my first dragons game
TRANSCRIPT
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7/30/2019 My First Dragons Game
1/1
4 Thursday, May 16, 2013 Springboro Sun
OPINIONCongress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of
speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
- The First Amendment to the United States Constitution
Summertimefun at the Fraze
Fraze General Manager Karen Durham says, Its show time!
Well,not quiteyet, butthe areas premium outdoor concertvenue
is just about ready to open the gatesfor the season.
Now in its22nd year,the complex in Kettering keeps rockinthe
house with almost anyone and everyone thats toured during the
summer months,theyve made a stopat theFraze.
I couldprobably take up the whole paper listing thewhos, who
of music andentertainment that
took to thestage.
Karen is now is now in her
14th year at the helm.
Ive known her for quite
some time, shes a ball of ener-
gy like the battery bunny that
keeps on going and going.
Actually at one time, when
there was a power failure on
stage, they just tapped into
Karens energyreserves and theshow went on.
OK,not really, butI know for
a factthatwhenstandingnext to
her, your cell phone jumps to
full power.
OK, thats not trueeither,but
youget the idea. Her enthusiasm is infectious.
Imexhausted andneedto liedown, butbefore I do,a littleKaren
info.
Ima midwestgirlfromIndiana - GoPurdue!she says. Been
here since 1993, first job in the area was as marketing director at
Click Camera.Been working forthe City of Kettering since 1997,
GM at the Fraze since 2000.
GoshI feel old! Karen says.
Naw, you are as old as you feel and some days I feel ok, I
digressing, but this years line-up is a dandy. And I dont think my
buddy here at the paper. editor Bill Duffield would let me take up
allthe space to list them all. (Bill tickets to the Temptations?)OK, so whats it likeputting this schedule together every year?
Think of a bigjigsaw puzzlewhere everypiece issky bluewith
clouds, Karen says. Ittakesa long timeto getthe piecesto fit.The
biggest misconception is that were already working on summer
2014!
Inthe past, wereallydidnt start working on theseasonuntilthe
new year but in the past few years, the agents start calling earlier
and earlier, she added. For instance, we started working on Josh
Groban, Tony Bennett, Steve Martin and a few other shows last
October. Most of the season really comes together in February,
March andApril.
So, I gave some of it away and know what youre thinking, Oh
Steve Martin is coming, a comedy show? Nope, Im sure hell
throw a few jokes in though, but Steve is a heck of a banjo player
and is touring with the great Edie Brickell with Steve Martin and
the Steep CanyonRangerson July, 28.
Well, here goes and again space is a problem (Bill, Hank
Williams Jr. and Greg Allman tickets?) so in a nutshell DavidSanbornandBob James, Sheryl Crow, Blues Fest featuring Walter
Trout, The Kelly Richey Band and others, Styx & REO
Speedwagon, the aforementionedTemptationswithThe fourTops,
Hermans Hermits starring Peter Noone, Men of Soul with Jeffrey
Osborneand Peabo Bryson,John Waite,HunterHayes,(ooops,sold
out!) SteelyDan withDonaldFagen & Walter Becker.
More BrainWilson, co-founder of the Beach Boys with spe-
cialguestsAl Jardineand DavidMarks.(So sorta, kindaThe Beach
Boys, but sorta, kinda not.) Alabama, Gordon Lightfoot, Ted
Nugent anda real biggie for me at least, TheHappyTogetherTour
2013 withTheTurtles featuring Flo & Eddie, Chuck Negron, (for-
mally ofThree Dog Night) Gary Puckett& The Union Gap, Mark
Lindsay (former lead singer for Paul Revere & The Raiders) and
GaryLewis & ThePlayboys. Whew!
Wait theres more Josh Groban, TOTO and KC and The
Sunshine Band with theLittle River Band.
Now theres even more, but Im outta room. (Oh Bill, Cheryl
Crow?)
