Enhancing the Spa guest experience

[FrankD.]

WOW,

Is all I have to say about DAT!!!

I think when Richiebee makes his pilgrimage to Mecca on July 31st he and I should find Klueless and kid nap him. We could tie him to a tree for the August 1st T-graph seminar so he can get an up close look at what a real horse player looks like and a dose of reality as to what concerns \"the life blood\" of the game have.

Change is inevitable and there is no way to keep everyone happy in life for sure.
BUT:
This guy seems to be pissing off the entire racing world with his run away bean counting freight train. The Spa is a scared cow to a lot of people.

I would love to see Mary Lou Whitney refuse her red jacket in protest of his tree clearing hall of shame.

Frank D.

[miff]

Red Jackets, ribbons, trophies for acknowledging runner ups....what a f-king idiot this Kay is!

[richiebee]

FrankD. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> WOW,
>

>
> Change is inevitable and there is no way to keep
> everyone happy in life for sure.
> BUT:
> This guy seems to be pissing off the entire racing
> world with his run away bean counting freight
> train. The Spa is a scared cow to a lot of
> people.

This is what people don\'t get about Frank. Frank GETS IT. Read what Frank
wrote above 2 or 3 times because it is brief and absolutely true and there is
even a life lesson in there somewhere.

BUT:

I may have to disagree with the character assassination of Toy Boy and the
plans for any mayhem involving him.

If Stronach/Magna or CD had bought Saratoga in the year 2000 (I am saying
hypothetically) the changes (in terms of development, in terms of squeezing
revenue out of the facility) would have been implemented long ago. It is
almost as if dysfunctional, rudderless, politically hamstrung NYRA management,
more than any desire for preservation, kept Saratoga pristine.

NYRA has three facilities to work with: Belmont will only draw more than 15K
on Belmont Day; the norm on weekdays is less than 1500.The park in the paddock
area remains a huge asset, but the grandstand is not functional. The Genting
facility next to Aqueduct looks like it is going to need an NYPD precinct
house on site, and I am sure this crime wave will find its way to the
racetrack.

Some of the folks here, and Miff will admit he is one of them, warn that it is
very risky for racetracks to rely on any stream of state funds. I agree, but
it is difficult then to criticize NYRA for monetizing the only bankable asset
they have.
 
I love the place. I am certain they will continue to develop Saratoga Race
Course, possibly to the point where there is very little recognizable to me,
but this development was inevitable, whether the man at the controls was named
Kay or Stronach or Jeff Gural.

[FrankD.]

richiebee Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------  
> I love the place. I am certain they will continue
> to develop Saratoga Race
> Course, possibly to the point where there is very
> little recognizable to me,
> but this development was inevitable, whether the
> man at the controls was named
> Kay or Stronach or Jeff Gural.


Richie,

A key difference with the men at the controls you\'ve mentioned is Stronach and Gural have done it with their own money and both know the racing game.

Frank Stronach has certainly pissed a bunch of people off in the game over the years and Gulfstream has become an amusement park with a race track but it works.
Free admission, free parking and some of the lowest take outs in the industry. He has a fight on his hands in Maryland as he is obviously fazing out Pimlico and many crab cakers can\'t fathom the Preakness at Laurel.

What Gural has done with the Meadowlands has been brilliantly innovative to save a truly dead sport and his efforts to rid his tracks of cheats need to be applauded.

Kay is a political appointee without any accountability or vested interest be it personal or corporate not to mention not having clue one about the game.

[miff]

Clueless Kay and NYRA must be desperate for every dollar.Dont know if its true but Raggie pal tells me NYRA is giving RAGS a hard time not allowing the usual table for their daily seminar by Jon Hardoon(from memory at least 20+ years old)If true,how petty is that?

It seems NYRA has surpassed Churchill Downs as the most unfriendly venue towards  anything \"player\"

[moosepalm]

If Kay owned the Cubs, he would tear out the ivy on the outfield walls and replace it with billboards, and bulldoze the bleachers and put in luxury suites.

You don\'t screw with tradition when it\'s part of the reason people come there in the first place.

[FrankD.]

A little fun with Rogers Wrigley Field analogy:


Mike Royko was Wrigley Field\'s poet laureate
Chicago columnist specialized in pointing out Cubs\' follies for more than three decades

April 04, 2014|Paul Sullivan
 

 409
Mike Royko in December 1974.
Mike Royko in December 1974. (Frank Hanes / Chicago Tribune)
We can only imagine how much fun it would\'ve been had Mike Royko\'s fantasy of buying the Cubs come to fruition.

The late Chicago columnist, the conscience of Cubs fans from the 1960s through the \'90s, met with former A\'s owner Charlie Finley in the Billy Goat Tavern in 1981, scheming to persuade former Sun-Times owner Marshall Field to put up 51 percent of the money to buy the club and let them run it.


