Coming like a football season freight train is the annual Gilroy Foundation Day in the Country auction on Saturday, Sept. 14. Co-chairs Sal and Annie Tomasello are working on the plan around the theme, “For the Love of the Game” which will highlight the athletes from Gilroy’s past which made it to the big time, like quarterback Jeff Garcia and boxer Robert “The Ghost” Guerrero and PGA professional George Archer, winner of the Masters golf tournament in 1969. Local wine tasting, appetizers, a sit-down dinner prepared by Top Chef Dave “The Dish” Bozzo. There’s a silent auction and a live auction hosted by Don DeLorenzo and Jim Habing with plenty of sports tickets and memorabilia on the block. It’s $100. Tickets online at www.gilroyfoundation.org and there’s also a super raffle for a Baseball Getaway for Two to Cooperstown which includes a visit to the Baseball Hall of Fame, a game day parade and an old-timers game on gorgeous Doubleday Field. Now that’s a classic prize.
Classic story … didn’t know that Art “Coach” Baxter was responsible for getting Red Elder, QB Jeff Garcia’s grandfather to Gilroy. Apparently, says the mayor’s sharp-as-a-tack better half, Jeanne Gage, her Dad knew Red from back in the day when they resided in Kansas growing up. An opening came up in the Gilroy schools, Red got hired, and that’s why we have a famous QB from Gilroy, No. 5, former San Francisco 49er, Gavilan College Ram, San Jose State Spartan and Calgary Stampeder Jeff Garcia, Red’s grandson. It’s a small world indeed.
Indeed, there should be a solution to the unsafe bleacher issue at Garcia-Elder Stadium, and one that doesn’t rely on a community benefactor to step in and fix it with cash. Anticipate the bureaucracy, rent some bleachers (a month ago would have been good), come up with the temporary solution to avoid a crisis situation. Sorry, but football stadium bleachers for 2,000 fans or so are a big deal. And it’s a terrible idea to have the home and visiting fans sit together.
Together we passed the library tax, Measure A, by a whopping margin – 81.39 percent of the vote. Whenever I drive by the new Gilroy library, I’m amazed at how full the parking lot is. Many people yak, yak, yak about how libraries are on their last legs due to the Internet, blah, blah, blah … It’s the same thing some babble about newspapers. Well folks, libraries and print edition newspapers are here for quite some time. Libraries have computers inside, newspapers have websites. It’s about transition, but both institutions remain relevant. To all those who mailed in a “Yes” ballot for the libraries, good for you. It’s $33 a year on the parcel tax bill and well worth every penny. Who knows, maybe the library opens on Sundays and Mondays, too.
Closed, not open, is Liberty PCS, better known as the phony phone accessory store that is a front for a casino-style slot machine gambling operation. Loved it that the Gilroy Police Department wasted no time in shutting the place down again after it re-opened a few days after GPD raided the place, made numerous arrests of patrons for drug and parole violations, and confiscated the gambling-related equipment. When a decision for the betterment of the community is made like this one, it should be “In for a penny, in for a pound” and if the scoundrels open again, shut it down just as soon as the next search warrant gets approved.
Maybe we’ll see about approval on the web poll next week for the two Gilroy assistant fire chiefs who are suing the city for overtime back pay? QQuestion 1: Is Phil King’s $180,232 annual salary too high or too low? Question 2: Retired assistant fire chief Edward Bozzo collects a monthly pension of $10,800 for life. Not enough or too generous?
Enough pain for Giants fans … just remember, spring training is just six months away … the Niners will be on TV every week … your SF Giants won two of the last three world championships … the Sharks are about to strap on the skates … and Indian summer is coming, the best time of the year in Northern California. So just write it off – baseball, like golf, can be a humbling game.
Unhumble request … why can’t my bank’s ATM machine remember that I want information in English? Once I push that button a couple of times, it ought to be over and done with.
Never over and done for 8-year-old Tanner McNabb who’s featured on our front page and swimming fabulously for the Gilroy Gators. Tanner’s refusing to let Type I diabetes foil his activity plans and his parents are taking efforts to find a cure to a new level. At LJB Farms last week to pick up some tomatoes that don’t taste like chalk, I saw some grin-inducing glassware called “Red Neck Stemware” – mason jars fashioned into martini, margarita and beer glasses. Had I known that the McNabb family started the company and that proceeds are donated to the Junior Diabetes Research Foundation, I would have bought some. Now I know, now I will.
Reach Editor Mark Derry at ed****@ga****.com
