Classic American West Coast Boxing

[Rick Farris]

Frank, I enjoy your writing very much. I don't know if you realize that many of us are getting a huge cultural experience as well as boxing history lessons and geographical California education everytime you post a story. Especially those of us not from the West Coast. Thank You.

Combine this with the story threads from Randy and Rick and one gets the feeling of anxiety when not being able to check out this forum room and what we might have missed if we are gone a few days.
Its tough not check in every day to see whats happening or whats been said. Kudos to all who make this room a "Happening" place to be !

And this includes you, Charlie!

[raylawpc]

I read something about a Jim Jeffries exhibition somewhere... anyone know if its still up? And if so where?



PF

The Burbank Historical Society used to have a small exhibit on Jeffries. It was mostly some photographs and some old boxing gloves, as I recall. I do not know whether the exhibit is still up. However, IMHO, it is not worth driving to Burbank just for the Jeffries exhibit. But if you are going to be in Burbank anyway, its worth dropping by. The problem is the Historical Society is only open Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. It is located on Lomita Street, between Clark and West Olive, in George Izay Park. You might call first before you go in case the exhibit has closed. (818) 841-6333. There is not much in LA that remains from Jeffries' days.

If you want to pay your respects to him, he is buried in Inglewood at the Inglewood Park Cemetery not too far from LAX. Address: 720 East Florence Avenue. His grave is not hard to find, as it is in the family plot near the entrance. As you approach the big elk statue at the entrance gate, look to your right and you should see a big tombstone with "Jeffries" inscribed on it. That's his family's plot.

Also buried at the Inglewood Memorial Garden are Sugar Ray Robinson and Tommy Ryan. Robinson's grave is hard to find - you will have to ask directions at the office. Ryan is interred in the Golden West Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Reverence area. The brass inscription on his crypt says "Tommy Ryan (Edward Youngs) 1870-1947." Youngs was his real name. You will have to look closely to find it because the inscription has grown dark with age and is hard to read.

There are other famous people buried there too: Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Grable, Johnnie Cochran, to name a few. But Jeffries, Ryan and Robinson are the only boxers, I think.

[Rick Farris]

You know boxing is f ucked up when someone like Margarito gets hammered like this, despite his loaded bandages, and is now in line for a Pacquiao payday.

Thats why more and more I'm getting away from boxing....

Same here, Frank. Contemporary boxing is of no interest to me.
I fully enjoy reading and writing about boxers of the past.
I guess that's why we are involved with Halls of Fame. Memories, good ones, of great boxing.

[Panzerfaust]

I read something about a Jim Jeffries exhibition somewhere... anyone know if its still up? And if so where?



PF

The Burbank Historical Society used to have a small exhibit on Jeffries. It was mostly some photographs and some old boxing gloves, as I recall. I do not know whether the exhibit is still up. However, IMHO, it is not worth driving to Burbank just for the Jeffries exhibit. But if you are going to be in Burbank anyway, its worth dropping by. The problem is the Historical Society is only open Saturdays and Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. It is located on Lomita Street, between Clark and West Olive, in George Izay Park. You might call first before you go in case the exhibit has closed. (818) 841-6333. There is not much in LA that remains from Jeffries' days.

If you want to pay your respects to him, he is buried in Inglewood at the Inglewood Park Cemetery not too far from LAX. Address: 720 East Florence Avenue. His grave is not hard to find, as it is in the family plot near the entrance. As you approach the big elk statue at the entrance gate, look to your right and you should see a big tombstone with "Jeffries" inscribed on it. That's his family's plot.

Also buried at the Inglewood Memorial Garden are Sugar Ray Robinson and Tommy Ryan. Robinson's grave is hard to find - you will have to ask directions at the office. Ryan is interred in the Golden West Mausoleum, Sanctuary of Reverence area. The brass inscription on his crypt says "Tommy Ryan (Edward Youngs) 1870-1947." Youngs was his real name. You will have to look closely to find it because the inscription has grown dark with age and is hard to read.

