Where Are They Now? With Dom Martinetti....
Dommy shares his thoughts on Welker, Meyers and the great Andy/Dirty debate.
It’s been almost five years since you fully left Hong Kong. How’s life in the states?
Man- it’s near 7 years. It’s 50/50 being back. The good = Sunday football, going to live games is the best and gaining 15 lbs. here doesn’t matter…..I’m still skinny compared to everyone else. The bad= the pigs known as the Kardashians are on the cover of every rag in every store over and (sorry all you southerners) but the food here in North Carolina is crap.
From a historical perspective this league became what it is today when we moved from Tin Kwan Doh to King’s Park. Before you started the web site, tunes at the field and the concession stand did dudes hang at the park?
Back in the day, after games we went straight to the real Wanchai. For those of us who were too poor to hang in the mama san bars, there was the original Neptunes and that had its own charm. There was a warped type of fun way back then, when we played on weeknights at Tin Kwan Road. It was fun but nothing like what we had/have at Kings Park. We turned Kings Park into our own circus. The goal was to make it our own weekend ‘sanctuary of madness’ and I think it’s safe to say…”goal completed”.
Can you believe that Meyers is the president again? I mean, it’s like the Chairman of Exxon saying “you know what, we should hire Jeff Skilling!” or the Red Sox going “I’ve got a good idea, let’s bring back Grady Little!” How does something like this happen? It’s like giving the keys of a Ferrari to a mainland taxi driver! Please help explain this!!
Well, actually…….I’m shocked Myers is still in the league. Has he developed any skills yet? I mean, how can a guy who can’t hit, throw, catch, run or drink still be in the league? Clearly he has pics of the right people doing the wrong thing if he’s President. All joking aside—has he developed ANY game yet? J
Favorite teammate you played with?
Man, that’s tough. I loved playing with Dave Wand because he was a great pitcher and an absolute space cadet. In the course of 10 seconds he would make you nuts because he had no idea of the scenario of the game, then drop a 60 ft. moon ball for a huge strikeout, then the next pitch he’d get a grounder with no one on and throw to 3rd. Lee Smith and heartbreaker—comedy and ability wrapped into 1. Mark Prebich—a guy I would literally jump in a foxhole with AND is the best guy to party with. I would never say no –EVER—to playing with Mark Hawley—f*@$#* best guy in the world to have on your team. John So; played to beat him for 12 years and then playing together with him my last 3 yrs. in the league was for me a great way to finish my time playing there. But I have to say, ultimately, the guy who fired me up the most and made me want to play better than I ever did or could was Dandy Dan Deustch. The times I played against him he was the guy I wanted to beat and the times I played in tourneys with him were some of the best I’ve had playing softball. The year the GHG finally beat the Fat Boyz in Manila was one of the 2-3 best softball moments I’ve ever had and Dan, Dave Wand, Lee, Prebo, Hawley, were all a huge part of that. With this all said, man I loved playing with Flach, Doug Foster, Scott Wilson, you. There’s a lot of good people in the league (except for Myers J)
Greatest King’s Park memory?
There are 3:
Winning the Championship with Blue was unreal. Start up/expansion team, 80% of the guys never played in the league before, and we go out and beat the powerhouse First E-Com and then LA Café. It was crazy and so much fun.
That mud bowl we played in a couple of years ago was epic.
I have to admit, hitting a salami in the finals off Willet still puts a smile on my face. I remember a few comments made by his sidekick Jimmy G the week before the game and that was a good ol’ fashioned “bite me” moment J
Let’s do a little word association. I’m going to give you a list of names and you give me the first word that pops into your mind……
Tim Noonan- “Mr. President”. If it wasn’t for Tim, there would be no league—and that’s a fact
Wayne Lau- “money”. I love Wayne and he did SO much for the league and doesn’t get the credit he deserves—and he deserves TONS of credit
Dave Wand- “space cadet”- he would pitch 10 outs per inning if someone didn’t pull him off the mound
Joe Duke- “MEAT”. Really, would it be right if Dukie had any other name? Dukie is the little brother I wish I had – if for no other reason, it would be great to have him around so he could kick people’s ass’s who want to kick mine.
Mike McIntyre- ‘CUZ’. Mac was one of the first guys I saw play the first time I was invited to come to the field. Now, you have to remember this was (literally) 20-22 years ago. I had never played softball before and thought “this is not really for me”…but when I saw Mac I thought, “ok there are some baseball players here.” He was in shape, could move, sick glove. But then in 2 years he gained 60 lbs. and never looked back. I must say, while in his bloated Elvis days I did witness him make one of the nicest plays ever by a first basemen in a Taiwain tourney years ago.
