Bills’ dysfunction mimics Braves’ demise

Bills' owner Ralph Wilson

by Tim Wendel

A team a few bricks shy of a load. Small in stature at positions where that matters most. Week after week unable to finish close games.

That sounds an awful lot like the current Buffalo Bills football squad. But not so long ago that scouting report also summed up the Buffalo Braves basketball team. And, unfortunately, such organizational faults helped speed the team’s departure from Western New York.

In following the Bills’ ineptitude in recent seasons, I’m reminded of conversations I had with Bob McAdoo while writing Buffalo, Home of the Braves. The Hall of Famer, now in his 15^th year as an assistant with the Miami Heat, talked at length about being patient. Having a plan and believing in it.

“Several times the pieces we had the pieces in our hands for a championship team,” McAdoo says, “and we let them go.”

Of course, one of the pieces that the Braves gave away was McAdoo himself – peddled to the New York Knicks in a Judas deal for John Gianelli and $3 million.

But there are plenty of other examples:

• Trading away a young Moses Malone.
• Firing Hall of Fame coach Jack Ramsay
• Drafting Tom McMillen when Ricky Sobers, Lloyd Free, Gus Williams and Kevin Grevey were available.
• Showing Jim McMillian, Gar Heard and Jack Marin the door.
• Allowing John Y. Brown to turn the franchise into “ABA North.”

“Good teams know when to stand pat,” McAdoo told me. “With bad ones, things get too fast, too crazy. Before you know it, you look up and see you’ve lost what’s really important.”

With the Bills going through such uncertain times, here’s hoping they’ve learned a lesson from the old Braves. The fans in Buffalo are among the most knowledgeable I’ve ever come across. They know when team ownership has a real plan and when it is just another shell game.

Update on “Buffalo, Home of the Braves”

NBA Hall of Famer Bob McAdoo emailed today between exhibition games as Assistant Coach with the Miami Heat, giving his thumbs up for the book “Buffalo, Home of the Braves”. His friend and Buffalo resident Kenny Martin made the connection, and it’s great to have McAdoo’s blessing.

You’ll notice that the Buffalo Nation site has been reconfigured. We think the new look will be a good conduit to Braves and other Buffalo sports news. We are also redoing the Sun Bear Press web site, with some nice background graphics and a streamlined ordering process that should be completed this week.

Speaking of ordering, we’re finally up and listed on Amazon.com. Look for another book signing with author Tim Wendel and perhaps a special guest Brave. We’re lining up a date for early December, likely again at the New Era Cap Company on Delaware in downtown Buffalo.

Book release; Behind the scenes

It’s been several months since the book ‘Buffalo, Home of the Braves” hit the shelves. In the whirlwind of activity since the May 30th release, I’ve only recently been able to put it all in some perspective. In recapping the events, truth does sound much stranger than fiction:

Thursday  May 28th: After four years, endless editing, and a small fortune of investment, I finally hold the book in my hands. My initial thoughts focus on how much girth the finished book has. It feels heavy and looks great.

I pick up about 30 boxes of books from Village Press in that is located in Traverse City, Michgan (where I’ve resided for the past 21 years), and load them into a rental car for the 10-hour ride to Lockport where my parents still live. I realize that the book project has taken me back at least a dozen times to the Buffalo area, usually on a seven hour route through southern Ontario. This time I have hundreds of coffeetable-style books in the trunk that would be difficult to explain to Customs agents.

Instead I take the long way, along the southern shore of Lake Erie through Cleveland. As the sun sets in the west, I drive through Cleveland, just the Cavs are about to tip off against Orlando in the NBA Semi-finals. Part of me wants to stop and take in the game, but I think better of it and carry on.

Friday May 29th: Up early to prep for the next day’s book signing, also trying on the fly to figure out a way to set up a production line arrangement for pre-ordered books that need to be mailed out. The first ones go out from the post office in tiny Gasport, New York,  a few hundreds yards from the grade school that I attended many years ago. That’s the way it is on this trip, a sense of urgency with getting the book thing right, sprinkled with odd flashbacks to the past.

