Just trying to keep you out of trouble with our host, because apparently you
have reached an agreement not to dominate the Board, right Still...er, Mongol?

Another nice day of Racing with a capital "R" over at the sprawling facility in
Elmont near the Nassau/Queens County border, but before I turn my attention that
way, some business needs to be taken care of near the Van Wyck Expressway, as
the Metropolitans try to avoid a collapse of cataclysmic proportions.

I remember going to Shea Stadium with my dad and kid brother as early as 1965,
when I was a lad of 10. The thing I remember most about the games back then is
that as soon as we were out of the car, my dad would start walking at a very
brisk pace towards the stadium gates. I was kind of stuck in the middle, trying
to keep up with my dad while trying to keep track of my brother, who was
usually 20 or 30 yards behind me. I never understood my dad's hurry, because we
were usually an hour early for the games...

When I was a bit older, and I started driving myself to the racetrack, I began
to understand what compelled my dad to walk at such a brisk pace.

Another youthful memory I have was when I was about seven, going on errands
with my dad, to a shoe repair store in a miserable part of Staten Island, to a
scrapyard under the Goethals Bridge where I was terrified by the huge snarling
dogs.

My life might have been easier if my pop had explained the "Vig" to me back
then. But think of all the fun I would have missed.

"Momma always told me not to look into the eye's of the Sun/
But momma thats where the fun is.. "