Memorial Auditorium – Home of the Braves

That’s what the building at the foot of Main Street will always be to me.

I can’t figure out why that is really. I didn’t grow up here, the Braves were long gone upon my arrival in the mid nineties. And thanks to my relatively young age I have virtually no recollection of the team’s existence as they left for California while I was in the second grade.

But even now, I feel like I am as big of a fan as anyone who watched them play. I have the T shirts, a cup with the logo and names of players, and have had the opportunity of meeting Bob McAdoo on more than one occasion. I can almost envision myself being in the arena for the great hardwood moments that the Braves gave us during the seventies.

So when I went down to visit the Convention Center for the “Farewell to the Aud” it was only fitting that breezed through the hockey exhibits and stuck like glue to anything Braves. I could have spent the entire weekend just hanging out at John Boutet’s exhibits, which among other things include a huge photo of “The Foul” (see photo above)…programs…bobbleheads….ticketstubs…banners….jerseys in both sky blue and orange and brown.

But the biggest thrill was in meeting some of the people that made the Braves what they were. Ernie Digrigorio and Randy Smith, teammates on the court during the seventies who now work for competing gaming facilities(Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun)…a new rivalry one could say. Both spoke of the great memories of being in the Aud, as Ernie went on and on simply about his first game as a pro and remembered in great detail about the game right down to the attendance that night and who the opponent was. And Randy Smith, ever the psuedo Buffalonian…going straight from Buff State to the NBA right downtown, recalling with sadness about the time the Braves were packing their bags and leaving.

But the best moments were spent with Dolph Schayes. The first coach in Braves history is still sharp as he enters his eighties, but boy did his eyes light up upon seeing the original Braves logo at Boutet’s memorabilia stand. There stood a man considered one of the NBA’s Fifty greatest players, and all I’m hearing from him and his son Dave is their urge to get a pizza from Dino Bocce’s, and how great it was to be here now and when the team first came into existence. What a nice guy.

It tends to amaze me how a club that spent only eight seasons here in Buffalo still has such an impact upon so many people even thirty years after the moving vans headed West. Yet that is the power of sports and the grip that it can have on its fans. How memories of a team, and the individual moments that they bring us can be seared into memory, never to be forgotten. Three decades later, fans still wear the Braves logo, on caps, tshirts, sweaters…as if they had just played a game last night.

It’s enough to make someone who never saw them live be a fan……”Two for MacAdoo”.

Other stuff of note….

Pro ball is back in town: This time the Buffalo Stampede of the Premier Basketball League gets underway in January with former Syracuse great Roosevelt Bouie serving under Rich Jacob as an assistant coach.

Former Buffalo mayor Tony Masiello was signing autographs as well for his role as a Canisius great. The media guy in me was about this close to going to the podium and asking ” So Tony as the mayor of this city for so long, just how the hell could you let that building rot into what it became???” Still kicking myself, I just don’t think I’d be able to ask that question in a semi tactful, calm manner.

To John Boutet….I need a copy of that photo of “The Foul” to hang on the wall….know anyone who has one??

-pjf