Classic American West Coast Boxing

[kikibalt]

THE Armenta Brothers

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J8-T-HeRX_M
"Bringing Back The Memories"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GqoSNJl6gGI
"Dollar Dance Medley"

[Ric]

Since we are approaching 1000 posts this would be a good time to tell you guys thanks. I was not here for the first few months but no sooner did I join than all of you immediately made me feel welcome. This is a site with heart but it's the people that write here and share not only their memories and personal experience in boxing and with boxers but their personal lives as well that make it what it is. I'm proud to be a part of it.

Randy

Correction: It's not 1,000 posts, but 1,000 PAGES! DD

[dagosd2000]

Tonight's din din:Pasta Fazool

[Randyman]

Since we are approaching 1000 posts this would be a good time to tell you guys thanks. I was not here for the first few months but no sooner did I join than all of you immediately made me feel welcome. This is a site with heart but it's the people that write here and share not only their memories and personal experience in boxing and with boxers but their personal lives as well that make it what it is. I'm proud to be a part of it.

Randy

Correction: It's not 1,000 posts, but 1,000 PAGES! DD

I knew that! I just wanted to see if anyone was paying attention.

Randy

[Randyman]

Tonight's din din:Pasta Fazool

You're killing me Rog! You're killing me!!

[dagosd2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53QS99Ax00Y

Veracruz

Tona La Negra

[dagosd2000]

Tonight's din din:Pasta Fazool

You're killing me Rog! You're killing me!!

I figure that's the way I want to go. Take my last bite of pasta fazool and then explode

[Randyman]

Tonight's din din:Pasta Fazool

You're killing me Rog! You're killing me!!

I figure that's the way I want to go. Take my last bite of pasta fazool and then explode

This is for you Rog, and Pasta Fazool.

Dean Martin
"That's Amore"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6-b7CONDI

[dagosd2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Loqc2o_3e3A

El Bardo

Lucho Gatica

[Randyman]

Dean Martin
Mambo Iltaliano

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S-7Ap6J ... re=related

[dagosd2000]

You're killing me Rog! You're killing me!!

I figure that's the way I want to go. Take my last bite of pasta fazool and then explode

This is for you Rog, and Pasta Fazool.

Dean Martin
"That's Amore"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6-b7CONDI

Randy
The clan this year wants to go back to Italy on the way to Spain. I'm thinking Napoli. Home of the pizza Thanks for the song. Makes me think of eating my first pizza in Melrose Park. I told you guys how my Dad and the owner of the Pizza Garden,Johnny Haircut,ran off these Hell's Angel types with sub machine guns.Then it was back to eating pizza.

[Randyman]

I figure that's the way I want to go. Take my last bite of pasta fazool and then explode

This is for you Rog, and Pasta Fazool.

Dean Martin
"That's Amore"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6-b7CONDI

Randy
The clan this year wants to go back to Italy on the way to Spain. I'm thinking Napoli. Home of the pizza Thanks for the song. Makes me think of eating my first pizza in Melrose Park. I told you guys how my Dad and the owner of the Pizza Garden,Johnny Haircut,ran off these Hell's Angel types with sub machine guns.Then it was back to eating pizza.

Must have been some damned good pizza! What was in it?

[dagosd2000]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1U-vcuw38I

Artificial Flowers

Bobby Darin

[Randyman]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1U-vcuw38I

Artificial Flowers

Bobby Darin

Thanks for that Rog. Bobby Darin ranks as one of my favorite singers. especially "Mack the Knife".

Randy

[dagosd2000]

This is for you Rog, and Pasta Fazool.

Dean Martin
"That's Amore"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aS6-b7CONDI

Randy
The clan this year wants to go back to Italy on the way to Spain. I'm thinking Napoli. Home of the pizza Thanks for the song. Makes me think of eating my first pizza in Melrose Park. I told you guys how my Dad and the owner of the Pizza Garden,Johnny Haircut,ran off these Hell's Angel types with sub machine guns.Then it was back to eating pizza.

Must have been some damned good pizza! What was in it?

WHAT A BLAST
I was 4 years old. Never ate a pizza. My Father takes the family(my Mother and sisters)to this wise guy's place called the Pizza Garden in Melrose Park outside Chicago.The mob guy's name,or what they called him was Johnny Haircut. Anyway we're sitting down ready to order when these motorcycle Ikes(that's what my Dad called them) come cruising up on their Harley's. Well they're scaring everybody. Like that, Johnny Haircut comes up to the Old Man.
"Guiseppe,come with me,"he says calmly.
Next thing I know here come these two dagos from the kitchen with tommy guns. My Dad and Johnny Haircut are shooting these guns off over the heads of these bikers. Man,did those dudes haul ass out of there. Well my father goes back to our table and my Mother starts yelling at him. My sisters are crying,but I took a bite of pizza and fell in love. What do you think happens next?The cook comes out from the back and asks "The Haircut"
"Were those the guys that wanted the pizza to go?"

