By Mark Pukalo
I finished my story on the Celtics-Sixers game in the press room at the Spectrum in Philadelphia early in 1995, and asked what the number was for a cab to take me back to my hotel near the airport.
"Oh, cabs don't come out here this late," was the reply.
Huh? How the heck am I going to get back?
I'm not sure who spoke up first, whether it was Hall of Fame Globe writer Jackie McMullan or the person from the Sixers' radio or TV crew that had another spot in his car for me. But, thankfully, I had a ride.
I don't remember whether there was some bad traffic on the highway or the guy was trying to impress us with his local knowledge, but the driver said he was going to take an alternate route. He knows what he's doing, I thought, sitting in the backseat with Jackie - the first woman to win the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Basketball Hall of Fame.
We took a left at some point down a side street and, what the ... is going on? Dozens of people were running toward us, fleeing something. They streamed by and there was silence for a few seconds.
"Oh, no. They do illegal drag races on this street some nights," the driver said.
Drag races? Police had apparently broken up the fun. Wonder if James Dean got away.
We turned around and finally got back to our hotels. I always exaggerate it a little bit and say I almost died in a car at 32 with Jackie McMullan. But who knows if we had gotten to that spot a minute earlier? I only covered one or two more Celtics games in my career, but when I saw Jackie again at the old Boston Garden once after that she remembered the strange trip. She couldn't have been nicer.
In parts of five decades as a sports writer, there were oddball trips and some very memorable events I covered outside my main beats. I will have full blogs on both my life covering college and pro hockey and college, pro and international soccer soon.
This one is about all the rest, like the one time I covered the New York Yankees.
Somewhere in the 90s, I was asked to fill in for Jack O'Connell on a quick two-game series in Kansas City. I flew out to KC and hopped in my rental car for the half-hour trip to a hotel in the city.
The skies were dark and getting darker as I started out. Honestly, I had never seen a sky like this before. Soon after, a special weather advisory came across the radio.
"Golf ball sized hail in the Kansas City area. Take cover."
Golf-ball sized? I don't remember why I did not find an underpass to stop at. Maybe there were none that looked safe. But as I was approaching the city, it started to pour. I'm in a rental car that I'm not used to, on a road I've never seen before and I can't see anything.
Many years later, I had a similar situation when I drove into a blizzard in the West Virginia mountains coming back from a horse racing trip to Kentucky. However, I was in my own car and I was able to follow the lights of another vehicle in front of me, just enough to stay safe.
The monsoon in KC lasted maybe five minutes. Seemed longer. Not sure I have been more scared Luckily, there was nothing stopped in my way and the road was straight. The hail was more like the size of M&Ms and once I could see again it was time to enter the main part of the city.
That was some 30 years ago, but the complex in Kansas City with the two stadiums (above) and the parking lot was amazing. It was a fun trip and the Yankees treated me well.
Baseball memories are few, but I did cover a handful of games at Fenway. When I saw the movie "Moneyball," I can say that Brad Pitt might be sitting in the Courant's seat when he was talking to John Henry late in the film. Maybe Paul Doyle can verify that. I was there for a John Rocker appearance at Fenway as well.
I also covered the New Britain Red Sox a little bit one season. I remember interviewing Curt Schilling while he was young and sane. I saw Tori Hunter go deep. witnessed a three-run deficit evaporate with two out and no one on, but I will always remember Vladimir Guerrero.
I had heard about Vlad when I talked to someone in the locker room pregame. Then, I saw him make the most incredible throw I have ever seen. He tracked down a gapper on the warning track in deep right center, turned and unleashed a laser beam to third base. It soared, dipped, took one bounce and easily nabbed a runner. I'm not even sure it was the guy that hit it. I'm pretty sure it was the guy that started on first base.
Incredible.
I can name drop, too. I went to the bar for lunch at a nice hotel in Tampa the afternoon before a Whalers-Lightning game back in 1997. Whaler brawler Kelly Chase introduced me to Chicago Cubs Brian McRae and Mark Grace, who were visiting. Cool stuff.
Ouch
This story still seems a bit surreal.
I'm not sure what year it was. Maybe just before or just after the New York Giants won their second Super Bowl in 1990, a group of players came to West Hartford to participate in a basketball game. The opponent this night was the Hartford media. Really.
The game was played on a court at the Jewish Community Center in West Hartford. I honesty don't remember all of the players who suited up on either side, except one. His name was William Roberts, a behemoth offensive lineman who played for the Giants from 1984-94.
