy his clothes were soaked.

BC won that day, and finished 7-4 that season, but the great explosion occurred in 1981, when a 5’9 3/4” freshman took the reins under center. We didn’t know it then, but life had changed in Chestnut Hill, forever, and we were watching from the bleachers with our own eyes.

What memories did Flutie and the boys provide for this impressionable kid?

• Tying the defending national champions (Clemson) early in the 1982 season.

• Playing the 1982 national champions (Penn State) that same year.

• Going to the Tangerine Bowl and facing off against Bo Jackson and Auburn

• Never beating West Virginia (Damn you Jeff Hostetler!)

• Exploding on the national stage in 1983 - beating Penn State and Alabama at Schaefer Stadium - remember when the power went out against Alabama?

  

• Watching Doug finish third in the 1983 Heisman voting to Mike Rozier and Steve Young - like REALLY? Heisman?

• Losing to a horrible Notre Dame team in the Frozen Liberty Bowl.

• Starting the ‘84 season with legitimate hope.

• Beating Alabama again - this time on the road.

• The Hail Mary…. I jumped up from the dinner table and screamed just like I did Sunday night when UCONN beat Duke - it was that nuts.

• The Heisman - yes, he deserved it. Yes, he was ions better than Keith Byars and Robbie Bosco - please. The most magnetic college football player, by far.

• The helicopter ride from Worcester to New York to receive the Heisman after he threw a TD pass to his brother in the romp over Holy Cross.

  

• The Cotton Bowl win over Houston with Lindsey Nelson on the call. Pure domination and redemption for two previous bowl losses.

• The New Jersey Generals - we were season ticket holders. The memories of that 1985 USFL season are fantastic. I ended up in the owners box - yes, that owner - during the USFL Championship Game, with Herschel Walker. Dad said, “Where’d you go?” “Well… let me tell ya.”

  

• The Bears - they hated him. They loved Mike Tomczak. Nobody was beating Washington or New York in the NFC in 1986 - I don’t care who was QB for Chicago. Redskins won, he played poorly…. never suited up for Chicago again.

• The Patriots - I’ll never truly understand why he was benched for Tony Eason in 1988. Eason won a total of two more games - EVER - after that move. Probably should have stuck with Doug, but a former Patriots player told me it was too difficult to design an NFL offense around the things only Doug could do and no one else.

• The CFL - I’ll be honest - here’s what I know. He is the best player in the history of the CFL and I watched about 15 minutes of game action during his eight years north of the border. Out of site, out of mind

• The Bills - Just watch the 30-for-30 and you’ll be left screaming at why the owners made Wade Phillips start Rob Johnson against the Titans. The game that ended with the Music City Miracle basically ended Doug’s career in Buffalo.

• The Chargers - When your old GM instantly signs you with his new team, you know it wasn’t his call to bench you - or the coach’s call. After playing well in 2001, Doug turned the reins over to Drew Brees and accepted life as a backup, until the day he retired.

• The Patriots (again) - This time it was totally different - a veteran presence on a team that had won three Super Bowls right before he got there. He hung with Belichick and Brady and yeah… the drop kick. Whatever. It’s a weird thing that makes an arguably gimmicky QB even more gimmicky, but the Hail Mary and the drop kick are probably the first two athletic achievements people think about when they think of Doug Flutie.

• His Parents - I had never truly met Doug and he was in Boston to call the BC/Notre Dame football game at Fenway Park in 2015. Just three days after his mom and dad passed away within an hour of each other, my boss asked me to get Doug to comment about his parents’ deaths. As the nine-year-old kid who watched Doug in Alumni Stadium, I couldn’t muster the moxie to do that. I was thankful he declined all media opportunities that day, because that just sucks and I didn’t want any part of it.

• The Party - Did you know Doug’s annual gala to benefit the Flutie Foundation was hosted in Westwood one summer? His dear friends opened their backyard and constructed a huge tent so people could gather, outside, as we were breaking free from COVID restrictions. Wild.

• The Invite - I was honored and thrilled to be invited to an intimate private party in late 2024, featuring Doug as the special guest. About 50 of us gathered at Vico Ristorante in Norwood, listening to Doug tell stories and spending some time asking questions. For the nine-year-old kid who watched Doug at Alumni Stadium that was top notch!

  

  I’ve watched and met many, and you’ll hear the stories, but few hit that raw, organic “fan” nerve as this guy, and it was the first of many pinch me moments to realize we were watching a once-in-a-generation talent up close and personally.

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No matter how old you are, you’re likely going to romanticize the days when you first became a fan. I’m no different.

My Dad grew up a Giants fan, but getting tickets at Yankee Stadium in the 50s and 60s was impossible. While he always kept the Giants as #1, the Leyden boys wanted to watch live football games, so they started going to Jets games at Shea Stadium starting in 1964. They were kids in their 20s and 30s, newly married and having a great time.

It just so happens that was the best the Jets ever were - Maynard, Namath, Snell, the burgeoning AFL, Super Bowl III, the whole deal. The Leydens were there, tossing olives as high as the 7 Line and catching them with their mouth, then peeping the action from the upper deck at Shea behind the end zone.

This doesn’t mean they weren’t Giants fans. It just means they rooted for both teams. In New York, the best part of Sunday football on TV was that one team played at 1 and the other team played at 4, so you could watch both the Giants and Jets back-to-back.

Anyway, the Giants were still the hot ticket when it was my turn to watch my first game in person. In 1980, the G-Men were horrible. Dark days, my friend. Dark.

