Our second Manntle World owner interview is with another original Mantle owner,
sir_slamalot. "Slam" was here for the first 15 seasons of Mantle as the owner of the
Buffalo/Burlington franchise before taking a one season sabbatical away from Mantle. He came back in season 17 to spend a season in the National League before an opportunity opened up for him to reclaim his original franchise in season 18. Slam has a Mantle World Series trophy on his resume for the Blizzard's championship in season 11. He shares some of his background with us today.
Tec: Tell us a little about yourself.
Sir_slamalot: I'm a 39 year old advertising executive living in the Charlotte, NC area. I'm originally from Bristol, CT, home of ESPN. Since CT had no professional sports teams outside of the Hartford Whalers, most of my favorite teams were chosen by being the rival of my older brother's favorite teams. I'm a Yankees, Steelers, Sixers and Boston Bruins fan. I graduated from Seton Hall University so I'm also a die-hard SHU Pirates college basketball fan.
Tec: Outside of Hardball Dynasty, what are some of your other interests and hobbies?
Sir_slamalot: My main "hobby" outside of HBD is marathon running. I've run 39 marathons to date and will run marathon #40 in Atlanta in a few weeks. I've run marathons everywhere from Paris to Montreal to Australia, although these days I mostly stay local.
Tec: Did you play any sports growing up?
Sir_slamalot: I grew up in sports family. My dad was a college basketball referee and baseball/softball umpire so I went with him wherever he was working. I played just about any sport you could imagine growing up, but baseball was always my best sport. In my mid-twenties, I played baseball for a semi-pro team in Baltimore, MD called the Baltimore Bison and played until I was 36.
Tec: Who are your favorite all-time players?
Sir_slamalot: Graig Nettles was my favorite baseball player when I was growing up. Nettles diving to his left was the best there was in my opinion. I also developed a liking for Paul Molitor who was just a hitting machine. 70s & 80s baseball was my era and there are a ton of players I loved to watch back in the day.
Tec: What has been your favorite real-life sports experience or memory?
Sir_slamalot: My favorite real-life sports experience was probably catching a foul ball (off my chest) at the old Yankee Stadium. Paul O'Neill was batting and Dennis Eckersley was on the hill. I could also tell you about the time my brother and I were getting Chet Lemon's autograph and he asked my brother to go "hit" his girlfriend in the crowd so he could say hello to her. Pretty cool when you're 10 years old or so. SHU coming from 17 points down in the 2nd half to beat Arizona in the NCAA Tourney is right up there as well.
Tec: What's been your most memorable non-sports experience in your life?
Sir_slamalot: I'd probably say trekking around Australia for 6 months when I was in college - climbing Uluru/Ayers Rock was a pretty amazing feat. Not difficult, just amazing.
Tec: If you were an HBD player, what position would you play and what would your ratings be?
Sir_slamalot: If I was an HBD player, I would've been very similar to former Blizzard great,
Gus Zhang. Great contact, average power, solid splits, very good speed and could play anywhere in the field, but best suited for CF
Thank you sir_slamalot for participating in our second Mantle World Owner interview, and good luck to you this season and onward.
Hopefully, more owner interviews to come.
