The last couple of days here in the Rose City haven't been the happiest of times for what, as I read the newspapers, pretty much self-inflicted wounds. I'm seriously thinking about blaming everything on the Norwich Business Park, NBP, mainly because the two of the three most current argy-bargys involve situations in the NBP.
The first one, the saga of the Connecticut Defenders, nee the Norwich Navigators (and actually, nee nee (?) the Albany-Colonie Yankees) is sort of a high school romance gone bad meets a poor case study from business school. I'm a grown man (some parts more so than others) and intellectually if not emotionally I can grasp that sports is a business, even minor league baseball.
Yes, generations of us have grown up trying to master Willie Mays' basket catch(or getting brained in the process of trying), drive the ball like the Splendid Splinter or run the base paths like Charlie Hustle, but very few of us ever get farther than dreaming about it. Good luck to the young guys who are living it and legging it out everyday as they work their way through the minor league system for a chance at the show.
But as I said, it's a business and times weren't all that great in terms of attendance for the CT Defenders when times were good. And while no one expects, I assume, to get rich from owning a Double A baseball team, no one should lose his shirt either. Not that I've seen the owner without a shirt, mind you. There's a marvelous expression that goes, 'he who abandons a sinking ship that doesn't sink, must be a very good swimmer.' In a perfect world the team would have been sold before the season started, but the deal, rather than the team, has gone south. Sometimes one percent (of something) is a better deal than one hundred percent (of nothing). The fans and sponsors have stayed away from the team, because 'they're leaving' and yet, here they are and the bigger question is where will they be this time tomorrow?
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the NBP, a good thing, in this case a building being added by a business to its operation becomes a bad thing because when you have as many different folks helping with 'economic development' as we have in Norwich (look for yourself, here's the municipal listing and bear in mind it's NOT complete), there will always someone who does not get the memo. Familiar with 'many hands make light work'? Sometimes around here it's more like 'many hands get balled into many fists and wise guys with blogs get pummelled.' The irony of all this is "delaycious", if I don't say so myself.
The third Norwich Newz Noise involves a fellow who is a future former police officer. As you'll read for yourself, there's so much so wrong in this story and this situation it's embarrassing to even read about it much less realize we've had a series of these incidents for nearly the last decade. I would imagine it's hard to be a law enforcement professional in the Rose City when the only stories that anyone knows are the nasty ones.
Personally, it serves to remind me I'll have to thank my orthopedic surgeon when I see him in (the middle of) June for a follow up on my knee replacement surgery from early March. The former police Lieutenant has been, the newspaper says, on sick leave from leg surgery since January 2007. I guess I better pack some wax lips since I guess I'll have to kiss my surgeon. Maybe I can offer him some Yankees tickets-I know a place where we can get 'em cheap.
-bill kenny
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