Phil Simms was in his second professional season when Big Blue hosted the St. Louis Cardinals on November 30, 1980. With my GAMEDAY program in hand and that unique smell of East Rutherford penetrating my nostrils, we ventured to the blue mezzanine seats - corner end-zone left of the visiting bench. Dad’s friend, Tony DiStasio, had invited us to join him in his season ticket spot, and we were surrounded by many members of his family, who had been going to games since the days of Yankee Stadium.

It’s not like I had been reading press clippings on St. Louis, but it didn’t take long for me to know who was who and who was dangerous. A gorgeous sunny day provided the backdrop for a dominant Cardinals performance. Jim Hart led the Cards to a 23-7 win. Actually, Ottis Anderson led the Cards to a 23-7 win. Jim Hart just handed the ball off a lot.

I was only eight-years-old, but observant enough to know what I was watching, and that was a steam train rolling over the Giants defense. Anderson finished the day with 168 yards on the ground and a pair of touchdowns. These were the days before LT.

There’s something special about the way Bob Sheppard used to call the action over the public address system.

Carried by Anderson.

Tackled.

By Van Pelt.

There’s something special about seeing it all happen right in front of your eyes for the first time. The ride over the Tappan Zee, the tailgating, the smoke, the deliciousness, the escalators to the upper tiers, the curly cue ramps in each corner end zone, the sheer magnitude of 78,000 packed together…. and Dad being a little larger than the average guy, I mean really packed in Section 216. And yes, the horrific traffic going home as we listened to the postgame show on 1130 AM, WNEW.

That defeat was one of 12 losses in 1980, but the one that forever holds a special place in my heart, and how ironic that we were watching a future Giants Super Bowl MVP in action. That performance would come 10 years later, when OJ was on the second nine, with his second (and better) team.

Go back a bit further, to the New York of the 1940s and 50s, when three baseball teams called The Big Apple home. Back then, Mom and Dad, from their separate homes in Long Island and New Jersey, were both Brooklyn Dodger fans. By the time I was dragged along to Shea Stadium for Oldtimers Day in 1980, I had no clue about the nuances, the emotions and how the Leyden family became Mets fans.

When the Dodgers moved to LA in the late 1950s, they left behind a passionate fanbase - three times left heartbroken by a loss to the Yankees in the World Series, and before that a historic loss to Bobby Thompson and the Giants in 1951 - The Shot Heard Round The World.

BTW - Did you know the Giants were trailing 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth that day? YIKES.

With a hole in their hearts, Rita and Tom Leyden were NOT about to become Yankees fans, and it was pretty difficult to root for the Dodgers when they were 3,000 miles away, so what did they do? They waited…. and the Mets were born.

From day one in 1960 when it was announced the Mets would join the National League, they were IN! Until Mom died in 2023, she was still passionate about the Mets - a big baseball fan. I’d come home from the beach with my buddies on a summer night and it wasn’t unusual to get an update from Mom.

“Well, Mookie and Backman can’t do anything tonight, but Keith singled in the third and Gary knocked him home with a double. Darling’s been solid - probably four or five strikeouts - but they need to get the offense going.”

My friends would say, “That’s your MOM?”

“Yeah.”

In 1980, Oldtimers Day at Shea Stadium, as it turns out, celebrated the triumverate of New York National Leaguers. The horrible 1980 Mets were hosting the LA Dodgers, and the pregame Oldtimers Game featured members of the Miracle Mets of ‘69, the NL Champs of ‘73, former New York Giant and New York Met Willie Mays himself, and a number of heroes from the old Brooklyn Dodgers. I wish I could remember everybody - but I was a few days short of eight-years-old as we sat in the green mezzanine seats of Shea.

The photo above reminded me that Roger Maris was in the house. This was only 19 years since he broke the home run record. That’s like talking about the 2007 Red Sox today!

Roy Campanella was there. I remember wondering why he was in a wheelchair. Dad told me the story of his accident. Duke Snider was there, and I’m sure some others who my parents and grandparents loved.

Yes…. Frank and Edna Nuss were with us that beautiful August 23, 1980. They were Dodger fans too. How do you think Mom became a Dodger fan?

What do I remember? The stadium, which I thought was fascinating in its c-shaped, concrete, pre-purple/blue paint splendor. The pennants on the outfield wall - a Shea signature. The planes…. good Lord, the planes.

“That’s why they call them the Jets, Tommy.”

“Aaah.”

Most of all, I remember the smiles and laughs from my parents and grandparents, hearkening back the days of old, rekindling memories they had lived through, moments burned into the brains.

A hot dog or two, probably some popcorn and ice cream and an RC Cola - if you know, you know.

Me? I was sporting a bright yellow plastic Pittsburgh Pirates batting helmet. Front-runner!

We are family, and that’s what made me fall in love with sports. The memories, the shared stories, the connections, the emotion. Like my parents in 1960, I was IN!

I’ve always responded with the response, “I definitely know what I’d call it - ‘You May Not Know Me, But You’ll Love My Stories.’”

It’s a simple summary of the reality that, for whatever reason, I always have been and seemingly always will be around the action, behind the scenes, in scenarios so surreal it’s made me laugh a million times over. Do you know how many times I’ve just sat around the table with people and they’re like, “What… that happened?”

“Yes… that happened.”

From singing for a Saint - which HAS to be the #1 thing, right - to holding a living legend in my arms as he took his final breaths of air, there are more than a thousand stories to be shared. Sometimes they’re quick-hitters, sometimes they need some historical explanation, but in the end, most of them are pretty cool.

Thank you for subscribing and let’s have some fun. I’ll roll out the stories as they come to mind. Comments welcome!