Patches, Stickers

Matt Walker of Rocketsled Merchandising Co., 817-791-3485 or brewzerch@yahoo.com, has created a patch that you can keep as a memento, apply to your jersey, or allow him to stitch it on. The patch looks alot like the image below (I had to print it to upload it to blogger, etc. . .) and will cost two dollars. Dallas and Travis have a sticker, it is pictured below on a helmet, for size reference. Ginger has a sticker also, I have seen it but have no images, as I recall it is a little smaller than Travis' sticker. Please contact Matt if you are interested in his patch so he can set-up for an appropriate number, the sooner the better.

Travis' sticker:

Matt Walker's patch:







Phil's scholarship fund:
Bank of America
Acct# 488017360517

Also, my picture will be at the front desk and finishing the night in the crossbar, awaiting your autograph. I need everyone to search me out and make sure you get onto the page to keep me on schedule with Phil's Mom.

For Ryan

I just found that our own Sean Avery edited a list of twenty worst sports jerseys, including an Anaheim Ducks jersey, a Vancouver Canucks jersey, and an L.A. Kings jersey.


In no particular order, here are some atrocious jerseys, enjoy!

This is the one that got me started so long ago, I actually like this one, sorta.


Just put the Milwaukee Admirals into a Google image search. . . Every year, they turn out two or three special occasion jerseys to be auctioned-off after the game for charity. Come on people, it's for charity!















I have always heard that playing in the minors is a beating: cheap travel, struggling for a roster spot, bad pay, bad food, bad attitudes, I guess the jerseys are just part of the package.


The Bluejackets are making huge strides in cleaning up their freshman jerseys.


The poor Islanders are an historic and storied franchise, unfortunately their logo was designed by a fourth grader. Teal? Then there was the appearance of that grizzled, brutish longshoreman.











Nothing says "classic", like "expansion team"


Is this the jersey of some renegade figure skating team, the New York Golden Blades, surely a yankee would know better.


This one is hard to see in the action shot, but it all comes down to the logo on this specimen. Is this a young Indian brave playing horsey on a hockey stick? And, just a minute, am I off base here or is there some other definition for "invader" that I am unaware of?














And last but not least, how would the Privateers look in these?












See my new posts at My Covered Dish Bliss

First Games

This coming weekend we will try to get back to some sense of normalcy, but first, I have a picture of Phil that I need everyone to sign for me. I told his Mom that it would be ready after the weekend of the first game. I will leave it at the front desk before the first game and bring it up to the cross bar after the last one.

In lighter news. . .


Practice this week was sparsely attended, as per usual, especially the later ones. I really enjoy practices because I can go really crazy, skating to the opposite end for one-timers and deke-ing around forwards (or at least trying), in general just being completely irresponsible with my play. Of course, it's not all about the scrimmages, Tom and his brother (Dave, was it? Yockey) put me through almost as much work as Roland used to back in the day.

If it's I-league or not, I guess that watching practices should be the real litmus test, and the answer is fairly obvious. The amount of "instruction" going on in our little league is minimal. But as I have said before, the competition is what it is really about in my mind. The level of play is close to level, okay maybe two levels. We have one tier of experienced talented players and a second tier of not so's, what's irritating is that usually the ones complaining the most about talent are the ones in that upper tier, when they hit a slump. One loss on your schedule can be the difference between the keg and sixth place. With that much at stake, I guess it is somewhat understandable that some people get so frustrated. For me, it's too much fun to have it drag me down more than a couple of minutes.

What about those teams that have been struggling through season after season without ever tasting victory? What can I say, I have never won the big one either, but I don't let it affect every fiber of my being. Getting obsessed to the point of watching stats every week, picking-up extra teams to better my odds, or getting with Tom and his brother to work on my rebound control, or . . . well, uh. I know what it sounds like, but REALLY, I'm in total control, I can quit any time.

We have some new teams, for one the Whalers. I always liked the Whalers, nice looking logo, cool name, unfortunately the best thing that ever happened to them was leaving Hartford and changing their name to the Hurricanes. I know the Moose are at least nominally returning, and the Snipers have finally found a permanent replacement for Nick (his wife stole him away from us) in net, in Matt Walker. What, other new teams? I don't know what you're talking about.

One last thing,

There are many people out there with stickers to remember Phillip Talley for your helmet, I think Dallas Lehr has some, Ginger of the Puckers, and Matt Walker who runs a T-shirt and promo business (he is selling his for a modest fee to cover costs with half of the proceeds going to the scholarship fund). I don't know what other things may be happening on this front, I think there may be a helmet getting some signatures, not sure.

That scholarship fund, yeah. If you didn't attend the service this past weekend but want to do something to give your respects to his memory, here are the details that I have:

Phillip's scholarship fund
Bank of America
Acct# 488017360517

See you all on the ice next week.
bciii

Come Together

Moore Funeral Home
1219 N Davis Dr
Arlington 76012
[Davis and Randol Mill]

6-8pm Friday night for the viewing and the funeral will be at 9:30 on Saturday morning.

If you can, let me know if you and any guests/team mates are attending either the viewing or the funeral. I believe they are attempting to get an estimated amount that will be in attendance.


Hockey guys and gals, just to let you know, it has been cleared by the family to wear your jerseys on SATURDAY as it will be a respectful gesture from his hockey family. Just make sure not to wear shorts, flip flops, etc. Dress as you normally would for a funeral and wear your jersey over that. Oh, and make sure its clean, LOL [sorry I have to find humor some where].