But this writers all time favorite on theFraze Stage would have
tobeTonyBennettAugust 25.Thereason?Its easy, thiscroonerhas
spanned generations andcontinues in popularity, plus harkens back
to days gone by with the likes of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra.
Hes the last of his breed folksand you wonder now in his 80s how
longhellbe touring. Dont wait!
Meanwhile back to Karen, any performers you try to book, but
for whatever the reason is impossible.
Maybe not impossible, but we try each year to book Bryan
Adams because hes anartist thatis perfect forthe venue, theFraze
GM says. Weve been writing offers for Steve Martin for the last
fiveyears, finally it happened thissummer.so theres still hope!
And I cant let her get a way without asking, who her favorite
was.
Ringo Starr has to be at the top of the list because, hey, hes a
Beatle and we were so lucky to have him perform in Kettering,
Karen says. But in looking back, I get the best feeling when I
remember people like Wayne Newton, Paul Anka or the late Lou
Rawls.They were so kind to the entire staff shaking hands or ahug to each team member as they thanked us individually for a
great day, a great audience, a great show a great experience, at
midnight.What a perfect way to end a long day!
Those arespecialtimes.
And speaking of staff, she couldnt do without her dedicated
group.
We have a tremendous team that makes the venue successful
each summer, and were hiring a majority of that team each sum-
mer, she said. We operate year round with just two full time
staffers whileour summerteam numbers over 200,plus volunteers.
Hey, any fun backstage stories before we go? (Bill, Josh
Groban?)
Karensays,Its crazy tosay, butin thebusiness,food, good food
is really an important element of the day and Fraze is known to
serve really good food especially grilled meats. Our production
manager who doubles as our chef does ribs right and smokes a
mean turkey! In fact, instead of the usual pizza and wings bands
want after the show - some have been known to ask for smokedturkeys to go!
Finally after allis said and done, whats thefeelingwhenevery-
thing comes together?
Satisfactionas you watchourguestsexit thefacility withsmiles
on their faces after anotheroutstanding performance and the feed-
back we receive each night fromthe bands about the enthusiasm,
she said. Or the excitement theyve gotten from the audience and
pride in knowing we have created lasting concert memories with
friends andfamily at a really special place - Fraze Pavilion.
Well,now Imoutof space andMr. Duffield, dontyouthinkfor
a minute youre getting myTony Bennett tickets.
Edit away myfriend.
See you at the Fraze!
Cheers,
Buch
ADDITIONAL
For tickets and information visit www.Fraze.com or check out
Fraze FanFare insideTown & Country Shopping Center.
The WorldAccording to
My first Dragons gameThirteen years ago the Dayton Dragons
baseball team came to town. Theyve soldout every year. Ive been offered seats
many times, but was unable to accept
because of prior commitments.
Several weeks back, A Able (Its
Always Something) was represented at a
network after hours by their marketing
director, Maggie Summers, who encour-
aged me to take a stab at guessing how
many candies were in a jar. I s tuck my
brain into the nether lands and pulled out
the number 153, entered it and won two
tickets to a Dragons game. It was a
Saturday in May, this t ime it worked. I
asked our son, Stuart, to join me, he said
sure and thedate was set.
The day arrived and Stu had to cancel,
but his 16-year-old son, Jordan, was avail-
able. It was a deal, Jordan and I would dothegame. Crossing from theparkinglot to
the stadium, I said to Jordan, Heres the
skinny, the first one of us that runs into
someone we know gets a free ride the rest
of the evening, food, drinks, candy stuff
like that, OK? Sure, he responded. This
was gonna be fun.
Our seats were two rows behind thevis-
itorsdugout near first base. Rainwas fore-
cast withtempsdiving intothe mid30s.We
were about 35 minutes from game time
when we took our seats.
Roy Barclay, a member of the
Springboro Optimist Club that works on
the ground crew at all Dragons games,
yelled out, Hey Don, how ya doing? I
responded, Hey Roy, good to see ya.
