THE OTHER SIDE OF SPORTS TOO OR HAVE YOU EVER SEEN A MISPELLED WORD ON RADIO?

By on December 30, 2022
EDDIE MICHELS PHOTO

Well fans 2022 has been the worst year of my life, it is a time I wish I could forget forever and ever and one day more.

The worst part of the year was when my late wife Karen got really sick near the end of 2021, and it got worse and worse until she passed away on June 1, 2022. I have been asking since then why her, why not me.

Since I met Karen on March 15, 1995 at Sunblades Ice Rink it was the best 27-years, two months, two weeks and two days of my life, I will always miss her, and I will forever and ever and one day more.

Now since March 21, 2021, I have been blocked from officiating ice hockey a sport I have worn the stripes since October 1974, No bad eh?

You see on that Sunday date the owner of the Clearwater Ice Arena and the Tampa Bay Skating Academy Owner Dr. Manuel Rose and the local referee’s association the Central Florida Ice Hockey Officials Association have blocked me from doing games at the two rinks.

The problem was that with 2:57 left in the third period of a U-10 youth game this person I didn’t know tried to enter the ice thru the penalty box door during a stoppage of play as I was reporting a goal.

Well to stop the person I assessed penalties and he left but that didn’t end it. You see after the first period of the next game a fellow official “PJ” informed me he was the Clearwater Ice Arena Youth Hockey Director which didn’t matter. You see no one not involved in the game can enter the ice, so being a nice guy, I didn’t report the penalties and let things slide.

About nine days later I was stripped of all the games I had been assigned by the association: no reason given. To this day I have never been told exactly what I did wrong, which I know I never had.

For more on Dr. Rose: $8.7 million Medicare fraud, coupled with an article I wrote about the youth hockey director at CIA Isaac Lee who was fired by the CIA owner, not bad eh but I am still out of a job.

Heck a corporate president tried to talk to this Dr. Rose and was less than impressed with him and really doesn’t want to talk to him ever again.

Also, if you ever want to find out more about this Rose person check it out with his teammates, they don’t like playing with him. It seems when he gets the puck he doesn’t pass it. Too bad he doesn’t play in a checking league he would be a turkey shoot for the opposition’s checks.

You see fans once I came to Florida I have been treated like s##t by the local officials. In Upstate New York I was the first Referees Seminar Instructor, trained at the first classes for instructors at the Olympic Training Center at Lake Placid in 1987. That with being the referee in chief in Watertown, N.Y. and I also did a lot of games in Canada.

Down here I was only allowed to do inhouse games except when the TBSA hockey director, Al Hunter, got a new referee then I was assigned an extra game for giving the new guy on ice instruction. I was told their training programs down here in Florida weren’t that good.

Heck because of that Isaac Lee at CIA parents were taking their kids out of there and moving them to TBSA because of Lee’s actions.

Well to make a long story short I still haven’t been allowed to return to the ice and as of August 2, 2022, I have been blocked from belonging to the local referee’s association after years of not knowing when the association meetings were, where and when.

I guess in closing here the important thing is you guilty parties have ignored USA Hockey’s rules and regulations to benefit yourselves not the players or the game of ice hockey. You have put not only the game but the players, coaches and parents in jeopardy because of you wrong doings. You should be ashamed of yourselves all of you because even if you did nothing wrong you are still guilty of what others have and are doing because you could have stopped it but didn’t.

So you-all know if my skating ability was declining it was because of the first of my three Purple Hearts, my left knee. Gee 15-GI’s lived because of what I did during Tet on February 1, 1968. Then there is the vertebra in my lower back damaged while fighting a house fire in May 1973 but I kept going because skating is the only exercise that doctors would allow. Skating has worked till I was blocked by you-all, thanks I was the last Vietnam Veteran officiating the game.

I may not always be perfect, but I have done no wrong and because of the doctor’s actions and that of the rink managers Tom Lindemuth and Hal Williams along with the referees’ association a lot of needy children referred to the charity I run have had to go without. Thanks for your less that above board actions.

Closing Note; If you remember the NHL All Star game in 1999 there were three All Star Games, yes three. The NHL one, the old timers and the media all-star game American vs Canadian writers. I was the referee that third game and the only one on the ice in stripes at the arena which the Americans won over the Canadians 6-0. The Americans used a local goalie named Vic for the shutout win and me a UPI reporter as the games only official. A lot of money was dropped in my helmet in the locker room afterwards.

To you-all I will be updating this article from time to time to keep you informed.

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