Taking the Helm -- The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

[shinderhizzle84]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

hey, just a quick question..

on the game recap for Lowell @ Manchester, does anyone see the logos where the final score is, on the bottom?

because one person says they can't see them, so i just want to doublecheck and make sure everyone can see them OK?

Thanks!

[canucksfan33]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

I can't see them.

[shinderhizzle84]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

I can't see them.

ugh..damn, lol, that means i'll have to go and find a new set of logos, lmfao.


will change it right now. thanks for clearing that up for me!

[thrashman]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

I've never used a goalie in a BAP. Seems like it would be pretty challenging.

[gibbey9]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

Nice BAP man! Just read through pretty much all of it lol, congrats on making the Devils!

[shinderhizzle84]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

I've never used a goalie in a BAP. Seems like it would be pretty challenging.

it is challenging, but to me, it's 10x more fun than any of the other positions, because it's so engaging. A lot of people complain about not being able to get a good amount of shots and facing tons of one-timers, making it nearly impossible to have a good game, but I use qb's sliders, with a couple of tweaks of my own, resulting in a really balanced game that is still fun and engaging, while still cutting down on a fair bit of glitch goals (actually, it gets most of them, haha).

Gibster! Thanks for checking in, glad you took the time to read through it.

I probably won't have any updates today seeing as I'm going golfing. I don't know how long that will last, but I'll probably be pretty tired afterwards. Hopefully I can find a fix for the logos, though.

Anyways, hope all is well with all of my wonderful readers.

[hockeyplaya2724]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

I decided to check out other BAP's besides the Leghtinen one and this one is pretty good so far, i can't believe you scored a goal! probably the first goalie goal in the history of NHL 09? to bad you didn't record it.

[gibbey9]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

Cool man, can't wait for more updates!

[shinderhizzle84]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

October 25th, 2008:

(2-2-1) @ (2-4-0)


1st Period:

SPR GOAL: CARL CORAZZINI (M Roy, R Schremp) 4:06

SPR GOAL: CARL CORAZZINI (L Reddox, R Schremp) 4:12

LOW GOAL: MICHAEL SWIFT (R Murphy, B Tallackson) 10:24

2nd Period:

No Scoring.

3rd Period:

LOW GOAL: CHAD WISEMAN (A Vasyunov, M Fraser) 18:08

OT Period:

LOW PP GOAL: MICHAEL SWIFT (T Eckford, A Vasyunov) 0:40

FINAL SCORE:

3 2

Phil's Final Statistics:

19/21 S, 90.5 SV%

Pos Score: B+
Tmwrk: B+
Stats: B

Next Game: Oct 29th, 2008 @ MCH

[alex96]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

effing great man, yall gonna do it wit videos sometime?

[shinderhizzle84]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

effing great man, yall gonna do it wit videos sometime?

thanks a bunch for dropping by, bro.

I did videos with Mikko towards "the end", and although it was damn fun, especially when I got to show off my custom audio tracks for the game's play breaks and goals and intro's and such, it became a little bit too much of a hassle for me, if you know what I mean.

I'm going to start out, at least, doing it like this.

But who knows, I may one day have the sudden urge to begin making videos again, so I might, lol.

Hope everyone's enjoying this ride so far. Going to put another written update right now!

[canucksfan33]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

Sweet, man! Can't wait to read it.

Also, how did you score your goal? Could you describe it sort of?

[shinderhizzle84]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

We were starting to get hot, and were quite confident after a 3-2 overtime victory against the Springfield Falcons. Because of this, Coach Maclean had decided it would be best to give us the three days in between our Springfield victory and our visit to Manchester, New Hampshire off to do what we please.

“Stay at home, watch some TV. Spend time with your families,” he said, giving me a tiny little nod that only I noticed. “I don't give a ****, it's your three days off.”

I felt bad when he had given me that slight little head tilt. I felt a pit hit rock bottom inside my stomach when he had done it, and immediately felt guilty.

This man had been thinking more about my family's well being than I had been.

The truth was that I had been having so much fun on the road, out and about, that I hadn't even had the slightest thought towards Sarah, Kyra, Tommy, and Brianna. Even when we were practicing at home, in Lowell, I was purely enjoying myself.

The euphoria of playing a real life professional ice hockey game, whether it was in front of a home or away crowd, whether we won big time our lost badly, and especially if it was a close, blood-curdling matchup, hit me every single time I even thought about the sport.

But at what price?

The Devils' organization had been nice enough to get me a lease on a small apartment in downtown Lowell so I wouldn't have to commute 3-4 hours by car every day for practices and games alike. The worst part was the road trips. The drive from New Hampshire or Vermont may be incredibly scenic, but let me tell you something, it's not very fun. Or smooth.

I'm driving home in the darkness. It's raining and thundering outside, and all I can think about is the deathly silence that enveloped the arena when Michael Swift had netted home that OT winner. I'm lithe to admit it, but every game I've played so far keeps me going. Even when I'm benched, and Scotty Clemmensen is in between the pipes for the team, I'm wide awake, and often awestruck.

Even in an AHL arena, the view from the ice looks completely and totally different than it does from the stands.

I finally reach home, it's late, but not too late. The kids are probably asleep, Brianna's probably desperate to make one last bathroom break before she goes to sleep for the nigt, and Sarah's probably wide awake, working on some stupid lawyer form or sheet or whatever it is that she works on.

I open the door with my key, and am immediately attacked.

