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the world edwards when he dons all of that heavy goalie paraphernalia the pads and stuff manages to stand up i m not kidding if edwards went out on the ice without the padded armament of his profession he could hide behind one of the goal posts i you got a dressing room peek at edwards you d swear that if one of bobby orr s rising shots the kind that orr used to fire when he was bobby orr struck edwards in the midsection it would render poor don airborne and drive him into the red seats why if everybody on the sabres squad was edwards size seymour knox and his brother norty would be much wealthier gentlemen than they already are if that s possible because the sabres could make their road trips in a volkswagen but can this kid ever tend goal this kid is as good looking a goaltender as he is good looking i mean edwards is handsome gals who get a look at edwards with his mask off must go daft when they see that head of dirty blond hair and that shining face with the fine features and that little blond mustache gals have got to want to pick him up and hug him if edwards didn t have that mustache he could be in trouble if a gal did pick him up because she might be tempted to put him over her shoulder and burp him but if she did she d be burping the hottest goaltender in the nhl since joining the sabres on feb 13 this 21 year old kid from hamilton qnt has worked seven games and has skated off a winner six times two of his victories have been shutouts he has a goals against average of 1 71 best in the nhl he has stopped 154 of the 166 pucks fired at him for an efficiency rating of 927 best in the nhl punch imlach the man who brought edwards up from hershey and touched off that furor by ordering floyd smith to play edwards in the feb 13 game instead of backup man al smith has been labeled a genius the world s no 1 judge of hockey talent as edwards keeps notching victory after victory punch imlach keeps enjoying the last laugh night after night on his critics who lambasted him for pulling rank on floyd smith since i was one of imlach s critics a lot of people have been telling me they think it s time i apologized to punch well okay i ll apologize when imlach stops laughing categories what s new harry don edwards sabres tags paul wieland jerry west the aud and saving mcadoo december 17 2011 cwendel leave a comment jerry west s recent autobiography west by west offers up a glimpse into the complex and often troubled life of a nba legend as a player for the los angeles lakers west visited buffalo s memorial auditorium several times in the early 70 s in fact west suffered a season ending knee injury at the aud in a game against the braves in 1971 for buffalo fans west talks at length about the rebirth of brave great bob mcadoo with the lakers as general manager of the lakers west took a flyer on mcadoo in 1981 to help the team s push towards a nba championship here are some of west s recollections of mcadoo and former brave dave wohl bob macadoo who now works under pat riley for the miami heat was there and it brought back a sharp memory of mine of how nearly everyone thought bringing him in midway through the 1981 82 season would be a disaster partly because he had gotten a reputation for being difficult and there was a concern that he was washed up he had a bone spur injury and we needed to find out if he could still play find out if he was still more or less the same guy would led the league in scoring three years in a row and been the mvp for one of them dave wohl one of our scouts and a close friend of bob s when they were teammates on the buffalo braves flew to new jersey to watch him work out i didn t necessarily see him as a starter but bob certainly did and that created problems for him at first when he signed with us for a minimum wage contract we were bringing bob in because mitch kupchak had suffered a serious knee injury i talked to bob at some length about what we needed from him his scoring as a way to open up the floor and take pressure off kareem and his defense which was not something that had ever been asked of him before i told him he would need to adjust to not just being the number one or even the number two option but if he could do what i did outlined he had a chance to win a championship bob would say later how difficult it was for him to make the transition to coming off the bench but he couldn t have been more surprised by how he readily he was accepted by the new teammates with the exception of kareem that is with whom he never had any real relationship to speak of i had first seen bob play as a senior in high school at a summer camp in north carolina and i told him at the time son you ve got the ugliest shot i ve ever seen but don t change it because it goes in don t miss the review of west by west my charmed tormented life by braves historian budd bailey categories 70 s bob mcadoo braves budd bailey buffalo buffalo braves los angeles lakers tags aud dave wohl jerry west mcadoo west by west eulogy for the buffalo braves what have we learned october 24 2011 cwendel leave a comment nfl president roger goodell paid a visit to buffalo last week mentioning that improvements to ralph wilson stadium to the tune of 100 million would enhance the chances of western new york keeping the bills setting up a showdown between taxpayers ownership and the nfl the scenario is somewhat reminiscent of the buffalo braves departure in 1978 captured in this vintage column written by legendary courier express writer phil ranallo what s new harry july 11 1978 since it s highly debatable whether a city really needs a professional basketball team or any pro sports club for that matter it can hardly be argued that buffalo is about to be swept down the drain now that the basketball braves are gone nevertheless it s safe to say that the loss of the braves from buffalo is a giant step backward personally i find myself in deep mourning the death of the braves has depressed me it s as if i ve lost a close friend no kidding i m tempted to affix a black band to my right coat sleeve the braves were dear to me because i have long been hooked on the sport of pro basketball i enjoyed watching the braves play lose or win they were also dear to me for a selfish reason i enjoyed writing about them and their presence in buffalo made my job easier since randy smith and co afforded me with material with which i managed to pound out 50 to 75 columns a year during the club s eight years in existence in buffalo i grew to regard the braves as one of our community s symbolic institutions on my list the braves ranked right up there a couple of spots ahead of the albright knox art gallery i felt that the departure of the braves could possibly do economic damage to the city i felt that their loss might even have an extremely harmful psychological impact on our town now though i m not so sure about the psychological impact i mean four days have passed the day of infamy since the nba club owners stripped buffalo of its franchise and rewarded john y brown for his ruinous ownership of the braves by giving him the votes to move the team and in effect the right to thumb his nose at buffalo four days have passed since the nba owners by a 21 1 vote deemed buffalo unworthy of a major league basketball team after eight years of membership in the nba yet in buffalo from my vantage point not too many folks seem to care there has been little weeping at the death of the braves and