There are other famous people buried there too: Ella Fitzgerald, Betty Grable, Johnnie Cochran, to name a few. But Jeffries, Ryan and Robinson are the only boxers, I think.

Thanks Tom I didnt know Robinson was buried in California

[Randyman]

Moniker's for our poster's, its still a work in progress. Need last names for Paul and Bennie...

Randy "The Plane" De La O

Rick "The Light" Farris

Tom "The Mouthpiece" Ray

Bennie "The Short"

Roger "Meatballs" Esty

Paul "Spaghetti"

Frank "The Godfather" Baltazar

[Randyman]

You know boxing is f ucked up when someone like Margarito gets hammered like this, despite his loaded bandages, and is now in line for a Pacquiao payday.

Thats why more and more I'm getting away from boxing....

Same here, Frank. Contemporary boxing is of no interest to me.
I fully enjoy reading and writing about boxers of the past.
I guess that's why we are involved with Halls of Fame. Memories, good ones, of great boxing.

I understand how you guys feel. I still follow boxing but I do so knowing it is not the sport it once was. I don't want, what I believe to be the greatest sport on the planet, to disappear. I've said it before and I'll say it again. Somewhere, in a small gym or a garage perhaps, in Anytown, USA, there is a young kid shadowboxing in front of a mirror, maybe hitting the bag, listening, wide eyed to his trainer or his father, hanging on every word. He may be someone we have already seen fighting, still working out the kinks but he's out there. He's just around the corner, We'll know him when we see him.

Randy

[bennie]

Moniker's for our poster's, its still a work in progress. Need last names for Paul and Bennie...

Randy "The Plane" De La O

Rick "The Light" Farris

Tom "The Mouthpiece" Ray

Bennie "The Short"

Roger "Meatballs" Esty

Paul "Spaghetti"

Randy De La Duran

Tom "Jones" Ray

Frankie "Style" Baltazar

Bennie "The Short"

Roger "Missing in Action" Esty

Rick "Casting Couch" Farris

[bennie]

I really like Bennie "The Short".


I forgot Dan


Dan "Disembowel" Hanley

[raylawpc]

In my brief and particularly unspectacular amateur career, I wore white trunks with "Sugar Ray" embossed on them. There is a funny story (at least, I think its funny) about a black guy's reaction to that name on my trunks, but some might think it racist, so I won't repeat it here.

If you called me Tom "Too Tall' Ray, then bennie and I could be the "long and short of boxrec."

[kikibalt]

In my brief and particularly unspectacular amateur career, I wore white trunks with "Sugar Ray" embossed on them. There is a funny story (at least, I think its funny) about a black guy's reaction to that name on my trunks, but some might think it racist, so I won't repeat it here.

If you called me Tom "Too Tall' Ray, then bennie and I could be the "long and short of boxrec."

[kikibalt]

Bennie & Tom
The Mutt & Jeff of CAWCB

[Panzerfaust]

Bennie & Tom
The Mutt & Jeff of CAWCB

[raylawpc]

Bennie & Tom
The Mutt & Jeff of CAWCB

The sad thing is . . . if Bennie grew a mustache, we actually look kind of like that . . .

[Randyman]

It's guys like Robert Guerrero that give me hope for boxing's future.-Randy

Courtesy of the Long Beach Press Telegram

Robert Guerrero, right, stopped boxing to help his wife Casey, left, through her fight with leukemia. (Contributed)


Copenhagen, DENMARK: US' Robert Guerrero (R) poses 23 February 2007 after winning the vacant IBF cruiserweight world champion title against Spend Abazi of Denmark , in Copenhagen. Guerrero won on technical knockout after eight rounds. AFP PHOTO/SCANPIX/LARS MOELLER (Photo credit should read LARS MOELLER/AFP/Getty Images) (LARS MOELLER)

The Fight Of A Lifetime

BOXING: Ex-champ Guerrero back in the ring after supporting his wife through her bout with leukemia.
By Robert Morales Staff Writer

Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero has been boxing a long time, and has taken his share of hits.

