A gift from Smokin' Joe Frazier

Jon Marks, a sportswriter I know through the Philadelphia Sports Writers Association--wrote a piece about Joe Frazier packing a wallop...with his mouth.

Check it out here.

I don't know about his mouth, but I'm very familiar with the wallop that his giant hands can deliver. He slugged me in the gut right before this picture was taken in 2003 when I interviewed him for the first time.

You can read the story on the Philadelphia Boxing Examiner site here.

I still love to tell people that I took a punch from a man who beat Ali.

Racing against depression at Philadelphia Park

On Monday, September 7, I covered the Pennsylvania Derby at Philadelphia Park.

To read the short Q&A piece which appeared in the Center City Weekly Press, click here.

To read the feature story (this is the way I wanted to do the story) that appeared on page 5 of the North Brevard Beacon in Florida, click here. This story also ran in The Bloodhorse, a racing magazine, but the magazine is not available online so I can't link to it.

It was the kind of assignment I like, checking something out and seeing what story I could find.

While enjoying a beer and tearing up my losing ticket after the first race, my story found me when Charlie Gillespie approached me in the owners' & media section.

Gillespie, a retired art teacher, was saved from his Clinical Depression by getting involved with a little race horse named Bunker Hill, who was racing in the million-dollar-purse Pennsylvania Derby later in the day.

(Photo by A. N. Torres)

Watch Bunker Hill run in the 2009 Pennsylvania Derby Race! Click here.