Big Blue Huddle

The idea that we stretch out the dining experience to more completely cover the entire time period between the morning practice session and the afternoon session is great.

I think the amount of time an individual cook needs to dedicate to the effort should be considered. I'm confident that I speak for the group when I express my great appreciation to every BigBlueHuddler who donned the apron and mitt and manned a charcoal grill for us during the picnic. But, I wanted to make sure that at some time we could say "cooking's done - now you cooks grab a beverage and join the party."

Maybe a simple schedule that allows some cooks to start our the party at a grill to provide us all with their speciality, then step back, enjoy a well deserved beverage and our appreciative company while a new cook steps into the pit and whips up a second course.

This might also allow us to defeat another little bug in our use of the park there by Lake Rensileer: the official mandate that we only use park provided grills, that are permanently fixed into the ground and spaced out apart from each other.

For example, everyone loves Vettes ribs (start out with good meat, add a fine dry rub, then proper sauce and a good measure of loving attention), but for him to deliver them he had to get three grills going, and nearly wore a path in the grass between them while keeping everything right and proper. (Big thanks to you Vette).

If we were a little more organized with grill timing, we could keep from spreading out all over the park to have enough cooking surfaces for all our yummy goodies.

Another thing to consider is a few more folding tables. The picnic table that the park provides are chained to the trees, apart from each other (like the grills) and we end up spreading out pretty far and wide just to set up our fare. If we had a few folding tables we might be able to centralize the arrangement and keep the group together more closely.

I don't think the spreading out really hurt us in any big way. The idea of moving things more closely together might just be the kind of tweak that makes the event a little more cozy.

pagan43

Lenn, I've got to agree with you about those audio reports. Listen to Spider go and tell me he's not as good or better than any professional play by play man. He's seamless, smooth and solid!

And, he's funny! ("Only Jennings was left to make the tackle, which means essentially "no one" was left to make the tackle, because Jennings couldn't stop a tackling dummy." LMFAO!)

Then I hear your voice and I'm reminded that he's sitting on the bleachers among the regular people, not in a press box somewhere! For that matter, I hear Mighty and Vette and SommersJoe chiming in there from time to time as well (although sometimes it sounds like Vette seems more focused on getting charcoals glowing under his fabulous ribs on the barbecue than the practice on the field)

People with a little time on their hands should listen in to those reports. (They've slid off to page two, as of this writing) Then tell me if Spider is not ready for primetime!

pagan43

This is my Big Blue Huddle BBQ experience:

In '05 my bigger-little brother (Boog Man), who lives in the damp, clammy bosom of Patriot-land, knowing that I was myself isolated in the foot hills on the edge of the foul home of the Eagles, told me about a place in cyber space that was populated by the best people on earth. He told me that they gathered there to discuss many things, but that they were dedicated particularly to our beloved New York Football Giants.

On his suggestion I logged on quietly and began to read. In no time flat I was logging on every day. I had found a window into a world populated by people who not only knew and understood my Big Blue heroes, but were willing to engage anyone in lively debate and friendly discussions on all points dark royal blue.

Then my brother told me that there was an annual summer pilgrimage to Albany to watch the G-men in training, and that it included a midday shindig worthy of attending. We made our plans and I drove through the night to meet him in the Capital District. There I had the equally great opportunity to put faces to the names of so many of these good people. We ate and drank like kings! Then, we left that place with the highest hopes for the season ahead.

I vowed to return the next year.

But budget kept me out of the '06 event none the less. I continued to read and write throughout the year however, watching the games on cable television. I was as disappointed as anyone to find the venue getting overrun by angry people and rude people and others who were recently arrived and woefully short on either intelligence or class.

To my welcome surprise I received an email alerting me to a new place in cyberspace, and an invitation to follow the best of the original people to that place. I did. And in the months to follow we were joined by more and more of the best people (who always arrived with a post that read; "So this is where you all are!"). New people found the place too, and it was all good.

Then, with all intents on returning to upstate in '07, I ended up living and working on the Asian subcontinent of India through the entire summer (which is not summer at all on that side if the earth, rather it is monsoon when the rain falls every day, sometimes all day). I would miss all of the training camp and preseason while away that year, but there was one saving grace; the faithful members of this internet community would post everything they saw and heard, report faithfully from Albany and they would scour all media outlets to cull the best tidbits from the vast stream of garbage. And, I could always find it right here.

My own posts would land here in the middle of the night, and I would have to wait until the next day for responses and comments. But that was OK, because in truth it was the efforts of this group that would keep me connected to my home, far away. I was alone, a stranger in a strange land. But, this bright shining Blue light was my solace in my solitude. And, most of you couldn't have even known how important you were to me during those humid days and nights on the Malabar coast.

This year, as summer approached, I carefully monitored the development of business in Asia, with one eye fixed on my calendar and the first weekend in August, hoping that it would find me near the headwaters of the Hudson again. And, I would again have the opportunity to see those people, renew that bond and perhaps meet some new-old friends as well.

I made that long, early morning drive last weekend, and in the first hours after sun rise, I met that group in the shady calm of the Dutch Quad parking lot. People I knew, but had never met like Tucker and SLG, and people I hadn't seen in years like MBlue and Rocky. Together we walked under the elms, past the tennis courts and the brightly painted Toyota's (2007 World Champion special editions), down through the breezeway between the training center and the admin building and out onto the training fields.

