Tag: eulogy

Another piece of childhood biting the dust

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

Happy trails, Jimmy Snuka: “Superfly” has passed away.

There’s no sense in me writing yet another long-winded eulogy for a professional wrestler.  Jimmy Snuka wasn’t taken from the world far too young; he was 73 years old and certainly lived out a fairly full life, albeit probably wrestled a little longer than he probably should have, but such is often the case of professional wrestlers from the 80s and 90s who literally have nothing else to do but continuing to don the tights and get in the ring.

My last visit to the topic of Jimmy Snuka was marred with skepticism and questions of his honesty and intentions, as it seemed a little too convenient for his health to so rapidly begin deterioration as involvement in a third-degree murder/manslaughter charge began to creep up on him, but then again non-physical variables are certainly capable of manifesting physical ailments due to the limitless power of the brain to the body.

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Relevant versus thorough

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My first thought when I heard that Marlins pitcher Jose Fernandez died in a boating accident was “holy shit.”

My next thought was wondering if there were any drugs or alcohol involved.

Typically, I’m the kind of guy that likes to write about my feelings about particular topics, often waxing poetic about guys like Jose Fernandez, professional athletes capable of extraordinary things like striking out everyone they face.  In that regard, I’m not really that different from most people who like baseball and enjoy writing on the side.

The thing is, far too often, I’ve seen instances where people are reported dead, and then immediately eulogized as these tragic losses of life, often under veils of innocence, external faults and no wrong doing on their own parts.  In the case of athletes, stellar statistics or professional achievements are cited, like Fernandez’s 2013 National League Rookie of the Year honors or the extraordinary number of strikeouts he’s amassed in his career.

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I hope he throws salt in God’s eyes and whacks him with his cane

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

In memoriam: Harry Fujiwara AKA Mr. Fuji dies at the age of 82 years old

I’ll be honest, I didn’t really care that much when Paul Bearer died.  Sure, he was a memorable personality in the wrestling industry, who had the luxury of being associated with one of the greatest of all times in The Undertaker, but let’s be real here, he wasn’t really that interesting of a guy to me.  He spoke in a ghostly voice and was visually memorable, but he never got his hands dirty, he rarely took bumps, and really, he only managed three guys ever, Kane and Mankind on top of the Undertaker.

But Mr. Fuji passing, that elicits actual downer emotions within me.  Mr. Fuji was undoubtedly on the Mount Rushmore of classically heel managers, along with Bobby Heenan, Jimmy Hart and the Slickster.  Mr. Fuji was a guy that was memorable for all the reasons, right and wrong, whether it was because he was a walking caricature of Japanese stereotypes, with his Uncle Tom suit and bad guy bowler hat, or the fact that when you look at the guys he managed, he certainly managed his share of actual champions.

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A piece of me died

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

This past weekend, I made a terribly long overdue visit back up to Virginia to visit my family.  After my dad had picked me up from the airport, I suggested that we go out to eat so that we could have some awkward father-son time together.  Ultimately, we ended up going to a Korean joint for jajangmyeon, but on the way there, I could help but feel tempted to suggest the Old Country Buffet that was also on the route to the Korean restaurant, for old time’s sake.

It’s a good thing that such did not come to fruition, otherwise my dad would have witnessed his grown son shed tears – it was closed, permanently.  And as of March of this year, no less.

I knew that OCBs and their parent company were in trouble, because I remember reading posts back in February that documented the company’s financial struggles.  Subsequently, I remember being relieved when the Fairfax OCB was not on the original list of 74 underperfoming restaurants that faced the corporate axe.

Clearly, this is around the time I kind of fell off the internet grid, fell behind in the news, and went dark to the happenings of the world.  Despite surviving the first round of cuts, round two came an abrupt month later, and then all OCBs, as well as affiliate buffet restaurants were all subsequently closed down, with most notably, the Fair City Mall location, that upon its departure, takes a piece of me with it, to the commercial afterlife.

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Even Chyna deserves better

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Every year, around my birthday, I kind of hold my breath for a five-day span going two days before and two days after the actual day.  As I’ve pointed out countless times in my life, a lot of bad things tend to happen near, on or around my birthday, and I really wish that such weren’t so often the case.  I think somewhere along the line of tragic events and deaths that tend to happen in April, along with my generally self-deprecating nature leads to the sort of stigma I have when it comes to my birthday.

