CAGE FIGHTING Volume 1 • Number 2 Ghost Riders IN NJ NOWHERE in the Pines TO HIDE TEXAS HOLD’EM ROUNDUP

the fascinating world of George Anastasia

Bear Hunt!

Who Won?

PLUS: BAT BOY MEMOIRS 8 5 1 1 # t i m r e P

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Volume 1 • Number 2 The Thinking Man’s Guide to an Active Jersey Life

6 12 16 22 38 44 FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 6 5 50 COVER STORY JERSEY JOTTINGS FREE TIME GEORGE ANASTASIA, THE MOB WRITER HOOKED ON ORCHIDS 16 10 JERSEY HISTORY 53 COOL LIGHTS GET HOT GHOST RIDERS IN THE PINES TECH TIME THE LED REVOLUTION AWESOME MOBILE APPS 20 12 JERSEY SPORTS GUYS 56 STEP INTO THE CAGE GALLOWAY GOLF PRO MIKE KILLIAN WHERE WE EAT CASINOS FUEL MMA FIGHTING BOOM BLUE 2O, CHERRY HILL, NJ 36 34 WHAT WE WEAR AS THE CARDS TURN GOT HANKIE? A LOOK AT THE BORGATA’S TEXAS HOLD’EM POKER TOURNAMENT 38 Want to Reach a Prime PHILLY BAT BOY Ken Dunek PUBLISHER Audience for Your TALES FROM THE ON-DECK CIRCLE Lou Antosh Products or Services? EDITOR 44 Become a THE BEARS ARE STILL WINNING CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: George Brinkerhoff, Ken Dunek, JerseyMan Magazine Advertiser NEW JERSEY’S BLACK BEAR HUNT Andrea Hartley, George Ingram, Aaron Kase, David Kessler, Robert Strauss and T. Jordan Wompierski. Our magazine and website are aimed at Emily Givnish clued-in men who want quality informa tion, 22 EDITORIAL ASSISTANT top-shelf products and high-grade serv ices. Steve Iannarelli You’ll find our advertising representatives Business Bravehearts ART DIRECTOR intent on listening to your needs and • THE NEATEST JUNKYARD Jeremy Messler ef fectively delivering our audience in both COVER PHOTOGRAPHY • THE MAGIC KID print and on the web. Editorial • LET THEM DRIVE YOU HOME 856-303-1781 Email us at: [email protected], • JACKPOT! SLOTS FOR SALE Advertising [email protected], 856-912-4007 • THE MOB COOK or call (856) 912-4007. Printing 856-912-7103

JerseyMan Magazine , a product of the partnership of Joe LaGrossa, Ken Dunek, and Lou Antosh, is published by New Opportunity Publishing, LLC , with offices at 7025 Central Highway, Pennsauken NJ, 08109. Copyright 2011.

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Volume 1 • Number 2 The Thinking Man’s Guide to an Active Jersey Life Letter from the Publisher Letter from the Editor There was an old Rod Stewart song Imagine scaling back your family with the title, “The First Cut is the Deepest. ” possessions so they could fit into a But after giving birth to JerseyMan wooden wagon four feet wide, 12 feet Mag azine, the name of this column long and a couple feet deep. I often could be “The First Issue is the Hardest.” think about the 19th century pioneers Don’t get me wrong, it has truly been who did that in order to travel west in a labor of love and a dream come true search of a better life. Pushing their to publish a regional men’s magazine that covers the topics horses, pushing their bodies and straining their spirits every we JerseyMen are in terested in. I do want to know why a mob hour of every long day as wilderness enveloped them. writer chooses this as a career path, how a junkyard magnate Oh my God, what, no seat belts? can make money out of smashed up cars, and what motivates I thought of those brave souls again recently during a an ultimate fighter to get in the octagon. This is all important flurry of public comment about American “exceptionalism.” stuff for guys to know! Are those pioneers not an example of that very quality that What has been so incredibly encouraging is the recep - some critics say is too chauvinistic in this global village? tion we’ve received after people have seen the inaugural JerseyMan Magazine is dedicated to the proposition that issue, from both men and women alike. Advertisers seem rugged individualism still deserves a place on the list of to love the concept and are signing on fast and furious. ad mirable American qualities. We’ve shown Jer seyMan to executives from other large True, there are 20-somethings in this country who begin local periodicals who are impressed with the layout, the a job interview by asking about retirement benefits. But journalism, and the quality of the reproduction. People even in this age of victimhood and institutionalized pater - who received their initial copy in the mail have requested nalism, we know that the high-risk, high-reward spirit of subscription information to make sure they get the next American exceptionalism survives. one. Our website www.jerseymanmagazine.com has had In this issue’s special section, we offer examples of Type- thousands of hits already, and we have been viewed on A, pedal-to-the-metal entrepreneurs who are rolling the dice the web in 10 countries so far. There was a line out the door in a jolted economy whose dangers loom large on the trail. when we promoted my old coach Dick Vermeil and his line Among them are a high school graduate who forsook of wines at Traino’s in Marlton. It seems that JerseyMan’s “higher” education to crawl under cars that needed towing, time is here. and an ex-convict who believes customers will give him a So please continue to give us feedback on what you second chance (Those long-ago wagon trains were not would like us to be. You can do this by sending an en tirely peopled by preachers, you know). email to me at [email protected], or to Lou We think you’ll enjoy learning how and why these at [email protected]. You can also leave us Jer seyMen put their untested ideas into a flimsy wagon comments on the website, or call me directly at the office and chose the path untaken. (856) 813-1153. And please, puh-leeze, give us feedback on our Jersey Man If indeed the “first cut is the deepest,” our pledge to you is experiment. Send your comments, carps, story and feature ideas to make JerseyMan Magazine’s “next issue the finest.” Just tell and requests our way at [email protected]. Rod it’s the way we roll here. Thanks for checking us out.

Ken Dunek Lou Antosh Publisher, JerseyMan Magazine Editor, JerseyMan Magazine

There’s much more to come in future JerseyMan Magazine issues, so subscribe now and guarantee that we will be in your home. Stay plugged into the real issues and concerns of men in New Jersey by reading JerseyMan Magazine , the first regional mag azine aimed specifically at you. JerseyMan Magazine un derstands that men want real information about their lives - what you eat, what you drive, what you think. Watch us grow into your information lifeline. Subscribe to the next six issues for $10. Use PayPal on our web site at www.jerseymanmagazine.com. Or call (856) 813-1153 with credit card information. Or send a check to JerseyMan Maga zine , 7025 Central Highway, Pennsauken NJ 08109. JerseyMan Magazine

Greeting Coach Vermeil are, from left, Rex McWilliams and Russ McConnell , of Omni Diagnostics.

JerseyMan tech guru Anthony Mongeluzo , president of Pro Com puter Service, met legendary coach (and wine producer) Dick Vermeil dur ing a tasting of Vermeil Wines at Traino’s Wine and Spirits.

The Phillies Ballgirls were a big attraction at the 24th Garry Maddox-Drew Katz Celebrity Bowling Tournament for charity. Shown with the girls are, from left, Camden Riversharks Manager Von Hayes , Katz and Maddox.

4 jerseymanmagazine.com JerseyMan Magazine Visit: www.jerseymanmagazine.com Jersey Jottings

The Billion Dollar Lottery Scratch-Off

Lottery Winner No-Shows on the Rise 1 Unclaimed Prizes in 2010: $42.3 Million (Up from $33.9 million in 2009)

IInnssttaanntt GGaammeess AArree HHUUGGEE Scratch-Off Tickets Raise Half of Lottery Revenue Instant Game Sales: $1.3 Billion All Other Tickets: $1.3 Billion

CCrroosssswwoorrdd GGaammeess AArree tthhee IInnssttaanntt KKiinnggss 2 Crossword Games (5 versions): $192,690,435 Big Money Spectacular (5 versions): $172,465,762

WWhheerree tthhee $$22..66 BBiilllliioonn iinn RReevveennuuee WWeenntt ((IInn MMiilllliioonns s ]] Prize Money ...... $1,512 Retailer Commissions 4 . . . 145 Administration Expenses . . 18 Contributions 3 ...... 924 Vendor Fees ...... 43 Networking Fees ...... 4 g r e b n e e 5 r Ticket Sales Up, Advertising Costs Dow n G Ticket Sales Up, Advertising Costs Down n a y Ticket Sales Up More Than $100 million in 2010 R y

b Advertising Expenses Down $3 million in 2010 k r o w t r A

1) Prizes unclaimed after 1 year from machine purchase or 1 year from clos ing 4) More than 6100 lottery retailers received 5% commission on tickets sold of instant game closing are forfeited by state lottery law. 30% is contributed and 1.25% on winning tickets they validate. Top prize tickets sold earn directly to education and institutions, 70% is reserved for prizes, unless bonuses up to $10,000. lottery chief decides to contribute it to education and institutions 5) The Division of State Lottery spent $7,038,893 for advertising in fiscal 2010, 2) More than 200 different versions of instant game tickets appeared in 2010. well below the $10,230,662 spent in 2009. Yet, ticket sales increased by These two types sewed up the Top 10 Revenue List. (Crosswords took 11 of more than $100 million. Inevitable result of a weak economy? Not neces sar ily. the Top 20 spots.) Some states – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and North Carolina among them – saw sales drop, while others, Illinois and Ohio, for example, experienced a 3) Aid to Education and Institutions. sales rise like New Jersey’s. Source: Division of State Lottery 2010 audit

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 5 Mob W e s, h Source T to His ‘Gets Close’ gers, He Still spite the Dan Straight De hen They Go Especially W

George Anastasia

ler y Jeremy Mess Photography b

6 jerseymanmagazine.com riter ARTICLE BY LOU ANTOSH

When John Stanfa was head of the of the Delaware River go about their illegal ways. He says Philly/South Jersey mob, he’d occasionally be wiseguys who didn’t like him (Stanfa and Nicodemo W at his food distribution business in South “Lit tle Nicky” Scarfo) wouldn’t ever engage him. But he Philly and pick up a ringing phone to hear: has had a fair share of meets and lunches with Philly mob “Mr. Stanfa, George Anastasia, Philadelphia Inquirer… ” figures over the years and his opinions vary. Click. “What the mob has done is taken traditional Italian- That’s as far as the reporter got. In more ways than one, American values – honor, loyalty and family – and Stanfa had a fast trigger finger when it came to Anastasia, bas tardized them to their own ends,” he said. That said, the long-time mob writer who back in the early ‘90s was he doesn’t condemn all wiseguys as violent, brutish and covering the war between Stanfa’s troops and Joey Mer - de void of redeeming values. Especially the ones who have lino’s rebels. fessed up and shaped new lives. “Stanfa was born and raised in Sicily, he had that true He speaks with obvious affection about some others, Sicilian mob mentality,” said The Philadelphia Inquirer’s several of whom are featured among his eight published Anastasia. “They kill judges and prosecutors over there. If works dealing with organized crime. Of Italian American you’re not with them, you’re against them.” extraction, Anastasia said he was fascinated with mob And so it came to pass, after one particularly annoying tales as a youth, and after graduating from Dartmouth Anastasia phone call, that Stanfa put the word out: “Find out College he wound up covering the dawn of the gambling where that $##*& lives and throw grenades in his window.” era in Atlantic City for the Inquirer in the 1970s. The hook The boys found out that the South Philly-born Anasta - was set. He was destined to be the Mob Writer. sia lived in South Jersey, where his family moved when “Like it or not, it’s part of the American Experience,” he he was four years old. And they pinpointed his home. said. “My name heped me when I started out. For exam ple, The hit contract, unfulfilled, was unknown to Anastasia when I first met Caramandi [hitman Nicholas Caramandi] until a few years later, when the thug who secured the we connected, we were from the same place, talking about grenades, Sergio Battaglia, called him from prison. the neighborhood and how my Uncle Joe and his Uncle Battaglia was cooperating with the feds and knew the con - Tony were almost the same people. The ethnicity helped tract on the reporter would become public. and I see that now as I try to write about the drug “He said he had to tell the FBI everything and tells me gangs and the Russian [gangs] and I don’t have the the story,” said Anastasia, whose soft voice revs up to a same familiarity on a cultural level as I have with these rapid pace as he relates mob tales. “He said by the time [mob] guys.” they got the grenades, the war with Merlino was so hot After 30 years on the scene, Anastasia knows some they stopped looking for me. Sergio says to me ‘It’s noth - stuff, including the whereabouts of some “four, maybe ing personal.’ I said ‘Sergio, I’ve got a wife and two kids. five” convicted mobsters who were given new identities Grenades through my window are very personal’.” and locales via witness protection programs. He speaks Aside from that near-miss, Anastasia has toiled without with some amazement at the leniency of some of the deals incident on the sidelines while the goodfellas on both sides given goodfellas.

Grenades through my window are very personal.

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 7 The Mob Writer’s Newest Book: Great Mobster Movies With WIP radio personality Glen Macnow as co-author, Anastasia is writing a book presenting the top 100 gangster movies of all time, from The Godfather all the way back to the flicks of the late Edward G. Robinson. “One of the sidebars I had a lot of fun with is about gangster movies in which somebody sings,” he said. “Sinatra sang in Guys and Dolls, one of the classic gangster movies. My all-time favorite is Some Like It Hot. People forget that movie begins with the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre. They (Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon) go on the run in Florida and Marilyn Monroe sings I’m Through with Love. It defines the word voluptuous.” To hear a one-hour podcast of the interview with George Anasta sia, go to www.jerseymanmagazine.com .

He rattles them off. “Caramandi committed four murders, he calls with mob-related sources, he has studied countless reams of got five years. [Andrew Thomas] DelGiorno admitted to eight transcripts of surveillance tapes unearthed during wiseguy trials. murders and got five years. They’re both out now, they’re in the Tapes of disjointed conversations are difficult to listen to, but the wind and they’re not doing well be cause they just can’t adapt. A transcripts reveal nuggets of colorful language. “They’re wonderful guy like [Phillip “Crazy Phil”] Leonetti, 10 murders, he’s recre ated pieces of unguarded moments talking the way they talk,” he said. himself, I know what he’s doing right now, he’s got a business, a When a jury hears a tape of a mobster saying he’s going to whole different persona.” whack a guy, cut out his tongue and send it to his wife, “it is what The deals are made because the mobsters broke omerta , the it is,” said Anastasia. “The defense attorneys will tell you this – Mafia’s traditional code of silence, he said. “ Omerta in Philadel phia you can’t cross examine a tape.” is like the Liberty Bell – it’s cracked.” Anastasia knows best the mobsters he has written books about, The Mob’s Gene Meltdown including one wiseguy who received a new name and identity but “The best and the brightest in the Italian-American community refuses to leave the area like most witness protection program vet - today are doctors, lawyers and educators, and so you are kind of erans. The writer found the bald, massive (300 pounds) ex-cop scraping the bottom of the gene pool with this third generation named Ralph Previte to be literate, funny and enjoyable to be of organized crime. They’re not as intelligent, sophisticated,” around, in a word, “fascinating.” Anastasia said. “He has the wherewithal to go anywhere, but one of the rea sons The past generation leaders, Philly’s Angelo Bruno and New I think he stayed in the area was that he grew up in Hammonton York’s Carlo Gambino, made wrong career choices when they and likes it. The other thing is, he still wants the adrenalin rush. imigrated here, said Anastasia. “But in another time and Every morning he gets up and the only way he can get that now an other place they could have been CEOs of companies. They is he always has to be looking over his shoulder because he is ran organizations in a way that was financially rewarding and still in jeopardy. Psychologically I think that’s what going on.” efficient.” Another mob soldier-turned-informant, George Freselone, a sol dier While Bruno used finesse and viewed violence as a last resort, in the Jersey branch of the Philly mob under Scarfo, used to call wiseguys who succeeded him prompted fireworks, he said. Anastasia from his sheltered new life in California. “Scarfo, I think, was a psychopath and Stanfa was another dan - “I can say this now because he passed away,” said the writer. gerous one. When Scarfo became the boss, murder became the “He went to California, near Hollywood, and went to work for a calling card of the organization. It destabilized things, he would maintenance company, ended up buying the company and he was go to the guns whenever anything went wrong. It’s been steadily cleaning the homes of the stars. He would call me from time to out of control since then.” time and one day he called and said ‘You’ll never guess where I Anastasia said the current Philly mob boss, Joseph (Uncle Joe) am. I am buffing Cher’s floor.’ Ligambi, seems intent on keeping a low profile, with good rea son: “He called me from time to time, he had turned it around, but, the feds are always watching, even more closely now with new sadly, he had a heart attack and died.” high-tech surveillance tools. “The Philadelphia family is one of Anastasia, who has seen many of his contemporaries take retire - the most recorded families in the United States.” He smiled at the ment from the newspaper, has no intention of slowing down his dialogue on the tapes, saying, “You can’t make it up any bet ter mob writing wheels. In addition to his many meetings and phone than it is.”

