The best bet I made that won was on the Tampa Bay Rays – who had never had a winning season in franchise history – to advance to the 2008 World Series.
I grew up in Tampa, Florida, and St. Pete, Tampa, the Tampa Bay area, and that was the home of Championship Wrestling from Florida with Gordon Solie, Dusty Rhodes, and it was just… I mean, for storylines and angles and promos, it was second to none.
I worked with Michael Bay on ‘Transformers,’ and I got to work with the writer of ‘Transformers,’ who’s this really great guy whom I loved.
I really do respect and appreciate all the Bay Area artists and all the love they always give me.
In Cape Town, there’s a drive from Cape Point to Camps Bay where the road is hewn out of the cliffs. It’s just stunning, particularly if you do it as the sun is going down.
My father had season tickets to the Packer games, and I have several of those. I have a lot of family that still lives in the Bay Area and in Wisconsin, too. And so, I like to get back as often as I can.
In high school, I worked at The Video Room in Oakland, California. It had the largest selection of laser discs in the Bay Area. One guy owned all of them.
Plenty of other franchises have reinvented themselves into winners after hitting rock bottom. The 1976 Tampa Bay team that went 0-14 arguably was worse than the 2008 Lions, but the Bucs reached the NFC Championship Game in 1979 and ultimately won the Super Bowl after the 2002 season.
When I worked as a newspaper photo engraver in the only job I ever had, many years ago, I’d get the train home to Pukerua Bay where I was staying with my parents. An hour ride, 16 stops, and almost always, I’d have automatic wake-up, seconds before we pulled into my station.
In the deep corner of my heart, I’m a Chicagoan, but it’s been covered over by 20 years of living in the Bay Area.
I love the Bay Area.
Images sometimes capture particular periods in history. The unreachable green light, beckoning from across the bay in ‘The Great Gatsby,’ has become a symbol of the yearning of America in the 1920s.
There was a time when an ordinary American could close the door and keep the world at bay. Now the world comes elbowing in every time you go online.
I had eight years of a career before I even saw any fame outside of the Bay. I was famous in the Bay for eight years before that.
