With no Sabres since…um…i don’t remember…the Bisons are what I’ve been looking forward to. And tomorrow, thanks to the rain, we will have double the pleasure tomorrow!

It’s nice to have an excuse to go downtown…and mayyyybe even use the metro!

(ghost train to nowhere)

Speaking of metro…UGH! Like every government project in Buffalo, their plan to make Main Street open to traffic seems to be…nowhere to be found. I have heard nothing of it since the summer.

I’m watching a Pizza Hut commercial with Jessica Simpson

(AKA Female Albert Einstien)
in which she is flapping her wings with a Buffalo who apparently has wings also…i reallllly think the city of Buffalo or the Anchor Bar should have thought about charging royalties for saying “Buffalo Wings” (in which case I would owe much $$$). Just imagine the money! It’s the only thing we’re known for across the nation (well, that AND “wide right”)…

From the surface, City Council made a smart move this week by approving a measure which basically says “We, the government of Buffalo, agree to think that a Downtown stadium for the Bills is good for the city”

Oh! I’m just oozing with confidence in our local government like everyone else.

Keep hope alive…

so frickin close…now UB’s fate is left in the hands of the selection comittee…being a member of the MAC doesn’t help much so the NIT is probably the Bulls’ destination. Another Buffalo sports team blows it big-time in the spotlight.

UPDATE
Selction committee, as predicted, did not let in UB but apparently had Pacific beat Utah State, we’d actually be “talkin’ proud” like our local government used to tell us to.
None the less, we’ve come a looooong way from the seasons in which 10wins was an achievment. Despite the loss of Turner Battle, the recruiting should obviously impove, and of course, coach Witherspoon seems to have a great vision for the program.

So its been a while since updating after a flury of updates in the last week of February, therefore I feel obliged to catch up.

A New Quarterback:

Just when you were sure J.P. Losman was going to take the top spot. GM Donohoe showed me he is not completely insane and made a good move by getting former Browns QB Kelly Holcomb. This will only be good for the Bills

Dreams Of March Madness
UB beat Toledo today in the second round of the MAC Conference Tournament. With an RPI of 35-things are looking good!

Bass Pro Updates

Paperwork still being done on this and some reforms might be put into place to make the deal more City-friendly. Let’s hope City Council doesn’t go crazy with the reforms and jeopordizes the deal

Burning Coffee
A mini-controversy is brewing after a coffee shop in downtown was burned down two weeks after the owner took out an insurance policy on the store. Many are accusing the Buffalo News of using an extreme bias against the owner in a supposedly non-opinionated article.

Jobs, Jobs, Jobs
Buffalo has increased jobs this year so far mostly thanks to GEICO coming in. Although it was a slight increase, it’s good to see some progress.

Suffering from Vertigo

U2, who seems to always come to Buffalo during their tours has made their “Vertigo” tour no different-scheduling a date for December 5th at the HSBC Arena

Filling That Hockey Void

White-Hot Rochester Americans are coming to HSBC again March 20th and April 3rd. According to the Buffalo News, fans will see a different ice-as in blue ice and orange lines. Wierd stuff but hockey is hockey, especially during times like this

I don’t care who you blame for this budget crisis-how can you not hate this guy. He simply looks like he is trying to con you into something. Whatever you think of him it’s clear-HE’S DONE! Not that I think the Democratic party is great or anything but something tells me that if the County Councilman was a Democrat he wouldn’t have layed so many people off and then take a vacation in Florida a la Jimmy Griffin.
Giambra’s attitude about the whole crisis has made things worse. How can he get defensive about his image while he lays off hundreds and single handedly damages the County? Instead of expressing sympathy-he seems to feel that he has been hurt the most this whole time.
To me, the Republican Party in Buffalo is dead and it will be for a long time (as if it was popular to begin with). I as well as many find it hard to believe that Giambra had to take the extremes he took to help out the County budget.
Just when you feel that things are starting to turn around with all the projects sprouting up in the area, this borderline-catastrophe happens. Some have been lucky to find new jobs without having to relocate, but many-like so many in the past-will have to leave the area.
Sometimes it seems as if the Buffalo area was just fated to enter an eternal downspiral.

Bye-Bye Bledsoe

If you have been sleeping under a rock, I should inform you the Drew Bledsoe-once percieved as the savior of the franchise, was released last week and has since signed with the Dallas Cowboys to reunite with Bill Parcells. This is a lose-lose situation for both Buffalo and Dallas.

J.P. Losman is nowhere near ready to lead a team on the rise who almost made the playoffs last year. Unless J.P. makes a major improvement mentally, it would seem as if J.P. Dumont is more sutiable for the position. Dallas is a young team who needs to find out if their young quartebacks can do the job. Henson looked awful last year but so did his line. Bledsoe is just Testaverde but not quite eligible for senior discounts.

Henry Seeing Red

It looks like Travis Henry is on his way out of Buffalo (DUH!) and seems to be leaning towards Arizona because all he wants is to be with a winning team. Seemingly, Buffalo will get L.J. Shelton to add to the O-Line. To me, this is much better than taking a risk on a second round pick.