8 jerseymanmagazine.com up with a young woman, a friend of his daughter’s. The young Cooking Up a Book with hoods complained about the relationship and the respect Natale expected for his girlfriend. Said one: “She’s a broad from 10th and Merlino’s Ex-Chef Shunk and he wants us to treat her like Princess Di.” George Anastasia is rooting for the success of Angelo Lutz, a for - The hoods around Merlino, said the writer, “weren’t the bright est mer aide to former Philly mob chieftain Joseph Merlino, who now lights and yet they had positions of authority. A guy like [Ron] operates a restaurant in Collingswood. Anastasia and Lutz said Previte looks at that and says, you know, it’s over. You gotta be they are working together on a new cookbook playing on Lutz’ Ray Charles not to see it. This organization is going nowhere.” With the watering down of leadership, some of the traditions reputation (“I’m a cook, not a crook”) as a member of the Mer - are easing as well, including the criterion for becoming a “made” lino team. Lutz spent seven years in jail on bookmaking charges. member of the mob organization, Anastasia said. “Now if a guy (See Lutz article on Page 31). is a big moneymaker that might be enough for him to get his but ton, but in the past he would be made an associate. Unless you killed One of his favorite lines came from a goodfella who tried to somebody or set somebody up or got rid of a body – participated stop another wiseguy from suing his partner. The mobster in a murder – you were not eligible.” ex plained, as the feds were listening in: “Goodfellas don’t sue goodfellas; goodfellas kill goodfellas.” Joseph S. “Fat Joey” Merlino A cousin of former Philly mob boss, Joseph S. Merlino co-owns Princess Di at 10th and Shunk? a company (Bayshore Rebar Inc.) that installs rebar in new com - The mob has “devolved” in the last decade or so, barely more mercial construction projects, but the firm was twice denied a than a collection of hoods from different corners, said Anastasia. li cense to work on casino-related work by the state Casino Philly boss Ligambi has “two or three capos and maybe a dozen Con trol Commission. soldiers. It’s not that big an organization.” Anastastia has written several articles about the “other” Mer lino, And the hoods have engaged in “petty high school kind of bick - “who doesn’t like being called Fat Joey because he lost a lot of ering, jealousies, upmanship,” he said. Example: When former weight.” The commission denied the license because of Mer lino’s Philly boss Ralph Natale came home after 17 years in jail, he took alleged associations with mob figures, [continued on page 54]

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 9 The LED Revolution May Transform

All Lighting, But Not Quite Yet BY AARON KASE

YOU SEE THEM EVERYWHERE lights front some premium autos – the to put them in a ball and make them illu - – in flashlights, iPods, iPads, laptops, bill - priciest Cadillac, Audi and Lexus models minate in every direction,” Khan said. boards, even high-end car headlights. among them – don’t expect to see them “You can make a hunk of LED light like Ef ficient, cool-to-the-touch light-emitting on smart cars anytime soon. that and it’ll look nice, but if you start to diodes, or LEDs, promise eventually to One problem holding back the LED compare what you can get with neon or replace almost all of the lighting you use rev olution relates to a fact of simple physics florescent, you’re not going to find a whole today – from car headlights to living that Christopher Columbus con firmed more lot of reason to switch because of cost and room lamps. than five centuries ago: The world is not material scarcity.” “The future is all going to go toward flat, nor are most things in it. But the U.S. Department of Energy is LEDs,” said Nisa Khan, president of LED Yes, said Khan, LEDs excel when illumi - hoping to accelerate solutions, offering an Lighting Technologies, an engineering nating flat surfaces, which is why they’re “L Prize” of as much as $10 million to consulting company based in Red Bank. so popular for backlighting iPads and other whomever creates an LED alternative to the “The market will easily double in a couple electronic gadgets. But for lighting up most common household lighting – the 60 of years just on the electronic gadgets rooms and creating subtleties and atmos - watt bulb. The winning bulb must be U.S.- alone,” she said. phere, incandescent and fluorescents still made, consume 10 watts or less, have a life - Here’s a blinking sign that her predic tion do a better job than flat LEDs, she said. “I time of at least 25,000 hours, light fully may come true: LEDs have been a reces sion- have a 3D head, not a flat within half a second and proof business, growing at a 5 percent clip head,” she said. “If an LED meet a retail price ranging in 2009 into a $5.3 billion market force is illuminating me, it won’t from $22 the first year to $8 de spite the dim performance of the rest of do a very good job.” the third year. (A $5 million the economy. True, designers can com - prize may be offered in a But don’t count out Thomas Alva’s bine lots of tiny LED chips competition for an LED beloved incandescent light bulb just yet. (say, 1x1 millimeters) to al ternative to halogen light - It turns out that LEDs are not quite A-OK make a more shapely 3D ing in retail use.) for every situation. And while LED head - light source. “But because Philips Electronics has they’re little tiny chips, you submitted a 60W bulb it would use a million of them says meets the require - Khan LED Traffic Lights a Sno Go?

In a cruel twist, the very efficiency that makes LEDs so attractive is causing problems in one popular ap plication of the technology. In Philadelphia and parts of the Midwest, new LED traffic lights have been criticized because they generate little heat, so snow and ice don’t melt off the faces and can obscure the lights, causing perplexing rush-hour confusion and even accidents.

10 jerseymanmagazine.com i k s w o l z EExxaaccttllyy WWhhaatt MMaakkeess aann o K e v a LLEEDD ssoo FFllaattllyy EEffffiicciieenntt?? D y b h p a r LEDs are flat-shaped semiconductors g o t o created from compounds that, when h P en ergized with electrical current, directly convert much of that energy into light. The quantum mechanics of LEDs are based on the light energy given off by subatomic particles – namely electrons – that orbit around the nucleus (a planetary model that goes back 100 years) and There are 10,584,064 LEDs in the $40 million, 160’ x 71’ screen at Cowboys Stadium. re lease their extra energy gained from the inserted electrical current. ments. The company has one bulb on the tool also known as a “puke ray” that emits LEDs are an example of electrolumines - market, EnduraLED, which it says draws a blinking light that causes targets to cence, another phenomenon discovered only 12 watts and will save consumers be come disoriented and nauseous.) a century ago. Unlike incandescent light, more than $125 over 25,000 hours. The For all this talk of limitations, however, cost is $35 and up. few would deny that upcoming LED which requires heat, electroluminescence Ella Shum, director of LED research at takeover of lighting. One study concluded is light generated by other causes, in the Strategies Unlimited, a California-based that once consumers begin seeking case of LEDs, electric current. re search company, commented on such knowledge about the savings provided by LEDs are made from compounds, such products, saying: “People who have LEDs, they will zoom in popularity. LEDs as gallium arsenide and indium phos - bought the top quality LED 60W replace - are even making inroads in such environ - phide, whose electrons release light ment light bulbs at Home Depot marveled mental uses as lighting for streets and en ergy (photons) when electricity gets at the beauty of the light. When that $40 parking lots. Though they cost up to five pumped through them. You can think of bulb comes down in price to around $10, times as much as conventional lighting them as the opposite of solar cells, which mass adoption will happen. for street installations, the savings even - absorb light and create current. LEDs “LED will take over traditional lighting. tually offset the initial price. And the di - ab sorb current to create light. It is just a matter of time. Compared to rectional focus of the LED street lamps other lighting technologies, it offers high - controls light pollution by illuminating Researchers learned in the 1960s how to est potential for energy savings.” very specific areas. harness electroluminescence at a low Car manufacturers are working to over - Despite her cautions about the need to level and the result was low-intensity red come another LED quality and cost hur - overcome LED hurdles, Nisa Khan is all-in lights most commonly seen as on-off dle, which stems from another LED fact of professionally for LEDs. Khan was part of in dicators in appliances. Since then, new life explained by Kahn: Not all LEDs are the stellar scientist lineup at the famed advances have created LEDs which give created equal. That’s because compounds AT&T Bell Labs in Murray Hill, a facility off more intense light at cheaper cost. used to create LEDs are rare, expensive that eventually lost some of its top scien - and of erratic quality. Not all LEDs last tists to academia in the heat of competi - LEDs are rock stars in the Green Move - 100,000 hours. tion. Khan, who left Bell in 1999, decided ment because they offer big savings “For a specific example like car head - she liked inventing too much to settle in ef ficiency and energy costs over lights, you pick the best and brightest down and teach. tradi tional incandescent or Edison bulbs. LEDs, they’re the most expensive.” she Once on her own, she decided that Unlike traditional incandescent lights, said. “LEDs are known for lasting forever LEDs, just starting to grow into their which lose up to 90 percent of their – that’s not true. If you pick the brightest own, were the next big thing. Now, her en ergy though heat, LEDs coolly convert LED, it doesn’t last as long. Car manufac - research promises several huge break - their energy to light, not heat. turers are putting them in very high end throughs in function and reliability over cars; they know these cars don’t need to the next few years. A well-made LED will use one-tenth the last 20 years; they need to last only four “The whole field of illumination is won - wattage of an incandescent and may last to five years. If you look at the lifetime of derful, a wonderful science,” she says, more than 40 times as long. Over a year of the best car LED headlights, they’re about confident in the future and brandishing a normal use, the LED will be responsi ble a fifth of what other LEDs are going to new motto appropriate to her new career: (indirectly, by using power from en ergy last. They’re not going to be ubiquitous in “I don’t communicate, I illuminate.” plants) for only one-tenth of the carbon all the cars any time soon.” By lighting up our screens and streets and dioxide emissions related to an incan - (One highly effective use of LEDs is in becoming an ever greater part of our day- descent bulb. strobe-incapacitators for police work, a to-day lives, LEDs are poised to do both. I

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 11 ARTICLE BY T. J ORDAN WOMPIERSKI STEP INTO THE

Casinos are fueling the growth of ultimate fighting and its “Nowhere to Hide” cages

ashington Township’s Dan Holmes And he puts up with the hills that leave him gasping, and works as a kickboxing instructor to the two-and-a-half-hour training sessions, and the skimpy pay the bills, barely. But his other paychecks (“every month some bill doesn’t get paid”), to CAGEjob, his really big, 24/7/365 job, is find his dream and its $100,000 payday. building a dream. Ninety minutes travel time from Holmes, Ricardo A fighter’s dream. Almeida, 34, is painfully recovering from a December UFC WEvery day of the week Holmes trains in the ring or on victory and preparing for his next fight on March 19 at the mats or, worst of all, he runs hills in Washington Township Prudential Center in Newark, NJ. The Bordentown resident for stamina. (“I hate it, but I gotta do it.”) His goal is to made it to the big-time UFC in 2001 when the sport was be come a name in the world of mixed martial arts (MMA), just gaining national traction. He calls UFC “competition at known to fans as “ultimate fighting” or “cage fighting.” As the highest level.” a competitor in the Asylum Fight League (ASL), a His unanimous decision late last year boosted his record Williamstown-based amateur fight league, Holmes is just to 13-3, and he dominated in the fight. Yet, he said, “there getting his feet wet in competitive MMA. are still aches and pains that I really didn’t even remember “I’ve been in two Asylum fights so far and I’m 2-0,” he how they happened until I go back and watch the video said. “In my debut, I knocked a kid out in nine seconds in and go, ‘Oh, wow. He hit me here.’ the main event.” The official record is sparse, but Holmes “During the fight, you don’t really feel much. The ur gency is no stranger to confrontation. “I was a bouncer,” he said, of having someone in front of you trying to punch you, kick “and I’ve never lost on the street either.” you, take you down, choke you unconscious, it just On March 26, he fights for the ASL light heavyweight de mands so much focus and attention that your body just championship at Trump Marina and hopes to climb another kind of blocks a lot of things out.” rung toward the well-paying professional leagues. The Ul - The painful spots appear later, “and sometimes they take timate Fighting Championship (UFC), the oldest and dom - a long time to go away.” inant MMA organization, stages televised events that attract Born in New York but raised in Brazil, where he became nearly 2 million viewers. So Holmes dreams while he trains, a jiu jitsu champion, Almeida is a husband and father of shedding some 40 pounds before each event. “I work with three. He runs a jiu jitsu academy in Hamilton, using free champions every day,” he said. “This is what I love to do. time for intense workouts in boxing, wrestling and kick - When you train with so many great people, you get great boxing, all preparation for around four bouts a year. things from them all.”

12 jerseymanmagazine.com Holmes

Photography by Tom Shoener

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 13 Holmes and Almeida are just two of a growing band of Jer sey- there,” Mascarenhas said. “We have such a strong fan base based MMA fighters competing under the auspices of a grow ing that if people come to one show, they’re going to come back.” number of MMA leagues popping up in this state. (Why New Where casual observers see brutality in the sport, such ex perts Jersey? See sidebar.) as Mascarenhas say MMA is a strategic, calculated sport. The popular UFC organization is studded with New Jersey Crit ics may scream “violence, violence, but it’s the most fighters. Toms River native Frankie Edgar, who trains with im pressive matchup of chess you’ll ever see and with the Almeida, is current UFC lightweight champion. Nick Catone is slightest mistake, the match is over,” he said. from Brick; Kurt Pellegrino grew up in and fights out of Point Ring of Combat operator Neglia agrees that “there is a sci en - Pleasant; brothers Jim and Dan Miller are from Sparta; and tific approach to fighting an opponent and you have to fighter Almeida’s friend and jiu jitsu master Renzo Gracie fights out of smarter instead of harder sometimes.” The reason? Holmdel. “There are so many different ways to win or lose in MMA, Lou Neglia, a three-time world kickboxing champion, runs which is what makes it so exciting,” he said. “A guy could be the professional Ring of Combat MMA league. The organiza - winning a fight and all of a sudden he gets elbowed, or he gets tion, which has fed more than a dozen fighters to the larger taken down and submitted, or he gets slammed to the floor, or UFC, is based in New York, but because New York does not he gets punched, kicked, elbowed, or kneed.” allow ultimate fighting, Neglia holds his shows in Atlantic City. Unless the downed fighter recovers quickly, he may wind Neglia, who just ran a February bout at the Tropicana hotel up being “submitted” or “tapping out.” (See sidebar.) in Atlantic City, said MMA fighting “is the most exciting sport “I’ve been submitted, I’ve been dazed, I’ve been choked out, in existence today, and that’s why people love the shows. Peo ple and I’ve been submitted again,” Dan Holmes said of MMA train - just love fighting. I mean, they go to hockey games to watch ing bouts. “But it’s all educational. The only fight that counts is fighting sometimes.” the one in the ring, and the trick is that you’re reacting to your training. You have been in that situation before because you should have trained to be in that position many times.” Diverted by a knee injury from high school football, Holmes “A fight is a fight , first got serious about kickboxing and then found his way to the cages for the ultimate brand of confrontation. He sees whether it’s in front re lentless training as his ticket to glory, and maybe cash, as an MMA fighter. Some days he trains twice, at Budo Full Range of people or whether Martial Arts in Voorhees, at Liberty Boxing in Turnersville, or at the training studio in his Washington Township home. it’s in the back - Of course, training is not fighting in the big leagues. Mas carenhas said he has seen more than a few prospective ul timate fighters who are gung-ho on the idea of battling in the cage, right up until the point they step into the ring and are over - Organizations such as Ring of Combat can afford to pay the whelmed by the lights, crowd, and music. Then, they aren’t so fighters relatively well because the fans can’t get enough of keen on fighting. the action and will keep paying to see it. Neglia said his fight - But Holmes said he hasn’t been fazed by that. “A fight is a ers get paid anywhere from a few thousand to $20,000 just for fight, whether it’s in front of people or whether it’s in the back - appearing, plus available win purses. yard with just you and your kid brother,” he said. Neglia said that while not everybody is made to be a fighter, Bordentown’s Almeida said fighters can tune out both their “by training hard, you develop a tough personality. Tough pains and their surroundings in the heat of battle. training makes tough fighters.” And training for MMA is as “It’s not something you can do without your body being tough as it gets, he said. conditioned,” Almeida said, “but at the same time, it’s so short The payoff? “Fighters can better deal with life in general. A and it goes by so fast it’s almost like a roller coaster ride. Re ally, fighter needs to have a certain type of mentality, a very re - when you get hit, for the most part you don’t feel it at all. I just silient type of person in general.” keep my mind focused on scoring points and winning rounds The amateur Asylum Fight League (AFL) is staging Holmes’ and matches.” light-heavy title fight at Trump on March 26. AFL founder Carl And how does the family deal with the sport? Mascarenhas was working to get the event televised, but on “My wife gets really scared the week of the fight, but during TV or not, he said the place will be jammed. Turnersville res - the preparation she is very supportive,” Almeida said. “My par ents ident Stephen Cristelli, 22, makes his amateur MMA debut the have a tough time dealing with it, as far as watching it. They same night. al ways get nervous. Both my parents were very good athletes, so Mascarenhas also is running a new professional organiza - they know what it is to compete and to sacrifice your body for tion, the DaMMAge Fight League, which ASL fighter Holmes something you believe in, so they support me tremendously.” hopes to reach by winning and keeping an AFL title for the Promoter Neglia said many fighters participate for money 205-209 pound class. and fame, but “if there is one common goal between all of “The shows are so exciting that people are dying to get in these fighters out there, it’s that they love the sport and they

14 jerseymanmagazine.com What is MMA Fighting and Why Here?

MMA (mixed martial arts) is a hybrid style of where you start to hyper-extend an elbow or Holmes demonstrates unprotected fighting, incorporating the skills a choke hold on his a knee. and techniques used in multiple disciplines trainer “If there’s a guy getting consecutively of combat, both standing – like boxing and punched like six, eight, nine times, they’re jiu jitsu – and on the ground, like wrestling. gonna stop the fight. If an elbow is bowing Participants are armed with nothing more where it shouldn’t be bowing, the referees than their bodies and a skimpy pair of mixed absolutely will call the fight.” martial arts gloves to protect their hands as A former pro kickboxer who won a gold they go to war with fists flying against their medal in the 1995 World Cup, the Portuguese- opponent. There are three five-minute rounds born Mascarenhas picked New Jersey as the in non-title MMA bouts, five in title bouts. home for his new MMA league because it New Jersey was the first state to adopt provides a nurturing environment for the an official set of MMA rules, and Carl sport. The Asylum Fight League aims to give Mas carenhas, founder of the Asylum Fight new fighters, such as Dan Holmes of Wash - League, credits Nick Lembo, counsel to the ington Township, a start. state Athletic Control Board. “He was the Mascarenhas said the cage fighting “New Jersey is one of the top places for gentleman who actually devised the rules scor ing system is based on the number of MMA. We have a hot bed of MMA gyms to allow this to actually be a sport,” said connected strikes as in boxing. A knockout here,” said Mascarenhas. Mascarenhas. can win a fight, as can taking an opponent Young fighters are well aware that New The first UFC fight sanctioned by a state – down in the dominant position. Jersey’s MMA future is bright. Atlantic City New Jersey – occurred in 2001. Prior to that, “You can win by scoring points, like a 10- casino venues are scheduling more and said Mascarenhas, ultimate fighting had few 9 round just like it would be in boxing, and more MMA bouts. Said young fighter rules and was controversial. “In the begin - there’s also submitting the person where he Holmes: “The sport is growing and the East ning, it was like anybody could get in the cage. taps out after a joint lock or choke. A joint Coast is starting to get hit hard with it. Today, they’re highly trained athletes. It’s not lock is like an arm bar or a knee bar, where At lantic City is gonna blow up with MMA. just two people pummeling each other.” you’re actually putting their body in a posi tion It’s gonna be real cool.” love the excitement,” he said. To Almeida, it is all about winning. “The will to win under pressure and the will to win against someone who is try ing to take you down is the most appealing aspect,” he said. Injuries? Sure, they happen, said Asy - lum’s Mascarenhas. “You’re not playing badminton. “People get black eyes, a broken nose, that happens. It’s part of the sport. We had one fight where a guy got cut on the top of his forehead. Have you ever nicked your head before? The worst place in the world to get a cut is your face or your head because it won’t stop bleeding. It was just dripping down his face. It made for a great scary picture, but it was just a quarter-inch cut that happened to bleed crazily.” Minor injuries aside, the sport averts major injury because of the respect fight - ers have for each other, he said. “It’s the safest place in the world to be. There’s a lot of respect, honor, and dignity in MMA that you don’t see anywhere else.” I

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 15 HJERSiEY story

ARTICLE BY GEORGE R. B RINKERHOFF

“Listen, Friend: Have you ever rid den 100 miles an hour in an open race car no bigger than a bath tub with the sun frying your brain, the wind crushing you against the back of your seat, your ears splitting with the staccato music of the motor that is ever hurling you into the blinding glimmer of the stretch ahead – always AHEAD? OK, here goes. If you have, you’re a NUT.” You’re not going to believe this. Once upon a time, amidst what is now a serene pine – Perry Lewis, The Philadelphia Inquirer , as printed forest in South Jersey, race car driving legends from in the May 27, 1927, Official Souvenir Program, the dawn of motorsports once fiercely and loudly bat tled each other for supremacy at a race course that Speedway, NJ rivaled the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. See, I told you. To look at the site now, nestled in the pines, it’s nearly impossible to imagine. And the race car driv ers Special thanks to Robert Benner, who drove here were the greatest of their time. The as well as the folks at www.3widespicturevault.com same guys who drove at Indianapolis, as well as

16 jerseymanmagazine.com Atlantic City Motor Speedway, 1926

Pre-race activities in pit lane on the front straightaway in preparation for the first race ever held at the Atlantic City Motor Speedway, near Hammonton, NJ, May 1, 1926. Harry Hartz, of Pomona, California, driving the Miller #3 in the foreground was the winner of the event, in record time.