But none hurt more than the one he took last August when he found out his wife, Casey, had a relapse of leukemia after having been declared in remission in January 2009.

"It's just like getting your head knocked off, knowing what you have already been through with her and seeing what she had been through," said Guerrero, who Saturday will fight Joel Casamayor on the undercard of the Juan Manuel Marquez-Juan Diaz lightweight title fight at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas (on HBO pay-per-view). "It's like, `Here we go again.'

"You can only go through so many treatments when your body stops taking the chemotherapy. Chemo only works so long. As you relapse, the sickness gets immune to it and it keeps coming back."

Guerrero relinquished the super featherweight title he had just won with a unanimous decision over Malcolm Klassen, announced he was taking a hiatus from boxing and embarked on a bone-marrow registry journey with his wife that reached Europe, where a suitable donor was found.

It was the miracle the religious Guerreros had been praying for.

"That it was so far away, it was pretty exciting," said Casey Guerrero, who underwent a successful transplant in February and has been declared free of the disease. "I was just really shocked that somebody from across the (world) would actually be the match for me."

Casey Guerrero was diagnosed with leukemia in November 2007. The day before Robert Guerrero fought Edel Ruiz on Jan. 24, 2009, at Staples Center, he received the news his wife was in remission. He was all smiles while telling reporters about it after his first-round stoppage of Ruiz.

Guerrero fought twice more, then won his second world title with the victory over Klassen on Aug. 22, 2009. The relapse was discovered shortly thereafter and talk of the bone marrow transplant - which was needed to save Casey's life - began.

"That's when it started getting really scary, when they say you have a 50 percent chance of making it, and a 50 percent chance of not making it," Robert Guerrero said.

Guerrero began attending preparatory classes with his wife as a prelude to the procedure. Giving up the title, as well as a potential fight with Michael Katsidis that would have been televised by HBO, was the right thing to do. But it wasn't easy.

"It's always a tough decision when it's something you have worked for your whole life and you have it right there in your hands and you have to let it go," said Guerrero, 27.

Guerrero (26-1-1, 18 KOs) fights for Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions. It was Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer who received the call from Guerrero informing him of his decision.

"People have to understand when you're a young kid growing up and decide that you want to become a fighter, the dream you have is to become world champion, have that belt around your waist," Schaefer said. "And Robert achieved that.

"And for him to walk away from that, to give up that title and not hesitating for a second ... that shows you he's a man with the right values, shows you what kind of person he is outside of the ring. He really is an amazing young man."

Equally amazing is that, through it all, this solid bond between childhood sweethearts from Gilroy has grown even more.

"I was glad he was by my side during this whole process because it was scary," Casey Guerrero said. "It (their relationship) has actually gotten stronger."

Casey Guerrero is smart enough to know nothing is for sure. She had a biopsy this week and expects the results next week.

But the Guerreros, who have two children, appear to have a bright future.

Robert Guerrero will be looking to solidify it with a victory over Casamayor in their junior welterweight fight. For the first time in a while, Guerrero will fight with a relatively clear head.

"I believe Robert "The Ghost" Guerrero has the ability to go as far as he wants to go because he's been fighting distracted, he's been fighting with all this anger in him, with so many emotions thinking of his wife," De La Hoya said.

"Now we're going to see the real Robert `The Ghost' Guerrero in the ring. He's going to fight like he should fight, being worry free."

"The Ghost" is hopeful he will continue to see his wife at her best, too.

"Thank God, she's doing well," said Guerrero, who said he never lost his faith. "There was never a doubt in my mind that God was there. That's what got us through."

