Gee my relationship with PLaw was much different than what most have posted, my dealings with him are more akin to two 12 year olds on the back of a school bus making fun of each other and others. I first became aware of PL back in the Sports thread when the fantasy games were just starting. It was different a few years back from what I read today. Basically if you revert yourself back to junior high where you make sexual reference to players names – and insulted one another, that is pretty much what you had. You wouldn’t much cerebral and deep thought provoking conversations occurring there. As time went on and the fantasy games took shape, PL would absolutely drive me crazy with all his stat posts – uggh they were so frustrating. I consider myself fairly intelligent and there were times I did not even understand what the hell the stats even meant yet alone understand how he derived at them, nor how much time he had even taken to generate them. I later came to the conclusion that he only developed and posted the stats that showed him in a favorable light.  :p I used to correspond to a lot of them with a – which used to frustrate him especially after taking all that time to compute them. I should note that DB found them very insightful, which is why PL anointed him his Most Worthy Adversary. A bit gay for me, but whatever .... :p But that is how it was, everyone would ‘bust’ on each other for most part but thinking back, PL did some but not as much as the others. He certainly took his share of ribbing though, that’s for sure. This was the guy that would inform us that while on vacation would wake up before 6:00am, leave his hotel, find some local café with internet access, pay something like $15.00 / day for access to post and change his line ups. For someone like myself – he was a constant source of material to bust on him for.

Although he wouldn’t get on the others as much as we got on him, he didn’t seem to mind the ribbing – as long as he felt it was not in any way mean spirited or derogatory to him or his family. In the occasional times we would PM me, he would joke how fun the leagues were. Personally, I simply think he enjoyed the camaraderie that existed and was just content to be part of a group or maybe clique that was basically just a light hearted, silly group that revolved around sports. And really can you blame him – c’mon who would not want to be associated with a group that has people calling themselves – Big Daddy, Crabby, Pork, Buffy and of course Douche Bag He actually PM me to help settle debates that he and Vickie would have over regional sayings. One time, they were in a restaurant and she asked for something in a particular way – I forget the details now. He of coursed challenged her and said that is not how you say or ask for that. She said yes it was that is how they talked where she grew up. Apparently that was not how they did in NY and being one not to back down from a debate kept it going with her. He PM’d me later asking to settle the bet they had – I agreed with Vickie’s use of the saying, whatever it was – it was how we talked in Phila. He was not thrilled with my response – knowing him he probably didn’t even go back and tell her that I agreed.

He asked me a few times to meet for dinner or drinks the times he was in Phila. As intelligent of a man as he was – he never seemed to grasp the fact that although I grew up in Phila, I no longer lived there, so getting into Center City especially on a weekend was 1 ½ - 2 hour commute with weekend traffic. But he tried and it turned out we never did actually get together. He mentioned if I get up to NY on business or something to let him know and he’ll hook me up with tickets to the Nets – wasn’t in NY much either.

It’s odd that there are probably only a few people on the board that would garner this type of attention in death. Not to say any one is any more important than another but I think it is because he was active in most facets of the board. He was a very active participant in discussions on the Godfather book /movie as well as Gangster history, he was a lunatic in the fantasy sports games as much as general sports. He was engaged in political discussions and often debates as everyone knows. Because of that he interacted with the mass majority of people on the board so with his death leaves a void in a lot of different areas and to a lot of people. Matter of fact the only place he probably didn’t visit much was the game section. And as most know he did not like them, in many cases he loathed them. Probably because in his mind there was no challenge to them. My favorite was when he started one himself called the Numbers game as a joke to the entire concept – below is his post;
That was a classic - and the funny part is as of today when I looked this up - there are still people playing it – a game in which you post the next number. PL must have seen that and simply scratched his head and rolled his eyes.

So what I would like to propose to JGeoff or SC as my last razz to him instead of renaming the Sports thread as some proposed (my entry is PLAW’s Sports Lounge) – but instead to rename the Word Game section after him. Call it something like PLAW’s Intellectual Word Games – Challenge your Wit …

That would steam him to know end – you do that JGeoff and he’ll be turning off your lights, television, computer – your car – the site that host this board ….you name it. That would be sooooo awesome …. Cruel but totally awesome.

But the truth is although I am not here very much anymore, and my ‘conversations’ with PL were occasional and never involved deep personal thoughts – yet when I learned that he passed away I was genuinely saddened. Odd that I never physically met nor spoke to him, but was still sad to hear of his passing. If he was in the pain that has been discussed here, he truly is in a better place. My condolences go to his son Steve and his girlfriend Vickie.

From reading all the past threads it seems that he was a friend to many on this board - and in the end that's a pretty good legacy to have.