A Flair for the Ballpark
I hesitate to include this as “sports,” but note that Salem Memorial Ballpark will host a professional wrestling show on Haley Toyota Field Saturday. You can meet the wrestlers beginning at 5:30 pm, and the “show” will begin at around 7:30 pm.
Ric Flair, who turned 68 in February, is listed at the top of the bill. I don’t know if he’ll actually wrestle, but I’m sure he’ll sign lots of autographs. He is, after all, a 16 time World Champion. Does that mean he lost the title 15 times and then won it back?
I don’t know a lot about wrestling. I used to watch it when I was a kid and I’d get all excited. When my favorite, Bruno Sammartino, would defend his belt on a Saturday night I’d scour the Philadelphia Bulletin sports section on Sunday morning to see who won. Usually it could be found, if at all, on the last page of the Sunday sports section in the bottom corner with a two paragraph story.
I couldn’t understand why it drew so little attention, because it was a big deal to mean. Then I turned 12 and watched the action a little closer and lost interest in the “sport.”
I have a good friend who still loves the squared circle, or whatever they call it. He’d ask me about some big match and I would have no idea, to which he’d reply, “and you call yourself a sports writer!!”
With that, I figured I better get this in the paper for all you wrestling fans. Another local favorite included on the card will be Jimmy “The Boogie Woogie Man” Valiant. You might want to wish him a happy birthday, because he’ll be 75 on Sunday.
Also appearing will be Scott “Big Poppa Pump” Steiner, Ricky “The Dragon” Steamboat, The “Homicidal, Suicidal, Geocidal, Death-Defying” Sabu, Ricky Morton, Flex (not Stretch) Armstrong and Maria Manic, who looks pretty hot on the poster.
If you’re a wrestling fan, you won’t want to miss. If you’re not, you probably will.
NOT A GOOD IDEA
Did you hear about what happened to Julio Jones of the Atlanta Falcons? He recently lost a $150,000 earring while jet-skiing!
Apparently Jones has hired a diving team, at the cost of about $20,000, to try and find the earring at the bottom of a lake. I guess that’s a savings of about $130,000 if they find it, but how stupid is it to wear the earring in the lake in the first place?
When I go to our pool I get nervous about losing my wedding ring, and that would be a lot easier to find on cement in five feet of pool water. Besides, I have to lube up my finger to get it off, and I rarely do.
It must be nice to have enough money to buy an earring that costs more than a lot of people’s homes.
RAILS
The Roanoke Rails dropped their first two games of the Carolina-Virginia Collegiate League baseball tournament last weekend in Mooresville, NC. The Kernersville Bulldogs went 4-0 to win the tournament, including an 8-2 win over the Catawba Valley Stars in the championship game.
Roanoke lost to Lenior, 6-5, and Fuquay-Varina, 12-7, in the double elimination tournament. Glenvar grads Zach Duncan and Connor Watt played for the Rails.
BIG TOURNAMENT
The Moyer Complex in Salem and the Botetourt Sports Complex in Daleville will be the sites for the USA Softball Girls Fast-pitch Eastern Nationals this week. The tournaments are scheduled to start Wednesday and run through Sunday.
The event will have divisions for 10U and 12U in Class A and 16U and 18U in Class B. There should be lots of action at the complex through Sunday.
GOOD-BYE ROGER CLARK
I was sad to learn of the passing of Salem’s Roger Clark last week. He was a faithful reader of the STR sports section and a regular contestant in our fall football contest for many years.
What’s more, he was a really nice guy. I knew Roger for most of my 40 years at the paper and he’ll be missed.