Casey Guerrero didn't get to see her husband's first fight back - a victory over Roberto Arrieta in April in Las Vegas - because it was too soon after the transplant. But she'll be ringside Saturday.

"I'm really excited," she said. "I can't wait to be there to support him."

Just like he supported her.

[email protected]

[THEHAMMER321]

Frank it is Paul ''spaghetti'' Zappulla. or as I am known to a lot of people around Vegas Paul zee

[THEHAMMER321]

Frank how was the menudo today.

[Expug]

One for the boys from Merle.
Its a good fighters song.
Billy Conn once said "making a fighter work a job is like strapping a racehorse to a sh.twagon.
This reminds me of that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klCl3L6oc1w

[THEHAMMER321]

“The '50's”
By Frank Baltazar

1950 was the year I turn 14 years old. Nothing much happened that years aside from going to the Olympic to see Art Aragon beat up on my hero Enrique Bolanos and Beto's brother stealing our rabbits for his wedding dinner.

1951 was the year I got my first tattoo (“kiki”-51-) on my right arm. Went to see Art Aragon fight Jimmy Carter twice, with Keeny Teran fighting on the under card on the second fight, also got to see Enrique Bolanos fight Eddie Chavez and Keeny fighting Gil Cadilli on the same card at the Hollywood Legion. Late summer-early fall went to Moorpark, Ca. to pick walnuts, had a great time in Moorpark, fooled around more then work .

1952 was the year that the Simons Brickyard became part of history, a history that left us with some happy and sad memories, happy because even though we were dirt poor we still led a happy life, sad because we had to leave the only home we had known, I wrote some of my memories of the brickyard before, no use in getting into them here. It was in August that we left Simons for good, got on my dad buddy's truck and headed north to Hollister, Ca. where we found work picking prunes, after we were done with harvesting the prunes we worked picking grapes in a mountain range called “El Gavilan”, after two weeks of picking grapes we headed back to SoCal. We lived with my maternal grandparents in Pico, now Pico-Rivera, Ca. until my dad was able to find us a house to live in, which wasn't long. Late '52 I started working the weekends at the Whittier Car Wash and I was ready to buy my first car, which I did in December, I bought a 1938 four door Chevy that ran more on oil then gas for 55 dollars, five bucks a week.

1953 was a non-script year, beside meeting girls nothing much happened, going to school, working the weekends at the car wash and cruising and listening to Hunter Hancock play R&B music on my ride was the order of the day.

1954 started out the same as '53, that is until April, when I met Connie. In the summer after working up north for a bit I started working full time at the car wash and that gave me some money to put oil in my car and take her to eat at “The Spot” on Olympic Bl. in Montebello, Ca. On Sundays I would get paid and get off work at 2:00 PM, after going home to clean up, I would go pick Connie up at her house in Jimtown, go to The Spot and order a pastrami for each of us, after eating it was time to cruise the barrios, Simons, Canta Rana's, Jimtown, El Ranchito, and of course E.L.A..
As the summer turned into fall things with Connie and I were getting serious, in December we decided to get married, it was a great way for Connie and I to end the year.

1955 was a time for both Connie and I to get used to married life, I went to work full time at a car dealership (paint shop) and Connie stay home, it was a quiet year., not much happening.

1956 was a big year for us, after nearly two years of marriage our first child was born, our beautiful daughter Linda was born on August 21, remember going to pick Connie and baby Linda up from Los Angeles County General Hospital with my late sister Mary Ellen's then boyfriend, later husband, Danny, and goofing off like kids in the hallway of the hospital. Connie and I spent the rest of '56 bonding with our baby.

1957 was again a quiet year. Watch Linda take her first steps as she turned 1 year old, it was also the year I turned 21, I could now drink a beer legally. I can't say how old Connie was without maybe getting thrown in jail.