Photo from the Collection of Robert Benner

GWhhen o80,s00t0 FRansiWdatecherds“Huimnan Btuhlletes” oPn thienBoeards s other top racing circuits, drove here – their rail cars) created an oval board track of It also was called “the fastest track in generation’s Dale Earnhardt, and Jeff two by fours, 1.5 miles long and 50 feet the world,” allowing for speeds up to 160 Gor don, Mario Andretti and A.J. Foyt – all wide with banked turns on a 45 degree mph. In fact, the single lap track qualify - fighting for bragging rights and glory in angle (The boards were placed length wise, ing record of 147.7 miles per hour was the South Jersey pines. two inch side up, for the racing sur face), es tablished by Frank Lockhart in May The evidence is here, hidden in the and grandstands with a capacity of 40,000 1927. (This single lap qualifying speed woods near a main thoroughfare just out - people (there was room for an other record would not be eclipsed again in side Hammonton. A dirt road in the shape 250,000 in and around the track). competition until the 1960 Indianapolis of an oval. Built in 1926, the Atlantic City The place was built and financed by 500, 33 years later.) Motor Speedway (aka, the Amatol Speed - Charles M. Schwab, steel magnate and Board track racing truly was a mad way, or simply the Atlantic City Speed - president of, consecutively, Carnegie Steel idea. Cobbling together an incredible way) was a marvel of 1920s era human Company, US Steel, and Bethlehem Steel. amount of lumber, fashioning huge, one- engineering and industry. Four and a half It was heralded by newsmen of the day as to-two-mile-long circular or oval bowls million feet of lumber (brought in by 253 a new Roman Coliseum. with steeply banked turns, with few or no

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 17 HJERSiEY story

were nearly as risky. The use of a wooden referred to as open-wheel racing (lighter, surface and steep banks meant the drivers faster, fenderless vehicles built exclusively achieved significantly higher speeds than for the race track); true stock car racing; on dirt tracks or the bricks at Indianapolis. motorcycle racing; and even airplane And so, the board track races led to rac ing. By my count, no fewer than seven both racer and spectator injuries and winners of the Indianapolis 500 competed deaths, which generated negative public ity, here in South Jersey during the four years which eventually spelled their doom. that the Speedway functioned. It didn’t help that drivers had none of In the very first race held at the Jersey today’s safety features – seat belts, roll- venue in May of 1926, an open-wheel bars, or fireproof suits. They wore the event, winner Harry Hartz, driving a Harry Hartz, one of the top racers of the 1920s. thinnest of leather helmets (and neckties!). Miller, set a new race record for 300 miles Their shoulders often extended above the in 2 hours, 14 minutes and 14 seconds. guardrails, and allowing racers in motor - cockpit, and they looked through goggles, The NY Times headline announced, “Six cycles or open cockpit cars, without so not a windshield. Auto Marks Fall; 80,000 Watch Race,” much as a seat belt, to drive as fast as Despite the risk, or maybe because of it, in dicating six automobile speed records hu manly possible, battling each other for board racing was one of the most com - for various distances were set. The Times the privilege of priority. And the board pelling spectator sports of its era. News - said Hartz clipped nearly five minutes tracks themselves possessed many safety papers anointed the drivers as “speed from the 300-mile record and took hazards including deterioration, holes in kings,” “human bullets,” and “daredevils.” $12,000 of the race’s $30,000 purse. the racing surface, splinters propelled in n

the air from other vehicles, and road rash o Atlantic City Motor Speedway was also i t c e l with splinters if you crashed and were used as an endurance testing ground for l o c

automobile manufacturers. One test was s thrown from your vehicle onto the track. r o h

a non-stop, 20 day, 19 night, 30,000 mile t u

Oh, and flammability. You know, gasoline a

marathon for Studebakers. e h and oil on wood? In 1928, for example, t m o r during a 30,000-mile endurance test of F Studebakers, driver Norman Batten was stopped for fuel when something ex - ploded under the vehicle, igniting both it and the track. Somehow the car was moved, the fire extinguished and both Norman and the track were spared.

oard tracks began in the late 1800s as wooden velodromes constructed for bicycle races. They lauded the driver’s bravery and (British-produced newsreel film footage Wood was plentiful, cheap and skills, de scribing in detail the incidents from this very race can be seen at easy to craft, so why not use it for the and crashes, the injuries and deaths. Such http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php? eBmerging automobile and motorcycle rac ing was fiercely defended as one of the id=25285. The newsreel indicates that the competitive battles? The heyday of the boldest, most fearless and epic of human race was at “America’s Brooklands” in board tracks, or motordromes, ran roughly endeavors. In hindsight, that seems right. New Jersey. Brooklands was a major race from 1910 to the early 1930s, with a few Though billed as the “fastest track in the track in England. Though the winner’s lasting into the 1940s. Many tracks were world,” the Atlantic City Motor Speedway name is misspelled Harry Hart, the time built all across America. Some were small, apparently suffered from less reported and distance match, along with enough very high-banked affairs built for motor - car nage than other board tracks, whose other details to allow me to confirm this cycles only, while others were more spectator seats lined the steeply-banked was the inaugural Atlantic City Motor lengthy with slightly more subtle banking curves. Grandstands here were located in Speedway race. The film captures the spec - suitable for both autos and motorcycles. the long front straightaway. There were no tacular scene: grandstands and infield Motorcycle races were especially danger - reported deaths and only a few notable buzzing with spectators; the speed of the ous due to the lack of brakes on the in juries, mostly to drivers. flimsy-looking open-wheel cars; and the ma chines, the high speeds on the steeply If the injury levels were low at the bravery of the “wheel twister” pilots banked tracks, and the absence of barri ers speedway, the quality of racing was the hang ing it all out on the ragged edge.) between riders and crowds. Auto races best of the best. It included what is now This first race was an international

18 jerseymanmagazine.com Racers zoom past the packed grandstands at Atlantic City Motor Speedway. Photo from the Collection of George Koyt

Such racing was fiercely defended as one of the boldest, most fearless and epic of human endeavors. af fair, featuring both Count du Marguenat Due to increased publicity and lower and drew only 15,000 fans. For the final from France and Baron de Rachewsky, ticket prices, some 75,000 fans attended automobile race, a mere 2000 people from Russia. Both a count and a baron, the September 1927 stock car races. watched as Ray Keech, the then owner of racing on a board track in South Jersey Then, just two years after its inaugural the world straightaway land speed record against the lowly American commoners – race, the speedway launched what would at 207.55 mph set the previous April, won and the commoners beat them! (The be its final season of automobile racing on the 100-mile event on Sep tember 16, count couldn’t start the race and the baron May 30, 1928, with great fanfare. The 1928. The races scheduled for October lasted only 11 laps.) Hammonton News wrote about “the were cancelled. biggest board speedway in the east.” It A last dismal event was held in 1929. gushed: “Motorcycle, airplane and auto - Both professional and amateur motorcycle major event in honor the na tion’s mobile races will dominate the program, races had been scheduled. The spectators sesquicentennial (150-year) which will be embellished with parachute erupted in anger with cries of “Fake!” and cel ebration lit up the track on jumping acts and trapeze stunts thou sands “We want our money back,” and July 17, 1926. Racing prizes of of feet in the air.” “de scended on the ticket booth” when the nearly $50,000 that day were called by The Hopes were high but the year’s atten - professional racers refused to race because HAammonton News , “the richest financial dance figures begin to tell the story. The they had not been paid up front by the plum the world of speed has ever offered.” May 30, 1928, stock car races drew a promoter. State police “quieted them in Three 60-mile races and a 120-mile feature re spectable 26,000, considering it was on about twenty minutes after several tus sles,” were offered, with Hartz again winning the same day as the Indy 500 in Indi - said one report. The amateurs did race, the main event. anapolis that drew many of the best but the promoter was arrested. At a May 1927 race, just 20,000 fans driv ers. Two of three auto races were won Most of the track was eventually torn watched Dave Lewis win the open-wheel by the 1915 Indy 500 winner Ralph De down, and in 1933 the Hammonton Fire event and then witnessed a crash in the Palma. The program also called for profes - Department burned what remained. The stock car event. The driver of a Stutz and sional and amateur motorcycle races. Atlantic City Motor Speedway of the Roar ing his ride-along mechanic (standard practice “Wild” Bill Minnick, known for racing with Twenties remains a fascinating, if brief, for many races run at this time) were his sidecar motorcycle, won the 20-mile page in the annals of both local and se riously hurt when they “rolled off the professional race, besting another motor - na tional motorsports history. I northern embankment and their car was cycle riding star of the day, Joe Petrali. smashed to pieces.” The driver in the At the July 4, 1928, race, the open- George R. Brinkerhoff is an attorney, a race fan fol lowing car jammed on his brakes and wheel race cars were back. This contest and an avid outdoorsman, with an interest in skidded down the track. was won by Fred Winnai in a Duesen berg, unique local history.

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 19 JERSEY SPORTS GUYS

he golf man of ARTICLE BY KEN DUNEK

he nickname just didn’t fit. way, invented the two-piece golf ball and the graphite shaft), at the Mike Killian looked anything but a “Killer.” age of 10 Killian went from shooting around 100 to being a plus-six This head golf professional and Director of Golf at Galloway handicap in two and a half years – and that was only just the National Golf Club in Galloway Township has a pleasant grin and be ginning. At the age of 15, he narrowly lost the Florida State a calm demeanor, hardly the characteristics of someone with such Championship to future golf professional and current ABC golf Ta ruthless nickname. But when he talks about his life in golf, his an alyst Bob Murphy. At 16, he was nosed out in the same tourna - eyes take on a steely glaze as he relates to the countless victims ment by another familiar golfing name, Calvin Peete. And at 18 he has left in his wake. years of age he won the Florida men’s junior title. Not bad for a kid Born in Syracuse, NY, in 1950, Killian’s family relocated to St. that wanted to shag fungoes and play pepper just a few years earlier. Petersburg, Florida, in 1960. Mike favored baseball back then, but He gave the University of Houston a try for one semester but a fractured ankle sent him to the links to quench his competitive soon realized he longed for his home and transferred to the thirst. It might have been the best break he ever had. University of Florida, where he joined a golf team consisting of Under the tutelage of golf professional Irv Schloss (who, by the future PGA stars Andy North, Gary Koch, and Andy Bean, among others. To tell you a little of how likable a guy Killian is, he had to sit out more than a year due to NCAA transfer rules, and the following season he was voted captain of the golf team without having yet played a match. Killian played number 3 for the Gators behind North and Koch. This crew made it to the finals of the NCAA tournament twice before los ing to a University of Texas Longhorn team that featured a couple of guys named Ben Crenshaw and Tom Kite. In 1971, Killian joined Bardmore Country Club in Largo, Florida, and became friendly with another member there, the tempestuous touring professional Tommy Bolt. Bolt was friendly with Ben Hogan, and offered Mike the opportunity to caddy for one of the greatest the game has ever seen the following day in an exhibition match. He immediately agreed and asked Bolt what time he should show up for the 1 p.m. tee-off time. Bolt replied, “You had better get here at 7:30 a.m. Ben likes to hit a few balls.” The following day, Hogan was waiting for his caddy at 7:30 sharp and hit golf balls until the match began five and a half hours later. As Hogan used to say, “The secret to golf is in the dirt.” He certainly made a believer out of his caddy. Killian’s Top 8 finish in the 1972 National Ama teur earned him a spot at Augusta, where years earlier his father had taken him as a spectator, and a young Mike Mike Killian, Killian had boldly and correctly predicted he would Director of Golf, someday play in the Masters. His playing partner for Galloway National Golf Club the practice round was none other than the legendary

20 jerseymanmagazine.com GGaalllloowwaayy

“Squire” Gene Sarazen. “Mr. Sarazen was a captivating figure,” “I’ve been around some great players, Killian related, “but his caddy told us to make sure we let him make it to the green first so he could reap the applause from his but Annika Sorenstam is as good as adoring fans. He also didn’t have much to say to me, so it made a ball striker as I’ve ever seen.” for a long, quiet round of golf.” Killian played well in the tour - nament that year, missing the cut by a single shot. The following year he again qualified to compete for the green “To even try to qualify for an Open, you have to be about a 1.2 jacket, and found himself playing a practice round with Jack index,” he said. “Our average score for that qualifier here was Nicklaus. “Nicklaus was as friendly and helpful as Sarazen was 83.7 by players that normally shoot around par. What does that aloof and is the ultimate ambassador for golf,” he stated. But tell you about the difficulty at Galloway?” when the competition got heated, Jack hit a drive 40 yards past And some of the biggest names in golf have teed it up there in the former two-time NCAA long-drive champ, gave him a wink recent years and commented about it: and a smile, and told him, “I’ve got another gear, you know.” Hale Irwin – “I’d love to play it all the time.” Again, Killian gave a good account of his skills and missed the Ben Crenshaw – “This course has unique greens like Augusta cut that year by only three shots. National.” In 1973, Killian was named to the prestigious Walker Cup team, Tom Watson – “Galloway is a fine course but probably too where he played with teammates Koch, Dan Edwards, Vinnie dif ficult for the average golfer.” Giles, and Jim Ellis, among others. They were victorious that year, Lee Trevino didn’t like it…. “greens are too tough” he said. But and Killian relates the story with relish. “It’s hard to play golf with Annika Sorenstam broke par from the forward tees and has a tears of pride in your eyes,” he said. “But somehow I found a way fondness for the course. Killian adds about Sorenstam, “I’ve been to hold it together.” around some great players, but she is as good as a ball striker as At this point, you might be asking why you haven’t heard more I’ve ever seen.” Coming from a guy who caddied for Hogan and about “Killer” Killian reaping fame and fortune on the PGA tour played with Nicklaus, that is indeed high praise. with many of his contemporaries. “I had some chances,” he Rocco Mediate, Lorena Ochoa, Lanny Wadkins, and Nancy stated. “Had a Top 10 finish in a tour event in Phoenix and missed Lopez – they’ve all given this monster at the Shore a try. And they the US Open cut by one shot, but I grew weary of the life of a keep calling him to come back. ‘rabbit’ on tour and lost my motivation and competitive edge. So This golf gangster Killian also mentors a solid group of I went into the bond brokerage business for about six years before un derbosses, including sharpshooters such as former Philadel phia the lure of golf came calling once again.” and New Jersey Amateur Champion Mike Hyland from Marl ton, Taking an opportunity to become a teaching professional, he and Haddonfield’s own three-time New Jersey Mid-Amateur worked at Wood Holme (MD) CC from 1983-1990 and then at Cham pion Tom Gramigna. “I love Mike Killian’s teaching style Hollywood (NJ) CC from 1990-2000. He was then offered the – less techni cal, more feel,” said Hyland. “Anyone with high po sition of Director of Golf from club owner and local banking aspirations in golf would be well served to take lessons legend Ver non Hill at Galloway in 2001 and has called it his home from him.” ever since. “Galloway is a flat-out jewel,” Mike said of the Tom So Mike Killian, his wife of 33 years, Linda, and their children, Fazio-designed layout that is a par 71 and plays 7,104 yards from Blaine and Jackie, have found their hideout down at the Jersey the tips with a 74.5 rating and a slope of 146. “And we are start - Shore. And the man they call “Killer” has taken up residence at a ing to gain some national recognition.” To attest to its difficulty, course that can be fatal. I Killian points to last year’s regional US Open qualifier held there. It sounds like a deadly combination to me.

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 21 SPECIAL JERSEYMAN BUSINESS SECTION Business Bravehearts ow many startup businesses fail in the first year? Who cares, ask bold entrepreneurs driven by the power of their business ideas. In saluting all of the state’s entrepreneurs, JerseyMan Magazine spotlights five business owners who illustrate the H startup spirit and courage-under-fire exhibited by Business Bravehearts who fuel the nation’s economic growth. The Neatest Junkyard in America

ARTICLE BY LOU ANTOSH

Tom Stalba started with one tow truck, now owns the super-tidy AA Auto Salvage in Williamstown.

