They Call Me Baba Booey by Gary Dell'abate;Chad Millman

Author:Gary Dell'abate;Chad Millman
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Radio Producers and Directors, Performing Arts, Entertainment & Performing Arts, General, Personal Memoirs, Radio, Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1400069556
Publisher: Spiegel & Grau
Published: 2010-01-02T07:00:00+00:00

I have one more memory of the Nassau Coliseum, and it might be the greatest athletic achievement of my entire life.

Back in 1989, Howard and I once got into a discussion on the show about how he believed he was a better athlete than me. He had a tennis court at his house and every once in a while he’d invite me out there and we’d play. He always beat me, but he was taking lessons every week while I played once every three or four years. Truly, I thought we were pretty evenly matched.

Still he kept saying on the air that he was a much better player and that he could actually kick my ass. He laid down the challenge, so we decided we were going to play one more time, once and for all, to settle the matter.

This conversation took place first thing in the morning, as soon as the show went on the air. By seven o’clock someone had called in and said, “I’d like to see you play.”

Good idea, we decided. So then we talked about going to a public court where people could watch. But it continued to evolve. Another listener called and said, “I live in Jersey and there’s a public court out here that has bleachers.” Fantastic, we thought, let’s go there. Next a guy who worked for the Trump Plaza in Atlantic City offered to let us use his four-thousand-seat arena. We could sell tickets! It had morphed from Howard giving me shit to a for-pay exhibition in less than two hours. Then it got so much bigger.

My buddy Ross was working for Ron Delsener, a concert promoter. He said he could get us the Nassau Coliseum, a sixteen-thousand-seat arena, if we were interested. It took a day for the deal to come together. The next morning we announced that the match would be held there. Within four hours the entire joint was sold out. We called it the “U.S. Open Sores” tournament.

This was a place that meant the world to me. I had had my internships there and had gone to Islanders and Nets games there. I’d seen every concert of importance there. Now I was going to be the main event.

When we arrived at the Coliseum the day of the tournament we wanted to warm up. I had on a bright pink warm-up jacket and jeans; Howard wore a bright turquoise shirt and never took off his sunglasses. We hit the ball for a few minutes, then Grandpa from The Munsters, Al Lewis, showed up, chomping on a cigar and wearing a fedora. Al, Robin, and Fred the Elephant Boy, one of the original Wack Packers, were going to be the announcers. While having his makeup applied, Howard piled it on again, telling the camera, “I’m going to kick his ass.” Then they cut to me in my bright pink warm-up jacket and blue tennis shorts.

Finally, we played. Howard was introduced as the mentally fit, empty-jocked radio god. I was the oafish and dim-witted Gary “Beaver Teeth” Dell’Abate.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.