OKJordan, lets go eat, your buying and I
am sohungry I could eat a horse,
Jordan just realized I won and dinner
was on him. LOL. Come on, grandson,
lets go eat, I got it dont worry just having
some fun wit ya. I knew Roy would be
here. Well our treat lasted till the sixth
inning, when the rain started, our hoodies
went up and then to shelter we would go.
We left shortly thereafter, but had a great
time.
Special thanks to theAAble peeps for
providing the opportunity. Give them a
shout when you need help because like
they say, Its always something. Last
week I wrote about our friend, Suzy, and
her story about the Red Rose.That article
had been submitted on Thursday, the day
before I went to Brendas Flowers here in
Springboroto take a picture of a Red Rose
sitting ona car seat.I walkedin with a copy
of thecolumnI hademailed thenewspaper.
I asked the owner, Nikki, to read it and
wed talk. OK, heres what I want to do. I
want totakea picture ofa red rose, just like
it states in the column. Il l give it right
back. She took the time to wrap the rose,
just as Suzy had described and handed it to
me. I said, Ill be right back. She said,
No, take it with you and give it to some-
one like in the story. I replied, Thankyouso much. I took about six pictures at dif-
ferent angles figuring I would decide at
home which one Id use. In the meantime, I
hada decision to make.Who gets therose?
My f irst thought was our daughter,Jennifer, that works at Magnolias on Main.
Yes, she deserved the rose. I drove several
blocks north went into Magnolias and read
a second copy of the column to her out
loud (she was doing jewelry inventory). I
didnt realizethat someone in the store was
listening to every word I said. Jennifer
asked if she should keep it or pass it on.
Keep it , or pass it on if the need should
arise. I left and headed home to download
the pics and make a selection. About one
hourlater onFacebook,I read thata lady in
the store heard my reading of the column
andtold Jennifer that shereallyliked it, but
was headed to the hospital to visit her best
friend that was dying. She was purchasing
something to giveher for their long friend-
ship. But wait, Jennifer said, I havesomething, too, hold on. Retrieving the
rose f rom the back counter she said,
Pleasetake this roseand giveit toher with
your gift. The woman cried and hugged
Jennifer and said she would put it in her
dying friends hand. Amazing how some-
thing so little as a red rose could bring so
much love to four people in such a short
period of time. Crossing over to the phun-
ny side of the street: (you need the phunny
side on those days when the sunny side
doesnt show.) I found a picture of a duck
and a cat walking across an old wooden
bridge.The cat looks at the duck and says,
I havea dog that will not leave me alone,
he bullies me day in and day out can you
help Mr.????? The duck looks back and
says Pond.James Pond. It was on
Facebook last week. Just had to share it.
Im still laughing.
MERGE WRIGHT
B
y Don Wright
Times
Columnist
Global warming? Cool it! Theend is near (to nonsense)
Earth Day (just past) used to be a
celebration of all the dangers of global
warming and how those inconvenient
human beings were ruining the planet.
Was it just a coincidence that all the
fearful forecasts came while the vari-
ous environmental activist organiza-
tions were sending our appeals for
money? Oh, surely not.
Astute readers might have noticed
that the term global warming is out
of favor in any case. Climate change
is the preferred name now. Thats
handy because the climate is always
changing, else Dayton and points
north would be under half a mile or
more of ice. The problem for the glob-
al warmists is that their computer
models turned out to be wrong. All of
them. They all predicted that carbon
dioxide (CO2) emissions from mans
activities would cause a big spike in
temperatures.
You may have heard that climate
change (or global warming) is settled
science. The better phrase would be
settled non-science. You see, when
real scientists examined our atmos-
phere they found that 78 percent is
nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen, some
water vapor and then trace gases of
which CO2 is one. In every 10,000 air
molecules only four are CO2. And in
all of human history, according to the
best esti -
mates, mankinds CO2 contribution is
less
than one of those four molecules. In
fact, air has 500 times the water vapor
than CO2. Water vapor is a green-
house gas!