1958 was another big year for Connie and I with the birth of our first son, Fernie, who was born on April 14. He was later to be known in the boxing world as Frankie Baltazar Jr.. Not long after Fernie was born a friend of Connie's asked her if she would like a job, after we talked it over she decided to take the job, which is how I be came a kept man later on in our marriage.

1959-'60 we spent all our free time watching Linda and Fernie grow and do what kids do.
It was, all in all a great decade to be alive.

I enjoy stories of a by gone era as I think we all do on here, otherwise we would be on the forum getting insulted by Granberry and company

[Randyman]

One for the boys from Merle.
Its a good fighters song.
Billy Conn once said "making a fighter work a job is like strapping a racehorse to a sh.twagon.
This reminds me of that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klCl3L6oc1w

Brian, as you know, I am a Merle Haggard fan and have been for many years. That song, "The Way I am" could be my calling card. It hits me way down deep whenever I hear it. Straight to the heart.

When I first hired on at McDonnell Douglas in January of 1979 I still had expectations of getting back into the ring. I still had dreams of being a fighter again. I just needed to take care of a few things first.

Things don't always work out the way we want but we learn to make the best of the hand we are dealt. I tried to come back in 1980 after Mel Passed away, training under Larry Soto. During those years life was coming at me like a tidal wave. I always had things or people to take care of.

Now I'm getting old(er) and I don't play by their rules any more, I raised my kids and worked my ass off for the company for 32 years. I go in if and when I feel like it and I don't take any sh*t. It wasn't a job I chose for myself but I stuck it out but like the song says:

"The way I am, don't fit my shackles.
The way I am, reality.
I can almost see that bobber dancin',
So I just dream, keep on bein' the way I am."

I'm not b*tching, just sharing. Life is a trade off. God gave me Jeri and the kids, instead of a boxing career. Still, there isn't a day that goes by that I don't think "what if...."? I know I'm not alone.

Maybe that's why when I see a young kid that fights with a love of fighting and with a big heart, I'll support him. Maybe I'm just living vicariously.

Brian, thanks for posting that song.

Randy

[Randyman]

Frank it is Paul ''spaghetti'' Zappulla. or as I am known to a lot of people around Vegas Paul zee

Paulie, today I had a sausage and peppers sandwich. With the hot sausages. I get them at Foggias Deli http://www.foggiadeli.com/tv.asp Jeri had the meatball sandwich with provolone. They were great DD

Randy

[Randyman]

The Way I am by Merle Haggard
Written by Sonny Throckmorton

Wish I was down on some blue bayou,
With a bamboo cane stuck in the sand.
But the road I'm on, don't seem to go there,
So I just dream, keep on bein' the way I am.
Wish I enjoyed what makes my living,
Did what I do with a willin' hand.
Some would run, ah, but that ain't like me.
So I just dream and keep on bein' the way I am.

The way I am, don't fit my shackles.
The way I am, reality.
I can almost see that bobber dancin',
So I just dream, keep on bein' the way I am.

The way I am, don't fit my shackles.
The way I am, reality.
I can almost see that bobber dancin',
So I just dream, keep on bein' the way I am.

I just dream, keep on bein' the way I am.

[THEHAMMER321]

Randy if you are ever in Vegas, my favorite Italian restaurant is Nora's on Flamingo about a mile west of the Palms casino, not expensive or fancy just good food.

[Randyman]

Randy if you are ever in Vegas, my favorite Italian restaurant is Nora's on Flamingo about a mile west of the Palms casino, not expensive or fancy just good food.

Paulie, I'm going to take you up on that someday!

[kikibalt]

Frank how was the menudo today.

No menudo today, Paul Spaghetti, went for the huevo con chorizo instead

[kikibalt]

Randy if you are ever in Vegas, my favorite Italian restaurant is Nora's on Flamingo about a mile west of the Palms casino, not expensive or fancy just good food.

Paulie, I'm going to take you up on that someday!

My son James, his daughter Keana and his girlfriend Ronny will be in Vegas this weekend...