In the afternoon I deliver the first book personally to a one, Mark Savone. Mark and I first met at the “Farewell Old Friends” event back in November that celebrated the tear down of the old Aud. Since then he has called almost weekly to get an update on the book, saying each time that he can’t wait to get his hands on it. I set the GPS to his home in Tonawanda, arriving promptly at the annoited time. Standing there by the street is Mark, guiding me in, waiting wearing a Yankees jacket. Our first customer sees the book and he’s excited, therefore I’m excited.

Next stop is the University of Buffalo. I had met the UB basketball coach Reggie Witherspoon a few months earlier, and knew he was a Braves fan growing up in Western New York. I took a chance and stopped by the basketball office, figuring that was in. I first asked to drop off a copy, but the front desk manager goes back to see if Witherspoon is available.

To my surprise Reggie has me come back to his office and I give him the book. We talk for a few minutes and he begins to provide a backstory to many of the events and photos surrounding the Braves. He obviously likes the book, and I’m even happier. I have to leave for a scheduled appointment at the UB Bookstore (early on they wanted to carry the book followed by several local independent bookstores). Witherspoon informs me that he won’t be getting much work done today because he plans on reading the entire book.

I meet up with Dennis May who I also met at the November Aud event. He had agreed to help us out with the book signing. After bringing the UB bookstore their books, we stopped back to see Reggie Witherspoon (he was still liking the book). Dennis rides along as I fulfill a bookstore order in Orchard Park, and although he’s a good ten years younger then me, I’m impressed by his vast knowledge of Buffalo sports history.

Saturday May 30th: My brother Tim arrived late Friday night. After a quick breakfast at Tim Horton’s, we arrive at the New Era Cap Company who graciously let us use the meeting room at their Delaware Avenue flagship store for our book signing.

The event goes well, not too overwhelming ,but a steady combination of fans, season ticket holders, team personnel, friends, and family.  One person has driven an hour from Rochester, others hang out to talk about the Braves legacy and how they could be permanently honored at the new HSBC Arena

Bob Smith, the photographer makes an appearence, John Boutet fills the room with his amazing collection of Braves memoribilia, and John Murphy of WIVB (and the voice of the Buffalo Bills) arrives to interview Tim for a story for a future sports cast. The two hours goes by quickly and sales for the day reach my expectations. We pack up and retreat to a local bar for a late lunch.

We receive a call from Paul Ranallo, son of the late Phil Ranallo. Paul had reached the signing late and wanted a copy of the book. I invite him to the bar, and hear first hand, stories of the great Buffalo Couier Express sports columnist. A beer or two is in order while the tales (and jokes) of Buffalo’s glorious sports past flow.

With the conversation winding down. Another call comes from our parents who have stopped by the Aud demolition after the book singing event. They think it was worth visiting, I’m so sure. After some deliberation, we make the seven block trek to where the Terrace Street entrance is/was.

We were able to get much closer to the site than I imagined. Looking west through a chain link fence, we were able to a crane with a claw like device working away on a facade, somewhere in the orange balcony section. In the open air on a warm Saturday the place where we spent so much family time on cold winter nights is slowly dismantled.

Next: Dealing with the news of Randy Smith

The Randy Smith Interviews, Part Three: McAdoo Departs

Randy Smith segment 3

In the third installment of his 2008 interview with author Tim Wendel, Randy Smith discusses the day the Braves traded away Bob McAdoo. 

Portions of the interview were used in the book “Buffalo, Home of the Braves“, a large format book featuring the comprehensive history of the Buffalo Braves, Western New York’s NBA franchise of the 1970’s. Copies of the book are now available online from SunBear Press or at independent bookstores in the Buffalo area.

Randy Smith Interview, Part 2

In this second installment of his 2008 interview with author Tim Wendel, Randy Smith talks about his early days with the Braves, and his friendship with another budding star, Bob McAdoo.  Portions of the interview were used in the book “Buffalo, Home of the Braves“.