Brianna jumps on me, hard, nearly knocking me down flat on my ***.

“Whoa, there girl!” I say, chuckling and pushing her off of me. I look up and see Sarah in her nightgown, arms crossed, pouting angrily at me. Uh oh.

“Well, at least somebody's happy to see me,” I say nervously. We've never really fought badly before, now that I think about it, but I can already see it coming.

“Where the hell do you think you can go about and leave the house for nearly a month, leaving me with the kids, not giving me an update on your schedule, or anything, and simply leaving me alone for a month?”

“I--”

“You what? Forgot about me? I'm your wife, Phil. I was worried sick about you. I th—I th--” I can see tears welling up in her eyes.

“I thought you left us,” she finally murmured quietly, ashamed that her womanly rage wasn't enough to keep her sorrows hidden.


I approach her and try to console her as best as I could, saying things like, “Leave you? I could never leave you. I love you!”

Finally, her tears begin to slow down, and pretty soon she's just sniffling and breathing rather sharply.

“I love you,” I say gingerly, kissing her gently on the lips. She smiles, and leans into my chest.

“I don't know what to do, Phil,” she says to me finally. “I think I may lose my job.”

I start. This was news to me.

“Why?” I ask nervously, afraid I already know the answer.

“I've had to take so much time off of work to take care of the kids,” she says, giving me a slightly venomous glare once more. Damn, that hurt more than I thought it was. By the way, that was the answer I thought she was going to give me.

“I'm so, so sorry,” I say as sincerely as I can once again.

We finally settle down in the kitchen, and I'm eating Chinese leftovers while she's sipping on a mug full of Swiss Miss hot cocoa. She gets up, and goes to the living room. I follow her, and immediately realized she wanted me to do this.

I'm watching turn on the TV. She flips the remote so that the television is displaying our DVR's channel. I only recently taught her how to use the DVR so she could record her favorite shows, like Law and Order and Gilmore Girls.

I'm standing in the threshold in between our kitchen and living room, and she's now lounging on our living room sofa, flicking the remote so that the selection highlight on the screen is being hovered over the option “SEE ALL RECORDINGS”.

She presses the center button on the remote, and she's now taking me through a list of Rory, Cartman, and Tyra Banks.

At the very bottom of the list is something special, however.

There's exactly 4 listings at the bottom, and they all have two words in common.

“Lowell”, and “Devils.”

“Oh my God,” I mumble, stepping beyond the threshhold and towards the sofa.

“Want to watch some hockey with me?” she asks me sexily.

She moves her legs a bit closer towards her body so I can sit beside her, and I do so, before I'm immediately bombarded with a pair of feet in my lap.

“Foot massage,” she says. I look at her loathingly, but she just shrugs and says, “Hey, it's the least you could do to make up my loneliness, toils, and the fact that I recorded all of your games for you to watch when you finally got home.”

I grunt a bit, but grab one foot with both hands and begin to press hard and rub softly.

She moans softly whenever I touch a sensitive spot, but other than that, I'm completely focused on the game in front.

“And now Schremp, taking it up the wing, he's all alone, it's Schremp and Gomez—OH! And what a save by Gomez!!!”

I immediately stand up, cheering loudly. Sarah's looking at me with a look that I assumed was 50% annoyance and 50% humor, as she kind of has this half-smirk, half-frown.

She must think I'm crazy, though. Here I am, watching myself play professional hockey on the television, and I get up and cheer myself on, going nuts at the TV, as if I've never seen the play happen before.

She laughs, after I'm done, and says, “You happy?”

“Sorry,” I mumble while taking my seat. “It's just—I don't know what came over me! I got so filled with excitement, that breakaway save really caught me by surprise!”

“By surprise?” She questions. “Honey, you lived through it. That was you!”

I just nod, letting the final three words sink in.

I'm watching the replay now, and am absolutely speechless.

What a save. I had no idea it looked that...well...epic, when I made the save.

Some parts of the game have always come by in flashes for me. One minute the game's starting, and another I'm on my head, spinning, making save after save after save. And I usually don't end up ever remembering most of them. They just come by in bits and pieces, like a dream.

And that's how life is. Only if I'm not around too much, the lives of my family: my wife, my two children...even my lousy dog....will go by in flashes.

And I'll only be there for bits and pieces.

As if she was reading me thoughts, Sarah nods, and says, “You need to come around home more often, honey.”

I nod in agreement, still unable to un-stick my eyes from the TV set.

That is, until a second foot gets placed firmly in my lap.

“This time around,” Sarah says, wiggling her toes and grinning maliciously, “there better be no interruptions.”

I sigh, and get to work.

[alex96]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

Awesome update man.

[shinderhizzle84]

Re: Getting A Late Start: The BAP Story of Phil Gomez

Sweet, man! Can't wait to read it.

Also, how did you score your goal? Could you describe it sort of?

yeah, sure, lol. I'll do my best haha.

It was scored with like 21.4 seconds left, or something crazy like that. They had an empty net, and they came down on me in like a 4-on-2 or something. I managed to make a glove save high up on my body, and my guy-dude (lol) dropped it automatically to his stick. I just fired right away by pressing the right analog stick UP as far and high and as hard as I could, without even aiming or anything lmfao. Then, near the opposition's blue line, it managed to hit off of their defenseman's stick blade, and was deflected right into the net!!! It was totally awesome, haha!

And also, alex, glad you liked that last update, haha.