THE DUGOUT

The Dugout Fan Cave

2011-06-19T19:44:00.004-04:00

In 2008 I converted my garage to a sports bar. I have over 20 years memorabilia that sat in boxes.
During that time I was always searching for the color formulation for Green Monster in Fenway Park and the color for the scoreboard. I finally found them. When the colors didn't look natural under fluorescent lights I changed the lights in the garage to sunlight bulbs to best bring out the actual color.
It doesn't work. You need the actual sun to make a painted room look exactly like Fenway Park. I did the best I could. With the garage doors open and direct sun on the walls you do see the actual color. However, most entertaining and games are done in the evening.
I made the bar with a brick veneer to look like the bar at Fenway's 406 Club. My bar stools are from my favorite college (VCU) hangout. The place was closing and the owner sold off things. Me and my fraternity brother room mate bought 4 bar stools for $20. My 2 remained with me. I think his got lost somewhere between Virginia and California.

Some of my seating is from the Spectrum and Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia. Even my door stop has a story. It is a brick from the old JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. I saw an Army Navy game there, an old WFL Philadelphia Bell football game, The Who (The Clash opened) and Live Aid.

Bruins Represented

2011-06-19T19:44:00.000-04:00

One of the greatest Stanley Cup Finals in years. The underdog Bruins intimidated and hammered the President's Cup trophy winning Canucks.

Even thought the Man Garage is heavy with Philadelphia Flyers swag, the Bruins are represented.
Signed pucks, panoramic picture of the old Garden, signed Terry O'Reilly stick that he gave to me after playing in a game with him in the early 90s and several retirement banners hanging above the bar.

When I left Boston it was a hockey nut city. The wrecking of the old Garden and numerous years of futility relegated the B's to the 4th Sport in Boston. But you always knew below the surface this was a hockey nut town. And the following the Finals generated and the mass hysteria beyond Red Sox winning magnitude solidified the Bruins as an Old Towne favorite.

1996 All Star Limited Edition Wine Bottle

VCU FINAL FOUR

2011-03-28T20:47:00.003-04:00

Spectrum Brick

2011-03-20T13:17:00.002-04:00

As a Christmas gift my wife bought for me a brick from the Spectrum in Philadelphia. Because of demolition delays, the items was not available to ship before Christmas. An email "certificate" was sent.
Finally last week the brick showed up in a nice logoed box with a wood mount and plaque on the side of the brick.

JFK Stadium Brick, South Phila

I'm not a brick collector. I do have one other brick in my ManTown; one from JFK Stadium in Philadelphia. JFK (formerly Municipal Stadium) was located behind the Spectrum on the site of the present Wells Fargo Center (home of Flyers). It was a run down old horseshow stadium rarely used in my youth. My father and grandfather used to go to Army/Navy games regularly there until my grandfather's death in the early 60s. I've seen the Philadelphia Bell once (old WFL team in the mid 70's), a concert with Santana, The Clash and The Who in 1982 and Live Aid in 1985. The last event there was a Grateful Dead show in 1989.
When the stadium was demolished to make room for the new home of the Flyers there was a temporary fenced in lot at the Spectrum. I had my boy (5 or 6 at the time) at the Spectrum one afternooon to pick up tickets for that evening. I noticed pallets of bricks stacked up inside past a guard shack. The gate was opened and no guard was in sight. I sent my boy in to fetch a brick, which he did.

Spectrum Brick, South Phila

To this date I never seen or heard of any bricks from JFK making their way into the public.
Also in the photo is a practice puck from the early-mid 1970's.

"33"

2011-03-02T20:28:00.000-05:00

I picked up my first Rolling Rock Beer stadium seat about a year ago. It is a legit seat. The iron base is solid and the seat and back are hard moulded plastic.
My son and myself were just at a hockey game at the Verizon Center in DC to see the Capitals. I commented to him that we have nicer seats in our bar than they do at the Verizon Center.
I suppose these single seats were promotional items for beer distributors.
I contemplated painting them but decided I'd rather keep them in their original state.
The seat number on both (or all produced) is the familiar "33".
Actually a better looking seat than my Veteran Stadium seats.

