The gauntlet was thrown down last spring, and it was a raucous but lighthearted basketball challenge between Senator Scott Brown and Springfield's Reverend Talbert Swan at the Dunbar Y Community Center in Springfield.
It was a charity event for the benefit of the Path to Manhood program, and the recently destroyed South End Community Center. Both teams were aided by a bevy of local politicos.
Both teams came out swinging and came here to win. The game was fast paced and as typical a little bit physical, but the mood always remained in the spirit of good fun and charity.
Brown defends against Swan.
Brown takes a shot.
Brown is knocked down, and helped up by Sarno.
Brown's team discusses strategy.
Swan and Brown race up the court.
Sarno takes a free throw.
Sarno defends against Rivera.
Neal makes a pass.
Williams and Rivera take a break.
Brown cools off.
A moment of levity between play.
Suddenly, late in the game, Swan goes down with an injury.
Brown helped Swan back on his feet.
and Swan is helped off the court.
The game resumes as the final minutes wind down...
...culminating in a literal last second basket- putting Swan's team one point ahead for an exciting win.
The crowd, of course, went wild.
It was a great game for the players to play, the spectators to watch, and the charities to benefit. A three point shot.
I joined a solemn crowd of onlookers at recently fallen Springfield police officer Kevin Ambrose's funeral procession. The procession made it's way from the funeral service at St. Catherine of Siena church on Parker Street in Springfield, and moved north to nearby Hillcrest Park Cemetery.
I was privy to a press pass for the Massachusetts Democratic Convention, in order to assist Mary Serreze of Northampton Media and that site's never ending quest for local news dissemination and tranparancy.
Basically, her regular photo people couldn't make it, and she threw this eager doggy a bone.
I'm not much of a Democrat, but it was intensely interesting to be allowed to stir about deep in the bowels of such a large local political mechanization, virtually at will. The press platform, back hallways, hidden bathrooms, doorways to be buzzed through, squirming between suspicious and large security-type folk, getting nearer the dais platforms for close ups. Flash the pass, I was in. It was cool.
But while I was having fun playing Jimmy Olsen, more serious matters were afoot. Namely, the nomination of the Democratic challenger to Senator Scott Brown. The players came to play.
I stumbled upon a pre-nomination pep rally going on in one of the conference rooms, apparently put on by the AFL-CIO. It was packed and raucous. A series of speakers rallied the cheering crowd, by Governor Deval Patrick, always a potent speaker, who set them clapping and hooting to new heights.
The crowd was virtually frothing by the time the woman of the hour, Elizabeth Warren, made her entrance.
She was energetic and fiery, imploring the crowd for their help in unseating the Republican Senator.
Out in the main floor, the seats had just about filled up, and the Democratic nominees or their representatives worked the mass of Mass delegates.
I didn't see Ms. Defranco, Warren's challenger, in my travels. Also I was not around when she spoke on stage, so unfortunately she won't get much representation on this blog post. Other than to say she needed to get 15% of the delegate vote to compete in a primary with Warren. It didn't happen.
Warren, who just plainly out-supported and out-endorsed Defranco, moved about the delegate crowd with confidence.
Up on stage, all the Democratic politicians made their appearances and speaches. The Crowd loving every minute.
Several impassioned speeches were heard...
...with one of the best from Deval Patrick.
All in all a successful affair for Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren...
