ThomasCrone

Per everyone's favorite feature reporter, Patrick Clark of KPLR: http://kplr11.com/2013/03/18/billiken-mascot-makes-a-big-splash-in-new-york/

Jimbo: The TC Affair movies have dogged me for years. Bill McDermott and Bob Ramsey reference them every time they see me. A buddy once found a scuffed copy of the Brosnan version in a trash can and offered it to me as a gift; what a thoughtful friend! But I do appreciate the Rene Russo reference and, as importantly, the photo. Pelican: This thread is so slight and self-referential that it needs a hijack. Cool with me! Thomas

Played the Billiken on Sunday, for a piece at sltmag.com. My main priorites were: 1. Not die of heat exhaustion. Check, but there were moments of doubt. 2. Not fall in some dramatic fashion. Check, but I accidentally punched a Junior Saintsation, among others. 3. Annoy billiken05 down at the press table. Check, absolutely! http://www.stlmag.com/Blogs/SLM-Daily/January-2012/Being-the-St-Louis-University-Billiken/# Thomas

Recalled this thread about the Pioneers. Wrote up a brief about them for the SLM Daily. Video link of the youthful owner included. (No Dwayne Polk at the game last week, as noted.) http://www.stlmag.com/Blogs/SLM-Daily/February-2011/ABA-Basketball-Hangs-On/

Fate often puts all the material for happiness and prosperity into a man's hands just to see how miserable he can make himself with them. - Don Marquis

From Eric: "Evil Sailor 9 was created by Jim Shapiro (Nina's brother, and Veruca Salt's first drummer). I believe he had it screen printed on his kick drum, and the band ended up using it as cover art for various singles. (I have it on an early 45 of "Seether" that is pressed on clear orange vinyl.) I'm sure that any Billiken similarity is coincidental, though Jim and Nina's father ran Monsanto for years, so who knows?" All hail Veruca Salt conversations on Billikens.com! Thomas

I sent a link to this thread to Louise's brother Eric, a musician and photographer of some skill. We'll see if he has something to add to this esoteric thread. A link to Louise's Wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louise_Post. And another to the Buck Pets' video for "Song For Louise Post": . Happy to say I own that single, bought from the group when they played the Hi-Pointe in the early '90s. Good memories, thanks. Thomas

Interesting thread. Some thoughts: The Game Is Played in Real Time: Every bit of this argument is being conducted with 20/20 hindsight. But let's put ourselves in the shoes of the player for a moment. You're the best player on the team, but your numbers aren't what they should be, they aren't what you want them to be, and you've been handcuffed all night offensively; your team's chances of playing in the NIT are going bye-bye; you've been hearing the student section rain wit down on you all night; you're in-and-out of the lineup with your coach's unorthodox subbing patterns; you're months into a very long season, and, yes, you've suddenly got a clear path to a dunk in front of a nearly sold-out arena with seven-ticks left on the clock. In short: you're probably very frustrated and the ball is in your hands with a clear lane. The time spent typing this thought (or even reading it) is significantly longer than the actual time in which you have to consider what you're going to do with the ball. So you dunk it. And you do a damned good job of doing so. Of course, you do. The Game is Most Dynamic as a Street Game: At times, some of the thread comments here remind me of a Slaten riff on basketball, something along the lines of "the game hasn't been played right, since..." with the tangent leading to some of type of idealized world, happening way back in central Indiana in the 1970s, when everyone on the team touched the ball each possession, and eight picks were perfectly executed for every set shot. But let's deal with today's world, in which the college game is played by 18-23 year-old's who've played and watched hundreds, if not thousands, of minutes of basketball (in-person, online, or via video games) featuring the Dunk as King. Dunks are part of the game now; stylized ones, especially, are going to live on via SportsCenter and, more importantly, YouTube. So are the exaggerated introductions. (To go Slaten for a minute: can you imagine, 10 or 20 years ago, Willie Reed and Cody Ellis taking the court with bumps, fadeaways and tumbling dice? Do you find this classy, or not classy, or just part of the modern hoops experience?) If you've played even a minute of organized ball at a Y, or (heavens!) some street ball, the idea of a dunk in this instance wouldn't even be questioned. But you put a collegiate jersey on someone and they're supposed to forget everything about playing the game with friends, in a park, with some sense style and fun? Don't think you can erase all that. Some of You Are Not Young: With no disrespect or condescension to the students who stand two-feet behind me, making decisions at different times of life bring different decision-making skills to bear. Damian Saunders is 21 years-old. At some point in the not-distant future, Damian Saunders won't be able to windmill, due to age, a future knee injury, what-have-you. Right now, he might make a weird comment in a post-game presser, or he might indulge too much and a friend's cell-phone camera catches him doing so. He might look back and be embarrassed by this play, or something that he says or does before leaving Duquesne. Same is true for every athlete, in every sport, at SLU. (Personally, I'm thankful there wasn't a Facebook when I was 21, because I'd be shivering every day, thinking about what I'd put out to the world.) Let's say he even screwed up last night: is this reason enough to call a 21-year-old "garbage" or "classless"? And do you think anyone on either bench is even remotely as incensed about this as the folks on this board? Have to imagine even SLU players thought "whoa!" when he jack-knifed that ball home and not a one of them is thinking about it today, and won't, until the film session. Bob Ramsey has often said that folks are officially on the clock as "being older" when they stop listening to new music and, as importantly, don't care that new music is being released. To extend the analogy, some of you all are playing 8-tracks in an iPod world. Freshen up the sound, fellers! Thomas

I wish Thomas Crone (no relation) would come to the excuse "Christmas Break" games. -- Not sure I understand this line from the original post. I've been to 85% of the Bills home games for the past decade, so I've seen plenty of mid-to-late December snoozers, from a fan zealotry perspective. As for the 'sticks, I counted three hitting the floor and was sitting a handful of feet from where they landed. While I'm not condoning throwing objects, if you hand out throwables (on Mardi Gras, no less) to an amped student section, three will probably land on the court, it's true. The reaction is what amused me. The looks and glares... oh, my! And apologies to Zac (no "h") Miller on the name. You know I tried to find you to confirm. Not my fault you share the name of a Bills baseball player, which lead to all kinds of confusion. Out the door and on the way to Chaifetz... Thomas

Featured today, Wednesday, Feb. 3: http://www.globe-democrat.com/news/2010/fe...idends-billike/

It's been switched to Porter Moser. OT: I've got a story about Brian Conklin on tomorrow's www.globe-democrat.com Thomas

For vegetarian food, Govinda's is so close to SLU, it's practically on-campus: http://cityguide.aol.com/stlouis/business/...uery=&area= The hours on the site linked above vary a lot from those of my memory, but I'd assume it's my memory in error. Thomas

Walking to my car, about 20-minutes after the final buzzer, it seemed that Pappy's was at overflow and Buffalo Brewing at about 75% capacity. The U was light, as usual. Headed to Riley's, instead, for pizza and beer. Thomas