Photograph by Jeremy Messler

22 jerseymanmagazine.com SPECIAL JERSEYMAN BUSINESS SECTION

“…meaner than a junkyard dog”

That lyric in Jim Croce’s Bad, Bad Leroy Brown triggers an inner cascade of images in men of a certain age, the grease- under-the-nails guys who toiled for hours in garages and driveways. Cars were cool, but the ones teenagers could afford usually needed work before you could cruise in them. And so, certain rituals developed. Hey, man, this car needs a starter. Let’s go over to the junk - yard and get one Saturday. Maybe that dirtball dog’ll finally get a chunk of you. Hah! The junkyard looked like a tornado aftermath, sort of a big - ger version of your room, only in metal. Uneven mountains of mashed-up, born-in-Detroit bodies offered a maze of both de - Each spring, Stalba and his father travel the East Coast drag racing circuit. struction and hope. There was the Harley-Davidson growl of the mangy dog. And the cynical stare from the weather-lined around the East Coast, sometimes California, to zoom 190 guy in charge. It was a mess, but a mess that very likely could miles an hour down drag tracks in his dragster. (He was deliver that part you needed. run ner-up in the world championship two years running.) Tom Stalba was one of those teenage parts-seekers. He Tom Stalba, who wound you up, man? re members the old guys with the rusted-out voices who would “I guess I just had a drive and a list of things I wanted to jab a greasy finger vaguely toward a distant pile of car casses. do,” he said, inside the headquarters building on East Piney “Look at a Chevy over there, kid.” Hollow Road road in the Pinelands a few miles from the Smart and ambitious, Stalba was all over old cars when he At lantic City Expressway. “I was 19 and sat down with my was a student at Williamstown High, rebuilding them with parents and said I just know I can make a business go.” his dad, Tom Sr., hanging around junkyards, repair shops, He worked as a Trump casino waiter after graduating, got towing yards. The plan was to attend a technical school after to like the money, scrapped school plans and eventually set up graduation in 1985, get some book knowledge in the auto - a part-time towing business that exposed him to lots of motive field, then find a decent job. ex perts in the auto salvage and parts business. He soaked up But fate got in the way, and 43-year-old Stalba today is their wisdom. The part-time towing business became full time wheeling a golf cart around AA Auto Salvage in Williamstown, and then, at 25, he jumped at a chance to buy the a massive, eight-acre testimony to what a high school grad with Williamstown lot. smarts, passion and drive (but little cash) can do within two “I was in and out of a lot of junkyards and I was liking it,” decades in the good, old U.S.A. More than 1,000 mostly totaled said Stalba, whose wide mouth often alternately accompanies cars roll into his yard each year and more than 100 customers a grin or a squint, giving him a perpetually upbeat look. “The show up daily or call in for parts big and small. “They line up cars, the parts, the crusher, all that stuff that was going on. outside on Saturdays,” he said. “Saturday mornings are BIG.” I thought the parts end was really neat and decided to try it.” What he purchased as an empty, four-acre lot is now a AA Auto Salvage looks nothing like the junkyards Jim Croce sprawling metallic empire, featuring: row after row of dis - knew. Stalba has his men strip vulnerable parts from salvage carded cars stacked three-high on vertical racks, each stretch - cars to get them indoors. He climbed two sets of stairs in the ing two football fields or longer; a 36-foot-high, two-level main workshop (100 by 50 feet) and pointed to shelf after building housing thousands of engines, transmissions, rears shelf of transmissions and rears. Five mechanics work there, and other parts; 15 employees, five of them order-takers who some spend each day taking out parts that have been ordered, sit all day in front of computers to service the repair shops, then remove everything but the crushable carcass. body shops and average Joes who need parts; and... wait, Efficiency is something Stalba often mentions in conversa tion. Tom, where’s the dog? He doesn’t mention neatness, but it shows. In the combined “No dog,” he said. “Surveillance.” office/showroom, used radios hang together on a display rack. And there’s more. Yes, the towing business continues. (“I’ve Two nicely upholstered seats look just about new. Shiny been doing police towing since 1990.”) And Stalba now owns wheels catch the eye. Very unjunkyardy. a 50-acre nursery a mile away on Black Horse Pike; he bought He witnessed the tail end of the era when junkyards were it partly for the business, partly for expansion space. He’s got a disheveled environmental disaster-in-waiting. “The days are “a couple other properties around.” And whenever the over when they would roll a car over, torch it and let all the weather turns and he can get away from squeezing every last fluids go into the ground,” he said. State and federal environ - part out of the 25 smacked-up cars arriving daily, he travels mental laws have forced many changes and his operation

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He logs plenty of forklift hours. On this day, he goes outside and stops by a cracked-up 2010 Camaro, its driver-side win dow covered with plastic. His company purchased it at an auction for $2,000. “This came in yesterday from a wreck. Believe it or not, it still has a lot of parts on it, they will go back on the road.” It’s a theme he states time and again, recycling. On the second level of the workshop/storehouse, huge pallet-sized boxes are brimming with various parts, items that have been on hand for more than several years. “This is inventory cleanup, there is a company that buys this stuff, reconditions them and sells them. “It’s unbelievable all the parts of a car, everything gets used. Even the old bodies, they get shredded and it all goes over to China and they make cars out of it.” And will there be any recycling of Tom Stalba, or is the young Tom’s passion for the business still simmering? He feels a bit hemmed in by the physical dimension of the yard, which he expanded by purchasing adjacent land. But because of Pinelands protection regulations, he has nowhere to build but up at that location. He is consumed with finding the most ef ficient ways to store items to acquire some extra space. He may build a 10,000-square-foot building at the nursery nearby to store transmissions, engines and other parts. houses auto fluids in concrete holding areas, that the EPA checks twice annually. Stalba needed no authority to tell him how to run a tidy RunningaJunkyard,PedaltotheMetal ship. “I can tell you exactly where everything is,” he said. The AA Auto Salvage Stats “When a car comes in, it is inventoried and given a stock number, all the racks are numbered and color coded. Every - Year Founded ...... 1994 thing is on the computer.” As he explains the system, it was Yard Size ...... Nearly 8 acres hard not to wonder if he lines up the peas on his dinner plate. Cars on Site ...... 1400 Friend Marty Kirsch, who also is Stalba’s investment broker, says there is no doubt that his buddy “is a driven individual.” Cars received ...... 25 a week Kirsch was a couple years behind Stalba at Williamstown Sales ...... 100 transactions a day, approx. five engines High, got closer to him about 10 years ago. Surefire items sold daily . . . . . Tail lights, mirrors, headlights “He’s a man’s man,” said the broker. “Loves hockey, base - Engines in stock ...... 1800 ball, which he played in school. Likes to play cards. And then Radios in stock ...... More than 500 there’s his drag racing. He is exactly what you expect to find Prices ...... Motors, rears, transmissions, $250-4000, in a business executive, a very confident person, and that depending on mileage/installs $350-2000/ op eration of his is like a well-oiled machine.” mirrors, tail lights, $25-500 Stalba has come a long way since high school, and so has Warranty . . 101 days on motors, rears, transmissions, parts, the salvage industry. He reports that the uninstall-it-yourself 6 month warranty on installed major parts days of salvaged parts are over. Back when amateurs were Employees . . 18 (Includes five order takers, five mechanics) al lowed to spot a part and strip it off the car, they often broke several other parts in the process. Very inefficient. Now a Bays for repairs, installations ...... 2 buyer can call up during the week, order the part and have it Client breakdown ...... Repair shops 60% waiting at the counter. Body shops 30% “If they come in and want to see a part on a car, we will Public 10% es cort them into the yard, show them the part. Do you want Repair shop backlog ...... 10 days this? Yes? OK, have a seat and we will bring it to you. It’s like Crusher activity ...... 25 cars weekly, crushed to going to McDonald’s. Order it and a couple minutes later, here less than 18 inches high it is,” he said. Crushed cars per trailer load out ...... 18 cars Stalba hasn’t lost any of the passion that fostered his busi ness.

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Karen Stalba has reached 260 mph in her Top Alcohol Dragster.

Meanwhile, he attends to his growing family. Son Paul is Stalba, though it was hard to see her features because of the four, and daughter Emily is one. There are also drag racing helmet, which was very small because the wide-shot photo trips, often with his dad, using the motor home and trailer showed the high-end dragster she was steering. bought for that purpose. Stalba was Rookie of the Year in 1990 “Listen,” he said. “I go like 7.0 seconds at 192 miles an hour and has made a name for himself in the sport. Two times he for the quarter mile. She goes 5.7 seconds at 260 miles an was leading the World Championship Tour until the last races hour. She’s in a whole different class. You can watch her on in California. “I lost the last race of the year. Twice.” TV on Sundays.” And what does wife Karen think of all of this? Stalba smiled, For fast-driving Tom Stabla, that matchup sounds about left the room and returned with a framed photograph of Mrs. right. I SPECIAL JERSEYMAN BUSINESS SECTION

MATT SCHICK wasn’t the first or last kid ever to get picked the kid who on in school, but he may go down in the Annals of Kid Comebacks for one of the more inventive turn-arounds in a young life. No, he wasn’t a storybook bench rider who one day came didn t fit in off the pines to smack the championship-winning homer and ’ get carried off by adoring peers. In fact, Schick admits that “even today if you talk to me about sports I will probably give made those you a blank stare.” As a kid completely devoid of athleticism, he learned early on that sports was his kryptonite, one major cause for his life picked-on days as an alien among regular kids in Robbinsville, NJ. He re called: “I was a little bit strange, a little bit quirky, and in gym classes I would get laughed at and picked on.” disappear The slight and mild-mannered Schick didn’t duck into a phone booth to become a superhero, but he did do a dis - ap pearing act of sorts to work hour after hour, day after day, on a transformation that produced today’s confi dent, smiling student and businessman. On weekdays, he is Seeing Double. a freshman at Bentley University in Waltham, MA. But 19-year-old magician and on weekends and during summers, well, Matt Schick businessman Matt Schick is something else. shows his multiple At only 19 years old, Schick is nationally- personalities recognized in the world of prestidigitation and illusion – that’s right, magic. Three years ago, Magic Magazine named him one of the Top 16 Teen Magicians in the nation. He has traveled to magic conventions and schools throughout the nation and studied under some of the top names in the profession. Matt Schick has come a long way from that 10-year-old summer camper who watched a DVD by magic superstar David Blaine and told himself that is what I have to do. For a picked-on kid, the land of magic was healing fertile turf that promoted positive growth. “I didn’t have many friends in elementary and middle school and I got laughed at,” he recalled, “but magic was something I could dedicate my time to so I wasn’t home moping about school.” He spent four hours a day prac - ticing hundreds of tricks in front of a mirror, his parents, and the few other kids who would tol - erate it – for a couple of minutes. He did this for years, waiting to make his move. “I wanted to make sure I had a fantastic product before I went into the marketplace.” And then, suddenly, he could do it. “When I found that I could do magic that would fool and impress even adults – adults who know EVERYTHING – I got such confi - dence, I started believing in me as a person.

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“By the time I got to high school and oddities. The birthday girl got a plastic- the other kids were out partying on week - wrapped magic kit, featuring Schick on ends, I went home to do my homework the box and tons of tricks inside. He first then traveled around New Jersey and was n’t done after an hour, but went to Pennsylvania doing magic shows – the cake table for another 30 minutes to thanks to my parents who drove me and produce all manner of balloon animals were amazingly supportive.” and figures. “Wow, look at that ladybug,” In his last two years in high school, said a mother. “Hey, that’s a mermaid,” Schick put together an annual charity said a father. magic show with top level magicians at a Said Schick: “I like to make a full party 1000-seat theater near Robbinsville, work - out of it, so the kids walk away knowing ing like a dog to market it. Presto: A full a little bit more about magic. To me, it’s house two years running, raising a total not about tricks. It’s about the journey as of $29,000 for the Spread the Magic Foun - a whole.” dation, a New Jersey nonprofit which Before he left, the adults engaged him do nated the funds to Children’s Hospital in talk. Their respect was obvious. of Philadelphia. Other students, he now Schick The self-professed “magic geek” re - noticed, weren’t laughing at him. cently returned from another trip at the Nor was Penny Juros, CEO of Spread the Magic Foundation, invitation-only Magic Teen Weekend in Las Vegas, where 40 which chose Schick for its board of directors. She calls him young magicians from across the world studied under big- “not only compassionate, devoted and generous, but also a name magicians such as Lance Burton and Jeff McBride. very civically engaged and purposeful young man.” “Lance Burton takes us to his castle – he lives in a castle – This writer caught Schick’s act when he trudged up the and talks to us and eats pizza with us. driveway of a Jersey home for a birthday party involving 15 “Let’s say you want to be a singer and your idols are, say, cabin-fever-crazed seven-year-olds. Just an ordinary-looking Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga. What are the chances you young man, carrying a few bags, who asked for 10 minutes would even meet them, let alone study and work with them? alone to set up in the living room. The magic community lets us do that; the big names are When he called the kids in, they stopped short at the scene. ter rific people. The whole magic community is like nothing Somehow a wide, seven-foot-tall curtain had filled one end of else; we talk all the time, text all the time. I can’t say enough the room, and there was this guy, now in baggy pants with about my friends.” suspenders, at a podium, asking them to sit in a circle right In a few years he will have his degree. And, if all goes well, around his feet. Schick specializes in “close-up magic,” using some time after that he will have his dream job – performing coins, cards and small objects to make them disappear before at a theater on a regular basis. He will have even more name your eyes. He is all about interaction with the audience, be it recognition within and outside the magic community. a bunch of kids in a home of a wedding cocktail party crowd The kid who had no friends knows that these last good he wanders through. years, and the good ones ahead, all started when he found the For one solid hour, the magician controlled the kids like a relationship that mattered most. Pied Piper, making them shriek at slapstick antics (“You “I have great confidence now,” he said. no tice I hit myself in the head a lot”) and hilarious props, “I like me as a person.” I L.A. si lencing them with stuff that dis - appeared, slicing things that some - how became whole again. Several times the kids thought they had doped out a trick, only to have him do the impossible. Parents looked at each other and raised eyebrows. Hmm, how did that happen? The more parents who watch, the better; it revs him up. Schick is a marketing major at Bent ley, is wild about business. He gives every kid at the party a goodie bag filled with tricks and

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They’re Rewriting the Closing-Time Pickup Lines FRANK AND LORI DONOHUE think people look pretty good “They don’t want to lose their license and pay thousands of right before closing time. They should know. The Medford dollars in fines and costs,” said Lori. “They thank us but I res idents are hanging around so many area clubs and bars at commend them for being responisble.” the witching hour that somebody, somewhere should write The Donohues say they have traveled as far away as them a C&W tune. War rington, PA, to pick up clients; that haul meant three hours of driving. So how much does all of this cost? I’m sinking at the bar, So come and drive my car “This obviously has to be refined as gas prices go up, but for While the pair are low-profile drinkers (he drinks “not at the local region – Medford, Shamong, Tabernacle – we charge all,” she has an occasional glass of wine), they are looming $20 for the first 10 miles and $2 a mile after that,” said Frank. higher and higher on bartender radar “We negotiate prices for more distant screens because of their fledgling part- Frank and pickups and in Pennsylvania. We’re not time transportation business based on Lori Donohue making a killing and it’s still cheaper the drinking of others. than a cab and your car gets home too.” They call their gig GetuHomeSafeSJ. The pair tries to keep rates rea son - And if you are sober now, you probably able, said Lori. “One woman told me already have guessed what they provide she was quoted $500 by a van service – a designated driver service. to drive her and her friends. She was a The Donohues both have full-time young mother and she just wanted to go day jobs, but their overall income took to the company Christmas party. We a major hit a couple of years ago when were a better alternative for them.” his operations superintendent job at The business started with an incident U.S. Pipe in Burlington disappeared. at a home improvement store when the (The plant closed). He now works as pair saw a man struggling with a large maintenance manager at Shop-Rite in order of plywood and lumber. He men - Medford and she is a long-time U.S. tioned to the clerk it was doubtful the Postal Service employee. haul would fit into his car. The Dono hues “Our earnings are down 30 percent and we obviously looked at him, mentally fit the load into their large pickup, and needed something to supplement our income,” said Frank. “I Lori suggested to Frank he offer their services for $20, enough did market research and found one area outfit that will pick to cover their gas and a bit more. you up. But our pitch is that we will get you and your car “The guy lit up and asked if were serious, recalled Frank, home safe.” (They drive their vehicle to the scene and drive laughing. “I guess I should have asked him where he lived both vehicles back to the client homes.) first. But he was a 15-minute drive away in Pemberton, so we Donohue said the response has been “incredible” and the hauled it and he followed us.” demand keeps them busy two or three workweek nights and On the way home, the pair talked about offering driving every weekend. “We’ve never turned down a request and services somehow, but it wasn’t quite an “a-ha” moment. we’re proud of that.” The couple relies on texting to make That happened at Shop-Rite, when Frank again heard one of prompt and efficient pickups and deliveries. Naps also help. his young employees complain that he spent a weekend doing “If we have a ride that evening, we’ll grab a quick nap after homework when his buddies planned some bar time. work,” said Frank. “This past New Year’s Eve was the first “His buddies were always calling him up and asking him to time in 20 years of marriage that we missed the ball coming be the designated driver,” said Frank. “Then it clicked. I said down on TV. We slept early and got up at 12:15 a.m. because to Lori, ‘Hey, what about a designated driver service?’” we had a long night ahead of us.” The couple say the business fits their lifestyle perfectly. Lori chimed in: “Actually, the girls we picked up from a place Their daughter is 31 and independent, and their 18-year-old in Philadelphia that night were a lot of fun. One of them got out son is mostly self-sufficient. of our truck, pointed to me and said ‘This is my new best friend.’” “It got to the point where we are sitting around looking Most clients are responsible professionals who appreciate at each other, wondering what to do next, and we had this the service, said Frank Donohue. One regular client hands the need for extra income,” Frank said. “So we get to hang out barmaid their business card and his keys, instructing her to together this way, earn some money and meet some great call them if he is obviously impaired. people.” I L.A.

