Archive for May, 2008
Our Kimbo Fight Watch Party is Saturday, May 31st at Boomers in Dania Beach, and I think in my previous blog I may have explained it poorly and made it sound like there’s a $20 cover charge… There is NO COVER CHARGE. Everyone is welcome, and we want as many people to show up as possible. What I meant to write in my previous blog was that Boomers is doing a special that night just for our listeners… For $20 you can get a card that essentially lets you do everything at Boomers that night except the roller coaster. But you don’t have to buy that card- it’s your option. You’re more than welcome just to come and hang out and watch the Kimbo fight with us.
So make plans to join everyone from The Dan LeBatard Show at Boomers in Dania Beach on Saturday, May 31st starting around 8pm… The fight card starts at 9pm and is supposed to end around 11pm. There’ll be plenty of beer, food, rides, and fun… So Suey to you and see you there.
May 23rd, 2008
Is it too early to emphatically state that the great sport of jai-alai is back? Wednesday night we asked our listeners to show up to Dania Jai-Alai and see if we can make the sport popular again for at least one night… It was, to quote Jim Rome, phenomenal. Over 500 listeners showed up and brought life back into the jai-alai fronton that hadn’t seen life in probably 15 years.
What a tremendous event! I loved hanging out and meeting the listeners… I even got to meet Hassenpfeffer, one of the original “Hochamaniacs” and a frequent poster on this blog… What a highlight! In the coming days we’ll post tons of pictures from the event on the website so you can see it. I also videotaped everything, so I’ll edit something together and post the video too.
The jai-alai action was great… Legendary player Joey was there, and it was honestly a thrill to meet him. Dan, Stugotz, myself, Sedano, and Sid each got a chance to lace up the cesta and throw the pelota… That was great too, although my hand still smells from wearing that sweaty cesta. So many people from the radio station showed up to support the event… The great Mike Ryan, our producer, Sid Rosenberg, Sedano, Andy King, Jaron (our board-op), Cyn City, Vickie, Steve White, Amanda… I would say that the jai-alai bathrooms are already so disgusting, that our program director Steve White couldn’t even foul them up. (I digress.)
Then there were the dollar beers and dollar hot dogs, which I will now officially begin to call dollar “hoch” dogs. The lines were too long- Dania Jai-Alai had planned for an extra hundred people to show up, not 500 more, so hopefully they’ll have that corrected for next time. All I can say is… Resounding success! And now it’s time to move on to our next event…
Saturday, May 31 at Boomers in Dania… It’s a Kimbo Slice “Watch Party.” Kimbo fights live on CBS that Saturday night, so we’re going to gather everyone at Boomers and watch the fight together. I know you probably think Boomers is a place for 12 year old kids, but they just put in a sports bar for adults, with alcohol, big screen TVs, pool tables, and more, so it should be a fun night.
Here’s the thing for the Boomers party… We need to limit it to around 200 people, so you’ll need to be on our guest list. There’s also a $20 entrance fee, but that gets you unlimited rides, bowling, go karts, etc. If you want to get on the guest list, e-mail me how many people to cantstanddan@790theticket.com.
May 22nd, 2008
I’ve always thought of adulthood as a pretty interesting place to stop by. But stay there? No thanks. That’s why I chose this profession. (And when I say I “chose” this profession, I mean Dan forced the previous owners of this radio station to hire me 4 years ago even though I didn’t know what I was doing. Dan had that kind of power.) There isn’t a greater escape anywhere in entertainment than the 4 hours of complete crap we throw at you every Monday through Friday. (And if you really enjoy the aforementioned crap, perhaps you’d like to pick up a little gift at horsemuffins.com.)
But it looks, as I enter midlife at 38 years old, like it is finally time to do some growing up. Not too much, I hope. But at least some. I’m going to Chicago for four days. I’m going to Chicago, Highland Park, and Deerfield. And I’m as excited about this sabbatical as I’ve ever been about anything.
I love and respect and value everything about the radio show. (Except for Stugotz.) I’m leaving almost everything I do behind… for four days… including this blog. I just want to concentrate on building a bridge to the second half of my life, which I have calculated starts on Monday, May 19, 2008. I will have a lot of soul searching and growing to do until then.