I had finally made it back to Albany, and every thing was right in my universe.

Spiderblue had made the trip from the Nutmeg State a week earlier, and had gotten intimate knowledge of the camp by the time the rest of us arrived. He knew that we would need to take the long walk, past the other fields, to the opening in the perimeter fence near the duck pond, and that we could then loop back to the only, little aluminum grandstand opened to the general public with the absolute perfect view of today's field of choice. We moved to them directly, well in advance of the throng.

His wisdom didn't disappoint, as we all had either a prime place in the grandstand or the opportunity to unfold a chair in the very first row against the partition fence. Eventually a few hundred people would follow our path across that soggy meadow, but they would all have to stand behind the Big Blue Huddlers.

The early practice did not disappoint as well, and when it ended we all made our way to the park for the official get-together. A few of the most dedicated members of the group (Retro and Vette), lead by those that were actually home in this valley (RemebersHuff and Giantsguy) had arrived in advance and the charcoal fires were already glowing red in the cast steel barbecues. In no time at all the wonderfull smells of roasting meats filled the air!

The music was playing, cold beverages began to flow and snacks where being munched as the whole group assembled for the first time under those towering oaks. Many glad handshakes were exchanged and old friendships were rekindled, some between people who had engaged in many long, detailed conversations and debates with each other, but they had never actually met before today. It was an amazing magic that took place there, with the cool breeze blowing off of Lake Rensileer.

The cooks must now be congratulated for their superb efforts to fill our bellies with yummy goodness (Webster, Huff, Vette and Drake). I offer a most sincere apology if I missed anyone, and I blame the fog of forgetfulness on Weezer's gator squeezin's. That elixir, while properly served in a mason jar, had both the aroma and flavor of a the little disposable pads a nurse uses to disinfect skin prior to an injection. The effect it has on the mind is also reminiscent of a cold shot, as well.

The non-cooks should then be congratulated for providing absolutely everything else that was required from munchies and pop, to plates and napkins, to ice and beer, to bottled water and cakes, and all other manner of items that amazingly popped up ready for consumption when ever it was required. It was no accident, and it was perfect!

A note about the blue cookie: That was a concotion of my daughter and I, she having baked it and I having decorated it with the now iconic image of Big Blue Huddlers. While attempting to get pre-made vanilla icing to turn the proper shade of dark royal blue, I used far too much food coloring. Even after two whole bottles of dye went into the mixing bowl, all I could get was a somewhat more robust shade of sky blue. However, we discovered that the abundance of pigment in the icing provided it with a potency to stain both skin and teeth that far exceeded it's own mild color.

Sorry about that.

I trust you will all believe me when I say that the cookie's power to turn things blue did not simply fade after the initial consumption, but it retained its unusual power to turn all things into a shade of azure throughout the entire digestive cycle (if you know what I mean).

The arrival of Ralph Vachiano allowed us the opportunity to actually form up into a Big Blue Huddle (imagine that!)and engage this most engaging man with all sorts of questions about our beloved men in Blue. Honest to his style, he was a pure, straight shooter. And, his dedication to professionally following the Giants, his honesty and his willingness to share with us will long be remembered.

His promise to return next year was a testament to his comfort with our group, his good taste and the welcoming environment we make when we are all together in the same place.

Which brings me to the topic of suggesting that every member of this internet community makes their plans to be part of this wonderful gathering of fans and family next year. It would be great to put even more faces to names, to finally meet some of the good buddies I have out there that I have never had the great opportunity to meet yet, and to share another good time under the New York skies with the best people on earth.

pagan43

Thanks Richie,

It will serve us all well to remember these simple tenants when, in the heat of the season, we are all tempted to stray from facts and toward opinions and beliefs.

In a forum such as ours, a statement of pure opinion or belief is not specifically ouit of context. This is the very place for them, I think.

The danger is in being rude or disrespectful of others by asserting an opinion or beleif, or denouncing the opinions or beliefs of others.

We all need to maintain a handle on exactly what is being stated, and how far we will each go to support or disclaim it.

Gentlemen (and ladies) can easily live in a place that allows all forms of discussion to exist.

pagan43

1.  I live in scenic Albrightsville, in the western Pocono Mountains of PA. I built my home almost 17 years ago, escaping from NJ, where I lived most of my life in Bergen and Hudson counties. I was born in Mount Vernon NY.

2.  As a youth I hated the Giants for being losers and doormats. But I went to work at The Meadowlands when it opened in '76 and gradually learned to love the Giants by watching them develop from closeup. My father was given two season tickets my Wellington Mara in '80, and the stewardship has passed onto me in '97, on the condition that I provide them to my sister and brother equally. I attended Super Bowl XX in Pasadena, CA, and regard it as the highest point of my career as a Giants fan.

3.  I have worked for a manufacturer of piping system components as a Construction Project Manager from their Allentown, PA office for 9 years. I had been their Western Divisional Manager for the last 7, working in all states west of the Rockies, traveling often. Earlier this year I was promoted to Construction Services Training Manager, and I have been involved in hiring and training for a new design center in Mumbai (Bombay) India, and I have been living there since June. I will return to the US in September.

4.  My wife and I have been married for two years, but we've been together for 11 years now. We each have one kid from a previous marriage. My step son is 18 and about to begin college in San Diego, CA. My daughter is 17 and is about to turn all of my hair white, with her first driver's licence.