To reach the couple, send an email to: [email protected]

28 jerseymanmagazine.com SPECIAL JERSEYMAN BUSINESS SECTION JJAACCKKPPOOTT!! Spinning Wheels, from Tokyo to Pennsauken

wife, Sherry, have been selling used casino slot machines ever since and loving the taste of success. “I was with him at that show and I thought it would be a nice gig,” said Sherry. “I used to run payroll for a large cor poration and we also ran my dad’s meat business from Philadelphia for a while, but we both always wanted our own business.” Don’t get the idea that Richard backs up his truck at At lantic City casinos and hauls used machines to the R&S Wholesale business the couple run on Route 73 north, close by the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge. It’s illegal to purchase modern- era slot machines from those gambling halls; only antiques can be sold legally, Mashbitz said. “These machines here are from Japan, were you can find them in the pachinko parlors that are everywhere there,” said Mashbitz. “Gambling is illegal in Japan so these machines use tokens that players redeem for gifts. At one time, the machines that were used and unwanted were thrown them into landfills, believe it or not.” He and Sherry stood close to 40 brightly lit machines that occupy half of the store, which also sells billiard tables and supplies, games of all sorts and other game room must- haves. (“For some reason Mah Jong sells big to people in Medford.”) The machines, which range in price from $300 to $1000, are all three-reel devices and vary in sophistication. They are manufactured by international companies serving the gaming industry. Sherry and Richard Mashbitz of R&S Wholesale “In Japan, they’re getting more into digital technology,” Sherry said. “The Lord of the Rings machine here has RICHARD MASHBITZ’S JOB as a bus driver for the ani mation and scenes from the movie. This Bon Jovi ma chine Pennsauken School District is to take no risks and get the kids has video from his concerts and the Bon Jovi fans go nuts there safely. But when the bus is parked for the day, Mashb itz’s over them. entrepreneurial wheels start spinning like the reels of an over - “The more expensive machines are collectibles, like worked casino slot machine. Mar vel , which has scenes with the comic book characters. This is a man who got into selling bison burgers only to Popeye is big and Rocky has video of his fights and the scene have a popular radio talk jockey declare on air that it was one when he runs through the Italian Market.” of the worst things he ever tasted. (Whoever cooked it botched Mashbitz brings the machines to this country by the the burger, but when I cooked it for him the radio star’s verdict con tainer-full, 500 at a time, but he does have growing was fine, Mashbitz said.) con cerns because “it’s getting tighter now and they are talk ing About 18 years ago, Mashbitz turned a corner at a mer - over there about recycling these things in the future.” chandise exhibit and ran into a array of flashing machines that The Pennsauken location has been open for about a year; stopped him in his tracks. prior to that his outlet was near the now-closed North Catholic Used slot machines! Wow. People LOVE slot machines and High School in lower Northeast Philadelphia. “The Catholics their bells, lights and whistles. Selling used machines seemed complained at first but found we were good neighbors. The a delicious idea and Richard Mashbitz bit hard. He and his DA’s office came in constantly but there was never an issue,

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over there or here; check with the Better Busi - ad just the payout percentage anywhere from ness Bureau, no complaints.” 65 percent to 105 percent, he said. The signs offering slot machines outside his “You can set the odds manually, the way storefront catch a lot of eyes, and business has they used to do in Atlantic City,” he said. “Now been good, he said. they do it through mainframes that set the slot “Some people buy two or three at a time for payouts through the computer system.” their homes, their man caves, but it is a mixed But there is no telling when the jackpot business with both men and women. We do a gets hit, right? lot with senior citizen facilities. A University of “Well, they say results are random, but Pennsylvania senior day care facility put five of they can control the percentage. You see one them in a room where the seniors go in to play billboard going into Atlantic City that says they and get prizes. It keeps them active and they pay out 90 percent on selected machines. But enjoy it.” tell me how random that is, they pay 90% on The slots account for about half of the store’s business, with selected machines but what are the others set at? Is it that you billiard accessories and games selling well. have 3000 machines but only five are paying out 90 percent?” “Chess is really big right now,” he said. “Chess clubs come Whatever his customers decide to pay out (in tokens he in, one from Willingboro, and we have portable sets, over - pro vides), his company will service the machines. sized sets you can play at the beach or pool area. The shuf fle - Business is brisk and life seems to be good for the board table there is 12 feet long; most homes don’t want a Mashb itzes. As some passing cars slow down to read his large 24-footer. signs, Mashbitz is asked rhetorically: Could there be a better “And because there are fewer billiard parlors, more people location? He doesn’t take it rhetorically. have tables at home. We can install a new table cloth for $200 “Well, maybe one,” he said. “I have another location in in a day.” mind. It’s further down on 73. I keep eyeballing it.” One other thing about the slot machines – buyers can Inside or out, those wheels keep turning. I L.A.

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Prison’s Over, 160 Pounds Are Gone, and Angelo Lutz is Getting Thumbs Up On His New Life ARTICLE BY ROBERT STRAUSS

THE SOUND SYSTEM at The Kitchen Consigliere Café was sigliere Café opened November 15 just off Haddon Avenue in playing – what else? – Frank Sinatra. It is one of the classics part of the Lumberyard development in Collingswood, and the – could have been “My Way” or “Wee Small Hours.” 42 seats have had a habit of filling up more often than not. But, no, it is an appropriate one for Angelo Lutz. For a South With any luck, the Café is the first of a Lutz-run empire. Philly Italian, maybe every Sinatra song could be appropriate, His goal is to become a celebrity chef – maybe not as cute as but this one comes down on the right side for Lutz. It is “Just Rachel Ray or as bossy as Emeril Lagasse or as tall as Julia in Time,” and as he smiled during a rare break in the action of Child. Maybe just a former federal inmate. his new Collingswood red-gravy joint, Sinatra wailed, “I know “Without my past, there is no Kitchen Consigliere,” said just where I’m going. No more doubts or fears.” Lutz with a matter-of-fact shrug. He said, like Sinatra, he Ten years ago, Lutz knew where he was going, too. But it knows just where he’s going and, while there may be a doubt was not such a good place. Then he was headed to prison for or two, there are no fears. “I have real goals.” his dealings with the South Philadelphia crime family headed He also has a real foodie past. His mom’s dad was Charles by Joey Merlino. P. Giunta, one of the founders of Giunta Brothers, one of the Lutz, who weighed in the mid-400-pound range back then, big South Philadelphia noodle businesses. Charles Giunta, had become a pop figure, but he was still a criminal. He did n’t Lutz said, invented one of the first hand-cranked noodle cut ting knock anyone off, but he did run a pretty neat little book - machines. Growing up, he worked in catering and before his making business, or so the feds convinced the jury. He got trial he was regularly the caterer for the Merlino family events, nine years, served seven. Didn’t like it much, but what’s hap - of which there were apparently many. He also played Santa pened has happened, said Lutz. Claus for some of them, but that is another story. He had always protested. He would say, “I’m a cook, not a That story is about how fat Lutz got. He is only five-foot- crook,” and make the media giggle most of the time. five, but by the time of his trial, he weighed more than 400 Now he just wants to feed them. And you. The Kitchen Con - pounds. The Philadelphia Daily News started calling him

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These days, too, just in time, those going to Kitchen Con - sigliere are seeing about half a Lutz, which, as he will tell you, is better than none, which might have been. After coming out of prison, suffering from diabetes and a host of other ailments, Lutz went to the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania for a vertical banded gastroplasty (VBG), otherwise known as a stomach stapling, which basically stifles the amount of food a patient can eat and digest at any one time. Lutz is still pretty rotund at about 240 pounds, with a personal goal of getting to about 200. He’s logging long, on-the-feet hours in the kitchen. “Look, I’m never going to be 140 pounds. I am realistic,” he said. “But the operation is the only reason I am alive, and I’m Teaming Up Tastefully The Mob Writer and ex-Mob Cook Philadelphia Inquirer crime reporter George Anastasia clearly has a fondness for Angelo Lutz, whose 2001 bookmaking trial he covered. “Angelo was, depending on who you talked to, the court jester of the mob, the cook, the guy who when they had get- togethers in clubhouses would cook,” said Anastasia. “The “Fat Ange,” and for a time, while he was awaiting sentenc ing, feds said he was part of the organization. I think he probably ran a reader contest for “Fat Ange” sightings, which, said was a combination of all of those things.” Lutz, were more often than not pretty far afield. He does Now Lutz will have another hat to wear – book co-author. admit, though, to enjoying playing a Buddha, spray-painted He’s writing a cookbook with Anastasia. gold and shirtless, for the Hegeman String Band in the “It’ll be a cookbook like none you’ve ever seen,” said Lutz. Mummers Parade. “There will be a lot of recipes but it will be the story of my life “I love the Mummers and work at the pleasure of the String Band Association,” said Lutz, 47. Collingswood Mayor James broken up in into menu form – appetizer, salad, pasta, entrees, Maley has already asked him to get Mummers to play in desserts. It starts with me born in South Philly, all the way Collingswood some summer nights, said Lutz. “Everyone’s through the Mummers and everything I have done, the time in been great here. I can’t wait to do it.” federal prison, getting out and opening this restaurant.” Collingswood is now replete, in its own Restaurant Renais - All true, said the reporter, who eats frequently at The Kitchen sance, with Italian places, but Lutz claims the half-dozen or Consiglieri Café. He said the publisher, Camino Books in so others in town tend to be upscale. He calls Kitchen Philadelphia, wants it public in the Fall. He is writing a short Con sigliere’s niche “peasant” food. essay about Lutz’ life as an introduction to each chapter. “That is no slap. It’s just simpler,” said Lutz. “Mine is just Anastasia said Lutz also is negotiating about a TV show. down home, down-to-earth, which is why we call it peasant “He’s got the personality and he is dynamic enough to make it cooking. A lot of people are offended by that. It is the food that happen. But I keep telling him to stay focused on what you’re your mother, your grandmother, your great-grandmother doing, that other life is over.” made, and that is what it was. It is basic dishes. Open up the The newsman considers Lutz a smart individual with a good refrigerator, see what is there, put something together.” sense of numbers and business. And he recalled the sentenc - Sure enough, there is nothing on the menu more than $17 ing judge saying Angelo probably knew more about how to at Kitchen Consigliere, and most of it is a “your choice” kind run a bookmaking operation than any of his co-defendants. of thing: “pollo” with “your choice” of franchaise, marsala, “He was a South Philadelphia bon vivant, the golden Buddha Parmesean or picatta for $15; similarly, veal dishes for $17 in the Mummers, a real storyteller, a funny guy, and, while he and pasta for $10-12. is a big guy, he moves very light on his feet, he’s a good The paninis do have cutesy mob-cum-South-Philly-family dancer. He has a lot of things going for him. If he can put all names: Chicken Angelo, Nona Helen, The Nicky Sticks, The of that into his restaurant, he’s going to do OK,” said the writer. Doc and, to be sure, The Consigliere, which is grilled Italian “He’s almost a one-man show at that restaurant. He is there sausage topped with Lutz’s sweet pepper mix and Romano every day and it’s a grind. God bless him, I hope it works out.” cheese for 12 bucks, with a side salad.

32 jerseymanmagazine.com SPECIAL JERSEYMAN BUSINESS SECTION

a happy man right now.” chuckle. “They got a second chance, didn’t they? They had a Lutz said he was pretty much always the happy kid grow - lot of restrictions, but they got a second chance. You see what ing up at 15th and Shunk Streets in deep South Philadelphia. I am trying to say?” He went to St. Monica’s grammar school and then to St. John It has just snowed in Collingswood, but Lutz looks long - Neumann High School. Since he was there, Neumann has ingly out at the 28 seats outside on a portico near what will be combined with a nearby girls’ school, St. Maria Goretti. a palazzo between his place and the town parking garage. He “We were the Pirates and now they are the Saints, which said one of the town commissioners at the zoning meeting might tell you everything,” said Lutz. told him he had the best outdoor seating in town. Lutz, an only child in a sea of families with loads of kids, said Lutz gets up to go back to the line to start cranking out the he was always the class clown, always getting into a modicum evening’s dinners. Sinatra comes up in volume, “Just in of trouble. Still, when he graduated, he was accepted by time…before you came my time was running low.” Tem ple University and the University of Pennsylvania. But “I’ve got a lot of work to do,” said Lutz, with a shrug in stead of choosing the Ivy League, he headed to Atlantic City, and a wink. “But it is looking much better for me than where the gambling boom had started to get legs. He became it ever has.” I a dealer and then a supervisor at four different places in the three years he was there, 1985-88, but then came back home, where he started hanging out with the Merlino crew. During Angelo's Treat for You JerseyMen his 2001 trial, he professed innocence of everything, but JerseyMan Strip Steak Supreme even tually did his time without turning on anyone else. Ingredients: Lutz spent some time in a halfway house and had to clear - 12 oz. strip steak everything with his parole officer to start looking for the place that eventually became Kitchen Consigliere Café. He said he - 9 grape tomatoes found the spot on craigslist – it having been a Texas weiner joint - 1/2 cup, roasted red peppers that didn’t quite work out. “This isn’t really a hot dog town, I - 1/2 cup button mushrooms, sliced don’t think,” said Lutz, who still lives in South Philadelphia. - Cento Extra Virgin Olive Oil It is and has been clearly an Italian restaurant town – Nun zio’s, - Three cloves fresh garlic, chopped Sapori, Il Fiore, Villa Barone, Bistro di Marino – but Lutz - Marsala wine does n’t have any of those Sinatra-esque doubts or fears. He’s - Demi glace (packaged or homemade) found his way. - 1 tablespoon butter “You come in here on a Friday or a Saturday night starting - Small portion of heavy cream about 5:45 and going to 9, 10 o’clock, and you can’t get in the door here,” he said. “People are sitting at the counter. Then Directions: myself, or my partners, are out here talking to people, socially Season steak with salt, pepper, garlic and Cento olive oil being wise with them. People love it. Place on high heat to desired cooked level (rare, medium, etc.) “You come in and don’t have a bottle, I will give you a glass Meanwhile, make sauce: of wine,” he said. “Then if you ain’t happy with the wine at the end of the meal, I will give you a shot of limoncello or anisette In skillet, heat olive oil and or sambucca or whatever you want. I can’t sell it to you because garlic. Add grape tomatoes this is a dry town, but I can give it to you. It is really unique.” and cook until tomatoes At the same time, he is working on his Kitchen Consigliere blister. cooking videos, which started on the Philadelphia Inquirer’s Add Marsala wine, website, Philly.com, and are all up on the restaurant’s online roasted peppers, mush - site. He hopes they go viral, or become the basis for a Food rooms and demi-glace. Network or syndicated show. Cook to a boil. Lutz said most people have gotten past his past – they real ize Place steak in pan with he is trying to be legit and working hard at doing so. He does sauce and cook for use his past – even the font on the Kitchen Consigliere sign is approximately two similar to that of “The Godfather” – but pretty much only to minutes. comic relief. “You look at Michael Vick. No matter how great he played, he Remove steak and add butter to complete the sauce. still had people who will never forgive him. Same for me. I am Pour sauce over steak and ENJOY! just not going to make everyone happy,” he said. “But we are also in a society of second chances and that is the whole thing. Nutritional Information: Fahggetabowdit “It goes all the way back to Adam and Eve,” he said with a

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 33 As the Cards A peek at the Borgata ’s Turn Hol d’em Blowout

ARTICLE BY KEN DUNEK

utside the snow was piled (I got the best possible answer). And as like whispers, and felt an intensity that two stories high. Inside, an amateur poker player myself, I wanted can come only with the hope of making a there was a blizzard of activ - to get a feel for what it takes to be big score. ity and enough heat gener - suc cessful at this level. (Sadly, I couldn’t This was day 2 of the first round O ated to melt gold. And they per suade my JerseyMan Magazine part ners (there were too many round 1 players to were playing for a lot of it. to pony up the entrance fee so I could get participate at once) and the tournament Tournament poker is blazing in popu - the ultimate reporter experience… Oh, ye directors wanted to narrow the field to larity right now and I got a good look at it of Little Faith). 500 participants who could all sit down during the mid-winter 2011 Borgata Win - Borgata Director of Poker Ray Stefanelli together at the second round. I scanned ter Open (BWO) Texas Hold’em event at and VP of Public Relations Brian Brennan the room looking for some of my poker the opulent Borgata Hotel and Casino in gave me the green light to wander around idols and was able to immediately spot Atlantic City where 712 combatants vied this major tournament, but upon entering former Borgata Winter Open champ and for the first prize of $533,210 and a total the casino, I mistakenly made my way to finalist at last year’s WSOP main event prize pool of more than $2,000,000. the poker room. Wrong assumption. The Mike “The Grinder” Mizrachi; former I wanted to catch some of the familiar staff explained that the Main Event had far WSOP main event champion Robert faces I see on television (I found many). I too many participants to be held in the Varkonyi; perennial tournament main - wanted to talk to some of the amateurs everyday 85-table facility and he directed stay and crowd favorite Gavin Smith; and ask them why in the world they me to the grand ballroom. When I arrived “High Stakes” poker pro Victor Ramden; would risk the $3500 entry cost and think and opened the doors, I saw a myriad of and top woman touring pro Vanessa they could beat the pros assembled there bright lights, heard the murmur of church- Selbst.