Ultimately, Field procrastinated and owner William Wrigley wound up selling the Cubs and Wrigley Field to Tribune Co. for a relatively measly $20.5 million.

The rest, alas, is history.

Whether Royko could have ended the championship drought is anyone\'s guess. But as a former legman to Royko and a longtime Tribune employee, I feel confident in saying a Royko-run Cubs team would\'ve been much more interesting than the one run by the suits in Tribune Tower, and he would not have let Greg Maddux leave. (And, yes, he would\'ve installed lights, just as Tribune Co. did in 1988.)

Few loved the Cubs or Wrigley Field as much as Royko, whose memorial was held at the ballpark after his death in 1997. Many writers have poked fun at the Cubs over the years, but no one pointed out the absurdity of the franchise\'s follies like Royko did for more than three decades in the pages of the Chicago Daily News, Sun-Times and Tribune:

• While many Chicago sportswriters helped perpetuate the story of the Billy Goat Curse — in which tavern owner William Sianis put a hex on the team after his goat was denied entrance to a 1945 World Series game — it was Royko\'s widely syndicated column that transformed the curse from urban legend to nationally renowned piece of Chicago mythology.

• Royko\'s annual Cubs quiz traditionally kicked off the season, reminding us of the obscure yet transcendent moments in Cubs history, such as the pitcher (Bill Faul) who said he could hypnotize his arm and the adventures of outfielder Jose Cardenal, who once missed a game because his eyelids got stuck. Royko always referred to Cardenal as \"the immortal Jose Cardenal\" and admired his ability to come up with bizarre excuses to avoid playing. (\"An inspiration to those of us who believe in sleeping late, walking slow and calling in sick at the office.\")

• After another Cubs season ended in failure, Royko would crank up a column on the \"Ex-Cubs Factor,\" which theorized no postseason team could win a World Series with three or more former Cubs on its roster. While he always credited freelance writer Ron Berler, Royko wrote about it so often, many believed it was his creation.

• Royko once wrote fired manager Don Zimmer \"looked like an aging Munchkin,\" and his replacement, Jim Essian, \"acts like the master of ceremonies in a strip joint.\" When the Tribune hired outfielder Dave Kingman to pen a column for its sports section, Royko skewered the slugger with a parody column in the Daily News by \"Dave Ding-Dong.\"

• Royko even poked fun at popular announcer Harry Caray: \"If some obscure player does something exceptional, Harry tells us: \'Well, they\'re dancing in the streets of his hometown of Cowsville.\' But how does Caray know that? It is mere conjecture. For all we know, they are sprawled in the gutters of Cowsville.\"

• In some of his most memorable Cubs columns, during the 1984 National League Championship Series, Royko labeled Padres fans as sushi-eating wimps who didn\'t deserve a World Series. The Cubs promptly lost three straight in front of a frenzied crowd at Jack Murphy Stadium, and some Chicagoans blamed Royko for inciting the fan base.

¿¿¿

Before I became a sportswriter, I was a reporter/researcher for Royko from 1985 to \'87, an apprentice to the master of column writing.

This was before night games at Wrigley, and I can attest Royko had his portable TV tuned to Cubs games every summer day in his office, turning down the volume only when he began writing his columns.

After the Cubs\' near-miss in 1984, he bought season tickets in \'85. But as the rotation went down and the team went south, part of my responsibility as legman was to unload Royko\'s tickets in the Tribune city room (and get as close to face value as possible).

During our frequent conversations about sports, Royko often bragged that on days he wrote columns on the Cubs, Bears or other local teams, he was the town\'s top sportswriter. It was hard to deny. There\'s no doubt he was the most important chronicler of the Cubs\' foibles, the one who kept telling us the sky was falling on an otherwise perfect summer day.

\"As a Cubs fan — and this could also apply to Sox, Bears and Hawks fans — you should have known better,\" Royko wrote in a Tribune column on Feb. 8, 1996. \"But you became a true believer. You forgot the one hard rule of being a Chicago sports fan: If anything bad can happen, it figures that it will happen to us.\"

Some of my favorite assignments were Cubs-related.

[Topcat]

