First off...I'd like to thank Alyssa Milano for gracing us with her presence at the park this afternoon. A "friend" owned a poster of Ms. Milano in a New Jersey Devils jersey holding a hockey stick when I was a kid, and it was always a big favorite of mine. Can anybody remember the first movie that she appeared in before dating half of the Florida Marlins starting rotation?

Thanks to loyal reader Jeb for finding the time to post his best hoop memory on the day that he turned 30 years-old.

I remember Mike Cofer because it was in the early stages of my fantasy football career (I actually first started
participating in fantasy football in 1988 during Andre “Bad Moon” Rison’s rookie season in the NFL…amazing how times flies. The league consisted of punching buttons on the phone to pick your starting lineups and free agent acquisitions and we got a weekly print out in the mail complete with the standings at statistics. More on that at another time…) and he was a pretty damn good statistical linebacker.

Can anyone beat Jeb’s brush with a genuine NFL bricklayer?

“My cousin Jamie and I were shooting hoops in his parents' suburban Detroit driveway in 1992. We were both 15. Out of nowhere, Lions Pro-bowl LB Mike Cofer walked into the driveway and decided to take a few awkward shots at the garage-mounted rim. We just watched in awe- feeding the rock to the gigantic brick smith probably 10 times. Not much was said before Cofer thanked us and walked away.
Apparently, he lived in the neighborhood and decided to work on his shot a little while walking his dog. Bizarre.”

Today was also the day of the Boston/New York media game at Fenway Park, and I’ll post the results and some of the highlights – which include a bench-clearing near brawl – in a little bit. Until then…