Tony Bego- "Fanuch". Ok, he's only half a Fanuch but still. Best 3B Glove along side Dmac.
Peter Comparelli- “consigliere”. Is he wearing #70 yet?
Dustin Ford- “silk”. To me Dustin was “the kid” before Harrison Jr. From day 1, he came out and just smiled and played and played like a winner. I wish I played alongside him more.
John So- “the champ”. Don’t know that anyone else in the league will win more than this guy.
Greatest league character- Ronnie Moss, Coop or Loo? Coop runs away with this. Anyone who tells you life is in the Key of “E” is a person that needs to be filmed/recorded all the time. No one knows his age, his origin or what he’s going to do next….but we all know you have to keep an eye out for Coops next adventure. This guy has left the largest impression on me – more than anyone else that has ever been in the league. And I’ll also add, if you are ever in a bar fight and Coop is in the bar, you’d better hope he’s on your side, otherwise you’re likely spending extended time in a hospital. My second choice would be Farris. This guy is pure enthusiasm and is always a joy to be around and one of my top 5 favorite guys that has ever been in the league.
Would you say that Jeremy Lin’s burst on the scene is somewhat similar to my HKSPSA debut back in 2001? Think about it…. This dude throws up 25 heave chucking points a game along with 9 turnovers and basically blows up every Chinese stereotype out there. When I burst on the scene I would hit three pop fly doubles a game (the softball equivalent to a “triple double”), would kick 4 balls in the outfield and totally blew up the “foul mouthed New Yorker” stereotype! Oh wait……………… Uh……………….. Isn’t this Jeremy Lin thing Fuckin’ awesome!!! Flynnsannity baby!!
This is a great comparison. But actually, I think you’re impact was bigger. You immediately came up with a catch phrase that has lasted through the years. If he hit a big shot and said “Don’t Fuck With Me” maybe I could consider him in your league. Also, you are not a one-hit wonder. Lin needs to last for 10+ years to reach Flynn status---and odds are, that’s just not going to happen. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, until this kid Lin can, after the game, hang with the bleacher creatures, have druken sprint races and play inebriated tackle football, he still doesn’t understand what a true Kings Park athlete is/needs to be. Flynn beats Lin for my vote.
Isn’t every action star just a poor man’s rip off of Bruce Lee? I mean really! This guy was the first ass kicking guy that combined bad ass fight moves with catchy one liners and neat quirks. Every action movie made since his death basically replicates this formula- “hasta la vista baby” etc. Arnold Schwarzeneger couldn’t lick the sweat off Bruce Lee’s balls!!
Well, we all saw Arnold get caught licking the sweat off his maids’ balls. And yes, I do believe (based on the pics I’ve seen), she has balls. I’ve got a few pics from the HK days hanging in my man cave basement, one is a large shot of Melvis and the other is a Bruce Lee poster in Chinese I picked up on Cat Street. It’s great to pay homage to the originals by emulating what they’ve done, but those who emulate should also credit the originator. If it wasn’t for Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan would be running that fruit juice stand across the street from PK’s apartment.
Best tournament to play in- Manila, Bangkok or Jakarta?
Amazingly I’ve never done Jakarta. With that said, I have to admit my heart will always belong to Manila. “Hello Sir” and “ess okay” are like music to my ears. And jeepnies are the shit!!
Best 80’s Glam Band?
Fuck that noise. Today when I hear shit like Duran Duran, Poinson, Cinderella I say “fuck, it’s clear why I started listening to Maiden, Priest and Ozzy”. If all that kajagoogoo crap was permanently erased and never heard again I’d be fine with it. I’m not hungry like a wolf nor will I tumble for you.
We all know you were the master motivator! If you were coaching the Patriots and Wes Welker comes back to the sidelines after dropping that ball what do you say to him? Do you rip off his head ala Steve Fach missing the cutoff man, coddle and cajole him ala telling Rorky that pink socks don’t go with our unifoms or isolate him and hope he never comes back ala Adam Levin demanding that we bow to his every need? Please, enquiring minds want to know!
Well, this is a tough question because as a Giants fan I like Welker now more than ever before.