I was anxious to play, but early on I went up for a rebound in traffic and I came down on Mr. Roberts' huge sneaker. My whole body twisted and I suffered a groin injury. The pain was horrible as I tried to recover in the locker room.
Wanting to play so badly, I came back to join the team for a bit in the second half. I remember hitting one shot from the corner, but I couldn't really move. It took me at least a month to get off the disabled list.
I will always remember the injury. I still don't understand why the Giants wanted to come to play the Hartford media in a small gym. Must have been some sort of benefit tour. I vaguely remember signing autographs afterward. Some guy 30-something now might have my autograph. LOL.
Out On The Links
Golf provided some great times. The drama or individual triumph always made stories easier to write.
I was there for Tiger Woods' win at Bethpage on Long Island in 2002. What a course. We parked 20-30 minutes away and took a shuttle. After the last round, I got home 3-4 in the morning, just in time to watch the USA beat Mexico in the World Cup.
I covered countless GHOs (won't call it anything else), interviewing Tom Watson, Ernie Els, Tom Kite, Paul Azinger, Phil Mikkelson, Greg Norman, Nick Price, Fuzzy Zoeller and many others. It's strange, though. I was looking at a list of the winners from 1986 through 2007 and nothing really stands out. Heck, I don't even remember local boy J.J. Henry winning.
The golf staff went to a Senior PGA event in Paramus, New Jersey one year to work on the 50th anniversary of the GHO special section and got to talk to many legends. That was pretty special.
I saw Martina Hingis putting on the practice green with then-boyfriend Sergio Garcia in the late afternoon at Westchester CC. I covered Bob Tway's son Kevin winning the U.S. Junior, and wrote an A1 story on Liz Janangelo winning Connecticut Women's Open at 13-years-old.
"Elizabeth Janangelo weighed two pounds when she was born. She was nine weeks premature and spent six weeks in the intensive care unit. Nearly 14 years later, Elizabeth is still doing things ahead of schedule."
However, probably my favorite two golf stories involved the names William Salvatore and Brandi Faia.
Who?
Salvatore was the only player to win the State Junior Championship three times (1956-58) and Wethersfield's Richard Breed gave himself a chance to match it in 1988. However, Jon Veneziano of Berlin stood in his way.
The event was my favorite to cover in the summer. Watertown GC was a perfect venue for match play golf. It is filled with unique risk-reward holes. I loved walking it with fellow reporters and catching the key shots from certain vantage points.
Salvatore was a Watertown boy and did not play much golf anymore. He did not attend, but his mother Doris showed up for the match - likely with mixed emotions.
Neither player had more than a one hole lead through the first 16 holes and they were tied on the 17th tee. Veneziano stuck his approach 2 feet away from the pin and went ahead, but his drive on the 18th slid way right. The state high school champ found a window and landed his pitching wedge on the green. Breed (left) could not make birdie and Veneziano finished it in "Salvatorian fashion" with a long, winding birdie putt.
No player has won three in a row since.
Faia caddied for Dave Stockton Jr. at the Nike Connecticut Open in 1993. She was a relatively tiny young woman who had never done the job before, but proved to be a perfect sidekick for Stockton's triumphant week that ended on Father's Day. If I remember right, Dave didn't use the big PGA-type bag. That one might have been bigger than Faia.
"She never said anything wrong and everything was positive," Junior said of his friend. "She's never caddied before, but it seemed like she'd done it for 30 years."
Take that Fluff.
Junior sealed the event with a 60-foot birdie putt on the 17th green and was an absolute delight to watch and interview. He later played pretty well at the GHO. But that week at Yale GC was one of the best I've had covering an event without the big crowds.
The best thing about our GHO coverage was the 50-year anniversary issue. We each took a decade and mine was the 70s, which I remember well because I had a chance to go there and watch as a kid. Me and my friend Ty Roby used to sit behind the green on the Par 5 16th hole at Wethersfield CC and one year we hunted several autographs as the players made the long walk to the 17th tee. Wish I still had that pad.
It was the perfect decade for me and I wrote a fun story about the local people who had lemonade stands, primarily Jack and Elsie Grant near the sixth fairway. I also wrote a story on Lee Trevino, who met his future wife - when she was 13 - at Wethersfield. I was able to interview the Merry Mex at the course and wife Claudia on the phone. From what I heard, the article was one of the most viewed in Courant sports history. That surprised me.
Probably my favorite story of that project was on the 1979 GHO, which ended on Tuesday without TV coverage after horrible weather from Friday through Monday. Jerry McGee, who was being sued by a former sponsor, found a way to win the event and Jack Renner was second. The tournament staff did an incredible job getting the course ready Tuesday and the WTIC radio coverage was outstanding.