On Friday,
Phillip's brother said if you would like to wear dark Dallas Stars shirts, etc that would be ok.

Thanks,
Dallas

jmsracer2626@sbcglobal.net

Some pics of Phil

Phillip's obituary

Here is a write-up from the Star Telegram:

After-school teacher loved to play recreational hockey

By NATHANIEL JONES
njones@star-telegram.com

ARLINGTON — Phillip Talley had no problem making himself at home whenever he visited his friends.

In fact, his friends’ parents knew to keep the refrigerator stocked with Gatorade because that’s where he was going first.

Mr. Tally, a recreational hockey player and after-school teacher, died last weekend in a one-car accident in south Arlington. He would have turned 24 this month.

Friends remembered the Martin High School graduate on a blog about the Euless-based hockey team he played for.

"Phillip was like a third son to us," wrote Karen and William Lehr on the blog Saturday Night Heroes. We "used to kid him [we were] going to claim him on our taxes because he was at our house so much."

Another message came from Steven Frye, who said his favorite moments with Mr. Talley were off-ice.

"No matter where we ran into each other, I was always greeted with a hug and a 'Hey, Coach,’ " Frye wrote. "Coaches aren’t supposed to have favorites, but Phillip was one of mine."

Morris Talley said his son’s life "was cut short, but we loved him every minute of his 23 years."

"This is just an unfortunate accident that happened to a great person," he said Wednesday.

Mr. Talley will also be missed at the Children’s Courtyard on Pleasant Ridge Road in southwest Arlington, where he taught second- through sixth-graders, said Shannon Bradley, campus director. "He had a playful way to make the students feel at ease during sports activity," Bradley said. "The students that were at first nervous about a sport would be in love with the sport after playing with Phillip."

Mr. Talley is also survived by his mother, Josie; brother, Eric; and sister, Monica.

We Have Lost One of Our Own

PHILLIP TALLEY, 23

Phillip Talley was an incredible man, almost no one in our little community has never played with him or against him. The calm coolness of his game and his quiet nature off of the ice, not many would suspect that his connection with childish souls would extend beyond the rink.

Children made an immediate bond with Phillip, many of the children that he worked with imagined that under all the gear of every goalie they saw on television or at a game was actually their Phillip.

If you have any memories of our Phillip please use this forum to share them with the rest of us who remember him. Our thoughts and prayers go out to all of his family and friends.




This from Dallas Lehr:
Moore Funeral Home
1219 N Davis Dr
Arlington 76012
[Davis and Randol Mill]

6-8pm Friday night for the viewing and the funeral will be at 9:30 on Saturday morning.

It would be nice for all the hockey guys and gals to wear your respective team colors to the funeral as it would reflect the amount of people Phillip touched in our little hockey community. You may want to get together as a team to decide what would be appropriate. The Army of 12 Monkeys and Warriors will be wear our orange jerseys.

Please be sure to pass this on to anyone who may have know Phillip.
Thanks to all!

Some pics of Phillip.

Begin the Beguine

The Cowboys may be returning to sunny southern California for their training camp, but who needs Oxnard when we have the climate controlled greatness of Euless, oh yeah.

Practice commences Saturday and I will be in the house, I hope to see you there, too. Now, you can call it a cop-out or say that I'm lazy, but I am going to re-issue one of my earliest postings, as I feel that it encapsulates the whole start of session attitude. Who am I kidding, it rocks. So here it is:

Monday, February 04, 2008
Is That Your Age or Your Skate Size?

In the crossbar the other night, acting the part of the social butterfly, I began to realize what a ridiculous thing we have going here. There was a high school game in the midst of our little dress-up session, I was lucky enough to talk to one of the players in that game. His team had won against the team from Tulsa, one of the top rated teams in their league and as his season nears an end he has prospects for a career in juniors (this is professional hockey for young'uns) and who knows what beyond that. This kid is having fun, growing as a player, and accomplishing something. I am soon to be Thirty-two and clinging desperately to something I was never even close to having in the first place. Like many of you, I spend alot of money on this habit of mine and I can't even get that same fix that I used to, I just do it to feel normal.

When I grow-up I want to be... a grown-up. Admit it, you're a manchild too (or womanchild?), refusing to act your age and spend your Saturday night watching 48 Hours Mystery with the kids tucked in their beds. Instead you show up here for four or more hours playing a kid's game. We play at it like ten year olds, then move upstairs and act like we're 23, usually by Sunday mid-day we feel like we're 80. Some of us even take it to the extreme of tracking our stats and, get this, some of us write about it like it were some kind of legitimate sporting event. This is a sickness, and I don't want to get better.

I know that I am not alone, I am right in the middle of our demographic. This thing will be a draw on my life until I am the oldest one in the rink, when they carry me away. Many of you have been through marriages and careers with only this one constant in your life. I can't believe that they let a bunch of chronics like us hang-out together, we're just enabling each other, right? What are the side effects? You know, I tell people it's my work out routine.

And it is, I do stay in pretty decent shape because of this hockey thing. And it does build a camaraderie, not just among those of us here on Saturday nights. You see many wives and girlfriends (and reverse the gender), and occasionally kids. I know that some of you have taken up coaching or skateguarding or some other method of sharing it with the people around us. Being a part of something like that, building relationships with people of all ages and backgrounds, could be a good thing. Then again it might be an epidemic.

bcIII

P.S. If you, like me, are a ticket head and desire some closure on the Hammer, try this: The Hard Lie