34 jerseymanmagazine.com ene Castro from Holmdel, How could that affect their play, I asked who was a lawyer by Hook. “I hope to be in their shoes one trade but gave up his day, but you do have a tendency to play a practice to become a little more reckless when you are not G poker pro and agent rep - put ting your hard-earned cash on the line. resenting professional It’s a little like Tiger Woods going for poker stars such as T.J. Cloutier and Kathy every pin and not worrying about hitting Liebert, offered his opinion on widespread a bad shot and not making the cut. He popularity of Texas Hold’em. “Money - knows that he will have the same oppor - maker had a lot to do with it,” he said. tunity next week.” (Chris Moneymaker parlayed a $40 online In the end, Manalapan native Vadim poker entry fee into the $2.5 million top Shlez took home first place and more than prize in the 2003 WSOP main event). half a million in prize money. His A-8 “That and the lipstick cam (a camera flopped another ace and beat an all-in by de vice giving television viewers a peek at second-place finisher L.J. Sande from New the players’ hole cards) created a synergy Haven, CT, who was drawing for a K high that was a poker sonic boom. It really was flush but got no spade on the turn or river. the perfect storm.” Vadim Shlez (Manalapan, NJ) played in the Cham - Sande had to “settle” for the second prize pionship Event of the Borgata Winter Open to win Still, I pressed Castro on details, asking and $310,273 in cash. (You can get the title. Shlez defeated L.J. Sande (New Haven, CT) him why 712 players, many amateurs, will heads up to take home the $533,210 first prize. com plete results of every event by going plunk down $3500 to attempt five straight, to www.jerseymanmagazine.com and eight-hour days of poker, all the while names in poker like Phil Hellmuth, Doyle clicking on the “poker results” link). knowing that 90 percent of them will be Brunson, and Daniel Negreanu have So all of us middle-aged soft bellies eliminated with no prize money. He reached such a lofty status in the game need to get our spikes out of the closet and re sponded, “It’s like a 50-year-old fat man that their tournament buy-ins are paid by begin stretching. The Borgata Summer getting a chance to play center field for the poker publications or web poker playing event will soon be upon us, and I hear the NY Yankees. You are living a dream.” That sites such as Poker Stars and Full Tilt Yankees just might be in the market for a hit me like a ton of poker chips. Big- Poker, whom the stars promote in return. designated hitter. I money poker is just about the only venue where the everyday Joe Blow has a chance to compete with the very best…and win. Scanning the tables after this conversa - tion, I did indeed see every conceivable type of individual gunning for the large “It’s like a 50-year-old fat man getting cash award and BWO trophy. Lots of hood - ies, scads of sunglasses, old and young, a chance to play center field for the dress ranging from homeless-like rags to buttoned-up bow ties. This is indeed the NY Yankees.” common person’s chance to achieve fi nancial and sports recognition. Chalie Hook, 26, a Philadelphia-born poker pro who attended Holy Family Uni - versity and now lives in Fort Lauderdale, FL, gave an interesting perspective on sur - vival in this competitive jungle. “I play tournaments because I can make the big score.” he said. “But I survive on cash games. Tournaments are long hours with so much volatility and luck. I can play my best poker and get beat by a ridiculous suck-out and get sent to the rail with no prize money. But in cash games I can make big money steady and afford to play so many tournament hours.” It makes sense. Young Turks like Chalie are trying to make their bones the hard way. Some of the more recognizable

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 35 WhJersaeyMan t We Wear BY JORDAN WOMPIERSKI

GShed nootearts oveHr the deamisenof tkhe pliaine, old? , white handkerchief “It’s a useful tool,” says Mike Hastings of his pal, the plain, old white handkerchief. “I use mine every day.” Hastings, 62, of Cinnaminson, knows hankies first - hand. He grew up with a handkerchief in his back pocket, and today he works at the Men’s Wearhouse clothing and accessory store in Deptford, where hand - kerchiefs are sold. Most handkerchiefs that leave I the store are the colorful pocket handkerchiefs for decoration, he said. And the plain, white mucus- mop pers? “We sell a few,” he said. Not exactly a ringing endorsement for the viability of the hankie. “I think it is a generation thing,” Hastings explained. “It’s some - thing that was probably used more back 30 to 40 years ago, and those people who used them still continue to use them, but not young people.” In fact, the hankie was wildly popular for hundreds of years; some say it was invented by King Richard II, the eighth king of England. As an indispensable accessory, it was the cell phone of its day. James Fenimore Cooper, the Burlington-born 19th-century nov - elist, penned a satirical magazine entry entitled Autobiography of a Pocket Handkerchief in 1843. It examined American culture as witnessed by the one player exposed to every aspect of life – the embroidered pocket handkerchief. (Editor’s note: The piece is slow-going, but you can find it here: http://www.gutenberg.org/ ebooks/2329.) The hankie run of indispensability was solid until 1930, when Kimberly-Clark began advertising its Kleenex disposal tissues not only as a cosmetic and cream wipe but also as a hygienic way to whisk away nose dust. (“Colds fill handkerchiefs with germs,” read an early Kleenex ad. “Avoid re-infection. Use Kleenex dis posable tissues.”) Thus began the hankie’s nosedive (sorry) in popularity. Consider the commonly held attitude expressed by Anthony Corona, 25, of West Caldwell, who said he would never con - sider using a handkerchief unless it was to enhance a formal outfit. “They are perfectly acceptable as a fashion accessory, but for looks only, not to be used,” he said. “If you actually use it, I think it’s disgusting. They are a breeding ground for gross germs and bacteria.” Ever see those blue farm-type hankies that can be blown into, worn around the neck or the head? A more refined version of the

36 jerseymanmagazine.com one-two-three, it’s done.” That kind of thinking sits well with some environmental ac tivists who say hankies spare the trees that are cut down to make tissues, and they reduce the waste and refuse that the coun try’s “Men [who use hankerchiefs] tissue use creates. (If you’ve ever hunted for a lost item in the of fice trash can during flu season, you may relate.) will look like studs, and According to Josh Peterson of PlantGreen.com, switching to a everyone will know that they hankie is a great way to be environmentally conscious. care about the environment.” “Men will look like studs,” said Peterson, “and everyone will []know that they care about the environment.” But Nick Hamilton, who happened to be in Maria Walters’ shop in Margate, is not buying into that notion. His friend and co-worker colored handkerchief is offered by Lehner, a Swiss company, said was with him, extolling the benefits of a gentle cloth hankie that Maria Walters, proprietor of Giovanni’s Fine Handkerchiefs and never rubs the nose so raw it looks like a Christmas sleigh light. Linens in the seaside community of Margate. She offers a line of “When I watch him blow his nose and then put the dirty hanky those products. back in his pocket and then take a bite of his lunch, I am grossed “A man in a silk Tommy Bahama shirt or a tailored suit does not out,” said Hamilton. “For me, I am sticking to the tissue. I like want to pull out a paper tissue,” she said. “How awful does that the convenience of simply throwing away the tissue. It’s dispos - look? Just because a hankie is colorful doesn’t mean it can’t be able and that’s just the way I like it.” used to wipe away sweat or snot. We supply handkerchiefs for Hastings, of Men’s Wearhouse, said decorative handkerchiefs jeans to tuxedos. are used by prom-going young men, who try to match it with their “Everything we sell, you can use,” Walters said. “We don’t sell girlfriends’ dress. “People getting married, if they are wearing a anything strictly decorative.” vest and tie, they’ll try to match it.” And since the hankies she sells are made for use, Walters According to Hastings there are three types of hankies: the knows the right way to care for them. “You can put it in the tra ditional white cloth hankie, the decorative pocket hankie, and washer with the regular wash, you can wash it in the bathroom “pocket hankies for dummies.” in the sink, you can send it to the laundry,” she said. “It’s a very “Those are pocket handkerchiefs that are pre-made with a small piece of fabric, so it’s easy to clean. A little detergent, and jagged edge that you just kind of stick [continued on page 55] STAY IN TOUCH! Subscribe to

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Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 37 PHILLY BATBOY MEMOIRS HE’S GOT HIS OWN HALL OF FAME ARTICLE BY DAVID “D EUCE ” K ESSLER

olly: Alex, I’ll take ‘Big “Ace” Kessler had been in charge of the no-hitter against the Phillies, inspired League Beginnings’ for visitors’ clubhouse all the way back to the an other player to hit a home run against $400. days of Baker Bowl and Babe Ruth and my them, helped that same player stabilize his four older brothers had all been bat - blood sugar and get a game winning hit, Trebek: Made his major league debut on boys/clubhouse boys. Brother Frank had and “helped” several other players to com - MFriday April 15, 1966, in a Cincinnati Reds even been old enough to have been the pile the kind of stats that got them elected uniform against the Phillies at Connie batboy for the Athletics, who had left for to the Hall of Fame. Before you get too Mack Stadium. He went hitless. Kansas City after the ‘54 season. I received angry with me, I also “helped” the Phillies the nickname “Deuce” (still used today) avoid a last-place finish. Molly: …um…Who is…David Kessler? from Dodgers pitchers Stan Williams and The last game played at Connie Mack Sandy Koufax in the summer of ‘62, when Stadium occurred on Thursday October 1, OK, OK. It’s a fictional question that I started out as a clubhouse worker, 1970. The Phillies would move to the Vet Molly, an insurance adjuster from sweeping floors, shining shoes, hanging the following April because Connie Mack Modesto, California, got right. And I went up jockstraps. Yes, it was that glamorous. Stadium (known as Shibe Park when it hitless because I was just the 16-year-old As the youngest Kessler, I did 10 years opened in 1909) was a decaying ball park visiting teams’ batboy. I got the job of clubhouse and on-deck circle work. In in a poor neighborhood with no parking, through family, what else? My father Ted that time, I “helped” Sandy Koufax pitch a no sports bars, no luxury boxes (horrors),

38 jerseymanmagazine.com and it was usually the home of a last-place team. The fans bade a particularly exciting The author then, goodbye to the old park that night. Upon and now (inset) entering the stadium, each fan was issued a wooden slat, the type used in each of the 33,000 seats, and the slat bore a commem - orative sticker (“I attended the last game…”). Once the game started and al cohol flowed, that wasn’t enough for the fans, who began dismantling the place. During the 5th inning, I saw one chuckle - brain parading through the stands with a urinal that he’d somehow unbolted from the wall of a men’s room. With drunks oc casionally running onto the field, it was a highly charged, maybe even dangerous at mosphere. Late in the game, between in nings, crew chief Ken Burkhart came over to the Montreal dugout with fellow umpires Harry Wendelstedt and John Kibler, to talk to Expos Manager Gene Mauch.

I started out as a clubho“use worker, sweeping floors, shining shoes, hanging up jockstraps. Yes, it was that glamorous.

“Gene, I’m really concerned with what’s pitch being delivered that day: Jim Bun ning keep the radio tuned to Wibbage (WIBG) happening in the stands and I’m tempted was throwing to Montreal Expo “Boots” and WFIL. He was pretty hip for a kid to have the Phillies forfeit this game to you, Day with Ron Hunt in the on-deck circle. from Memphis and liked (as I did) the but I’m afraid they’d riot.” I was standing Of course I was on hand that day, freez - Beatles, Stones, Motown, the Beach Boys. there listening and for some inexplicable ing like everyone else. But I was either When his Cardinals (before he was traded reason they all looked at me. I nodded cropped out by some mean-spirited photo to the Phils) were in town for a weekend dumbly and said, “Yeah, they will.” Maybe editor or I was never in the frame. I still series, he’d put on Sid Mark’s “Friday they figured I was an expert on Philadel - like to think that somewhere in the Hall with Frank” or “Sunday with Sinatra” on phia fan behavior? Anyway, the game con - archives there’s a picture of me shak ing 96.5 FM. Well, I couldn’t stop players from tinued and the Phillies won when Oscar hands with someone who’d just hit a changing the station…what could I do, Gamble singled home catcher Tim Mc - home run. they were bigger than I was? Pitcher Ray Carver with the winning run in the bottom Tim McCarver also figured prominently Washburn would change to the country of the 10th inning. It also meant the Phillies in some other memories. In the days be fore music station, Orlando Cepeda would find finished a half game ahead of the Expos to players were fully i-Podded, lap-topped, a Spanish language station for some escape last place in the division. cell-phoned, and video-gamed, there was Latino music and somebody else would I not only helped close down Connie a single radio in the clubhouse, not even a put on some soul or rhythm and blues. Mack, I helped open the Vet on Saturday television. Timmy, a Cardinal for much of Funny, no one ever put on classical music. April 10, 1971. Decades later, I visited his early career, always appointed me By the time he was a Phillie, Tim was Cooperstown and saw a photo of the first “Guardian of the Radio” and told me to also indirectly responsible for the lone

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 39 in jury I suffered, an injury that and had to scramble back to their “per manent” bridgework ain’t so perma - still haunts me to this day. On May re spective bases to avoid being dou - nent. Timmy and Mike are at fault for 2, 1970, he broke his hand in a bled off. Browne, seeing this, rifled going on the DL, and I also accuse Byron home plate collision against the the ball to first. I was running to Browne and Doc Edwards. I should file Giants. He was replaced by Mike re trieve the bat because I anticipated suit against them all. Ryan, who broke the SAME hand a play at the plate (hustlingest bat - in the SAME inning! Boy, if you’d boy alive!). Meanwhile, Doc was put $1,000 on that happening with running to first to back up the throw. a Vegas oddsmaker, you’d own Mi - Stupidly, I stood in his way and crosoft. But, since Bill Gates was watched the play unfold. Bang! The Once, future only 15 at the time and Microsoft 6’2”, 200-pound-plus Doc ran over a didn’t yet exist…well, it’s a nice 5’5”, 130-pound batboy. Stunned, I Hall of Famer thought. bounced up and felt blood streaming “ McCarver and Ryan both went on from my lip and my central incisor Joe Morgan asked the DL and because the Phillies had wiggling. I thought of the money my me to break in his a dearth of catching talent, they parents had spent on orthodontics ac quired Doc Edwards, a lifetime when I was 12. I gutted it out untiil new spikes. .238 hitter who hadn’t even played the side was retired and allowed in the majors the previous five years. Trainer Joe Liscio to gently remove While reading Jane Leavy’s terrific 2002 Doc was a smart guy who later dis - the tooth. My clubhouse co-worker biography of Sandy Koufax, I was reminded tinguished himself as a coach, but took over and I was rushed to Tem - of how I “helped” him pitch his 1964 no- he was a big, lumbering, 30-some - ple University where an oral surgeon hitter against the Phillies. Her book relates thing whose best days were behind successfully implanted the tooth. But how he’d been struggling a bit in his him. In a game soon after, the Expos any dentist reading this can tell you previ ous starts, but while looking at a had runners on 1st and 2nd with that after a few years, the root sports magazine in the clubhouse, he saw one out. Rightfielder Byron Browne re sorbs, the tooth turns black, and an old photo of himself delivering a pitch made a remarkable, unexpected it’s bridgework time. Moreover, every and recognized he needed to make an ad - catch of a sinking line drive. The 10-15 years, I receive an expensive justment. MY magazine. I was in charge of runners had taken off with the pitch bill from my dentist because supplying reading material for the players,

40 jerseymanmagazine.com Kessler (l) keeping track of the action with Willie Mays of the San Francisco Giants

so after reading my Baseball Digest, Sport - year. Unbeknownst to everyone, Ron had ing News, and Sport magazines I’d bring been diagnosed with diabetes at age 18. them in. ( Playboy was above my maturity This one particular night, the Phillies and grade.) A paper reported the anecdote and Cubs were engaged in a long, long dou ble - I remember Ace teasing me by saying header… extra innings, rain delays. Ron “[General Manager] John Quinn and Gene was looking particularly tired and pale. Mauch aren’t too happy with you.” Because of the crazy hours, he had n’t eaten anything and his blood sugar was skewed. He said, “Run quick and get me a candy bar.” After he ate it, he was well ith the recent death of enough to get the game-winning hit. Even Cubs third baseman Ron though I was a rabid Phillies fan, I always Santo, I fondly remem - felt good when I could help a player do his bered how he bailed me out when I made job. THAT was my job. aWmistake on the field. The Cubs were Once, at the beginning of a four-game lopsidedly beating the Phillies late in a series with the Reds, future Hall of Famer game and the Phillies had run out of Joe Morgan asked me to break in his new catchers, forcing Mauch to insert Cookie spikes. I wore them for a couple days, but Rojas behind the plate. Cookie was a re ally it wasn’t easy. He must’ve been a size 6 good player but not really a catcher. Sure or 7 and I was a size 8. How the hell did enough, when Don Kessinger walked, he steal so many bases with such tiny Rojas couldn’t handle the pitch and it feet? Better question – how’d he hit 268 bounded away from him towards me on home runs at 5’7”, 150 pounds? After I the on-deck circle. Kessinger was entitled broke in the new shoes, he tore up the to first base because of the base on balls, Phillies. Of course I couldn’t tell anyone. I but it was also a passed ball and out of was already in trouble for helping Sandy the corner of my eye I saw he was sprint - Koufax and Ron Santo. ing to first base, ready to try for second. One of my least pleasant duties was to get I knew the ball was in play, so I said to the players to autograph baseballs. A re - myself, “Don’t touch the ball. Don’t quest would come from the front office, or touch the ball. Don’t touch the ball.” I maybe from the Phillies clubhouse. Often, fielded the ball and handed it to Rojas. my father would donate them to charities Now it’s a dead ball and Kessinger had to for use as fundraisers. Players had a deri - remain at first. I felt terrible, especially sive name for these balls…they called them when veteran umpire Al Barlick said, “puss” balls ‘cause they thought I was giv ing “Son, don’t do that again. I’ll have to them to girls to, hmm, you know. Anyway, eject you from the game.” Santo, who they hated to sign and I hated to ask. There was getting ready to hit, said to me, were always a couple players on each team “Don’t worry. I got your back.” He hit the who wouldn’t sign. (With prac tice, there next pitch into the upper deck and all were several players whose signatures I was forgiven. God bless Ron Santo! I was could do well enough that I probably able to return the favor the following could’ve cashed their checks.) You could

