Go, Basebaldy, go!

If you remember back in May, the Timber Rattlers had an appearance by Eric Baldwin, the poker pro known as basebaldy.

He has been taking part in the World Series of Poker for the last month.

Right now, the Main Event is in progress.  This is the big tournament that gets a lot of play on ESPN.

Day Five is starting at 2pm Central time today.  Baldwin has made the money and enters the day with 506,000 in chips.

Follow along on the progress here.

Eric is on twitter here.

He was a Demon

I would have had this up this morning, but I had to be somewhere. Maybe I'll say where later. But, here is another post regarding a story by erstwhile Timber Rattler beat writer Brett Christopherson.

It fits for two reasons. A.) The Packer-Cowboy game starting in about two hours. B.) Burlington is about eight miles from where I was raised.

Dallas quarterback Tony Romo grounded despite success

As the Green Bay Packers prepare to host Romo and his Cowboys tonight at Lambeau Field in a matchup between a pair of early-season NFC front-runners, people in this small Racine County town continue to acknowledge the surrealism of seeing one of their own — an athletically gifted, yet otherwise unassuming guy — suddenly emerge as one of the NFL's brightest names on one of its marquee teams.

Sure, they're proud of the W's and the TDs and the idea that he's The Man in Big D.

But they're even prouder that despite the star on his helmet, the stars he calls his teammates — think Terrell Owns — and the starlets on his right arm — think Jessica Simpson — the 28-year-old Romo is the same down-to-earth, rooted, backwards-cap-wearing guy who considered going to a movie or playing a game with his buddies to be a pretty good day while growing up in Burlington.

There is a lot of stuff in here. Including a place that I used to go to for lunch once or twice a week when I was between careers/jobs about 100 years ago.

Fred's Parkview sits on the corner of Milwaukee Avenue and Pine Street at the edge of downtown Burlington, a quaint collection of historic old buildings that could serve as the quintessential centerpiece for anyone looking for a setting to depict Small Town, USA.

Actually, this community of 10,000, set 34 miles southwest of Milwaukee, has been dubbed Chocolate City, USA, because it's home to the Nestle USA chocolate plant.

But now it's also known as the home of the two-time Pro Bowler and Dallas Cowboys quarterback, whose nearly life-sized cutout is attached to the ceiling behind the counter of the restaurant, which claims to have the world's best burgers.

Fred's has become a favorite gathering spot for Romo backers and something of a shrine, too. Framed photos of the Dallas quarterback hang on one wall, while the wall next to Table No. 4 — Tony's table, you could say — is plastered with framed pictures and Romo memorabilia.

"I can tell you this, I wouldn't watch the Cowboys if my life depended on it, other than the fact Tony plays for them," Jim Gawloski said.

I'm only mostly kidding when I say this: The fact that Romo is from Burlington and is now the quarterback of the Cowboys makes me hate the Cowboys even more.

Go read the whole thing. This is the kind of story that Brett can write when he is turned loose on a topic.

Then: Go Packers!

PS. WOLVERINES!

Return of "Skater Scribe"

Erstwhile Timber Rattler beat writer Brett Christopherson returned to the world of roller derby on Friday.

What's that? Who's "Skater Scribe?"

That's my self-dubbed roller derby name, remember?

I claimed that moniker last fall after using this space to introduce you to the Fox Cityz Foxz, at the time a new area women's amateur roller derby league.

Well, that or "Write Stuff," whichever one will keep me from being slugged in the gut — accepted protocol, I've been told — since it's possible I might have ripped off an already registered alias.

Anyway, a lot has happened in the 10 months since we first chatted with league founder and president Delonna Kaufman, who when lacing up the skates and cruising the derby floor goes by the name "Wring Leader."

Brett covers the growth of the league with a Then-Now format. For example:

Then

Bouts were held at Skaters Edge in Appleton.

Now

Bouts will be held at The Players Choice. Kaufman said the new site will be less expensive in the long run since the previous site charged 30 percent of ticket sales in addition to the rent and required a fire truck at a cost of roughly $300 per hour to be on hand because it didn't have an indoor sprinkler system.

Capacity also increases from the mid-500 range to more than 2,000.

"It's more comfortable for our fans," Kaufman said. "Everyone would be stuffed in that rink. Now, we'll have bleacher seating."

Not to mention an established liquor license — for anyone interested, that is.

What could I possibly do with a liquor license?

Nice article. But, no mentions of Ms. Georgia Hase, the Los Angeles Thunderbirds, or Ralphie Valladares.

Quick question for you, the reader at home. Do you think that I knew those linked names before or after searches on google and wikipedia?

Just a quick break from baseball

I was checking qctimes.com this morning to see if they had any information on the rainout in Clinton last night. Instead, I found this story

Riverhawks out of business

The Riverhawks are (or, were) a minor league basketball in the Quad Cities. They started out in the ABA and moved to the Premier Basketball League.

I wouldn't normally blog about something like this, but there were two paragraphs in the story that just made me go...WHAT?!

Paragraph #1:

“I did not see it coming whatsoever,’’ [Former General Manager Eric] Hutchins said.

Followed immediately by Paragraph #2:

Hutchins speculated his decision to resign as the team’s lone employee might have precipitated the closure.

Ya think?