From the Prospect Heights Message Board
ftunnah writes: “Does anyone know what happened at the Grand Army Plaza Stop today? There were about 6 cops there around 1pm this afternoon and there was a lot of blood on the platform. I can’t find it on any local news websites….”
Posted in the Prospect Heights Message Board
Over on noisefootprint: “Has anyone been to the roller rink in Crown Heights, Brooklyn? It’s called Empire — Empire Roller Rink, Empire Roller Disco, and Empire Rollerdrome are all names I’ve seen it listed by. It’s said to be Brooklyn’s last large-scale roller rink.”
According to Place Matters, “The 30,000 square feet of rink, one of the last of its kind in Brooklyn, was opened in the 1930s by Henry and Hector Abrami, two brothers from Crown Heights. During the 1950s, the rink also offered miniature golf and bowling. But it was the disco ’70s and Bill Butler, ‘godfather of roller disco,’ that made Empire famous across the nation. Butler fashioned a skating technique called the ‘Brooklyn Bounce’ that became the roller-skating rage. Still operating after all these decades, the Empire Roller Disco remains popular today by rolling with the times.”
DISCUSS: Roller Skating in Crown Heights?
DH Exclusive! Local sports journalist Bill Carney reports: “Freddy’s and O’Connor’s, the rival dive bars joined at the hip flask and situated both on and off Dean Street, played their second game of the 2005 season last Sunday. If this pace continues, the teams will have played a full 162-game season by mid-July 2059.”
“The O’Connor’s squad was in high spirits, not only from the consumption of high spirits, but from the unveiling of the new O’Connor’s awning…” Read more…
Flash! Bill Carney reports: “Prospect Heights’ Freddy’s Bar played Park Slope’s O’Connor’s in softball this past Sunday at Prospect Park. It was a continuation of the epic clash of dive bars begun last season when the teams split the series 2-2. O’Connor’s won the final game of last season and was therefore able to retain through the off season the coveted Triple D cup Blue Bra which the formerly smoke-filled gin mills have adopted as their trophy and symbol of Bar Sports Excellence. Showing a great deal of modesty, O’C’s decided not to display their trophy.”
“Last Sunday, Freddy’s regained the Blue Bra with an exciting 9-8 bottom-of-the-9th one-out sac-fly-to-center sending-home-the-winning-run victory by Jim, the guy who likes to drink something called a Yachtsman. O’Connor’s player-coach Bart the Bartender might have made a critical blunder by leaving in starting pitcher Kenny even as his pitch count neared 4,000. For this game at least, the Freddy’s squad abandoned their trademark weak hitting and porous defense while relying on the ‘being less hung-over than the other team’ strategy, which led them to their 2 victories last season. ‘We’ve stuck with our largely ineffectual batting, but we’re actually playing some defense this season,’ manager Pat O’Shea explained.”
“Jim was awarded MVP and given the honor of hanging the Bra from a lamp fixture behind the bar at Freddy’s. He celebrated with a bevy of yachtsmen. Future games are as of this report unscheduled. “We’ve got the Bra. They’ll have to come to us now,” explained lefty relief pitcher and Freddy’s bartender Matt Kuhn.”
LINK: FREDDY’S V. O’CONNORS SOFTBALL, MAY 3, 2005
Who’s got the better bar? A few drinks later everyone does. [Photos by Stephanie Johnson, Tony Limuaco and Kate Matlack]
Kelly Kwedar of Prospect
Heights "runs a cancer clinic at Memorial Sloan-Kettering
Cancer Center, but at night the petite redhead trades her slacks for
fishnets and skates with painted fire decals," says the Daily News.
"’I was never one of those people to push in the subway, but now I’m
willing to take charge …I can take down a girl twice my size and have her make a really terrible noise.‘"
"The fearsome ladies, reviving a sport [roller derby] that last flourished in the city
in the 1950s, are gearing up to do it again when the league kicks off
its season in April."
Follow this link to a slideshow courtesy of Ortgeist courtesy of Ortgeist.