almost no gnashing of teeth the reaction of buffalonians boggles the mind save for diehards who didn t seem to be stronger in number than a corporal s guard the reaction to the death of the braves has been a giant yawn or a two word comments good riddance i got the feeling that if they ran a referendum asking the townspeople if they wanted the nba bosses to change their minds and keep the braves in buffalo half would say tell me what the braves are and i ll tell you if i want to keep them here included among those whose reaction was a big yawn are the leaders of this town the politicians who operated out of city hall amazing the city s leaders told us a while back that they were ready to take john y brown and the nba to court if the league decided to strip buffalo of the basketball team well now that the stripping has been done they ve changed their minds the city s leaders have decided that it s best not to fight that it s better to roll over and play dead better not to make a peep they feel that a long drawn out court battle would be too expensive for the taxpayers they also decided not to go to court and get this because they felt that such an action would discourage any future investor from considering buffalo as the site of a new nba franchise in my view buffalo s refusal to put up its dukes and fight brown and the nba will have the opposite effect on future nba investors when they re shopping for cities i mean forget buffalo as a future nba town at least in this century after all would you pick for your new nba club a city that once had a team but failed show enough interest to fight to keep it the city leaders also decided not to fight it has been reported because of the about face the local investors did when head counting time came during the three month period in which john brown hedge hopped the nation in search of a new city for the braves the city leaders reported time and again that there were several local investors ready to come forward and make a pitch to buy the braves if brown was in a selling mood although no names were mentioned some of the city leaders with their constant talk of numerous investors had me believing there were more buffalo people trying to buy the braves than went to games last season but when show time came when the zero hour arrived and it became time for the local investors to stand up and be counted all of the investors remained seated the reaction of the guys and gals in this town to the loss of the braves as well as the reaction of the city leaders has got to lead a man to conclude that john y brown is one of the sharpest cookies in the sports world john brown s game plan was a perfect one for three months he drove everybody batty with his courting of city after city to the point where everybody had him and braves up to here then he pulled off his stupendous deal and nobody as much as hollered foul nobody cared where he went as long as he went and they got him out of their hair yes sir brown s game plan worked to perfection categories what s new harry buffalo bills buffalo braves john y brown phil ranallo ralph wlison catching up with john hummer buffalo braves september 30 2011 cwendel leave a comment john hummer was the braves first round draft pick in 1970 he signed his professional contract at the old gulf western building near columbus circle and then was told to head to laguardia airport and a flight to buffalo it was a quick up and back a chance to meet the hometown press and fans no big deal the only problem was that on the way to the airport hummer realized he only had 15 in his pocket when the cab pulled up at the terminal the fare read 14 90 i tried to tell the cabbie what had happened how sorry i was hummer recently told me but he just threw the dime back in my face an omen of what was to come perhaps for in western new york some fans were steamed that the braves had selected hummer instead of local hero calvin murphy in the team s inaugural college draft never mind that hummer had nothing to do with that decision those at the old aud often laid into him i couldn t blame them hummer said i knew what they wanted they wanted calvin murphy and i wasn t that kind of player at princeton hummer was best known for his defense which helped coach pete carril win the ivy league and turn heads in the ncaa tourney his nephew ian now stars for princeton despite the criticism hummer was often seen around buffalo i was the only player in those early years to live downtown everybody else was out in amherst or williamsville i had a place right off elmwood avenue i enjoyed getting out and talking with the people for me buffalo will always be the ultimate bar town hummer stayed with the braves for three seasons before being traded to the chicago bulls in the deal that brought kevin kunnert and gar heard to buffalo hummer finished his basketball career with the seattle supersonics after his playing days ended he earned an mba from stanford and co founded a venture capital firm in san francisco pets com wind river systems and napster are just a few of the firms he s invested in in looking back at his basketball career hummer occasionally wonders what could have been for you see the milwaukee bucks had the 16 th selection in the 1970 right behind the braves and larry costello wanted me hummer says and arguably i would have been a better fit with the bucks but that s the way it goes costello coached the bucks to the 1971 championship with kareem abdul jabbar then known as lew alcindor and oscar robertson on the roster during his nba career hummer played for three hall of famers dolph schayes bill russell and jack ramsay two of them were during his time with the braves i loved buffalo hummer said sure there were some ups and down but i really enjoyed those days tim wendel categories 1970 s buffalo buffalo braves home of the braves nba braves clippers franchise shows crap shoot value of draft picks may 19 2011 cwendel leave a comment by chris wendel last night the cleveland cavaliers won the nba lottery to select first in this summer s player draft what was somewhat lost was the fact that the pick originally belonged to you guessed it the los angeles clippers la traded the pick as part of the trade with cleveland on february 24th it seems the more things change the more they remain the same for the clippers braves franchise in its first year of existence gm eddie donovan traded the braves first draft choice to the baltimore bullets for guard mike davis davis had been on the nba s all rookie team in 1969 70 in the process buffalo passed over the potential choice of niagara stand out and later nba all star and hall of famer calvin murphy calvin murphy i had done all of calvin murphy s games at niagara recalled van miller the braves legendary play by play man pound for pound calvin is the greatest athlete i ve ever seen he could dunk the ball and he was a tough guy he was the one guy that nobody and i mean nobody ever fooled with nobody in that league ever messed with calvin murphy eddie donovan was a great gm for the braves and other teams but i like a lot of people from western new york will never forgive him for not taking calvin murphy in that first draft perhaps we are all delusional when it comes to believing that early draft choices determine a team s future after all the clipper braves all time leading scorer is still randy smith who was a 7 th round pick by the braves in 1971 selected to appease the local fan base after passing on murphy the previ...