RIP Duke

2011-03-02T20:22:00.000-05:00

Buy Local

2011-02-27T11:03:00.001-05:00

A new addition to The Dugout is a 1930's Chester Pilsner beer tray. I bought it from a guy who was renovating a building in Philadelphia in the 1970's. This tray was made by American Art Works
Coshocton, OH. In mint condition these trays have a book value of around $275.
The old Chester Brewery was located at 2nd and Palmer Streets in Chester, PA. Like many local breweries, they went out of business in 1953.
Besides Chester Pilsner, the brewery produced Silver Dime Beer. Today a metal warehouse sits on the former site of the brewery.
Those who lived near the brewery could walk up and with a bucket and have it filled for a nickel.
The former site now is in the vicinity of the new PPL Park, home of the MLS Philadelphia Union. A parking lot for PPL Park sits directly across the street from old brewery site.
This find is a crown jewel for my bar. No so much because of the book value but because I went to church and parochial school a few blocks from the old brewery. A hoagie roll bakery was also on the same block called D's. Sitting in school on some day watching the Commodore Barry Bridge being constructed you could smell the hoagie rolls being baked on some days. My mom used to send me in before big parties to buy bags of rolls. The bakery was not a store. You literally walked into a small foyer with flour covered old wooden floors. You would flag a person working near the ovens. He or she would come over. You'd ask for how many you wanted. They would pull he rolls right off racks and fill put them in large brown paper shopping bags. No cash register. No cashier. You just handed an assembly line worker your cash. Now I wonder if any of my mom's cash ever made it to the owner of the bakery?
In addition to the Chester Pilsner Beer tray I also have displayed in The Dugout a Chester Brewery wooden beer crate, a Pilsner quart bottle and a Silver Dime Beer coaster.

Newspaper Collection

2011-02-26T21:24:00.000-05:00

A business owner where I used to live in NJ had a bank of newspaper honor boxes. I noticed in the back a few older boxes that looked like they were being disgarded. I asked but was told a news service was coming by to pick them up.
Much time past and no pick up. I asked again. This compelled the guy to make a phone call to get the boxes off his property.
After a few more months he told me to help myself. It looked like whoever owned the boxes had no interest in them. I helped myself to the NY Post paper as it was the paper I purchased daily anyway.

Today it is filled with close to a hundred sports related papers, most championship papers. Most recent is the Philadelphia Daily News Roy Halladay No Hitter . Several Stanley Cup local papers from the New York Rangers, NJ Devils, Tampa Bay Lightning, Colorado Avalanche, Carolina Hurricanes. Many baseball World Championship papers.
The paper in the window of this photo was the final night of the "old" Yankee Stadium. My business partner went to the game and brought me back a paper.
What are not in the box are several laminated front pages I had sealed back in the 80s. People warned about laminating newspapers but, surprisingly, they looked good the last time I pulled them out.
Chicago Trib/Bears 85 Super Bowl, Phila Inquirer/Phils 80 WS, Phila Daily News/Villanova 85 NCAA.
One of the coolest papers I have is a Philadelphia Inquirer with a picture on the front sports page of Eric Lindros and my son. The playoffs were going on and an Inquirer photographer asked to take several pics of my boy at a Flyers practice. One made it on the front sports page of the paper.

Vet Stadium Seats

2010-12-17T15:32:00.002-05:00

Vet Seats

Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, home of the Phillies and the Eagles, closed in 2004. Prior to MLB All Star game in 1996 the city (owners) changed the seats from a multi-colored (by levels) to all blue. The place sat 65,000 for baseball but on most nights only 20,000 bothered to show up. This resulted in a bright yellow upper level that remained mostly empty for all TV cameras to see.
I attended my first baseball game the first year the place opened in 1971. I do not have a ticket stub but remember the opponent was the Montreal Expos. I remember names like Deron Johnson and Roger Freed and Don Money from that time. I had an aunt with season tickets in Section 714 in the mid-late 70's. I was the recipient of many of those tickers including a 1977 and a 1978 NLCS game against the Los Angeles Dodgers. As we got older the neighborhood kids were dropped off at the stadium for 50 cent 700 level tickets by a parent and picked up after the game.
My first Eagles game was in the late 70's against the New York Jets. I didn't start going to Eagles games on a regular basis until my adult years.
Even though it was the same stadium, for baseball it lacked character and any fan appeal. For football it was a legitimate place (with the exception of the Astroturf).

I chose to place the seats on a kelly green base with the old Eagles logo. Even though I attended 10 times more Phils games at the place, I chose the green base over Phillies red because the place just wasn't a memorable baseball stadium. The current Eagles green is a god-awful color and the logo sucks. I own no apparel or memorabilia from with the current Eagles green or logo. So I chose the old green, hoping one day the team goes back to its roots.

The Spectrum 1967 - 2009

2010-12-12T12:55:00.002-05:00

The newest addition to The Dugout are two seats from The Spectrum in Philadelphia.

I saw my first 76ers game in the mid 70's there along with annual Harlem Globetrotters games. I was a Flyers fan first and foremost. But tickets were out of reach at the time and the secondary market for tickets was not established outside of the seedy scalpers who roamed the parking lots. Many Philadelphians treked to the Capital Center in Washington to see the Flyers play on the road back for many years as home tickets were too tough to come by.

It wasn't until the 1981 playoffs that I got to see my first Flyers game at the Spectrum. Brian Propp had a hat trick that night. The Flyers won that night but eventually lost the series to Calgary.

