Gearing up for a new type of journey

I will never be able to run for President of the United States. I will never be able to run out of tunnel beneath the outstretched arms of Touchdown Jesus and onto the field at Notre Dame Stadium wearing a gold helmet and the Irish uniform. I will never be able to make the final save as goaltender for the New Jersey Devils, helping them to win a Stanley Cup championship, or for the U.S. Olympic hockey team as they win a gold medal. I will never be able to step into the batter's box wearing a Mets uniform and point to the center field fence, calling my shot against a major league pitcher. I will never be able to win an Oscar as best actor. I will never be able to have conversations with people I admire and/or that I'm intrigued by, like: Howard Cosell, Richard Nixon, John Lennon, Thurman Munson, John Kennedy, Marvin Gaye, Jim Morrison, Herb Brooks, or any of my grandparents. But despite all of these dreams that will never happen, I am able to proudly to announce the following:

My dream of hosting my own sports radio talk show is finally becoming a reality. No, this is NOT an April Fool's Day joke either.

This week, I entered into an agreement with the Sports Journey Broadcast Network to begin hosting a weekly three-hour program. It's going to be called Sunday Scores and More, and will air every Sunday morning from 10:00 AM through 1:00PM on the east coast, 7-10AM here on the west coast. The first show will air on May 3rd.

I am beyond excited about this opportunity and I am looking forward to delivering an entertaining and informative weekly broadcast. Ray Manukay, who worked with me on the sports team at Mahalo, is going to be working with me on the show. The program will cover all aspects of sports conversation, and I will be providing not only my own brand of opinions and commentary, but also more expert opinions from players, coaches, and members of the media.

I'm in the process of lining lined up what I think is an impressive first show of guests: NHL on NBC play-by-play announcer Mike Emrick; Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Jack Del Rio; NHL.com senior writer Dan Rosen; MSG Network reporter Tina Cervasio; fellow Sports Journey show host Pat Gallen of Basketball Round-up; and Examiner.com boxing analyst Ricardo Lima. All but Emrick and Del Rio have been confirmed as of this posting, and I'm confident in landing the other two, though I won't be able to confirm those until the week prior to the show.

It goes without saying that I have many people to thank for the fact that I'm finally getting the chance to realize what, at times, seemed like an impossible dream. As much as I like to think of myself as someone who can put just about anything into words, I find myself staring at a blinking cursor in my word program trying to conjugate my emotions at this moment. It'll probably be even more difficult the day of the first show.

I'll be joined each Sunday morning by my good friend Ray Manukay, who along with "Angry" Ken Bothe comprised the on-site sports staff when Mahalo started two years ago. The three of us did a demo for a sports talk weekly video show for Mahalo that they used for misdirection purposes before their launch (too complicated to explain), but I knew from filming that demo that Ray would be a great inclusion to any show I wound up being involved in. He will provide a full news-styled sportscast at the top of each hour, and scoreboard updates at 20 and 40 minutes past each hour. He will also engage with me in sports discussion and debates on a wide variety of topics. He's west coast; I'm east coast. It should make for some great radio.

But we'll also keep things moving with plenty of conversation with guests, and I'm also planning on incorporating some kind of chat room on our site that will allow audience participation. Eventually, I hope to be able to build up the show enough to transition into taking phone calls from listeners, but for now we'll keep things simple. Nevertheless, I will always welcome and respond to your comments and criticisms whenever possible.

I've spoken with the head of the network, Lake Lewis, who also hosts the flagship program on the network each weekday afternoon between 4-7 Eastern Time. He is also planning on introducing me to his listening audience in the weeks leading up to my Sunday debut as the 'Senior Hockey Analyst' for the network. I'll post a notice here when my first appearance will take place.

I'll put more details here as they come about as well through the process. In the meantime, I want to thank all of you that have known me through the years, at whatever level of friendship we've reached, for your support of me over the years, and encouraging me to never put my dreams away. I look forward to sharing many a Sunday talking sports with you starting in May.