This is a good one....bear with me.
I frequent the horse track here in Tampa on occassion, many times with McIrish and actually one time with the infamous JJgold. Well, during spring training, Don Zimmer is there almost on a daily basis and this one occasion when I was at the track with JJgold, JJ and myself sat right next to Don for nearly the entire day of racing. I always had heard the stories of Don and the racetrack, so this was entertaining seeing him bet firsthand. He was not shy about firing it up....and neither is JJ for that matter. Being a Red Sox fan I could only think back to the late 70's and how this racetrack junkie almost guided us to the World Championship.
Well, about 2 weeks after this, I am in a major bookstore and I see the relatively new autobiography on Mr. Zimmer himself. I just had to see if he had a chapter on gambling. Well, he didnt. I swear to you, I just open the book to one of the middle chapters and wouldnt you know it the first sentence of the chapter reads...MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT THE RACETRACK. In the first paragraph Don mentions that he if he were asked where he has spent more time, the racetrack or the ballpark, it would be a deadheat!! Amazing. So Don starts rattling off some gambling stories and he mentions that one time during the season before a nightgame that he and a player, whose name escapes me, go to the racetrack and they both lose their entire bankroll. Don was embarrassed to tell this other player that he had lost everything, and vice versa the player to Don. While on the way home, Don and his friend have to pass a couple of tolls. Don, embarrased to admit that he had lost everything at the track, asks the player if he can borrow a buck because he didnt want to break a c-note or a twenty. This is one Don learns that his friend had lost everything at the track too..... and then it hit Zim that not he only would he have to admit to losing everything too, but they had no money for the tolls...not a dime! Total embarrassment for both parties.
Well, this story was hitting WAY to close for home for me. You see, Patrick McIrish (Rx moderater) and I travel to a casino boat on floridas opposite coast that we live on. I am sure you intelligent batposters have allready figured out what happened to good old McIrish (Rx moderater) and I. After a fun night of live entertainment, craps, video poker, and a few bwewskis, the boat had arrived back into port. I had lost everything on a dastardly video poker machine and McIrish mentioned he had took a beating too on the crap table.....of which extent I did not know as we headed to the car for our 120 mile and THREE TOLLBOOTH ride back home. As I approached that first toll booth, I looked into my change compartment to scrounge up the $1.25 I needed to pay the toll.....well.......all I had could come up with was 12 cents. No big deal I figured, I was with a guy that if I had his money, I would burn mine. Asked McIrish (new RX moderater) to throw me some money for the toll and he just looked at me and remarked something to the effect..."Fish, ha ha ha ha, I have nothing, I am wiped out." "HUH ?" I said. I am now beginning to wonder why I wrote this embarrassing story, but I am to stubborn to not post it after spending so much time to type it. Dont know what the moral to the story is ....only on this night, McIrish and I were kingpin losers in the gambling world......just like Popeye(Zim) and his buddy were years ago.
I frequent the horse track here in Tampa on occassion, many times with McIrish and actually one time with the infamous JJgold. Well, during spring training, Don Zimmer is there almost on a daily basis and this one occasion when I was at the track with JJgold, JJ and myself sat right next to Don for nearly the entire day of racing. I always had heard the stories of Don and the racetrack, so this was entertaining seeing him bet firsthand. He was not shy about firing it up....and neither is JJ for that matter. Being a Red Sox fan I could only think back to the late 70's and how this racetrack junkie almost guided us to the World Championship.
Well, about 2 weeks after this, I am in a major bookstore and I see the relatively new autobiography on Mr. Zimmer himself. I just had to see if he had a chapter on gambling. Well, he didnt. I swear to you, I just open the book to one of the middle chapters and wouldnt you know it the first sentence of the chapter reads...MY AUTOBIOGRAPHY WOULD NOT BE COMPLETE WITHOUT TALKING ABOUT THE RACETRACK. In the first paragraph Don mentions that he if he were asked where he has spent more time, the racetrack or the ballpark, it would be a deadheat!! Amazing. So Don starts rattling off some gambling stories and he mentions that one time during the season before a nightgame that he and a player, whose name escapes me, go to the racetrack and they both lose their entire bankroll. Don was embarrassed to tell this other player that he had lost everything, and vice versa the player to Don. While on the way home, Don and his friend have to pass a couple of tolls. Don, embarrased to admit that he had lost everything at the track, asks the player if he can borrow a buck because he didnt want to break a c-note or a twenty. This is one Don learns that his friend had lost everything at the track too..... and then it hit Zim that not he only would he have to admit to losing everything too, but they had no money for the tolls...not a dime! Total embarrassment for both parties.
Well, this story was hitting WAY to close for home for me. You see, Patrick McIrish (Rx moderater) and I travel to a casino boat on floridas opposite coast that we live on. I am sure you intelligent batposters have allready figured out what happened to good old McIrish (Rx moderater) and I. After a fun night of live entertainment, craps, video poker, and a few bwewskis, the boat had arrived back into port. I had lost everything on a dastardly video poker machine and McIrish mentioned he had took a beating too on the crap table.....of which extent I did not know as we headed to the car for our 120 mile and THREE TOLLBOOTH ride back home. As I approached that first toll booth, I looked into my change compartment to scrounge up the $1.25 I needed to pay the toll.....well.......all I had could come up with was 12 cents. No big deal I figured, I was with a guy that if I had his money, I would burn mine. Asked McIrish (new RX moderater) to throw me some money for the toll and he just looked at me and remarked something to the effect..."Fish, ha ha ha ha, I have nothing, I am wiped out." "HUH ?" I said. I am now beginning to wonder why I wrote this embarrassing story, but I am to stubborn to not post it after spending so much time to type it. Dont know what the moral to the story is ....only on this night, McIrish and I were kingpin losers in the gambling world......just like Popeye(Zim) and his buddy were years ago.
