I think the best words I can use to describe the feeling are positively overwhelmed.
Last night, in Allen, Texas on a Tuesday, we packed a bar and restaurant for a hockey podcast. Add in the fact that this was in one of DFW’s more northern suburbs, so many people had to fight rush hour traffic to get there. There also weren’t any associated hockey events going on anywhere nearby to boost attendance.
But people showed up, one person even drove in from Arkansas from the event, and you could see how happy the restaurant manager was, on a Tuesday, to have business buzzing with people talking about hockey after my pal Gavin Spittle organized and delivered with a live-recording of Spits & Suds.
I’m not typically great in large gatherings, I’m a very quiet person who likes to sit back and watch the world, a very shy person by nature, who gets more talkative in smaller settings (or in written/work form). In fact, I’ve always said, I got into the business of storytelling because I find others more interesting.
And last night, it was humbling and thankful to hear others tell me their stories, that I was somehow included in.
I met many people who I’d only interacted with before on Twitter/X, some showed me messages we’d exchanged years ago, and I was able to re-live memories of various stories or moments that connected away from the ice. The fact that my voice, in some capacity, is part of someone’s daily drive, is both horrifying and humbling at the same time, and I don’t really know what to say other than, ‘thank you,’ when someone tells me they started listening or reading a certain outlet because of me.
I finally got to meet the man, better the legend, behind Sportstoons. Steve is one of those people who I’ve even done work with before, he did the cartoon for this site, and he’s awesome. You should commission him or buy one of his prints or books if you can.
One person had to leave early because they had a beer league game later that night, but they still wanted to make it to the event, again a tremendous honor. Another told me how their beer league team had watched The Late Game, getting together to project it onto a garage and in their view the movie captured the spirit of the thing.
I signed a copy of my book, 100 Things Stars Fans Fans Should Know & Do Before They Die, for one kid who’s dad bought him a second clean copy of the book because the original copy had been taken with him to camp. I’ll tell you there’s no higher honor for a book than seeing a copy of it being well-worn and beat up a bit.
I was also so happy to see so many people thrilled and excited to meet my pal Stephen Meserve, who I co-wrote We Win Here as we went through a receiving line signing books at the end. We Win Here was born as a passion project, Stephen and I sharing stories and ideas over beers that we eventually decided to write down, and to see that it’s provided at least some semblance of entertainment to readers means the world to me.
I don’t even know what I am anymore, I’m a weird hybrid writer/reporter/etc., even this site has become hard to define at times, but at one point I was a Dallas Stars beat writer, and Matt DeFranks was one of my best friends and rivals. We fought daily to get the best of each other, and I think I’m so much better today in this business because of Matt.
It’s cool for me to sit back and watch that now with Robert Tiffin and Lia Assimakopoulos, who despite some shortcomings compared to the budget that Matt and I had (the Dallas Morning News used to give their beat writer a proper travel budget), are consistently, and respectfully, pushing each other to be better in their coverage. They both got some of the love they deserved last night at the event, and I highly encourage you to read them, daily.
Brien Rea stopped by, Brien and I have known each other for a long, long time. I bought him lunch in his first week as the Texas Stars broadcaster down in Austin, more than a decade later — we are all getting old — we were interrupting each other, and laughing about it, on a live panel.
Most importantly, or maybe most importantly, this event, again on a Tuesday in August, doesn’t happen without Gavin Spittle turning a passion project into so much more. I said it on the show last night, but Gavin has done this right, he’s never over-promised, but he’s always delivered on passion for building and producing a hockey podcast in DFW. For me, to see a restaurant full of people for his show, the work he’s put in, it’s pretty damn cool.
We live in a weird world, I don’t live in Texas anymore, but I’ve been able to stay connected to the DFW hockey community from afar, and I couldn’t be happier about that.
As always thanks for reading, and I’m sure Robert and I will talk about this more later today on Episode 20 of Algorithmically Incorrect Hockey.
Sadly, I couldn't make it out last night. But I am so glad that you have stayed connected to us here in Dallas. Our Stars coverage and just hockey coverage in general is better for it. I do love Lia, Robert and Sam, but I am still so committed to and thankful for you!