Ring of Dreams

Ring of Dreams from John De Petro on Vimeo.

Ring of Dreams

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The film The Wrestler chronicled the struggles of an 80's pro-wrestler chasing one last shot at past glory. Randy "The Ram" Robinson had his shot. He just got old.

But what about those who never get to get the top? What about those who train for years and who will never set foot in front of a crowd larger than a few hundred?

See more at newyork-heroes.com

What's Next?

My right leg feels a little bit longer today than it did Monday. That's because Alex Rodriguez was pulling it all Tuesday afternoon.

A-Rod's press conference earlier this week raised more questions than it actually answered. And as soon as the conference was over, ESPN, the New York tabloids, and every other sports news outlet went to work. We've all asked the same questions and they're beginning to get answered.

Who is this cousin he's talking about? Yuri Sucart, of course. Rodriguez tried not  to name names and get his cuz involved, but it was only a matter of time before someone dropped the dime. It took less than a day to get that news.

What is "Boli" anyway? Primobolan. Rodriguez reportedly tested positive for primobolan and testosterone back in 2003. He admitted to the boli positive test but said nothing about the testosterone. I'm sure that confusion will be cleared up.

Can you really get this stuff over the counter in the Dominican Republic like Rodriguez says? Apparently not. You can't even get it in the Dominican Republic at all. The country's official who regulates pharmaceuticals policy says that the drug could not be legally sold over the counter or with a prescription. The New York Daily News even sent a reporter to the D.R. to try and buy some steroids. It took him 2 minutes to come out of a pharmacy with some.

What's the next bit of information we're all goning to find out about? Well he has been hanging out with Angel Presinal, a trainer who has been connected to steroids and banned from clubhouses by every team in the MLB.

Alex Rodriguez pled ignorance. He played the "I was naive" and "young and stupid" cards and the media didn't buy it. It seems as if they were right not to. Every day since A-Rod told his story, the media has done it's job answering those doubts. As I type, opening day is 44 days away. As the first pitch on a new season begins, the A-Rod steroid story looks like it's not going to end any time soon.

Rodriguez dug himself into a hole (not "A-Hole" like the New York Post would say). It's all on him.

But with shovel in hand, sports writers are all trying help make that hole just a little deeper.

Media Running A-Foul

Today is without a doubt the most anticipated day in baseball’s spring training history. Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to arrive at George M. Steinbrenner Field in Tampa Bay, FL sometime in the afternoon where he will answer questions for the first time since admitting to using performance-enhancing drugs. 

Lately it seems as if no baseball writer or sports journalist can resist mentioning the much maligned Lightning-Rod, er, A-Rod in their pieces whether the article is inherently about him or not.

Rodriguez made his way into the lede of ESPN.com writer Jerry Crasnick’s Feb. 16^th column about the most compelling position battles going into spring training. That’s despite the fact that Rodriquez will be the Yankees 3^rd baseman for the next nine years and his replacement is probably playing little league this year.

Yesterday NBC Channel 4 New in New York posted the top six questions that will be surely be answered at the press conference on their website. Now it's necessary to read a Q&A without the A? 

New $180 million dollar 1st baseman Mark Teixeira showed up for his first day as a Yankee one day early. MLB.com managed to keep A-Rod out of the first two paragraphs of its Teixeira coverage (although "human growth hormone" did make it into the lede).  The arrival of huge free agents into Yankee camp used  to be big enough news. But that ceased to be case and an afterthought sometime around February 16, 2004.

The facts are these - Steroids have changed the sports landscape forever. Alex Rodriguez no matter what he does will always be story. He is the biggest name in baseball. He screwed up. And as long as he does stupid things, journalists will write stupid articles about it.

Today the circus is setting up their tents in Tampa. Rodriguez's arrival to the 2009 season has now become an appointment event for even the most marginal of sports fans. Will A-Rod actually say anything of note? Perhaps but probably not. 

We all know how he has performed in the big spot during his time in New York. For Rodriguez, now is the time to really step up to the plate.

Not Your Conventional Convention

      

Remember those kids who used to get picked on in high school by the football team? The guys and gals who sat in the back of the cafeteria dressed in one shade of black or another depending on the season? The ones who were always playing some sort of card game that wasn’t any sort of poker you’d ever seen? Those kids who were always scribbling something in their notebooks?

