In his time, Primo Carnera was heavyweight champion of the world, the unofficial subject of the searing movie “Requiem of a Heavyweight,” wrestled professionally, went home to Italy, then came back to this country to end his career, as a wrestling referee, a sport which cannot be refereed. “The Ambling Alp,” they called him, over-sized in every way, but unschooled in the English language. So, in his jumbled farewell to it all, he said, “It was so many fun.”
       And so I might paraphrase the “Ambling Alp,” and say, what I have done has been so “many fun.” So many years, so much time spent in so many different time zones, across so many seas and in so many continents, from Australia to Europe, and points in between. There have been happy times and there were times when I asked myself, :How did I get myself here?”
       I have now come to another time zone, the retirement zone, but I refuse to retire. What is there in retirement but surrender, and who with a breath of life left in his body chooses surrender? I enjoy what I do, what I’ve done and how “many fun” there can be left to enjoy. Football coaches come and go. Baseball managers win and get fired. Basketball coaches win (or lose) and move on. Sports writers now move on to ESPN, or some network job, or become somebody’s “insider,” whatever an “insider” is. I would never have been anybody’s “insider,” mainly because I don’t keep secrets very well. When I hear it, or see it, I feel an urge to write it, and so I am here, offering myself in my new electronic acquaintance with an urge to write what I see or hear.
       So here we go. I’ve always enjoyed my space in the newspaper I worked for. Feeling that space was my daily aim in life. Now let’s take another fork in the road and see where it leads us. Not, as Yogi Berra said, “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” Follow your nose, see something that tickles your mind  and scratch it. And maybe we can have “many fun” together.

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