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This latest 'photo-op' is being posted on June 10, 2013, which just happens to mark the 56th birthday of my brother Glenn Martinez.
This picture was taken in the late winter of 2003 at Office Depot Center in Sunrise, Florida - where he and I took in a Florida Panthers NHL game, directly at center ice, seated beneath the 'Skybox' seats. (Glenn is to the left, and I'm on the right.)
Glenn was the main sports enthusiast of us three siblings (along with my sister Rhonda and I). But, on occasion, I would join him at a major sporting event, where (unexplainably) I would remember our get-togethers for reasons other than sports...
The first time this happened goes back to June, 1964, when our father took us for the first time to Shea Stadium (in its inaugural year), to watch the first game of a Father's Day double-header between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. Unfortunately, the thing I remember the most were the 'suckass seats' Dad bought in the uppermost vicinity of right field - just below the highest bleacher area (where we could barely see the hitters in the 'batter's box').
I remember that because, one of the pigeons - roosting on a beam below said bleachers and directly above me - dropped a little 'present' on my jacket, during the game. Dad would've cleaned it off, but he was in one of the stadium's rest rooms, cleaning the vomit off of Glenn's own jacket - having suffered a little bit of nausea from eating too many hot dogs.
Eventually, we'd left Shea Stadium by the end of the game - not even sticking around for Game Two, because Dad had to go home and get ready for evening work in Manhattan (on a Sunday, no less).
None of us had even realized that history was being made during that first Father's Day game, when a little-known Phillies pitcher by the name of Jim Bunning had pitched a 'perfect game' (no hits, no runs, and no errors by the Mets), for the first time in National League history since 1880!
When we'd both moved down to Florida (on separate years), Glenn and I would attend other major sporting events together - which, again, I'd usually remember for reasons other than the games being played...
There was the time we took in a Miami Heat basketball game in the 1990s (long before such stars as Dwyane Wade and Lebron James were teammates). The team had led the New York Knicks for almost the whole game... until finally, said Knicks went past them in the last minute of regulation and beat them!
But, what did I remember about that occasion? When I was driving out of the parking lot after the game, I saw a slightly drunken homeless person get hit by a car (driving from the opposite direction), flew several feet in the air, and landed on the ground in a seated position - staring at the car that hit him, as if to say, "Why did you do that?"...
And, in the case of the ice hockey game (where this 'photo-op' was taken), I saw the Florida Panthers' mascot 'Stanley C. Panther' up in our level, and I ran out into the lobby with my camera to try and get him to pose with me for a 'photo-op'. But outside the seating area, I ran into an old friend of mine, who was a former co-worker at a warehouse job I once had during the 1990s (before getting fired), and struck up a conversation with him. Naturally, I never got the chance to get my picture taken with the mascot (and the Panthers lost that game, too; it doesn't matter who they were playing against).
BTW, the Panthers' arena was originally known as National Car Rental Center in the late 1990s, before its name was changed (in the early 2000s) to Office Depot Center. A few years later, it was changed again to Bank Atlantic Center; and in 2012, it underwent yet another name change to BB&T Center. If they'd just named it after the team they'd built it for (e.g. Panther Arena) or the location it was in (e.g. Sunrise Arena or Sawgrass Arena - since it's right across the street from the Sawgrass Mills Outlet Mall) instead of using a corporate sponsor, perhaps more folks would visit this place.
Mark my words; before this decade is over, I predict that the arena will undergo yet another name change. When it is renamed Schlomo's 'In-By-Nine/Out-By-Five' Dry Cleaners Center, that's the day I will stop going to any sporting events... unless, of course, my brother Glenn goes with me...
Happy Birthday, Bro!
P.S. You can see another 'photo-op' of me and Glenn (et al) at http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7348929/
This picture was taken in the late winter of 2003 at Office Depot Center in Sunrise, Florida - where he and I took in a Florida Panthers NHL game, directly at center ice, seated beneath the 'Skybox' seats. (Glenn is to the left, and I'm on the right.)
Glenn was the main sports enthusiast of us three siblings (along with my sister Rhonda and I). But, on occasion, I would join him at a major sporting event, where (unexplainably) I would remember our get-togethers for reasons other than sports...
The first time this happened goes back to June, 1964, when our father took us for the first time to Shea Stadium (in its inaugural year), to watch the first game of a Father's Day double-header between the New York Mets and the Philadelphia Phillies. Unfortunately, the thing I remember the most were the 'suckass seats' Dad bought in the uppermost vicinity of right field - just below the highest bleacher area (where we could barely see the hitters in the 'batter's box').
I remember that because, one of the pigeons - roosting on a beam below said bleachers and directly above me - dropped a little 'present' on my jacket, during the game. Dad would've cleaned it off, but he was in one of the stadium's rest rooms, cleaning the vomit off of Glenn's own jacket - having suffered a little bit of nausea from eating too many hot dogs.
Eventually, we'd left Shea Stadium by the end of the game - not even sticking around for Game Two, because Dad had to go home and get ready for evening work in Manhattan (on a Sunday, no less).
None of us had even realized that history was being made during that first Father's Day game, when a little-known Phillies pitcher by the name of Jim Bunning had pitched a 'perfect game' (no hits, no runs, and no errors by the Mets), for the first time in National League history since 1880!
When we'd both moved down to Florida (on separate years), Glenn and I would attend other major sporting events together - which, again, I'd usually remember for reasons other than the games being played...
There was the time we took in a Miami Heat basketball game in the 1990s (long before such stars as Dwyane Wade and Lebron James were teammates). The team had led the New York Knicks for almost the whole game... until finally, said Knicks went past them in the last minute of regulation and beat them!
But, what did I remember about that occasion? When I was driving out of the parking lot after the game, I saw a slightly drunken homeless person get hit by a car (driving from the opposite direction), flew several feet in the air, and landed on the ground in a seated position - staring at the car that hit him, as if to say, "Why did you do that?"...
And, in the case of the ice hockey game (where this 'photo-op' was taken), I saw the Florida Panthers' mascot 'Stanley C. Panther' up in our level, and I ran out into the lobby with my camera to try and get him to pose with me for a 'photo-op'. But outside the seating area, I ran into an old friend of mine, who was a former co-worker at a warehouse job I once had during the 1990s (before getting fired), and struck up a conversation with him. Naturally, I never got the chance to get my picture taken with the mascot (and the Panthers lost that game, too; it doesn't matter who they were playing against).
BTW, the Panthers' arena was originally known as National Car Rental Center in the late 1990s, before its name was changed (in the early 2000s) to Office Depot Center. A few years later, it was changed again to Bank Atlantic Center; and in 2012, it underwent yet another name change to BB&T Center. If they'd just named it after the team they'd built it for (e.g. Panther Arena) or the location it was in (e.g. Sunrise Arena or Sawgrass Arena - since it's right across the street from the Sawgrass Mills Outlet Mall) instead of using a corporate sponsor, perhaps more folks would visit this place.
Mark my words; before this decade is over, I predict that the arena will undergo yet another name change. When it is renamed Schlomo's 'In-By-Nine/Out-By-Five' Dry Cleaners Center, that's the day I will stop going to any sporting events... unless, of course, my brother Glenn goes with me...
Happy Birthday, Bro!
P.S. You can see another 'photo-op' of me and Glenn (et al) at http://www.furaffinity.net/view/7348929/
Category Photography / Human
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 814 x 600px
File Size 114.2 kB
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