What town was Slap Shot filmed in?

Tsk, Tsk, Dan Patrick do your homework. He had Steve Carlson (a.k.a. Steve Hanson) on his radio show yesterday. Patrick asks, “What city was that shot in?” Come on, I know I’m a homer but Slap Shot has reached enough of a cult following that most big time media types should know about Johnstown and the War Memorial. That being said it was a great interview, complete with audio clips from the movie. I’m sure there is an archive section on the ESPN Radio website where you can hear the complete interview. If so, take a listen, there’s some interesting stuff there.

The Pittsburgh Hardhats of the revamped ABA announced today they will play their home games at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. Ten bucks says this franchise won’t last more than one year. It won’t be without my support, I’ll go and check it out. Just as I did with the Piranhas (CBA). If I was old enough I would have gone to see the Condors back in the day. The red, white, and blue ball is enough to get me to go!

Tracy McGrady is now a Houston Rocket (I guess he’s going for most teams played for before his 30th birthday!) He’ll be teamed up with Yao Ming in what will probably be the most dominant one-two combo since the likelihood of Shaq and Kobe coming back together is slim to none. T-Mac is tough to figure out, he didn’t want to play in Vince Carter’s shadow in Toronto but he was tired of carrying the team in Orlando. What’s that saying about cake and eating it as well? I sensed the beginning of the end of T-Mac’s time in O-town when they traded away Mike Miller; they were good friends and played well together.

The 2004 World Series of Poker will start on ESPN on July 6. THANK GOD! Not because I’m really excited to watch it, but that I’m tired of seeing replays of the ’03 tourney. Hey, I betcha that Moneymaker guy wins it all! I don’t know what to make of the whole poker on TV craze. On one hand I do owe TV coverage for my knowledge of the basics of No Limit Texas Hold ‘Em. (I’m sure I could have picked up a book and got this same knowledge.) On the other hand (puns intended) I just can’t watch it over and over and over again.

Al Unser, Jr. is announcing his retirement from auto racing today. I sure hope people will remember “Little Al” as I do, a champion. In recent years he became an uncompetitive driver mired in personal problems. I’ll remember him in the classic red and white Marlboro Penske car.

Champ Cars will make their yearly pilgrimage to the airport at Cleveland. I really miss going to this race, haven’t made it since they changed it to the Fourth of July weekend (which is always taken with family commitments). Sebastien Bourdais is the defending champion of the race. Boy, open wheel racing needs something to happen. Aside from Paul Tracy, all the big names are in the IRL. Sorry, I don’t care how close the finishes have been, open-wheeled race cars only on oval tracks is BORING. There needs to be a single sanctioned circuit with ovals, road and street courses. F1 once a year in the US just isn’t cutting it either. And it won’t until there is an American driver in the circuit. From all accounts there were plenty of seats available at Indy this year. That’s unfathomable with the star power in F1 that that race doesn’t sell out.
If you’re in Johnstown on Friday, July 9 stop in at the War Memorial from 11:00AM to 1:30PM. The Stanley Cup will be on display thanks to Westmont native, and former Chiefs employee, Dana Heinze. He’s the assistant equipment manager with the Lightning.

I brought myself to watch Method and Red on Fox last night. I guess I felt I couldn’t make fun of a show without first watching it. Guess what, I was wrong, I really didn’t need to! I just don’t understand how this garbage got on the air. I can’t imagine back in the day Ice Cube and Dr. Dre doing a sitcom on network TV for cryin’ out loud. Every stereotype you can imagine is prominent too. It will only be a matter of time before my boy Aaron McGrudder who writes/draws “The Boondocks”, the most funny comic strip in newspapers today, to poke fun at this crap. He’s busy with all the political things going on in our world so it might be missed and that will be too bad. I don’t think this show will last to the end of July.

Also on TV: After watching the first two episodes of Nip/Tuck’s second season I just can’t see why anyone would want to get plastic surgery for cosmetic reasons only. That’s some nasty stuff.

Howard Stern is back on the air in the ‘Burgh, much to the chagrin of the followers of the popular B93.7 morning show which basically got the boot.

It looks like the Fed is going to raise interest rates for the first time in four years. Mortgage rates will be going back up shortly so lock in low now while you can.
(Yeah, that’s kind of lame for the business blitz but not much is going on today worthy of being blogged. Stocks are down based on the Fed news that’s about all).

Bye bye.