Unfortunately, 2016 is no exception to the rule, and two days after my birthday, the world was tragically informed that Prince had died, due to god knows what, as to no surprise, the details are still kind of murky and nothing seems to be confirmed yet.  I’m not going to pretend like I was the world’s greatest Prince fan by any stretch of the imagination (lord knows we have social media where people can do that), and I would be one of many who would struggle to name a song other than Purple Rain, but I do admire the guy for the musical savant that he was, and was always in awe whenever I heard stories or accounts of him picking up any instrument and going to town like a pro, because that kind of talent is truly incredible.

But I’m not writing this post for Prince, because as I said, as much as I admired his talents, he really wasn’t that big of a part of my fandoms nor did I have any sort of meaningful connection to his existence.  Not to mention the whole rest of the internet has Prince eulogies and tributes covered.

I’m writing this post for the other person who had the unfortunate fate to call April 21st their last day alive, the person who will always be overlooked if not outright forgotten on this date in history.  Much like Farrah Fawcett passing on the same day Michael Jackson passed, or any other notable instance where one notable person died on the same day as someone who was on a whole other level of notoriety.

Joanie Laurer, better known as Chyna to wrestling fans, passed on April 21st.  The news of her passing was quickly swept under the carpet due to the passing of Prince, that was announced nearly 4-6 hours after hers made it to mainstream outlets.  There’s no denying that Prince was certainly a bigger star than a professional wrestler, but this is where people like me come in, to reminisce and share some words about a lesser-known human being in a lesser-respected genre, who deserves to be remembered for their good as well as their bad, as having existed.

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Remembering Tommy Hanson

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In short: former Major League Baseball pitcher Thomas J. “Tommy” Hanson passes away at the age of 29, due to “catastrophic organ failure.”

Talk about something that came out of nowhere; it’s not often that I expect to hear about spontaneous deaths from people much younger than I am. And in spite of my faltering indifference to the game over the last few years, I’d like to write some words about Tommy Hanson, because if anything at all, he represents a player that was pretty prevalent during my peak of baseball fandom, and I’m genuinely sad to hear about his unfortunate and way too early departure.

Forget about the win-loss record, the ERA, and the list of teams that he had played for in his career, that one might expect to see within the final paragraphs of a professional athlete’s online eulogy and/or obituary. This isn’t to say that they weren’t pretty, quite the contrary, his overall numbers were positive and respectable, despite the obvious observation that he was declining quickly, mostly on account of shoulder troubles that plagued the tail end of his baseball career.

To me, Tommy Hanson represents the link, the gateway, into my eventual love and appreciation for minor league baseball.

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Some words for the fallen

~ dannyhong ~ Leave a comment

It’s been a rough stretch for the wrestling industry this summer.  Within the last 60 days, two iconic names of the business have passed away, in Dusty Rhodes and now Rowdy Roddy Piper.  Given the fact that the life expectancy for males in the United States is at roughly 80 years old now, it is accurate to say that at 69 and 61 years old respectively, both Dusty and Piper left the world too soon, which is pretty much the epitomal statement made whenever any wrestler passes these days.  The lifestyle of the business, especially back when those guys were touring towns, was quite self-destructive, and it would be a bigger surprise if the causes of their deaths weren’t aided in some way or fashion by drugs or substance abuse.

I didn’t write anything publicly when Dusty Rhodes died, but now that Piper has so quickly followed, I think it’s a decent time to put some words down, because ultimately, I felt the same way about both guys, and it’s quite easier to turn this into something of a post that I’m hoping has some substance to it.

The truth is, I was never really a fan of either Dusty Rhodes or Roddy Piper.  This doesn’t mean that I don’t care about their deaths, far from it; they’re both unfortunate and absolutely horrible for the families that they left behind, but at the same time, I don’t see any reason to pretend like I was ever a big fan of either wrestler when they were still active.  Nor did I see any point of waxing poetic about great they were in the business, because I frankly don’t agree to such as fervently as many other wrestling fans do.

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