Although St. John’s in general is a special part of my life, I have to admit that St. John’s football, has drifted to the backwaters of my psyche over the last 9 months. As revved up as we get during the course of a season, a well-rounded Johnnie does not live on football alone.
Speaking of well-rounded, the pounds had slowly been creeping up on the Finsleft belly, so about the time last season ended, I started on a diet losing 25 lbs. over the winter. Still could lose a few more and 5 of those lost have found their way back home.
Ran into several young alums in St. Anna on February 6, attending the 30th Annual Beer Can Toss at the St. Anna Sports Bar & Grille,
St. Anna Can Toss
f/k/a Cone’s, f/k/a Ellen’s, f/k/a Bill’s Bar. Among those getting a taste of rural Stearns culture were Billy Ryan, Josh Overman, and son Charlie Burns. Josh is the nephew of former owner Ellen, who still cooks up a storm there on special occasions.
Ice fishing on Pearl Lake was a January pastime of current Johnnies (Class of 2013) Luke Merickel, Eddie Mielke, Christian Forster and son William Burns.
Sailing St. Barth's
In March I was able to enjoy the company of fellow Johnnie alums Chris DeChaine and Jim DeChaine and others on our mostly-annual sailing trip. This year we explored the waters around St. Maarten and St. Bart’s for a relaxing week.
Since April it’s been work, Twins baseball and not nearly enough time at the lake. I’ve had some enjoyable times this season at Target Field with our johnniefootball.com’s own Touchdown Tommie, Dave Verkuilen, a/k/a Veek, Larry Schultz a/k/a LBean. These aliases, of course, are our handles on the great bulletin board chat of d3boards.com. Check it out if you haven’t already.
Time to shut ‘er down and head to the Twins game with my former SJU roommates Bob Unger, Kurt Nierengarten and Mark Williams.
See y’all at the game on Saturday. Tailgate starts at 10:30 in the usual spot. Bring an item to share. Mike Fahey a/k/a Johnnie Red will be grilling up the famous Stiftungsfest burgers as we kick off the start of another season.
GO JOHNNIES!
