A Night With The BLOHARDS

Last night I had the pleasure of spending the evening watching the Red Sox-Indians game with many members of the BLOHARDS, at Earl's Restaurant on Third Avenue and 37th Street. For those of you who don't know who they are, the BLOHARDS are a group of New York-based Red Sox fans that formed in 1967. BLOHARDS stands for: "Benevolent Loyal Order of Honorable Ancient Red Sox Diehard Sufferers." I first joined the BLOHARDS back in 1984, and I went to one of their meetings in New York and had the pleasure of meeting both Bob Stanley and Mike Andrews.

I was also at the World Series Trophy presentation at the Yale Club in November 2004 that the BLOHARDS sponsored. I had a blast that day, getting my picture taken with "The Holy Grail" along with a few of my friends, and we got our pictures in the New York Post two days later as well.

I met a few of the BLOHARDS members, as well as Red Sox pitcher Jerry Casale, who pitched for the Sox from 1958-60. Jerry once had a popular restaurant in New York, and like myself, was born and raised in Brooklyn. And I was also told his other claim to fame was the fact that he gave up Carl Yastrzemski's first career home run. (I learn something new every day, even about the Red Sox.)

I met Joe and Frank from the BLOHARDS, and it was a pleasure to talk to them. We talked about the Red Sox bars in New York, and Professor Thom's came up. I mentioned what a great place it is, and he said they'd love to do something connected with them in the future. Joe also asked me if I'd like to do some Red Sox trivia questions at the next BLOHARDS meeting in September. (I mentioned to him that I am the MC of Trivia Night at PT's.) I accepted his invite of course, and I look forward to stumping the BLOHARDS and their guests next month!!

Earl's is a nice restaurant, and the food and service is very good. It's not a sports bar, but they had plenty of TVs to watch the games (the Mets and Yankees games were both on too). The place has a "truckstop" feel to it, and I mean that in a very good way. There were lots of license plates and movie posters on the wall (even a "Life of Brian" one on the ceiling) and some sports pennants as well.

I met many other BLOHARDS members as well, and I talked to them about being a fan from New York, the current state of the team, and many other things. There were about 40 of us there, and I really enjoyed the night out with them. My thanks to Joe, Frank, Ray and everyone else who put on a nice evening for all of us.

I only wished we'd seen a better game. But I look forward to seeing a few of them again in September, at their next meeting. Hopefully we'll be talking about the Red Sox and their big lead in the East, and maybe I'll be stumping them with my tough Red Sox trivia questions!

To check out the BLOHARDS site, please go to: www.blohards.com.
They also have a BLOHARDS blogging site, and you can check that out at: www.blohardsblog.com.