But isnt mankind spewing all kinds
of stuff into the air and sending CO2
levels skyrocketing, maybe not right
away but soon. The
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
Change says not so fast. CO2 from
man-made sources accounts for only 3
percent o f the gr eenhouse ef fect
caused by water vapor and other gases
in the air.
In the 130 years that weve been
keeping accurate worldwide tempera-
tures, the increase has been 1.3
degrees Fahrenheit with almost noth-
ing in the last two carefully studied
decades, even though the computer
models said we would get a dreadful
spike. This hasnt kept the U.S. Global
Change Research Project from insist-
ing that everyone else is wrong and
climate change (warming) is a real
and present danger. A majority of the
projects senio r sc ienti sts just hap-
pen to be aff iliat ed with environmen-
tal activist groups. Arent coinci-
dences interesting?
What this means to plain old plod-
ding citizens like me is that govern-
ment policy is still being driven by the
alarmists whose computer models may
be tuned more for polit ics than sci-
ence. Thus were instructed that elec-
tric rates will have to go up, coal is
bad, wind i s good, sun is n ice and i f
we all behave the glaciers and Arctic
ice will stop melting.
What? No one told you that Arctic
ice isnt an endangered species? The
polar bears are t hriving? The Antarc tic
ice is increasing? A while back some-
one dug up a 1923 New York Times
story about melting ice, warming
oceans and related alarming develop-
ments. Hmm. Maybe they just reprint
that same thing every 90 years or so.
The mainstream press no doubt
believes that good clima te news j ust
isnt interesting. Maybe theres an
understandable reluctance to see hurri-
canes and other natural disaster as
acts of God and pin the blame on
someone closer. Us.
By William
Wild
Times
Columnist
Of course he had to vote
against gun background
checks.
Senator Portman knowsthat he is the cross-hairs of
those in the Republican
Party that do not support
equal rights for gay and les-
bian people. Those mem-
bers of t he far r ight of hi s
party- those who believe
that their religious views
should supersede the
American Constitution - are
after his scalp due to his
support of gay rights. He
had to vote against the
bipar tisan Gun Background
Check Bill also known as
the Manchin-Toomey Bill,
even though it made perfect
sense and was supported byan overwhelming majority
of the American people,
becaus e he had to placate
the lunatic fringe.
Even though his term
does not expire until 2016,
he is terrified of one of the
right wing crazies running
against him in a primary
election.
Senator Portman had met
with families whose chil-
dren were killed in
Newtown , Conn. E ven af ter
meeting with these people
and hearing their pleas to
pass background check leg-
islation, Senator Portman
could not muster the empa-
thy or the political courage
to support these victims of
an evil outrage. It seems as
with most conservatives,
Senator Portman only has
empathy for people if it
directly affects him or his
family, as in the case with
his gay rights conversion.
In a statement issued
when he voted against the
Manchin-Toomey legisla-
tion, Portman said he didntthink it would prevent the
kind of heartbreaking loss
of life seen in Newtown
and other tragedies. Instead,
he said its implementation
would make it harder for
law-abiding Ohioans to
exercise their
Constitutionally-guaranteed
rights. He never explained
how background checks
would make it harder for
people to obtain guns i f
they are legally entitled.
What a bunch of shameful
nonsense.
His political calculations
may have backfired. With
his vote against background
checks, Senator Portman
has even more people turn-
ing against him. A pollreleased last week found
background checks for gun
show and Internet firearm
sales are supported by 72
percen t of Ohio voters , as
well as 56 percent of Ohio
Republicans.
The survey of 601
Ohioans taken on April 25
and 26 by Public Policy
Polling found that 36 per-
cent of voters in the state
say theyre less likely to
support Portman because ofhis gun vote, while only 19
percen t conside r it a reason
to support him. Democrats
are anxious to take him on
in 2016.
His favorability rate is
heading south along with
his ability to do the right
thing and represent the peo-
ple of Ohio.
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Published every Thursday 52 weeks a year.
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Sen. Portmans shameful vote on gun background checks
By John
MurphyTimes
Columnist