Hey Vermont sports scribes ...

Frank Giamartino of Brattleboro died last night in a car crash.

He was a wonderful family man, a respected pharmacist, a friend to all.

Few baseball people could match his love for baseball, for the Mets.

He was one of the truest high school baseball umpires in Vermont. He called a great game behind the plate, and if you fucked with him too long you had to deal with him.

Five years ago his teenage son Nick died. He and his wife were never the same, but he sucked it up the best a father could considering the circumstances. I don't think anyone is ready for Frank to be dead. There were still far too many baseball games for him to ump.

RIP, Frank. Looks like you're the "whore dog" on the baseball diamond in the great beyond now.

 

http://www.reformer.com/headlines/ci_3961847

 

If things happen in 3's ...

Matt Drummy, a Vermont book author and writing instructor at Woodbury College — whom I ushered into this biz a year and a half ago by letting him pen 8-12 sports stories/columns — put a shotgun into his mouth last night and pulled the trigger.

The last year and a half had been rough for him: divorced, extreme weight gain (in the belly mostly) and manic depression, meeting a girl at eharmony.com and married her within 2 months, got divorced within 4 months, fell into extreme depression, and finally offed himself in explosive fashion.

Matt was a good writer.

 

When ya gotta go, ya gotta go! or is it Pop goes the weasel?