When I moved back to the area (South Jersey) in the early 90's I bought a co-workers tickets in Section Y for a number of years. The team was not making the playoffs at the time. Then came Eric Lindros. The building still sold out. In 1995 I got with 3 other co-workers to buy a season ticket package. With the acquisition of John LeClair and Eric Desjardins the Flyers were a force once again.

Our seats were in the third level behind one of the nets. A bathroom trip required a walk down the crows nest steps, down the steps in the 2nd level, down the steps to the concourse to another set of steps to the basement pissers. A trek up to the top was tricky trying not to spill a beer or two.

We were offered seats in the much more desirable 2nd level one year. We took a vote and decided to stay where we were with the fans we got to know over the years.

We kept the tickets when the team vacated the legendary Spectrum to the new, sterile Big House in 1996. The new building had no Crows Nest as a third level. Our seat assignments came in and to our surprise they were in the same corner but in the 2nd level, Row 3. A surprise.

The home opener of the Core States Center arrived. We went to our new seats (I was already in the building twice prior for the 1996 World Cup) down low in the 2nd level. I immediately commented how the vantage point (distance to ice) really did not change for us. The new 2nd level was much higher than the Spectrum and the distance from this ice was that much further back.

The Spectrum became a new home for us. Home of the Phantoms. We were there for their home opener. My 2 young boys grew up Phantoms fans first. Flyers fans second.

With the demolition of the Spectrum I landed 2 seats for the garage. Outside of The Vet, The Spectrum is the venue where I saw the most events in my lifetime. I never took to the Core States/First Union/Wachovia/Wells Fargo Center. The new place can never generate the raw enthusiasm and passion of the hard core Flyers fan.

Still The 1

2010-12-09T07:37:00.001-05:00

PHILADELPHIA – Bernie Parent is perhaps the most beloved player in Flyers history but rare is the chance when the team’s fan base gets a chance to show that affection in a group setting.
One of those opportunities came along Wednesday night when the Hall of Fame goaltender was presented his old retired No. 1 banner from the soon-to-be-demolished Spectrum.
In a pre-game ceremony, the 19,000-plus stood and cheered loud and long for Parent, the backbone of the franchise’s only two Stanley Cup championships in the early ‘70s.
It was a moving moment for everyone in attendance and one which Parent predicted would happen prior to the game against the San Jose Sharks.
“It’s with a little mixed feelings,’’ he said. “It’s reward but at the same time, it’s almost like you’re moving on to the next phase. It’s nice. This will probably be the last time you get on the ice and wave to the people who supported you, so it’s a beautiful thing.
“It brings back a lot of good memories.’’
Parent still can’t walk the streets of Philadelphia without being asked for an autograph and he’s been retired since 1979, when an errant stick to his eye ended his career prematurely.
“I’ve always said that the people, through the journey we went through, they’ve been very supportive. We’ve won two Stanley Cups in, what, 40 years. It’s not like we’ve won every year. And they’ve been supporting us all the time and it’s nice to be back with them.’’
In some cities, heroes can fade to the background. Not the Broad Street Bullies in Philly.
“Let’s face it -- out of sight, out of mind,’’ said Parent, the first Flyer elected to the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1984. “But the Flyers, starting with (Ed) Snider, have done a great job as far as keeping us alive in front of the public as the years go by. It’s been 30-some years. Three different generations came along and, yet, 10-year-olds kids ask, ‘Can I have your autograph?’ When you look at this, you say it’s got to come from their parents, and the tradition goes on. It’s just a beautiful thing.”
A new biography of Parent’s life, “My Journey Through Fear and Risk,’’ is due on the bookshelves shortly.
“It’s not about hockey as much as helping you to overcome the ups and downs of life,'' he said. "I think it’s going to be beneficial to a lot of people.
“When you hit a slump (or) the valley -- a slump is worse than a valley. Sometimes, it can bring your greatest victory because than it pushes you to go in different directions and do different things. It could work out well.”
It’s no secret Parent struggled at times after his early retirement. He finally sought out professional help to get his life back on track.
And that life is never boring. Not when you live on a houseboat docked at Wildwood.
“I consider myself the wolf,’’ he said with a smile. “Not a dog but a wolf. If you look back at the dog, you make the comparison – the dog is well-fed, stays warm in a house, has a lot of friends. But he’s always on a leash, or inside a fence.
“Then you look at the wolf. You get the freedom, baby. You starve a few times, but it’s worth it.’’
Naturally, Parent is always asked about that memorable day in May, 1974 when the Flyers became the first expansion team to win the Cup. They did it with a 1-0 shutout of the mighty Boston Bruins.
“When you have a game 1-0, whether you win the Stanley Cup or not, when you look, it’s “wow’’ you have a lot to be grateful for.
“To be on that side that won, 1-0. The crowd was just incredible. I always said a good crowd will lift you to another level. It will make you perform even better and that’s what we had – have – in Philly.’’

reprint: Wayne Fish/phillyburbs.com