Snow Day

"And anything can happen on a Snow Day"

Don't tell me you never saw that movie. Can you say homework assignment?

To give you an idea of how bad the snow is (and why I don't want to hear anyone complain about this 52 degree weather we're enjoying):

The US Government shutdown because of snow. Okay, I concede, that's nothing surprising. I could make some political jokes here, but just in the context of snow, the District of Columbia doesn't seem to know how to handle that stuff. One of my earliest memories of CNN is someone with a snow blower outside the White House during the Blizzard of 1993/1994. Snow seems to shutdown the government a lot. Apparently they don't have the same resolve as the U.S. Postal Service, which operates through rain, sleet, snow, etc (except when they don't, and being from NY, I can tell you, it happens... I mean, it's a safety issue. Shoot, it's not like anyone mails declarations of war anymore...).

New York City schools shutdown. Now THIS is a rare event. They closed once in 1979. Then again during in early 1994 (my dad was a city public school teacher, and I remember his excitement to find out that he finally had another snow day). I'm not sure if it's closed since then. Probably not.

That same storm went up the east coast and hit Springfield. It also hit Fort Wayne on the way. There was no realistically safe way the Vipers were gonna make it to Springfield. So the game was postponed. Until when? I don't know yet.

The only feasible date I found when comparing the Vipers, Armor and MassMutual Center schedules last night during the Farmers Insurance Halftime Report was March 1st. Springfield's at Austin on 2/28 and the Vipers host Bakersfield that same day, so they could both catch the first flights out and make it to Springfield in time for the game. A little show and go, sure, but as long as there are no flight delays, it's somewhat feasible, even though it would fly in the face of one of the late great Jack Falla's most important rules – Leave Nothing to Chance. If you look at the schedules you might find more open dates, but the way I did it was also trying to avoid having either team play on three consecutive days. So if not March 1st, then when?

All I know is I'm glad it's not my headache.

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There is positive in this. Antonio Anderson gets extra down time to rest his separated right shoulder. Speaking of which, a tip of my cap to Anderson for going out there and playing Saturday and Tuesday. Jack Falla's #1 Rule in Life – You Gotta Play Hurt.

Ya know, if Jack was around right now, he probably would've spent the day shoveling his backyard ice skating rink in Natick, Massachusetts, trying to stay ahead of the snow so as not to let the ice get ruined. As he wrote in his must-read book, Home Ice, one bad snow can ruin it for the season. I was told once he lived on the Weather Channel year round. Jack was a worrier, but he loved that rink. It was Home Ice and perhaps his last book, Open Ice, that inspired me to vow to have a backyard rink of my own someday. His only fictional piece, Saved, is easily my favorite book of all time.

Jack Falla was one of my professors at Boston University. I had him for Sports Journalism and Sports Communication (PR Class). An award-winning reporter at Sports Illustrated for one part of his life, an SID and even the top PR guy at the NHL for another part of his life, and always a son, brother, father and grandfather, Jack was an inspiration to every life he touched. No one ever said a bad thing about that man. No one could. There was nothing bad to say. When I did work for his class I was always afraid of disappointing him. There aren't a lot of people out there who can have that affect on a classroom. But that's the thing, it never felt like class. Yeah, I was learning, but it was fun. It's not often you find an 8:00 a.m. class that you not only look forward to going to, but want to be early for, but Sports Journalism was that. I took the Sports Communication course to try to make myself more valuable by adding PR knowledge to my broadcasting background. Boy did that work out. I took my notebook from that class with me when I moved down here back in May of 2007. I referred to it extensively during my first season with the WhiteWings baseball team, and I was always in contact with him for that first year and a half I was here. I even called him once for advice. And then I got the phone call that I will never forget. September 14, 2008.

It's a snow day like this that makes me wonder if his backyard rink, the Bacon Street Omni, is up this year. I know his family put it up last season. I hope it is. But even if it's not, his legacy lives on in his books, and more importantly, in the lives he touched, like mine. I not only believe in doing what I'm supposed to do, but doing it the right way. That's how it's supposed to be done. That's how Jack did it.

And you know why else? Because as Jack's paternal grandma always said:

"Hard works beats talent when talent doesn't work hard."