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 41 never approach Bob Gibson when he was a home run, etc.) While most of regale us during a rain delay with pitching that day. Even his teammates the players would arrive on the stories about hanging out with couldn’t talk to him. Johnny Bench was team bus two hours before game Sinatra and Sammy Davis, Jr. and another. His locker was in a row with time, some would arrive on their telling us, “Guys, you will never Mor gan, Perez, Rose, and Concepcion. But own several hours before. That, of meet anything as beautiful as an 18- I’d bypass him because he always gave me course, would shut down our year-old Elizabeth Taylor. When I a hard time. After I’d passed him a few game. Once Giants pitcher Billy met her, I literally fell off my chair!” times, he asked me why I didn’t ask him O’Dell got there early and he not And then there was Gerald Ford, to sign. I knew the balls were going to only insisted we continue, he the President of the United States. It charity but I was cranky enough to say, wanted to play, too. He was like a was the 1976 All-Star game played “John, I don’t need your signature to get toddler. After a couple innings, in Philadelphia. I no longer worked girls.” Long pause. An even longer stare. someone said, “Uh… say Billy… there but I thought it’d be fun to Then the hint of a smile. “Yes, you do,” he aren’t you pitching tonight?” “Oh, help out for the day and enjoy the said. “Gimme them blankety-blank balls.” right,” he replied, whereupon the excitement. I remember my father lefthander started pitching to us (Ace) asking me for my Social Se - with his right arm. I think he shut curity number. He said, “The Secret out the Phillies that night. Service wants it. You don’t get in hen men get together, Again, it wasn’t all drudgery and unless they know who you are.” I things get… well… a bit hard work. Another great moment thought, “Of course.” The previous ribald (the reason my only in my tenure occurred on Sunday, September, Sara Jane Moore sister hadn’t worked in the clubhouse). July 20, 1969, when the lunar mod - squeezed off a couple shots that Whether it’s the barracks, the shop, the ule “Eagle” landed on the moon’s narrowly missed the President clubhouse (an aside to sportscasters: It is Sea of Tranquility. Most games in when he was in San Francisco. Two NOT a locker room. It is NEVER a locker progress stopped to take note of the weeks later, Lynette “Squeaky” room. It is ALWAYS a clubhouse). Lan - event and during the Phillies-Cubs Fromme had tried the same thing guage is more colorful, subject matter is doubleheader closing game the in Sacramento. What is it about racier. One of the cardinal rules of the teams lined up on the first and third California? clubhouse was to always be dressed when base lines for the national anthem. Before the game, the President you go to the postgame buffet table, even That day, I stood beside future Hall greeted all the American League if it’s just a towel around your waist. I of Famers Ernie Banks, Ferguson players in their clubhouse, shaking once saw Cincinnati pitcher (name Jenkins, and Billy Williams. Unless hands with everyone. I happened to redacted to protect his reputation) put there’s a photo of me somewhere in know that the next day (July 14) his…um…member on a hot dog bun and Cooperstown, I never made the Hall was his 63rd birthday and when he slather mustard on it. Manager Dave of Fame. Also, there’s a great story shook my hand I said, “Happy Bris tol was so angry he fined him and about that day that involves another Hall Birthday, Mr. President.” He smiled and made him apologize to my father and to of Famer, San Francisco pitcher Gaylord said, “Yes it’s tomorrow. Thank you.” I the rest of the players. It was kind of Perry. Apparently, when he was a rookie was sure he’d nominate me to the funny, but the image was so vivid that for in 1962, he was in the batting cage taking Supreme Court or maybe even Chairman a long time after, I only ate the salad. his cuts when Giant manager Alvin Dark of the Federal Reserve. Nope. I think he As a good portion of the season saw his lack of power and said, “They’ll could tell I was voting for Jimmy Carter. oc curred during the school year, I could be walking on the moon before he ever After the players filed out onto the field, I often be seen doing my homework on a hits a home run.” Cut to 7/20/69 at was in the clubhouse with my father, my table in the middle of the clubhouse. I’d Dodger Stadium (because of the three- brother, Commissioner of Baseball Bowie rush from school to get to the ballpark so hour time difference, that game hadn’t Kuhn, several Secret Service agents, the I could study before the players arrived. even started when the Eagle landed): Gay - President, and his son, Jack. The President Atlanta reliever Claude Raymond, who lord Perry hit his first major league home was absently toying with a baseball that had was French-Canadian, helped me conju - run off Claude Osteen. been left on the table and his son was across gate French verbs. And lots of players tried Another perk of the job was getting to the room with a bat in his hands. The to help me with algebra, geometry, calcu - meet celebrities. I was punched (playfully) Pres ident made a gesture as if he was going lus, trigonometry, physics and chemistry. by Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Met to throw a pitch to him when my father said, They didn’t do any better than I did. golfers Jack Nicklaus and Ray Floyd (who “Curve ‘em, Mr. President.” While Mr. Ford Another way we clubhouse grunts tipped me ten dollars to carry his bag to thought it funny, the buttoned-down Bowie would kill the long hours at work was the car), Dionne Warwick (much prettier Kuhn didn’t seem quite so amused. One playing Whiffle Ball ™. The clubhouse in person), the Three Stooges (tiny guys), of the agents on the President’s detail was small but we were able to stake out and ‘60s rock group The Grass Roots (they ap proached Mr. Ford and asked him to sign a space to play with our own crazy set were impressed I knew Willie Mays, I was a baseball for my father. Ace had made of ground rules. (third steampipe from impressed they knew Paul McCartney). I friends with the advance team, which the left was a double, trainer’s room was listened to Cubs manager Leo Durocher al ready spent a couple days in the club -

42 jerseymanmagazine.com house. He signed it, “To my good friend, Ace “…a classmate of mine at Cardinal Queenan: Hey, Joe, love your work. Next – Gerald R. Ford.” That assured him of at Dougherty High School had been the time, put my name in will ya? least one vote from the Kessler family. vis iting team batboy.” (Hey. that’s me.) Aah, but that’s all in the past. The game In 1966 and 1967, I participated in club - Joe is a prominent essayist/humorist has changed, the world has changed, I’ve house celebrations (complete with cham - who has written for numerous national changed. Too many of the people I’ve pagne) when teams clinched the pennant publications and has appeared on plenty re ferred to are no longer with us and I in Philadelphia. On the last day of the ‘66 of TV shows, including Letterman . He sometimes feel like an old ballplayer who season, Sandy Koufax beat the Phillies to did sit in the row beside me for three can no longer turn the double play. But send the Dodgers to the World Series. No years, but I can’t claim to have known the memories will always be there and I divisional playoffs then. It was his 27th him very well, although he seemed like a bet that if somehow I could get back into victory and he finished with 323 strikeouts nice guy. I’m thinking maybe I didn’t that clubhouse in Connie Mack Stadium, I and a 1.73 E.R.A. He was only 30 years talk to him much because he was so could still hit a line drive off that old old, but he stunned the baseball world by much smarter than me. Memo to Joe steam pipe. I retiring. Why? He was tired of the pain in his arthritic elbow and he didn’t feel he’d be good enough to earn the money he’d receive in his next contract. He also didn’t pitch in the first game of the ‘65 World Series be cause it fell on Yom Kippur and he felt it would be a good example for Jewish kids in America. It also meant he pitched on two days rest in game seven when he shut out the Twins on two hits. If one of his clients did that today, agent Scott Boras would be texting the manager, “What are you doing to my guy?” Sandy also opted out of a lucrative TV contract NBC had given him because he came across as wooden on camera and didn’t feel he de served the money. This guy should’ve run for Congress. It was the St. Louis Cardinals who clinched here in ‘67. I remember some of the players chortling, “Hey, baby…we win the Series, it’s another $6,000.” Six thou - sand dollars? Ryan Howard spends that much at Subway during spring training. The Phillies’ winning share in ‘08 was $351,000. Because of our ties to the Phillies or gan - ization and its visiting clubhouse, our whole family has gotten media attention many times. My father often was men - tioned in Philadelphia papers. Rich West - cott and Bruce Kuklick mentioned him in their books about Connie Mack Stadium. He was discussed by NBC commentator Joe Garagiola during the ‘80 World Series. My father and late brother Teddy were al ways warmly referred to on the air by the late Harry Kalas. And I was inter - viewed by the late Jim Barniak before The Bulletin folded and had even been inter - viewed by Dorie Lenz on Channel 17. In 2003, I was reading Joe Queenan’s True Believers – the Tragic Inner Life of Sports Fans when I came upon the sen tence,

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 43 559911 HHuunntteedd DDoowwnn,, BBuutt……

TThhee BBeeaarrss AArree SSttiillll WWiinnnniinngg The state issued 7211 licenses for December’s black bear hunt, but officials say new litters will outpace the kill.

44 jerseymanmagazine.com “Bear hunts are no different ARTICLE BY GEORGE INGRAM than deer hunts or turkey hunts or pheasant hunts.”

ome folks are breathing a maging around in your backyard, can be to capture and relocate a 119-pounder that little easier. Others may still intimidating. I remember the first time I was foraging in the backyards of homes. be seething. And a very few espied one during a deer hunt in the Burguess believes the best way to guar - are enjoying bear for breakfast Pocono Mountains. From where I was antee the bears’ existence and public and dinner. standing, it looked at first like a big black safety is through carefully regulated hunts. SLast December’s six-day black bear dog galloping toward me. I thought, “I have a great deal of respect for the hunt is history, and now there are 591 what’s a dog doing out here deep in the black bears in New Jersey,” he told me. fewer of them in northern New Jersey forest? Then I realized it was a bear…a “My staff and I take our jobs very seri ously, than there were last year. It was the first freaking bear! Even though I was cradling and we want to do what’s best for the time in five years that hunters could tar - a .300 magnum rifle in my arms, I was overall health and longevity of the popu - get the bruins, following unsuccessful uneasy. But as soon as the approaching lation. I want the black bear to be viewed legal attempts by anti-nimrods and dewy- animal became aware of me, it slammed as an asset to the state, not as a liability. eyed bear lovers to halt the killing. on the brakes and veered away at a pace And we want people to understand that Folks, get used to it. Bears and their two- much faster than I could have run. bear hunts are no different than deer legged, blaze-orange clad, shotgun-toting Fact is, most black bears are not nor mally predators are here to stay. The state’s Fish dangerous, unless one foolishly interferes and Wildlife Division reports confirmed with their food or their cubs. Sort of like sightings of Ursus americanus in all 2l mobsters. Just The counties, with more of the hairy critters moving each year into suitable habitats, t the present time, the much of it in southern New Jersey. largest ursine population Bear Facts Back in the days of Daniel Boone (who hangs out in four BMZs, or There’s a lot of useful information on trafficked in “bar” bacon), bears were as Bear Management Zones, numerous throughout New Jersey as cor - covering all or parts of the NJ Fish and Wildlife Division’s rupt politicians are today. But by the mid - seven counties in the website about bears and how to dle of the last century, their numbers Arugged north and northwest. It’s a 1000- avoid them. were estimated at fewer than 100. After square-mile area of hardwood forests, Log onto: www.state.nj.us/dep/ the state stepped in to protect them, the farms, and spooky swamps. BMZs in clude fgw/bearfacts.htm bears came back. Hunts took place from the North Jersey Highlands, a swath of 1958 to 1970 and again in 2003 and 2005. ancient mountains formed during what Black bears in New Jersey: Two decades ago, many South Jersey geologists call the Grenville Orogeny residents were panicked by a proposal to more than a billion years ago. • can run up to 35 mph capture North Jersey bears and relocate The task today is to keep the bears • weigh an average of 400 pounds them in the Pine Barrens. Although no “managed,” which means having enough for males (boars) one had been killed by a bear in this state to ensure their future, but not so many since 1852, the plan received so much that they become a nuisance or even a • can detect the scent of food flak that it disappeared faster than a free threat to humans. more than two miles away round in a Wildwood bar. That’s the concern of professionals like • are near-sighted The bears, however, already knew their 39-year-old Kelcey Burguess, who lives in way south. Newton, BMZ Number 2. He’s Fish and • live for 25 years in the wild According to our Fish and Game Coun - Wildlife’s principal biologist for the black • deliver cubs in January, and the cil’s 2010 Comprehensive Bear Manage - bear--the guy who went to Englewood in most common litter is 3 ment Plan, “the bear population that is Bergen County last May to tranquilize a reestablished in southern NJ will grow.” bear near the George Washington Bridge • love to eat skunk cabbage in the There’s no question that a black bear, for relocation elsewhere. A month later, spring especially one that you might see rum - our Bear Man was in the city of Paterson

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 45 hunts or turkey hunts or pheasant hunts.” His job includes working with the Fish and Game Council to keep a tally of bears (about 3400 north of Interstate 80 in 2009); conducting research on the ani mals, including assisting in such cooperative efforts as East Stroudsburg University’s Black Bear DNA database; educating cit izens about bears and the importance of not leaving food for them (using bear- re sistant garbage cans, for example); and helping plan bear hunts, the most effec tive way to maintain an ecological balance. Arming state residents with more “bear sense” is important. As the Fish and Game Council recommends, albeit in classic Pentagon-speak, New Jersey Hunters Dave Drummond (L) and Shawn Morris each bagged a bear in North Jersey. needs “to educate people living and recreating in bear habitat about methods and over-the-counter sales, New Jersey at tend a free but mandatory one-hour to minimize negative interaction with issued 7211 bear hunting permits to resi - bear hunting seminar. You no doubt black bears.” dent and non-resident hunters. If every - made scouting trips in advance to the But the real chore of keeping the one who applied for a permit actually area you planned to hunt. If you were bal ance belongs to bear hunters. In a hunted – and that’s unlikely – it would lucky or skilled enough to shoot one, you state with some of the nation’s most mean that only 8 percent of them came affixed a bear transportation tag to its dra conian gun laws, these folks perform back with food for the table or, I hope hide and field-dressed it. a true public service. not, a “trophy” for the den. Next was the Herculean task of drag - It is not a task for wusses. With a lot tery After obtaining a permit, you had to ging the monster out of the woods or

46 jerseymanmagazine.com swamp – the live weight of the largest bear killed (in Morris County) was 748 pounds – and transporting it to one of five mandatory bear check stations. There, biologists inspected your animal and removed a tooth. Finally, you earned a legal possession seal to take it home. Let’s take a look at a few of these ded - icated people who rose to the challenge.

The Little Woman with Big Biceps Erin Peek, a diminutive, 25-year-old lass with piercing eyes, embarked on her first bear hunt in December. A state em ployee from Belleplain in Cape May County, she has friends in north - western New Jersey who in - vited her to stay with them while she hunted in two different lo - cations during Peek the week. On Friday, the penultimate day of the bear season, she and her friends were legally baiting bruins with corn and stale donuts in Sussex County. When a man in the group from Virginia shot a large boar in a swamp, the “sport” of hunting got a little more difficult. The bear, which weighed 370 pounds after its innards were removed, was lashed atop an ice-fishing sled for a trek to the nearest road. “It took five of us three hours to drag it out,” Erin recalled. “The sled worked pretty good getting across the creeks. But only two of us, including me, had knee boots. The others had ankle boots. When we’d come to a creek, the sled barely floated. The two of us would pull it across, but the others had to walk and find a place where they could cross.” Erin is 5’6” and weighs 132 pounds, creek-water wet. There was another challenge awaiting them at the Whittingham bear-checking station in Newton, where State Police kept peace between a half dozen noisy protestors and returning hunters. Erin can still hear their taunts: Cow ards! Murderers! You’re not Daniel Boone, so get out of the woods! “One person went up to me and flashed a camera repeatedly in my face,” she remembered. “They also took pic tures

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 47 of our cars and our license plates.” Yet if there’s another bear hunt next year, she won’t hesitate to go back. Right Good Eatin’ “I enjoyed it,” Erin said. “It was like hunting out-of-state be cause it’s so much different up there than in South Jersey.” If you don’t hunt for bear but get offered a bear roast by a hunter I asked her if she’d ever tasted bear meat: “Not that I know of. friend, what would you do with it? You should know that a small But my Dad used to feed us all kinds of stuff, so I don’t know.” percentage of bear meat, like pork, may contain parasites that The Two Friends Who Are Eating Bear cause trichinosis and toxoplasmosis in people. The Division of On Sunday morning before the Monday opener, Dave Drum - Fish and Wildlife recommends that bear meat should reach an mond, 39, owner of the EcoCape Tree Service in Cape May, and in ternal temperature of 160 degrees for three minutes or more. his 30-year-old electrician buddy, Shawn Morris, of the Villas, “Connoisseurs of bear meat,” the division adds, “suggest freez ing, took off for a three-hour ride to Morris County, towing Dave’s 1971 Prowler camper. After setting up camp, they scouted the canning, or eating it within a week after the kill as the flavor nearby 3000-acre Rockaway River Wildlife Management Area to be comes stronger with age.” select spots where they would sit on the ground the next day. On the first day, Dave shot a five-point buck. (New Jersey’s One of my favorite kitchen guides for the hunter-gatherer is Wild firearm deer season ran concurrently with the bear season, but Game Cookery by J. Carol Vance, an avid outdoorswoman and hunters could not kill both a bear and a deer on the same day.) cook from Benton in Columbia County, Pennsylvania. It was a serendipitous outing. On Wednesday, Dave and Shawn returned to the same area. The gut pile of the deer he’d Here is her recipe for Bear Pot Roast: shot was still there, and the omnivorous bears were being drawn to it. Before 7 am, Dave raised his Remington 1100 loaded with – 4 cups red wine a rifled slug and shot a sow from about 120 yards away. Ten minutes later, Shawn used his Winchester pump to kill a – 1 medium onion, sliced small boar nearby. – 2 bay leaves “They’ve got a bear problem up there,” Dave told me later. – ½ teaspoon dried rosemary “The bears know when it’s trash day, and they get into dump - – 4 to 6 black peppercorns, crushed sters like it’s take-out at McDonalds. I talked to deer hunters – 3-4 pound bear roast who said they couldn’t retrieve their deer after they shot them because the bears would move in and chase the hunters away.” – oil for browning Dave’s bear dressed out at 180 pounds, which, he estimated, was probably 230-240 pounds on the paw. Shawn’s was 150 To make the marinade, combine wine, onion, bay leaves, rose mary, pounds, dressed. and crushed peppercorns. Place the roast in a deep bowl or But before they dragged the animals out of the woods, the seal able plastic bag and pour the marinade over it. Refrigerate hunters carefully followed the advice in the Fish and Wildlife overnight, turning every 6 hours to make sure all the sides have brochure they were given at the bear hunting seminar. Because been marinated. Before cooking, remove roast from the mari nade this meat must be cooled down as quickly as possible to keep it from spoiling, the experts’ counsel is to “skin your bear so that and pat dry, reserving the marinade. Preheat oven to 250 de grees. you are left with a headless and pawless carcass covered in Heat oil in a heavy Dutch oven and brown the meat lightly on all lay ers of white fat.” The trip to a bear-checking station had to sides. Cover and bake for 1 hour per pound of meat, basting wait until the hunters skinned the animals, removed slabs of fat, sev eral times with the marinade during roasting. quartered the carcasses, and placed them in four large coolers. When he returned home, Dave set out to grind the meat I asked Dave Moore at Moore Brothers Wine in Pennsauken to and mix it with pork for sausage, meatballs, and other tasty products. recommend an appropriate wine for bear pot roast. After a Shawn, who still speaks with a West Virginia twang after 12 thoughtful pause, he answered: “Real Chianti, such as Isole e years as a Jersey resident, planned on having bear steaks and Olena for about $25, or Corzano e Paterno for around $22. And medallions. It was his first bear hunt in New Jersey but not his from the sound of the recipe, you could also think of Piemontese first attempt at going after the big animals. “In West Virginia, we Barbera. It has direct black fruit, soft tannins, and vibrant acid ity hunted them with dogs,” he said. On January 2, I caught up with Dave and Shawn at Fletchers – all of which go well with slow-roasted pork and rosemary. The Corner, an iconic archery range and bow-and-arrow shop for only Rhone I can think of might be Rasteau 2009 from Domaine tar get shooters and avid hunters near the Delaware Bay on Route Beau Mistral,” Dave concluded. 47 in Dias Creek Each year at this time, Fletchers’ owners Guy and Sally Kanas There, you heard it from a wine guru. hold Customer Appreciation Day, and customers reciprocate by schlepping in a broad array of food prepared from the game they