It’s hard to grow up in this playpen we call “The Dan LeBatard Show.” And I’ve become lopsided and bald pouring too much of my self-worth into things like wrestling interviews and sueys. I need to find out who I am. Everyone seems to think I’m a huge asshole, but I need to find that out on my own.
Besides, I’m doing you (the four readers of this blog) a disservice everytime I sit down to blog about a fast food topic that doesn’t even interest me at all. (Although, I am still looking for a Shamrock Shake. Anyone seen one lately?) I don’t deserve to be paid for a diluted version of this blog, that I value so much. (Which is lucky, because I don’t get paid to write this.) My blog has lacked passion for a while now because I’m stretched too thin with other things like watching American Idol, playing Nintendo Wii, and searching for free porn sites on the web.
You, the radio show, and the blogosphere deserve better from me. I hope that I come back in 4 days refreshed and reinvigorated. I’ve always thought that I could waste at least 6-7 minutes a week writing this blog, so I’m pretty sure I will be able to return with the zeal to devote even 9-10 minutes a week.
I’m not disappearing totally… Over the next 4 days you might see me pop up in a home movie or a postcard, because those things still mean something to me. I’m trying not to make this all syrupy, so I’ll try to wrap it up. The other day I was at Chuck E. Cheese with my son. He was feeding my dollars into the token machine. He ran off to play some games, and when he returned, he stopped and smiled at me, and said, “Can I have some more dollars?”
This is what I’m going to be doing for the next 4 days. I’m going to make sure I don’t miss out on any more moments like that. And I’m going to figure out a way to create more of them. (Next time, I’ll bring more dollars.) I guess this was every bit as corny as I feared. Sorry. Can I borrow a dollar?
Anyway, I have been working moderately hard for too long now, because what I do doesn’t feel like work. (And why should it? It’s easy.) But it is a time for me to make the journey from happy to happier. And time for me to figure out a way to use this forum, by beloved blog, as a way to start helping others instead of just entertaining 1 or 2 people out of the total of 4 that read it. So this is good-bye for now.
I think and hope that I’m going to be different, and better, and fatter, when I return in 4 days.
May 12th, 2008
We’re just two short weeks away from our listener party at Dania Jai Alai, and I couldn’t be more excited about it. In fact, Dan and I went to jai-alai again last night just to check it out one more time. I’m expecting all Hochamaniacs to be there… And I’m expecting you to bring friends too! Again, the event is Wednesday, May 21 at Dania Jai-Alai. The games start at 7pm that night and will go until around 11:30pm.
Game 7 will officially be called “The Dan LeBatard Show Suey Spectacular.” It will read that way in the program and on the scoreboard. And after the 7th game, Dan and Stugotz will take to the jai-alai court and will each attempt to throw the pelota out of the cesta. (We have been assured neither of them will be able to do it.)
If you’ve never been to Dania Jai-Alai before, allow me to set the scene for you so you’re not completely shocked when you walk in. I maintain that the entrance to Dania Jai Alai is probably more depressing than the reception area at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. That’s just the way it is. I wish the entrance could be a little more upbeat, but it’s not, so you’ll have to deal with it. It’s poorly lit… No one is smiling… It smells like 1974… And there’s no one to tell you where to go.
As a 790 The Ticket listener though, you’ll be greeted that night with a free program! Take your program and head into the main area (if you can find it.) That’s where we’re gonna hang out that night… in the seats in front of the court. Just get out of the main entrance area, and it’ll get slightly more uplifting when you see the jai-alai court.
At jai-alai, you bet on the games just like you would a horse race. Win, place, show, quinellas, trifectas, etc. And the other great part that night is the fact that hot dogs and beers are just one dollar! That’s right. Do the math: If you buy 3 beers and 2 hot dogs, it will cost you 5 dollars. If you buy 6 hot dogs and 9 beers, it will cost you 15 dollars. This is going to be a great night, so make sure you’re there.
If you want more information about jai-alai go to www.betdania.com. We’re planning some fun stuff for the night… We’ve invited jai-alai legend Joey to come, although we haven’t received a response yet. And we’re also going to invite South Florida radio legend and jai-alai fan Ed Kaplan to join us too! May 21 at Dania Jai-Alai… The Suey Spectacular!
May 8th, 2008
