The exciting life of a sportswriter
Posted by: Peter Abraham - Posted in Misc on Feb 17, 2008 
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I’ve been staying in hotels while chasing around teams for 20 years or so. Last night was the Worst Night Ever.
After a nice dinner with Mark Feinsand of the Daily News and Sweeny Murti of WFAN, I did a little writing and got to sleep around 11:30.
I woke up two hours later to the piercing sound of the hotel alarm system. I did what I normally do in such situations, I looked in the hallway for a fire, saw none then went back to bed. The alarm stopped a few minutes later.
Then came a knock on the door. Seems the alarm was related to a pipe breaking in a room above mine. The hallway outside my room had a puddle and the water was seeping into my room under the walls, through the door and from the ceiling.
Meanwhile, a few electrical outlets on that wall started making this buzzing sound. That’s not a good sign.
Went down to the lobby where a friendly Tampa cop told me my room wasn’t safe. I had sort of figured that out. But the hotel was sold out. The kid at the front desk, who was tremendously helpful, booked me into the Intercontinental about a mile away.
My hotel will get me into a new room today. I took a change of clothes, my toothbrush and my laptop to the Intercontinental and put the rest of my belongings on the bed. As I was packing, water was flowing into my room like high tide coming ashore in Martha’s Vineyard.
By the time I got in bed at the new hotel, it was 3:30 a.m. So I got about three hours of sleep. So today would not be a good day to e-mail asking some inane question. I can’t be responsible for the answer.
Is Pavano staying in the room above yours?
Sorry to hear that. If it makes you feel better, the high in Tampa is not 36°, and you get to cover the New York Yankees and get paid for it. And you don’t need to deal with Randy Johnson anymore.
Pete,
Get off the Bruce Springsteen music and listen to some DEATH METAL to keep you awake!!!!!!
Straight from Tampa, FL:
http://www.myspace.com/obituary
Enjoy
i do have a question: is it now common american usage to say “i do not recall…” (conversations, events)? (I do not live in the USA)
I have been reading this expression every day or so in many newspaper articles. latest is jason giambi denying some conversation he may or may not have had with R. Clemens.
as for me personally, if I were telling the truth about something, I would say point blank: “never happened”. This “i don’t recall” stuff leaves you open to say: “well i didn’t remember it” when it comes out that the conversation indeed did happen. it gives the impression of “waffling”.
But then again, this may be current US usage.
Given a choice, would you prefer 36 degrees and partly sunny weather and 10 hours of sleep ? Yep, the answer is NO.
That was God’s little way of reminding you that Tampa plays host to a wide assortment of cultural opportunities at night. Heed His word, my son.
Sorry you had a bad night Pete. Remember that life is all about perspective.
Give your sister a call today and ask how many nights 3 hours sleep would have been a luxury when your niece or nephew were babies.
bardos — there are only three ways to answer a legal question that won’t result in perjury — yes (if truthful), no (if truthful) and I don’t recall. If you say “I don’t recall” you can’t be guilty of perjury.
…Have a good Breakfast; some good coffee; and maybe some wonderful sightings of some great-looking girls (or ladies) today, Pete !!!
Maybe catch some some interesting baseball – but most certainly be on the watch for the good-looking girls to make today a better day !!!
(entered on other thread by accident – can’t erase)
bardos-
i think it’s more accurate when talking about something that was said a long time ago to say that you have no memory of something being said if you do indeed have no memory of something being said. if seven years ago you said to a waiter ” i’ll have the broiled flounder”, you are not likely to remember it. if someone asks you seven years later if you said that to a waiter the accurate response would be ” i don’t remember” or “i don’t recall and not” it never happened” because it could have happened.
if someone questioned you about something memorable like whether you had admitted cheating on a spouse or saying you killed someone and you knew these things never happened , then it would be safe to say “it never happened that i said those things” because you’d reason that there’s be no way you would have said that.
the problem is that you might have been kidding around seven years ago and said to someone sarcastically “oh yeah, i cheated on my wife” meaning that you didn’t really. so now someone has to interpret your words. they may remember it differently than you do 7 years later. context, a person’s verbal ability, sarcasm,kidding, trying to be funny are all things that can make words mean different things.
the simple thing to remember is that a word is not the same thing as a real thing. words don’t mean something happened. i can think of all kinds of reasons why pettitte’s words from seven years ago don’t mean much and certainly not enough to punish roger clemens.
i hope andy when he comes to camp says that’s he’s said as much as he’s going to say and is moving on. time to play baseball.
“If you say “I don’t recall†you can’t be guilty of perjury.”
Unless of course there is some pretty irrefutable evidence that you most certainly do recall ; )
On the whole perjury’s not as big a prosecutor’s favorite as one might think. In fact this might be the Golden Age of Perjury prosecutions. If you lie to a jury and are convicted, there’s no point in prosecuting you for perjury afterward. You got convicted and the sentencing judge can use your lack of candor as an aggravating factor in your sentence. If you lie on the stand to a jury or a grand jury and are not convicted or indicted, it looks like sour grapes and vindictiveness to then prosecute you for not saying what the prosecutor wanted you to say. So, unless it’s a very, very serious situation, like a homicide, there’s a reluctance to go after such a witness solely for perjury.
In Bond’s case don’t forget they have a failed drug test, so they can prove he used Steroids. The government still has to prove, however, that he knowingly used steroids. But the Bonds case also involves him reneging on a grant of immunity under in exchange for admission that he used steroids received from BALCO. Clemens hasn’t gone that far… yet.
By the way, my sympathies on your lousy night, Pete. I’m a bear without my proper sleep. Try thinking that you had a late night out and let the fresh air, the sun and the scenery get you through it. You’ll get your second wind after lunch.
so Pete…why is the sky bluer above a baseball field and why don’t bat boys and ball boys hate each other?
I have a 17 month old daughter, so the word sleep is foreign tome. Though she is getting older, it’s getting better, but the teething thing is insane. Hard to believe we all went through it as babies.
Pete, just pretend you are Brian Bruney & grab a nice 2 hour nap around 1pm in the clubhouse. You will feel like a million bucks, I promise.
Pete: Remember what Warren Zevon said.
That stinks Pete, tell the Journal News to spring for a furnished apartment.
Hey Pete, we appreciate what you do!
I hope your hotel upgrades you to some sort of presidential suite tonight when you go back or at least comp you a big steak dinner if they’re still fully booked.
boo hoo Peter. At least you had a bed to sleep in. Like the line from the 80′s tune goes “well tonight thank god it’s them, instead of you.”. Actually that sounds really mean doesn’t it?
Pete – Can you swim?
hey pete – why do the yanks wear blue?
You know when you hear a alarm you try to run from the building you are in.No wonder schoold have fire alarm drills it’s more complicated then you think.
Pete;
what’s the capital of Armenia?
Name 3 presidents from Virginia.
Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?
Now go back to sleep, big fella!
Pete if you had said h2O was coming in like the Titanic I’d
really feel for you,but you ARE ok, and that’s great.