48 jerseymanmagazine.com have killed. In rows of electric cooking pots and aluminum trays on this day was such fare as Moose Stew, “Bullwinkle” Sliders with Cheese, Wild Turkey Soup, Deer Chili, and Venison Kielbasa. Contributing to the makeshift deli of forest critters was Dave, with homemade Bear Break - fast Sausage in bite-sized pieces and sliced Bear Bratwurst. Shawn came with Bear Chili with Beans and Mushrooms (made with pre-packaged Bear Creek “Darn Good” Chili Mix because “I was short on time”) and Bear and Potatoes in Butter Sauce. I have to tell you, these two guys have made me an aficionado of bear meat – if it’s as carefully handled all the way from woods to home as they did. The sausage was as good as Bob Evans’, the bratwurst was moist and tender, the chili was fla vorful and not too spicy, and the small chunks of meat in bear and potatoes were somewhere between pork and beef in taste and texture. At Fletchers, I also met a disgruntled bow hunter who is un happy with current rules that do not permit archers to hunt bears. “Archery equipment has advanced to a point where we can contribute to bear management,” grumbled Tony Mazzarella. “Like other hunters, we pay state and federal excise taxes on hunting equipment that provide money for bear management. “I’d like to see a separate bow season for bears, just like the archery season for deer,” he added. “I’d even require all licensed bow hunters to pass a special proficiency test before heading into the woods for bear.” Kelcey Burguess said he anticipates another bear hunt at the end of 2011 “because this recent hunt did not impact the bear population in any way, shape, or form. When the cubs are born in January, the population will still be growing, but only at a slower rate.” What about a bear hunt in South Jersey and what about those anxious bow hunters like Tony? “Those are questions for the Fish and Game Council to de cide,” the Bear Man said diplomatically. “There’s a great deal of interest in archery, but we don’t see any drastic changes in bear hunting over the next two or three years. We need to de velop a database, and we want to get folks used to it. There’s still some hysteria about it.” Yes, and there is no doubt some North Jersey residents are breathing easier because there are fewer bruins. And perhaps there’s still bitter resentment among people like those who protested at the check stations. But there are also thousands of hunters eagerly anticipating another chance to bring home a Garden State black bear next December. I

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 49 FJeRrseyEMaE n TIME

Hooked on Orchids

ARTICLE BY ANDREA HARTLEY hen he wasn’t watching his players shoot hoops, former Philadelphia 76ers owner Fitz Eugene Dixon, Jr., often was eyeballing orchids. That’s right, orchids. At one point he was president of the American Orchid Society and W his orchid collection was worth more than $1 million. Chris Rehmann understands that kind of commitment to the legendary plant. “Once you get involved with orchids, it’s difficult not to become passionate about it,” he said recently while strolling inside his backyard greenhouse in Hammonton. A civil environmental engineer who is partner at the firm of Adams, Rehmann & Heggen, Rehmann got hooked during a vacation in Hawaii in 1982. He saw orchids. He bought two orchid plants. And now he has 2000 orchid plants that impress and de-stress him. He doesn’t sell them. Ever. “My office is on the White Horse Pike in Hammonton; I don’t want to start another business,” he said. “My orchids are my pleasure and their beauty is breathtaking.” What he does sell is the hobby of raising orchids and the beauty of the plants. As current president of the American Orchid Society, Rehmann would consent to an in terview only if the writer agreed to include information about the orchid society. He explained: “Our mission is to promote and support passion for orchids though

50 jerseymanmagazine.com education and research. We are commit ted In ternational Flower Show for the first to conservation projects, funding research time in modern history.” and educating people how to grow better Orchids are “in,” said Rehmann and “it orchids.” has become quite fashionable to decorate Orchids Rehmann said when he decided to your home with orchids,” he said. His tip: be come a judge in orchid competitions, If you buy a $20 plant at Home Depot (or Origin of name his golf game got pushed to the back wherever), the flowers will stay fresh for From the Orkhis, Greek for “testi - burner, though he still plays. He spent about two months if properly cared for. A cle,” which the root sometimes re - three years of study and three years on flower arrangement may last only about sembles probation as a judge, now he travels to one week. judge competitions in many spots he Many plants that are in bloom have Number of species may never have seen otherwise. “Golf is been placed in a small greenhouse off his 28,000, plus 200,000 hybrids in tense competition,” he said. “The main kitchen, while the kitchen itself houses a (mixed species) point of the orchid show is not really to spectacular rainbow of red, yellow, green, High-priced species compete, but to show the accomplish - pink, blue, and white orchids, giving off a Endangered type of Ladyslipper ments of the grower. Everyone seems to sweet fragrance. He said that not all or - species grown on a mountain in enjoy the other’s successes.” chids smell as sweet. Some have no fra - Borneo. One plant price: $10,000 Walt Orr, owner of Waldor, an orchid grance at all and others have an offensive nursery and store based in Linwood, said odor similar to that of rotting meat. This is Big business number Rehmann first entered his store with ques - a result of being pollinated by a fly. 2007 Taiwan Orchid Show sold tions typical of an orchid novice. “They Looking younger than his 70 years, $78.7 million in orchids to suppliers are worried that the plant won’t survive Rehmann credits his wife for taking care because they are thought to be fragile,” he of him and his hobby for decompressing Men and orchids said, when in fact they are quite hardy. him after eight hours of work and Of 25 trustees of the 13,500-mem - “I think he is one of the [society’s] best evenings spent at council meetings, where ber American Orchid Society, 15 are presidents we have ever had. He has taken the firm founded by his father represents men. a personal interest in increasing our mem - many municipalities. “Sometimes after a bership and through his efforts we’re particularly stressful meeting that runs Source: Chris Rehmann, president, American ex hibiting this year at the Philadelphia quite long, there is nothing better than to

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 51 walk into the greenhouse, turn the lights on and tinker with the plants a little bit because it is stress relieving,” he said. Rehmann’s firm provides civil and en vironmental engineering, land survey - ing, environmental planning and land - scape architecture. One service it provides is integrating digital images of tax maps with land use databases. As a result, he said: “If I’m doing a road program, our firm can easily go and notify everyone who lives on the road we are going to pave, explain what we will do, how long it will take and tell them that we won’t be back for 20 years. When people are in formed about what is going on, they make every ef fort to be tolerant of having their street torn up.” Rehmann’s efficiency as an engineer has aided him in his care of the orchids. He said he has streamlined the feeding and watering of his multitude of plants with an automated system. He has to spend only about six hours a week super - vising this system and doing some re-pot - ting. The rest of the time is pure fun. Orchids grow on every continent but Antarctica and it is believed that orchids probably co-existed with the dinosaurs. The plants are unique because the seeds they produce contain no nutrients and the orchid requires mycorrhizal fungi to germinate. Less than one tenth of one percent of all seeds produced in the wild will find the source of nutrition that they need to germinate. Very few hobbyists attempt to grow from seed since it re quires sterile conditions. Orchids are also classified as Epiphyti cal, which means they depend on another plant for support, but not for food. In the wild they grow on trees. Rehmann walks around his greenhouse, with fans hum - ming to circulate the air, and holds a plant pot. His orchids, he said, grow in bark chips, not soil, except for one plant that he displays, that grows from a short sec tion of tree branch. The engineer described a trip to Ecuador that included a view from atop a hill overlooking a valley of blooming or chids. From his expression, it was clear that Chris Rehmann considered that beau tiful scene at least a few notches above the tee view of the best fairway on the best golf course in the world. “Orchids,” he said. “are the queen of flowering plants.” I

52 jerseymanmagazine.com TechTime SIX AWESOME MOBILE APPS AT THE RIGHT PRICE: FREE 6 by Anthony Mongeluzo Evernote Would you like to organize your life and remember everything? Evernote gives you a single location to store pictures, ideas, notes, and really anything from your mobile device and then, even better, access your data from anywhere. If you are trying to keep track of things while moving and shaking like I am all day, this app is for you.

Drop Box Looking to have access to key information anywhere? Maybe it isn’t key in formation, just pictures that you would love to pull up on the road. Drop Box is a great app that will share folders and files among multiple computers and your mobile devices. I’m suggesting you download this before checking out my next pick…

Angry Birds What is Angry Birds, you say? It is one of the most addictive games available on any phone. The developers of this game sold the rights for more than $50 million. If you think you are too manly to play Angry Birds you should note that the Innovator of Violence and one of the most hardcore wrestlers on the planet, Tommy Dreamer, said he can’t put the game down. If it’s manly enough for him, it should be for you, too.

AP Mobile Want to stay connected but control your news? This nifty little app allows you to customize the news that gets delivered to your phone. It even sends out breaking news updates. Very cool.

HootSuite Are you on Facebook, Twitter, and posting all of the time? This app will let you manage both of these accounts with a clean user interface and even allow you to schedule postings. You can even monitor keywords and hash tags for topics that interest you.

Google Maps This is one of the greatest apps there is – especially if you are like me and are horrible with directions. You can find businesses and get walking (or driving) directions if you are in a new city. It takes you step by step and plugs into the Google Navigation program, which is new and amazing. ______

There are many other great apps out there, such as Key Chain (It stores all of your cards: supermarket savings cards, gym cards, etc.); the Bar Code scanner ; and, of course, a Chuck Norris app that updates with “facts” about the great, steel-bearded Chuck Norris. I’m very interested to see what comes next and what the top apps will be as the year progresses.

Anthony W. Mongeluzo is President of Pro Computer Service LLC, and can be seen on Fox News 29 every Friday at 6:15 p.m.

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 53 Mob Writer [continued from page 9] implications, involving a well-known Philly mob name and shell Anastasia companies and subprime lending, he said. “And organized crime is involved in running junkets to Atlantic City from Chinatowns in Philadelphia and New York. There is a great story out of New York about two different Asian crime groups, with one group hav ing a junket bus that was at a rest stop on the Parkway and three guys pull up in a car and they rob everybody, just like in the Wild West. Those kinds of things are going on.” Anastasia likes to quote these opening lines of Dice, Brass Knuckles and a Guitar by F. Scott Fitzgerald: “Parts of New Jersey, as you know, are under water, and other parts are under continual surveillance by the authorities.” Nothing has changed much, he said. Boardwalk Empire “I like it. It’s not the Sopranos but nothing is. From what I know, it had a lot of historic basis, though I don’t think there was as much violence as they put into the show, but you need that for including his cousin Joseph (“Skinny Joey”) Merlino. your narrative. There really were a set of Italian brothers from In a hearing last May, a deputy state attorney general produced Philadelphia back in the ’30s, all named after popes like the ones records of thousands of phone calls between the applicant and in the show.” suspected mob figures, as well as documented evidence of phys ical As for the crime: “They’re still playing all those games.” I contact. The commission ruled that the evidence provided only suspicion and speculation and voted to allow the license. “I wrote a lot about that Joey Merlino, and while he might have gotten a start from the connections of his mobster father, I think he certainly has legitimatized his company,” said Anastasia. “That rebar work is hard work and he and his brothers are on the 12th floor in cold weather getting his hands dirty. It’s not something you can make light of.” The transcript of the hearing can be found at http://www.state.nj. us/casinos. Once there, search for “transcripts” and click on May 5, 2010. The Mob’s “Away” Field in South Jersey It’s not as though there is a minor league mob team in South Jersey, said Anastasia. “South Jersey doesn’t have a team of its own, but everybody else plays here. You’ve got the five New York families, an indigenous New Jersey family [DeCavalcante] based in the Princeton-Hamilton area that traditionally moves around the state, and the Philly family, all with people in New Jersey. It’s always been like that.” South Jersey was always incorporated into the Philly mob, and Nicky Scarfo was banished to Atlantic City back in the ’60s, care - taking a city that nobody cared much about. “But he was in the right spot when casinos came and all of a sudden he was the boss and grabbing money with both fists, another reason the organi - zation came apart,” the reporter said. He said Scarfo at one point controlled the bartender’s union, which became the biggest union in the city and provided him with $10,000 to $20,000 a month. Before poker was permitted in the casinos, a bellhop or bartender connected to the union in every casino could direct players to “a big poker game in Room 407,” Anastasia said. Is there organized crime in Atlantic City now? A big financial fraud case will break soon that will have Jersey

54 jerseymanmagazine.com obviously substituting it small objects and live Hankies [continued from page 37] for a tissue, for a runny animals.” in the pocket,” he said. “It’s amusing. nose or something like Cadabra, whose real It’s the CliffsNotes of handkerchiefs.” that,” he said. “One way or name is Matt Bakalian, As for Hastings, he won’t give up on his another, the handkerchief said the hankies used by plain, white handkerchief. It just has too gets used on a daily basis.” most magicians are usu ally many uses. One such reason to carry a What if his hankie gets silk and brightly colored, hankie: to assist the ladies and loved ones dirty? Hastings said he to help add some flair to in your life. would never carry a soiled the act. “Some magicians “When I was growing up, young handkerchief. make the handkerchiefs women would never go into church “I always have addi - disappear and reappear, without wearing a hat or something on tional handkerchiefs in my Mike Hastings with his and you can do tricks their head,” Hastings said. “In an emer - car,” he said. “When it gets back pocket buddy. where they change gency, they would actually use a hand - dirty, you obviously put it color,” he said. kerchief. They could bobby pin it on top in the laundry and clean it for future use.” Bakalian is aware that customized of their head.” One use for the handkerchief he did not handkerchiefs are the rage today, used as “You can also give it to your wife if she’s mention: their long-time appearance at symbolic gifts for the father of the bride crying,” he added. “I think you’ll find they magic shows. and other loved ones. So he orders his come in very handy at a funeral.” Hankies In the 1880s, Lewis Carroll – author of own customized version. “When I do can help a child, friend, or co-worker. “I Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and also children’s parties, I have a special ‘Happy give it to people if they spill something,” a magician – delighted audiences by Birthday’ handkerchief made up that I Hastings said. “Personally, at least 50 fold ing a handkerchief into the shape of a magically produce for the birthday boy,” per cent of the time when I use the hand - mouse and making it jump. he explained. kerchief, it’s not for me,” he said. “I’m giv ing “I use about five or six different Bakalian goes to no magic show with - it to someone else to use.” handkerchiefs,” said an Egg Harbor out his hankies. As for hankie addict When his hankie isn’t being used on City magician who calls himself Matt Hast ings, his loyalty has no bounds. “I someone else, Hastings has it in case he Cadabra. “With a lot of sleight-of-hand can’t imagine going anywhere without needs a nasal accessory. “Another usage is and close-up work, they’re great to con ceal one, to be honest with you,” he said. I

Issue 1 - Volume 2 • JerseyMan Magazine 55 JerseyFMan MagaOzine OD WHERE WE EAT 1906 Route 70 West, Cherry Hill, NJ near Haddonfield Road Phone: 856-662-0297 REVIEW BY GEORGE INGRAM blue 2Oseafoodgrill.com

unday afternoon, and a virtually empty blue 2O “I want to return and try some Ahi restaurant was a quiet refuge from the maddening Route 70 traffic in Cherry Hill. This very attractive, tuna grilled over a hardwood fire.” cool-named, seafood-friendly place opened in 2008 on the site of a burned-out steakhouse. Although blue 2O is joined architecturally and by corporate blood ties to Chili’s next door, it does not seem to be part of a chain. Because we had no reservations and there was no waiting Sline, we walked past the sleek bar into a large dining room, opt - ing for a booth next to a wall from which sprouted gorgeous “flowers” of blown glass by artist Mark Wallace. Our server, an engaging young lady who wants to become a pharmacist, brought a basket of warm Romano-pesto bread and took orders for a glass of Kendall Jackson chardonnay ($9) and Samuel Adams draft lager ($5.25). Speaking of drinks, a good time to visit here is during “Uncorked Friday,” when all 42 bot tles on the wine list are half-price. You can even pick up a decent Portuguese Albarino then for a mere $11. me, these were more like attractive wallflowers at a dance – just In the kitchen these days is executive chef Michael Merski, a a little too shy. local guy from up-the-road Marlton and a 2005 graduate of the My partner wanted risotto as a side. It wasn’t listed as such on Academy of Culinary Arts in Mays Landing. His menu is ample the menu. No problem, the server said, and in a little while a both in scope and size – it’s actually an 11x17-inch sheet. Listed nice risotto with peas appeared. on it were nine of that day’s “fresh” catches and their geographic Then came bouillabaisse. Like gumbo, there are many origins. I wondered how they found one haul, “Littleneck culi nary paths to a good bouillabaisse. But the foundation – clams,” way out on Georges Bank off Massachusetts. fla vorful fish stock with garlic, tomatoes, and saffron – is a I’m a raw oyster man. It pains me when you put lipstick on con stant. And the trick is to bring it to the table without over - these noble bivalves and turn them into such strumpets as Oys ters cooking any of the different seafood. When my $28 bowl of Rockefeller. Not at blue 2O. I had a sampler of eight oysters on the bouillabaisse arrived, it was piled high with mussels, clams, half shell ($14), including briny Blue Points from Long Island shrimp, several kinds of fish, scallops, and half a small lobster, and Island Creeks from Duxbury, Massachusetts; Fanny Bays punctuated by a generous slab of toasted bread. Each was ten der, from Vancouver Island; and Cockenoes from the Connecticut moist, and not overcooked. But something was missing. Peering side of Long Island Sound. They were superb, served ice-cold deep into the bowl I discovered a rather bland puddle of and with cocktail sauce and mignonette. (My preference is undis tinguished broth carpeting the bottom. al ways mignonette or a sprinkle of fresh lemon juice.) As good To the restaurant’s credit, when I pointed this out to our as they were, I regret not having tasted the Nova Scotia server, she went back to the kitchen and returned with a bowl Tatam agouches, the Malpeques, and the Kumamotos, which of stock that contained chunks of tomatoes and strands of were on the menu but not on the sampler. saf fron. I poured it over my bouillabaisse, and felt better. My partner and I shared an appetizer, Sriracha shrimp ($9). Finally, though there was little room for desserts, our server Sriracha is a hot chili sauce that’s made in the USA. The dish touted bread pudding topped with cinnamon ice cream. The best was a mound of medium-sized shrimp, flash-fried, on a nest of thing about it was the ice cream, because the top of the bread Napa slaw and served with chopsticks. I think there were at least pudding put up too much resistance to my spoon. 12 crunchy shrimp, but they were so irresistible we lost count. Cost before tax and tip: $97. (Note: It recently began offering Next was an appetizer of two crab cakes ($13) lounging on a one of six different entrees, plus a house or Caesar salad, for shallow pool of shallot-tomato butter and topped with a sheaf of only $15.) micro greens. Each large cake had lots of crab meat. She loved Bottom line: I want to return and try some Ahi tuna grilled them, but I like a crab cake that asserts itself, one that talks back over a hardwood fire, even if it means navigating that God-awful to me in the language of green peppers, onions, and spices. To Route 70 traffic again. I

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