Major Losses
Apparently Jonas Jennings and Pat Williams will Not be re-signed despite decent cap space availible. In my mind the loss of Williams will be huge (no pun intended). Although Jennings was pretty decent, the addition of Shelton will make up for it.

Just when you think your city’s sports life is down and out, here comes that lovable ex-convict with his legendary hair and enthusiasm for seemingly everything in life (Including George W. Bush) speaking great things about Buffalo and how it deserves the World Title Fight.
Don King has been trying to give Buffalo the grandest most stupendous most spectactular, amazing, epic, legendary, super-duper sporting event in the history of mankind. Even though his last attempt failed, it seems as if Buffalo has a very good chance the next time around.
Why Don wasn’t able to secure a deal to put the title fight here is not known entirely but knowing the way Buffalo works, I’m sure it had to do with the people in charge

With the strong possibility of Joe Mesi coming back to boxing, and his father making frequent appearances at my old neighborhood church (St. Josephs University Distrct! Holla back!!) it seems that maybe, just maybe, Don King could bring a national-even World attraction to our humble city. The only question is if Buffalo is ready to accept it or let such a grand opportunity slip just like they seemed to have done the last 50 years.

Author’s Note-Mr.Mesi’s appearances at my former local church have nothing to do with the furtherment of Boxing in BUffalo, I just wanted to give a shout-out.

I just don’t get it. When Masiello celebrated the ceremonial groundbreaking of the “Crossroads Arena” it just seemed obvious that it would be THE major project that would FINALLY be the catalyst for the growth of Buffalo. A state of the art facility at the end of Main Street, and metro acessible (and we all know how popular the Metro is) would make one think that it would be a huge success. Now, nine years after its opening, the HSBC Arena seems to just be a nice looking building that only exists for the purposes of the Sabres.
My rant is fuled by the list of events that are coming up @ the arena which consist of…

MAAC Men’s Basketball Tournament

WWE SmackDown! Presents Road to Wrestle Mania

Three Bandits Games

SABAH
SABAH, The Skating Association for the Blind and Handicapped, performs their 28th Annual Ice Show on Saturday, April 10th at 2:00 PM. “SABAH Skates The Top 40 Hits” features prerecorded introductions of each hit by famous disc jockey Casey Kasem, stunning costumes, and wonderful solos by SABAH Stars.

Now granted, this is not Concert season but as of now, the only artists that i would consider famous that are performing in Buffalo consist of Ani DiFranco (May 1st, Shea’s) and Big Bad VooDoo Daddy (May 27, Kleinhans).

Sure, famous performers have played at the HSBC but it seems all too common that any performer that is a hot commodity always goes to Toronto, and usually INSTEAD of Buffalo as opposed to playing in both. But even worse, bands such as Greenday choose ROCHESTER!!!!! over Buffalo. Why!?!??!
This is not the fault of the Arena or its people. As small as this may seem in the grand scheme of things, it is a symbol of how Buffalo is two things:
1. A city that continues to maintain a highly unflattering image accross the nation amongst young and old.
2. A city that fails to promote itself.

Something needs to happen. It’s not right that Rochester (much love) gets chosen over Buffalo despite the fact that we have so much more to offer. It will take a lot to get our negative image changed, and apparently, it will take the efforts of everone. One single project won’t change it, a lot of things are going to have to go our way. We’ve hit rock bottom and now we have no where to go but up. Hopefully, America will see that.

Last week, Jason Botterill retired from the game of hockey due to symptoms of post-concussion-syndrome. Botterill was know for…well…he was known by some people (mostly friends and family). As with Atlanta, Calgary and Dallas, Jason was a 4th line scrub for Buffalo who would only play when others were injured. With this said, Botterill was a BEAST AHL player, tearing it up in the scoring department-mostly due to the fact that speed is not necessary in the minor leagues.

His NHL career stats
5 goals and 14 points in 88 games!

His Sabres’ Stats
3 goals and 8 points in 19 games

meaning…he scored 60% of his NHL goals in the B-lo and averaged .5 points a game last season in Buffalo!

these are the kind of things that interest you when you are desperate for hockey

Jesus, people! Stop robbing my convenience store!! It’s so sad to see that my old community keeps having the same problems. I’m sad I don’t live there anymore and all but when all the little places in my part of town keep having petty thefts happening it kind of brings you down. It’s no east side and thats a good thing.

FROM THE BUFFALO NEWS 2/25/05
Two teenagers were arrested Wednesday night in the gunpoint robbery of the Wilson Farms store at 3426 Bailey Ave., police said.

Elisha R. Swain, 19, of Berkshire Street, and Krista F. Paladino, 17, of Norwalk Avenue, were charged with two counts of robbery and criminal possession of a weapon.

Northeast District police said the two entered the store at about 7:55 p.m., pointed a handgun at the clerk and stole about $350 from the cash drawer.

Officers Michael Maiola and Erin McCarthy later arrested them at their respective homes.