Give me a break

I don't spend tons of time listening to sports talk radio, mainly because I find many of the people who call in to these shows to be incredibly annoying. However, ever since WEEI returned Dale Arnold to a regular role (2 to 6 p.m.), I've been tuning in a little more. In my humble opinion, Dale is the most informed and intelligent sports media member in the Boston market. He knows his sports and he knows how to talk about sports.
Yesterday, as I was sitting in my truck waiting out the rain to end and the Kingswood boys' tennis team's quarterfinal match against Wilton-Lyndeborough, I was listening to Dale and Holley and a couple of New England's "finest" called in to say that Jerry Remy needs to resign.
Now don't get me wrong. Jerry Remy's son is an awful human being. He deserves to be rotting in prison. But that doesn't mean that Jerry Remy needs to go into hiding and run away from his position at NESN.
The actions of an adult child should not be held against the parents. Jerry and his wife have made it known that they made mistakes in raising their children, but then again, what parents haven't made mistakes. No parent sets out to raise a murderer, yet there are murderers out there, obviously raised by someone.
I hope that the world never hears from Jared Remy again. I hope that this story goes away and nobody ever has to see his face or listen to his voice again. I am hopeful that the Boston news media can just let that go.
However, I want to continue to hear Jerry Remy on my Red Sox broadcasts each night. He deserved the chance to make a living and he and his wife deserve every chance to try and get back to normal in their lives as much as possible. When I hear Jerry talking about a pitch or a play or relaying an anecdote about the team, I don't think about Jared. I think about baseball, one of the biggest joys in my life. And I know that baseball is one of the biggest joys in Jerry Remy's life. Why should viewers want to take that away from him? He has done nothing wrong.

Talking Russia...

In the last few weeks, I've had a couple of chances to reflect on my trip to Russia to cover the Olympics. I was invited to speak to the Wolfeboro and Alton Rotary Clubs and did a presentation that included a short speech and a power point presentation with photos.
Public speaking is certainly not my forte, but I knew this was something I needed to do. The people of the local communities helped me get to the Olympics and I owe everyone a debt of gratitude. I also feel like I should give everyone the opportunity to hear about the trip if they want to and see the photos that I took.
I am working on possibly doing the presentation for a few more groups and/or in a public presentation and I will certainly make those presentations known if there are people who are interested in hearing about the trip.
Spending time talking about the trip really got me looking back in more fondness. As I've moved along with the very busy spring sports season, my mind has been pretty much occupied with baseball, softball, track, lacrosse and tennis. There's not much time for anything else during the spring season, which is the busiest time of year for me.
However, getting to look over pictures and write up a presentation got my mind thinking more about that trip and of course, I have nothing but fond memories. Sometimes it still seems hard to believe that I was in Russia, that I was in the middle of an event as large and as impressive as the Winter Olympics.
Many of the questions I get at the presentations or even just on the sidelines of a game or at the grocery store, focus on the negative view of things that was presented here, particularly in the area of the lodging problems experienced by other members of the media in the days leading up to the Olympics. I also get a lot of questions about the food. It's interesting that those are the things that seem to stick with people, but they are the questions I like to answer, because my answers usually go against what other people might have seen or heard.
One way or another, the memories live on and hopefully I can share them with as many people as possible moving forward.