FrankD. Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> A little fun with Rogers Wrigley Field analogy:
>
>
> Mike Royko was Wrigley Field\'s poet laureate
> Chicago columnist specialized in pointing out
> Cubs\' follies for more than three decades
>
> April 04, 2014|Paul Sullivan
>  
>
>  409
> Mike Royko in December 1974.
> Mike Royko in December 1974. (Frank Hanes /
> Chicago Tribune)
> We can only imagine how much fun it would\'ve been
> had Mike Royko\'s fantasy of buying the Cubs come
> to fruition.
>
> The late Chicago columnist, the conscience of Cubs
> fans from the 1960s through the \'90s, met with
> former A\'s owner Charlie Finley in the Billy Goat
> Tavern in 1981, scheming to persuade former
> Sun-Times owner Marshall Field to put up 51
> percent of the money to buy the club and let them
> run it.
>
>
> Ultimately, Field procrastinated and owner William
> Wrigley wound up selling the Cubs and Wrigley
> Field to Tribune Co. for a relatively measly $20.5
> million.
>
> The rest, alas, is history.
>
> Whether Royko could have ended the championship
> drought is anyone\'s guess. But as a former legman
> to Royko and a longtime Tribune employee, I feel
> confident in saying a Royko-run Cubs team would\'ve
> been much more interesting than the one run by the
> suits in Tribune Tower, and he would not have let
> Greg Maddux leave. (And, yes, he would\'ve
> installed lights, just as Tribune Co. did in
> 1988.)
>
> Few loved the Cubs or Wrigley Field as much as
> Royko, whose memorial was held at the ballpark
> after his death in 1997. Many writers have poked
> fun at the Cubs over the years, but no one pointed
> out the absurdity of the franchise\'s follies like
> Royko did for more than three decades in the pages
> of the Chicago Daily News, Sun-Times and Tribune:
>
> • While many Chicago sportswriters helped
> perpetuate the story of the Billy Goat Curse — in
> which tavern owner William Sianis put a hex on the
> team after his goat was denied entrance to a 1945
> World Series game — it was Royko\'s widely
> syndicated column that transformed the curse from
> urban legend to nationally renowned piece of
> Chicago mythology.
>
> • Royko\'s annual Cubs quiz traditionally kicked
> off the season, reminding us of the obscure yet
> transcendent moments in Cubs history, such as the
> pitcher (Bill Faul) who said he could hypnotize
> his arm and the adventures of outfielder Jose
> Cardenal, who once missed a game because his
> eyelids got stuck. Royko always referred to
> Cardenal as \"the immortal Jose Cardenal\" and
> admired his ability to come up with bizarre
> excuses to avoid playing. (\"An inspiration to
> those of us who believe in sleeping late, walking
> slow and calling in sick at the office.\")
>
> • After another Cubs season ended in failure,
> Royko would crank up a column on the \"Ex-Cubs
> Factor,\" which theorized no postseason team could
> win a World Series with three or more former Cubs
> on its roster. While he always credited freelance
> writer Ron Berler, Royko wrote about it so often,
> many believed it was his creation.
>
> • Royko once wrote fired manager Don Zimmer
> \"looked like an aging Munchkin,\" and his
> replacement, Jim Essian, \"acts like the master of
> ceremonies in a strip joint.\" When the Tribune
> hired outfielder Dave Kingman to pen a column for
> its sports section, Royko skewered the slugger
> with a parody column in the Daily News by \"Dave
> Ding-Dong.\"
>
> • Royko even poked fun at popular announcer Harry
> Caray: \"If some obscure player does something
> exceptional, Harry tells us: \'Well, they\'re
> dancing in the streets of his hometown of
> Cowsville.\' But how does Caray know that? It is
> mere conjecture. For all we know, they are
> sprawled in the gutters of Cowsville.\"
>
> • In some of his most memorable Cubs columns,
> during the 1984 National League Championship
> Series, Royko labeled Padres fans as sushi-eating
> wimps who didn\'t deserve a World Series. The Cubs
> promptly lost three straight in front of a
> frenzied crowd at Jack Murphy Stadium, and some
> Chicagoans blamed Royko for inciting the fan
> base.
>
> ¿¿¿
>
> Before I became a sportswriter, I was a
> reporter/researcher for Royko from 1985 to \'87, an
> apprentice to the master of column writing.
>
> This was before night games at Wrigley, and I can
> attest Royko had his portable TV tuned to Cubs
> games every summer day in his office, turning down
> the volume only when he began writing his
> columns.
>
> After the Cubs\' near-miss in 1984, he bought
> season tickets in \'85. But as the rotation went
> down and the team went south, part of my
> responsibility as legman was to unload Royko\'s
> tickets in the Tribune city room (and get as close
> to face value as possible).
>
> During our frequent conversations about sports,
> Royko often bragged that on days he wrote columns
> on the Cubs, Bears or other local teams, he was
> the town\'s top sportswriter. It was hard to deny.
> There\'s no doubt he was the most important
> chronicler of the Cubs\' foibles, the one who kept
> telling us the sky was falling on an otherwise
> perfect summer day.
>
> \"As a Cubs fan — and this could also apply to Sox,
> Bears and Hawks fans — you should have known
> better,\" Royko wrote in a Tribune column on Feb.
> 8, 1996. \"But you became a true believer. You
> forgot the one hard rule of being a Chicago sports
> fan: If anything bad can happen, it figures that
> it will happen to us.\"
>
> Some of my favorite assignments were Cubs-related.


I spent a number of years around the Sun-Times / Daily News sports department caddying for local racing Jack of all Trades Dave Feldman, so was exposed to Royko on a sustained basis.   Royko\'s best stuff was tough to beat, but he was never the same after losing his first wife in \'79.