Randy Smith segment 2

Retail Outlets for “Buffalo, Home of the Braves”

Buffalo, Home of the Braves is available  online and at the following Buffalo area retail outlets:

• B is for Books, E. Quaker Street, Orchard Park
• Buffalo & Erie County Historical Society, Buffalo
• Talking Leaves Elmwood Ave., Main St. Amherst
• UB Bookstore North Campus off of Audubon Road
• The Book Corner Main Street, Niagara Falls
  • Dog Ear Books (South Buffalo)
  • The Book Nook (Dunkirk/Fredonia)
  • Lift Bridge Book Shop (Brockport/Rochester)

Buffalo News’ Jerry Sullivan on new Braves book

Buffalo News sportswriter had a great column on the Braves’ anthology: “Buffalo, Home of the Braves” this morning. He spoke with Tim yesterday, and was it was nice to have the column published before next week’s book signing and Jerry’s well deserved Florida vacation.

We heard from a lot of Braves’ fans today, many transplanted to other parts of the country but still with a strong affinity to Western New York and the Buffalo Braves, just like us. At day’s end we’re ending up as the number two sports story, what’s #1? The west wall of the Aud that came crumbling down as its demolition winds down.

The book “Buffalo, Home of the Braves” is close to completion. On Saturday, May 30, 2009, a book release celebration event will be held in Buffalo.

From 11 AM – 1 PM that day, author Tim Wendel will be available for the signing of purchased copies of the book in the Community Room of the New Era Cap Company, located at 160 Delaware Avenue in Buffalo.

“Buffalo, Home of the Braves” can also be purchased online prior to the celebration event from SunBear Press.

Respect, Recollection for Braves Hard to Find

 

 

Ironman Randy Smith

 

 

Bob McAdoo was featured today in a great piece by Harvey Araton in the New York Times about redemption and keeping one’s ego in check to get that second chance. The comparison of McAdoo getting his opportunity to win a championship with the Los Angeles Lakers was made to Stephon Marbury, as he enters a crossroad in his career.

 

A few months ago we tagged the Braves on with the title: “The team that time forgot”. So it came as no surprise, that there was no mention in today’s article of the Buffalo Braves, the team that gave McAdoo his first chance in the NBA, where he won three scoring titles as the league’s MVP in the mid 1970’s.

 

There was a similar tone several years ago when AC Green broke Randy Smith’s NBA record for the most consecutive games played. There was barely a mention of Smith, or the team he played the vast majority of his games for. Time has seemed to erase the Braves from the present day media’s memories. Perhaps a history lesson is in order.

 

Spreading the Word

Credit Braves’ connoisseur Budd Bailey and his Buffalo News co-worker Greg Conners, with the posting of this video clip of Game Four of the 1975 NBA Eastern Conference Semifinals. Buffalo won the fast paced game 108-102.

Old School Weekend Warrior

By Tim Wendel

Autumn means colorful foliage to some, the start of the football season to others. But what I wax nostalgic about during this time of year is what we used to call our “Buffalo Sports Weekends.”

From 1974 to 1978, I was an undergraduate at Syracuse University. The football team was about as good as it is now. In other words, lousy. But that didn’t stop us from religiously cheering on the Orange Saturday afternoons. This was before the Carrier Dome went up, so we hunkered down in Archbold Stadium, which bore a striking resemblance to the old Rockpile.

Several times each fall, we’d go right from the SU game and drive to Buffalo in time to catch the Braves at the Aud. Of course, it was early in a new NBA season and, at least in 1974-75-76, the sky seemed the limit for a squad with Bob McAdoo (pictured above), Randy Smith, Ernie DiGregorio on the floor and Jack Ramsay calling the shots.

I’ll admit that early on the Braves were a way to flesh out Buffalo Sports Weekends. Usually we’d go to the Bills game Sunday afternoon and finish things off with the Sabres, back at the Aud, Sunday nights. Then we’d race back down the Thruway in time for class Monday morning. I didn’t take the best of notes those days, but I was there. I made it to class.

But during those years, the Braves won me over. I loved watching them play and was crestfallen when they left town.

When I tell people about those days, hitting the Braves, Bills and Sabres in 24-plus hours, they think I’m crazy. “How’d you pull that off?” they ask. Indeed, it seems hard to believe now. But sometimes that’s how the best of times roll out. You don’t realize how special things were until decades later.