As a Giants fan I’d say “nice catch pussy—it’s clear you had Gronks cock on your mind”
If I was his coach, I’d say something like: “Look man, you fucked up, so that’s that. While you’ve made 10000 other plays, naturally you’re going to only think about this 1 play you didn’t make—and you know why you’re going to think like that—because you’re a fucking gamer man! You are the guy that cares, and the guy that knows he is ‘big play’…..so as that guy who cares you have to understand, me and all your teammates trust you and are with you. We have more winning to do and you are why we win, so let’s go out and win.”
Best player you ever played against or with in Hong Kong?
Cody Cain. We’ve had a lot of talented guys come through this league and some guys who were flat out excellent, but Cody is the best of them all. Didn’t matter what field he played on, his arm, bat, power were always there. He’s in the top 10-15 of all the players I’ve seen even at all the tourneys
You started the team that is the current day Brew House. At the time I believe there were only 6 teams in the league. What was the other expansion team that came along with us? And can you please give a little history as to why we expanded in the first place?
Wow, long story. But here is really how/why it all went down. I was with LA Café and in the finals against Santa Fe. In the first inning of game 2 (after losing a very tight game 1) I threw my bat after popping up and got thrown out of the game and felt lower than ever- like a real dickhead. There was a league meeting after the season wrapped up, and at the meeting they were looking to form the committee for the next season. Someone mentioned my name and I felt I should do it to make up for being such an ass at that finals game. So I came on board. Wayne Lau was also on the committee then, and he, myself and a few other guys were talking about how the tourneys we played at were always so much fun- music, food, beer, etc. We should do that for our league. When we started looking at all the ways we could make the league better, someone said “we should have more guys in the league and more teams”. So we put a recruiting ad in HK magazine and held a recruiting day, a draft and expanded the league by 2 teams. One of the expansion teams was Blue and the other was Budweiser. Since we didn’t have anyone volunteer to run the 2 news teams, I took Blue and Tom Barnes helped us out by stepping up to run Bud. That’s how it all went down.
(EDITOR'S NOTE: Budweiser is modern day Bulldog's)
You’re starting a team tomorrow and you could have Dustin or Hasbun at SS. Who do you take?
Dustin is a nice guy who will help the chemistry of a team. Andy get’s lots of good looking ass. Hmmm.. tough call. I think Dustin would listen to me, and Andy would eventually tell me to shut up. Hmmmm….You can’t lose with either of those guys and I like them both. I would probably say Dustin just because as I said earlier, I wish I played alongside him more because I’ve always liked the guy. But honestly, if Andy told me he could hook me up with some of the many women that come his way, I’d probably have to choose him (I have to make sure my wife doesn’t read this—because of course, I’m only kidding)
On the same note you started the web site, tunes and concessions at King’s Park. Not to blow smoke up your ass but that was some pretty innovative stuff (Note to reader: this was 1999 not 2012 where every blogger has a web site documenting the daily growth of their pubic hair). Most of the older guys in the league would say that that was when the league took off. This isn’t really a question but it is something that should be known because it was huge for the league! That was some cool stuff man!
Yeah man we went wild. Again, we just wanted to make it our own place to party and escape the weekly work/insanity that is HK, and also make the other leagues around the region look at us and say “damn, why aren’t we doing all that.” The concept was easy but it was a lot of hard work, and guys like Tim Noonan, Wayne Lau, Keith Wong were all HUGE in making the league what it has been over the past years. There were a number of guys who said it couldn’t be done, and that’s all we needed to hear to say “fuck you, not only can it be done, it will be done.” There are also people like Rob Cormier and JR (from Brewhouse) who were SO supportive in making this happen. Contributing money so we can get uni’s, a website, a scoreboard, a PA system. Again, so many people were involved and honestly you guys should be buying these folks a beer every weekend, because if it wasn’t for them you would be stuck walking around Stanley or Pacific place with your wife every Saturday. Who I’m sure are lovely people, but really would you want to give up your Saturday’s at Kings Park to do that????
You played with 3 teams- LA Café (modern day Liberty), Blue Sphere/Slappa (modern day Brew House) and Santa Fe. If there was an HKSPSA Hall of Fame and you had to pick which team you would go in as, which one would you choose and why?
Clearly Blue/SLAPPA. We won a championship, were an expansion team that did things that no other team in the league has done and were competitive every year.
You better say Blue!!!! Any last words to the boys?
Play hard. Party hard. And make the most of the time you have every Saturday because it does end and when it does, the memories are great but they don’t match being in the mix. And Myers, I know you are doing right by the league because, like Welker, you care.
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