SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- We had 25 pellets of aspirin, a bottle of Zantac, three dozen chocolate-filled Oreos, a six-pack of caffeine-free diet pop and a whole galaxy of iron pills.
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Bus riders, from left, Bob Navadauskas, Paul Sundo, Joel Sundo (behind the "A"), Phil Chalmars and Larry Conroy show their support for Lynn Swann yesterday. (Matt Freed, Post-Gazette photos) |
The only thing that was worrisome was the sun. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of a sun-burned binge.
OK, so this wasn't Hunter S. Thompson full of beer and loathing. This wasn't Gonzo Goes Greyhound. For the most part, two DeBolt Unlimited Travel buses and the five dozen Pittsburgh-area folks, ages 7 to 70-something, taking wall-to-wall Hall tour -- football and Lynn Swann in Canton yesterday, baseball and Bill Mazeroski in Cooperstown today -- the first half was a gradual, recreational black-and-gold high rather than a beer-soaked roader.
For the most part, that is.
Paul Sundu and his Gang packed enough spirits to celebrate a Hall of Fame wait that stretched for half of their lives, 14 years for Swann. Who knows if they would've had anything left today for Maz, who waited twice as long. But they took another bus back home. More on them later.
Five DeBolt buses left various Pittsburgh points yesterday morning. One was a rental belonging to the Pirates' front office, Cooperstown or bust. Two made the 138-mile trip to Canton for the afternoon and came back. Two more were covering the 529-mile first half of this intoxicating Hall cocktail: Swann and Maz within the same 24 hours, going first to Canton and then on to Cooperstown..
This Canton/Cooperstown loop started in the wee hours in Monroeville. The hours were too wee for this reporter, who bypassed that stop and one in Homestead to catch bus No. 993 at the Pittsburgh Hilton and Towers, Downtown, at 6:53 a.m. Guess who was the last one aboard, just beating deadline?
The 7 a.m. bus left at 6:54.
By 7:15 a.m., the two-bus convoy made one last pickup, in Cranberry, to gather the last of the 40 passengers on No. 993 and the two-dozen more for the coach added just last Monday and borrowed from Mildon Bus Lines of West Alexander. On the road we went.
We arrived at 10 a.m. Interstate 77 Exit 107A, Fulton Road and Ohio Route 687. The buses stopped along Stadium Park Drive on the bottom side of the Hall that looks like a stone-covered tee with a big, white football propped on top. Driver Ted Wawro gave instructions: Take your reserved seats y 11 a.m., return to the bus by 4 p.m. He asked for any questions.
"Can I get something from underneath?" a woman asked about the luggage compartment.
"Well, what do you need?" Wawro responded.
"My Terrible Towel."
Around 11 a.m., the group took its seats on the Tour-Group Platform, stage left, between the mini-mall of NFL retail and the seating area for the Hall of Fame wives and families/friends representing Swann and other inductees. When the people representing Swann walked in behind a placard bearing his name, the tour group began to howl.
"Here we go, Steelers, here we go."
"Swanny, Swanny."
The ringleaders were Sundu and his Gang, along with a bald gentleman we'll call Mr. Clean. They so endeared themselves to the Swann family -- hugging one relative they'd never met before -- that Swann's mother came over to them later and made fast friends. Photographers professional and amateur snapped their pictures. WPGH-TV taped a sit-down with them. "Alby, Alby," they chanted after Oxenreiter finished with them. ("That's a take," one blurted.)
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Was it this hot on the bus? Eric Kramer, left, and Michael Jordan try to keep cool during the induction. | |
Sundu and the Gang packed one small keg, a fifth of Jack Daniels, a bottle of Captain Morgan rum and later purchased a 30-pack of beer upon their arrival in Canton. The only thing that worried them was running dry. And they did. Quickly.
"We drank a party pack in, like, 10 minutes," Sundu said with a mixture of embarrassment and glee.
"Should've brought the barrel," Phil Chalmars said.
"Let's make sure we get 'Swann' spelled right here," Sundu told his troops as he lined them up and handed them each a letter to spell out Swann's name. "I don't want to get my picture taken and look stupid."
Another group member wanted to take the Gang's picture, to which Larry Conroy said, "Take the lens cap off. And have another beer."
They had to get more sustenance and somehow both procured and smuggled past the security guards two more six-packs. Conroy packed so many bottles that clinked in his Army pants that rowmate Bob Navadauskas remarked, "He sounded like a milkman." Add light beer, warm two-and-a-half hours at 90 degrees inside a bunch of fellows on a metal sheet, and, woo, what a recipe.
As soon as Mike Munchak completed his speech, the Gang led the tour group in another cheer of "Here we go."
"Go crazy now," exhorted someone from the back of the platform.
They were enraptured by an ESPN Swann feature playing on the Jumbotron towering over the platform. From underneath a Hall of Fame towel, one Gang member gasped after a highlight catch: "He was The Man."
They were commencing their fifth "Here we go" of the day when John Stallworth began his introduction, " Feels like Three Rivers in here."
During Swann's speech, the group joined Steelers' fans on the hillside and in bleachers behind a fence to applaud every mention of Pittsburgh and the Steelers. One reference to Myron Cope caused a Gang member to go "Yoi."
Swann concluded in deference to the next day's other long-awaited Pittsburgh enshrinement: Maz. Hot, weary, tanned and only slightly melted of spirit (if not spirits), the group roared even more.
"Let's get drunk," proclaimed Chalmars.
Moments before 4 p.m., bound for dinner in Erie and an overnight in Syracuse. Bus No. 993 was ready to leave except for one passenger. You can guess who was the red-faced passenger -- less from embarrassment than from the sun -- who just beat deadline again.
Add one bottle of aloe sunburn lotion to our list.
'He-e-r-e we go': Salute to Swann only the beginning for Bus No. 993 & friends 
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