I was able to track down both McGee and Renner on the phone somehow. The private Renner was harder to reach outside San Diego, but he was surprised and happy to help. The guy who wore the Ben Hogan hat said he had been out of golf circles for a while, but one of the tournaments he missed was the GHO at Wethersfield.
It was always a tiring week to cover the event, which later moved to Cromwell where we parked in the cornfield. It was a lot of fun most years, though. The GHO media days were not bad either.
The previous champion came in during the early Spring for a press conference and all of us media types got a chance to play the course. One year I shared a cart with ESPN's Chris Berman and had a great time. Saw him a few times after that day and he always came over to say hello. I'm still annoyed I did not win the long drive contest that year. I didn't play very well overall, but absolutely hammered one down the 18th fairway with my old wooden driver. I think someone cheated. LOL.
Outside of soccer and hockey, golf probably gave me the most fond memories.
Tennis Anyone?
I did very little with tennis in my career. But the one event, - other than high schools - I covered was a major highlight. I just can't find any details on it. All I can remember is it was a lot of fun and it was close to 100 degrees all week.
It was either in the summer of 1988 or 89 at a small venue in Simsbury with pros over 35-years-old, who all struggled in the heat. Rick Peckham, the Whalers announcer, did the final on the local New England sports channel and one of his lines was, "The players pause for a few seconds to enjoy the first breeze of the week."
Colin Dibley was one name I remember. Perhaps Roscoe Tanner and Rod Laver played? It's going to bother me if I can't find more specifics. It was an amazing week early in my career development.
I vaguely remember covering Hartford FoxForce professional co-ed team tennis at some point. They had a neat stadium set up at Blue Fox Run GC in Avon. The Jensen brothers played doubles for the team.
The only other "sort of" tennis thing I remember is covering one of Ivan Lendl's five daughters winning a junior golf event (Isabelle?). Lendl was there to watch. "Ivan the Terrible" seemed like a decent guy. Apparently, he lives in Vero Beach these days.
Who Am I? What Am I Doing Here?
I was assigned - at the last minute - to attend a get together at the Governor's mansion in Hartford, probably in 1992 or 93. I had no instructions. Just go. Oh, thanks.
I threw on a suit jacket and walked into the affair. To be honest, I'm not sure if I even wrote any kind of story. Perhaps the Courant got a few invitations, someone could not go and they needed someone to fill a spot. I don't remember ever getting an answer.
So, at the time, I was working on the Yale Bowl's bid to host World Cup games in 1994. When I had a moment with then-Governor Lowell Weicker, I asked him a few questions about it and got a quote that I used at some point.
If I remember right, there were higherups from the Courant there. I was told I did well. I'm not sure what I did well. But, great! LOL.
Odds and Ends: Huskies, Warriors and Coneheads
The first time the UConn women's basketball team made the NCAA Tournament, I joined the Husky family and friends at a local restaurant just off campus to see who they would play. LaSalle was to be the first opponent and my byline announced it.
Who could have thought the program would win 12 national titles and not miss the NCAA Tournament since? I still have that sports page (left).
I was able to cover the NCAA men's tournament in Hartford one year, writing a sidebar on a losing team (Army). Early in my career, I traveled to the Trenton, N.J. area to cover the Eastern Connecticut softball team win a national title. It's been so long, but it was one of my first - if not my first - trip out of state to cover an event. The Warriors were a juggernaut at the time.
Another neat memory was covering David Cone's rehab appearance in Norwich after he suffered an aneurysm in his right shoulder in 1996. People wore coneheads in the huge crowd. My story was simple and detailed. The mid-to-late 90s was probably my peak of efficiency before I began to get a little burned out.
The only time I remember covering a regular-season NFL game was a Bengals-Patriots contest at old Foxboro Stadium. I covered the other kind of football much more at that great venue.
I actually enjoyed the few times I covered local stock car racing at Riverside and Thompson. It was a pretty easy night, they had good food in the press box and it was a good change of pace.
It is technically a high school piece, but I also did a feature on Rick Fox's brother Aaron, who played basketball for Suffield Academy. He was an interesting story because he had a bad leg from an accident as I recall, but was still had great hops and was a major factor for the team. He later played at Jacksonville University.
The best I can remember, I covered events in 17 different states from California to Florida to Michigan to Vermont and two Canadian provinces. I have been to only nine other states, counting the time the Whalers charter stopped in Kansas to refuel.
Hopefully, I can build on 26 at some point.
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