Bill Simmons and Holy Cross

Patti LaBelle is from Philadelphia.

 

Way back when I had some friends living in worcester who used to tell the story of being able to buy their pot from a guy who ran getty station on park ave. Filler up with hi test and give me a nickle bag .

 

Nickel bags....Let me tell you how it was once...

 

"Man, I remember when a dime bag only used to cost a dime!"

 

And there was the guy who ran a book making operation out of a hot dog truck

 

Seriously. Me being a native of greater Worcester and never knowing it was the cradle of journalism or message board posters...

 

C'mon. Ain't nothin' greater about Worcester...

 

Worcester's glory can be summed up with the following anecdote:

In 1994, an outlet mall opened downtown, right next to the arena (then called the Centrum, now the DCU Center). The "Worcester Common Fashion Outlets" were supposed to be the centerpiece of downtown renewal -- the beacon that would draw shoppers from all over New England to Worcester.

They lured a big-name celebrity as part of the marketing campaign (and by "big-name celebrity, I mean Judith Light, who was a good two years removed from the halcyon days of working alongside Tony Danza), which included billboards on which Judith said, "Sorry, Kittery. You're not even close."

Alas, Kittery had nothing to fear. The upscale outlet stores always seemed pretty empty, while the CVS, Media Play and Food Court were busy (shocking, really, for a college town/blue-collar town). The outlets barely made it to 10 years before closing down, at which point the city went back to the drawing board (and made plans to demolish what would have been a perfectly nice mall ... in the suburbs).

That's Worcester: Judith Light pushing a doomed mall on the best piece of real estate in the city. But it is America's diner capital. Never forget that.

 

Having covered a few MIAA finals in the Centrum, back when they were there, I just remember how ... desolate ... the surrounding area was.

Even after the "mall," which I think replaced another failed mall, opened, the area sucked. The walk from the arena to the ATM a few blocks away was lonely, even mid-afternoon on a Saturday.

And Chris, I may crash your Worcesterfest one football Sunday this fall.

 

Forgive me if someone mentioned it. Didn't feel like scrolling through six pages of small-school inferiority complexes, but for all the Simmons bashing, this made me laugh out loud.
"Get the new coach a plane ticket to Cameroon. It's apparently a basketball hotbed now -- every mid-major seems to have one Cameroonian. So let's get on that. 'Coach Eustachy, you're booked at the Cameroon Holiday Inn for the month of May. Go find us a rebounder.'"

 

It turns out that Bill Simmons secret plan to save Holy Cross basketball comes down to hiring Larry Eustachy and bringing in a Chris Washburn type player every two years.

Seriously.

He also sprinkles the column with tales of the football program and then says Holy Cross should be the Gonzaga of the East Coast (but Bill - Gonzaga has no football team).

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/070328&sportCat=ncb

 

See, Worcester needs an artsy place like MassMOCA over in North Adams. Now that's a place you can hang out at and shop all day. Went there one day for a chess tournament and beat the crap out of a 10-year-old, who went crying into daddy's arms afterward. Gratifying. Then I made a wrong move in my next game and got my ass kicked.