Without false modesty, I can say I was a good soccer/football player. Not unique or outstanding. Just good.

But, in one aspect I was unique: in 30 years, from 5 to 35 years old, not only was I NEVER expelled from the field, I NEVER had a yellow card and I played center forward in Italy!

If you know what it means to play in that position in Italy, you’ll understand my accomplishment. I accepted every provocation verbal and physical that a defender could say…

Here in San Francisco, the seasons are really just nuances, shades of difference, with one succeeding the another. There is no long, hot, sweaty summer like in Mississippi, for example; nor is there any real cold, cold winter, as in my home state of Michigan. We never get snowstorms, just as we never get extended…

This year I would like to wish you Happy Holiday by telling a tale..........

Once upon a time, more than 90 years ago, there was a kid who was living in a very little town in the Southern part of Italy in a region called Basilicata.

Considering the hard life in that area and the fact that it was almost a century ago, his family was of very modest means. Christmas and Holidays in general, were just days like all the other ones. On those special days, his father didn’t go to…

As his team battled their way through the fall season, this first-time head coach gradually gained his athletes' complete confidence, to the point they actually believed they could beat any team they faced. They didn't win any of their playoff games, however, this time around.

Nevertheless, he was drawing up…