 

Well those guys are all grown now and they’ve decided to all gather once a year in the middle of the Big Apple. And I having been one of those kids all those years ago, I decided to see what was going on.

 

11:30 AM– New York Comic Con 2009 is fully underway before I get off the Staten Island Ferry. Kids and adults are headed over to the show. Some are carrying comic books and wearing Punisher hats.

The walk over from the 1 train to the Jacob Javits center is just a warm-up to what attendees may expect from the main event. Green spandex wrapped around a woman’s legs peek through the edge of her overcoat. 

The crowd is what I expected. A lot of dudes, not so many women and the women I do see are usually holding their male counterpart’s Mountain Dew and nachos.

 

Noon– As I walk into the Javits Center, I know I’m out of my element. Though I am taken back to my junior-high days of comic book collecting and toy collecting, I realize that while I may have grown out of the hobby year ago, many of my former fanboy-peers have grown a full blown obsession.

 

12:30 PM - My first walk through the exhibition I run into the Joker a about a half-dozen times. The only thing is that every time I see him, he manages to change his clothes. At first he looks like Cesar Romero from the 60’s, then he’s dressed as a nurse and then he looks like the Heath Ledger from “The Dark Knight.” Only this version of Heath is barely over 5 feet tall.

  

1:00 PM – MattyCollector.com is a website from toy maker Mattel makes limited edition action figures ranging in price from $20 to $60.

 

They are at the Con to announce new editions to their various lines of toys. First up is the new Justice League Unlimited toyline. The crowd erupts at the mere sight of the cartoon’s logo projected up on the PowerPoint screen in anticipation of what’s to be revealed.

 

The emcee of the panel, the Toy Guru (who also goes by the name Scott Neitletch), first unveils a new Shazam Family pack-of-four elicits “oohs”, “aahs”, and “whoas” from the easily excitable crowd. Next is another four pack of figures (I dare not call them dolls, mind you), the futuristic Legion of Superheroes

 

The JL was apparently just an appetizer. Masters of the Universe or He-Man as I knew it more completely in my formative years, was the main course. As we all see photos of characters named Stratos, Zodak, Hordak and Tri-Clops among others, I could almost taste the endorphins beings released into the air.

 

The loudest reaction of the session comes when Mr. Guru tells the mostly male crowd that a character named Mer-Man will come with two separate and interchangeable heads and another named Man-at-Arms will also come with two different noggins - one with a mustache and one clean shaved. Huge news.

 

2:00 PM – After the Mattel panel concluded, I am taking a walk around the convention floor. Here I find homemade “Best of” fill-the-blank wrestler DVD’s for 10 bucks a pop, $4 or 3 for $10 Star Wars “loosies,” computer emulators that hold the entire game collections of Sega Genesis, Super and regular Nintendo 50% percent off trade paper comics, $1 comics and a bunch of other little knick-knacks.

   

3:00 PM – An epic battle has broken put pitting the good vs. the evil. Luckily I have my mini video recorder handy to capture the devastation.

 

3:45PM – All this super-stuff suffocating my senses has made me forget to eat. In an effort to escape the fantasyland and briefly return to the realm of the real, I need a McDonalds extra value meal. But alas, the magic has stretched its arms from the Javits Center all the way to 10 Ave. Even fictional characters need high quantities of fat in their dinner too.

 

5:25 PM – After an extended dinner break, I once again enter the forest of mystical creatures –err- the Comic Con I mean – for one last look around. As I look at toys and comics I once had in my possession fetching hundreds of dollars I realize the nature of the people who have filled the Javits Center this weekend. They are the Peter Pans of the world. They are the one’s who refused to “grow up” as I’m sure they had been told countless times. They were the ones with the courage to grow up how they saw fit, the ones who dared to be a little bit different.

 6:30 PM - The partying is ending and I am heading back to Staten Island. I suddenly have a craving for Funions and Mountain Dew. Perhaps I'll see if anyone wants to join me in a rousing game of Dungeons and Dragons on this fine Saturday night.