[Randyman]

Randy
The clan this year wants to go back to Italy on the way to Spain. I'm thinking Napoli. Home of the pizza Thanks for the song. Makes me think of eating my first pizza in Melrose Park. I told you guys how my Dad and the owner of the Pizza Garden,Johnny Haircut,ran off these Hell's Angel types with sub machine guns.Then it was back to eating pizza.

Must have been some damned good pizza! What was in it?

WHAT A BLAST
I was 4 years old. Never ate a pizza. My Father takes the family(my Mother and sisters)to this wise guy's place called the Pizza Garden in Melrose Park outside Chicago.The mob guy's name,or what they called him was Johnny Haircut. Anyway we're sitting down ready to order when these motorcycle Ikes(that's what my Dad called them) come cruising up on their Harley's. Well they're scaring everybody. Like that, Johnny Haircut comes up to the Old Man.
"Guiseppe,come with me,"he says calmly.
Next thing I know here come these two dagos from the kitchen with tommy guns. My Dad and Johnny Haircut are shooting these guns off over the heads of these bikers. Man,did those dudes haul ass out of there. Well my father goes back to our table and my Mother starts yelling at him. My sisters are crying,but I took a bite of pizza and fell in love. What do you think happens next?The cook comes out from the back and asks "The Haircut"
"Were those the guys that wanted the pizza to go?"

Great story Rog. "The haircut" would love this.

Sonny's bar-The Bronx Tale

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2PXb7xKhcI

Randy

[dagosd2000]

Randy
I remember that part in the movie. The thing wrong with it though was those greaseballs didn't fight dirty enough

[Randyman]

My Cousin Rocky Burke is refereeing the main event on Showtime tonight. Chris Avalos vs Jose Nieves.

[Expug]

Great story about Johnny Haircut Rog.
Melrose park is just west of where my wife grew up.
That joint is probably only a mile or two from the house she grew uo in.
Shes from North and Nagle.
Lots and lots of outfit guys all over the place back in the day.

[Expug]

Man, Ive always liked Dean Martin.
Certain guys music just has the ability to put you in a good mood.
Dean Martin does it for me every time. That guy was great.

[Rick Farris]

Since we are approaching 1000 posts this would be a good time to tell you guys thanks. I was not here for the first few months but no sooner did I join than all of you immediately made me feel welcome. This is a site with heart but it's the people that write here and share not only their memories and personal experience in boxing and with boxers but their personal lives as well that make it what it is. I'm proud to be a part of it.

Randy

Correction: It's not 1,000 posts, but 1,000 PAGES! DD

I think this post is just two posts south of 25,000!!!
This makes 24,999 . . .
Isn't it kinda cool that our 25,000th post will fall on our 1000th page. Won't be me. Who?
The 25,000th poster will receive two seats at my table for the 31st WBHOF Banquet in Las Vegas this year.


-Rick Farris
WBHOF Director/Historian

[dagosd2000]

TAKING IT TO THE GRAVE(OR THE BOTTOM OF THE OCEAN)

I know my boundaries when it comes to saying this ain't the time or the place that I want to pack it in. I don't know what it was with those Outfit guys from Chicago,but they never seemed afraid of anything.Now I don't know if they would have charged up San Juan Hill,but when it came to feeling the heat from the Feds,they took it all in stride.

When we moved out to the coast from Chicago sometimes those Outfit guys would come out to California for a visit. Now I don't know if it was specifically to see my Dad or what,but I can see them sitting in our living room now.

I recall going to Sam Giancana's house in Oak Park when we were back in Chicago. Then when we moved out here,I remember being introduced to Chuck"The Typewritter"Nicoletti,Jackie"The Lackey"Cerone,and Frankie LaPorte. Of course I had no idea who those guys were. I found out in my late teens that they all had worked for my grandfather "Diamond Joe" Esposito,along with Al Capone during Prohibition in Chicago.

They never seemed to feel that the Feds were a problem. Then later my Dad told me that J. Edgar Hoover was a fag and that the wise guys had pictures of him and his 2nd in command,Clyde Tolson making it with each other. In fact the Mob guys had Hoover actually protecting them. It wasn't until Bobby Kennedy became the Attorney General that Mob got concerned. That was a part of why JFK got hit.

If my Dad would have stayed in Chicago he might have died a violent death. Nicoletti,Johnny Roselli,and Sam Giancana,who was my Dad's boss all met horrific ends. The House Committee On Assassinations was interested in what those guys were doing on November 22nd,1963. They knew something,but all wound up "sleeping with the fish."

My Dad hated John F. Kennedy. He liked Richard Nixon and when he released Jimmy Hoffa from jail,my Dad thought he was going to catch a break. He never knew what that break was going to be because Hoffa wound uo sleeping with those other spaghetti eaters.All those Neopolitans together at the bottom of the ocean.

Well, Naples has always been noted for pasta with sea food.

[bennie]

As the days gratefully begin to draw out and even one or two cuckoos can be heard (bring on the cider), so we draw closer to Last Chance Saloon for one Audley Harrison. The big southpaw from Harrow, or is it Wembley, or Harlesden, or somewhere in the States – nobody really cares – challenges Poland's gutsy Albert Sosnowski for the European heavyweight title at the famous old Ally Pally in north London on April 9.
Harrison, who failed even to win an English title a couple of years ago, secured his prize in yet another Prizefighter heavyweight event last autumn when he won three bouts in one night, all of them scheduled three-rounders. Audley was pitched right back to his amateur days, which is probably why he won the the damned event. He had mastered the ghastly computer-scoring system in all his years in the unpaid ranks which took him to ABA, Commonwealth and Olympic titles - eventually. He was almost 30 by the time he turned pro on a balmy night in May 2001 against the worst heavyweight I've seen since Chuck Gardner, a red neck by the name of Mike Middleton who you would not want to meet on a canoe trip down a soon-to-be-damned river.
Perhaps Harrison's long-haul success in the amateurs explains why some boxing fans have stayed remarkably patient with him as he proceeded to disappoint or frustrate time and time again in the pros. Harrison, now pushing 39, was flattened by the much smaller but quicker Michael Sprott on his own part-time Wembley patch for the English belt and outgamed by Belfast's gutsy but limited Martin Rogan on the way to a points defeat. He was also outpointed in a dreary affair by Danny Williams - again after tasting the canvas (much to the amusement of promoter F rank Warren) - and to a similar reluctant type in America's Dominick Guinn after 10 dull rounds in California.
Otherwise, it is success all the way for the surly Londoner, but success breeds boredom, in his case. If Harrison does win, he does just enough to win, although he did 'jump' on an out-of-shape Williams in a return and halted him, prematurely I thought (the crowd booed the stoppage). Every dog has its day. Writer Graham Houston says Harrison fights so safety-first because he knows his chin is nothing. Why else would such a huge man with obvious boxing ability, fitness, fast hands and the occasional show of strength and a big shot, prove so reluctant to mix it?
Thankfully, Sosnowski is just the opposite, a true fighting man, a man who makes the most of his ability and opportunities. He grabbed his first opportunity against Williams in London in 2008, a Williams who, this time, was in shape. Danny had trained hard to face John McDermott in a rematch to a controversial first fight. McDermott pulled out injured and in came Sosnowski at desperately short notice and knocked Williams down and out in the eighth round. Today, people say Williams is 'shot'. They weren't saying it before Sosnowski. The 30-year-old Warsaw battler, powerful-looking and a decent banger, if a little stiff in the Frank Bruno mould, stepped up again a fight later when he ventured to Germany and snatched an excellent 12-round draw with the unbeaten Francesco Pianeta. To paraphrase Joe Jacobs, "He wuz robbed!" Pianeta, a giant southpaw like Audley, recently busted up and stopped Matt Skelton, so it really was a fine performance from Sosnowski and earned him a break here for the vacant European title against 39-year-old Italian Paolo Vidoz – a man outscored by Harrison in the 2000 Olympics – and outmuscled by the Pole on the way to a unanimous decision for the big belt last month.
Sosnowski is a modern day Duane Bobick, strong and willing but missing something, somehow. He has a great record against a lot of old men - men as old as Audley – but was held back until the Williams scalp and you wonder why. He will obviously come to win in April but is probably no better than Harrison, who is already making hollow 'feelers' at a crack at WBA heavyweight title David Haye, although Haye has yet another stinking opponent to think about in John Ruiz on April 3 in Manchester (a fight he will undoubtedly win but not necessarily in style).
To conclude, Harrison ranks as the Joe Bugner of the 21st century, thinking more about money than he does the fans. For once in his nine-year career Harrison has to think about the fans, the performance and the title. Even his own mother will finally give up on him if he runs yet again on the way to defeat.

[scartissue]

Great story about Johnny Haircut Rog.
Melrose park is just west of where my wife grew up.
That joint is probably only a mile or two from the house she grew uo in.
Shes from North and Nagle.
Lots and lots of outfit guys all over the place back in the day.

Brian, as you know, Melrose Park, Addison and Elmwood Park were just a few of the Chicago burbs which were/are heavily Italian populated. It seems that when the old west side began changing, the Italians moved west while the Irish moved North and South, I guess to give everyone breathing room. I think I mentioned this before that when my parents arrived on these shores in the mid '50s they lived around Polk and Pulaski and then Adams and Pulaski, in old St. Mel's parish, which I'm sure Roger remembers. Then they bought their first house around '62 around Chicago and Laramie in Our Lady Help of Christians parish (it's funny, that is how everyone knew where you lived by referencing what parish you lived in). By '68 we left the west side for good as areas changed leaving only memories.

Scartissue

[kikibalt]

Happy Birthday to our friend Rick Farris.....