April 08, 2004
BUGGIN' OUT
You may have heard by now that the Tampa Bay Lightning won their first playoff game of the season tonight with a 3-0 shutout of the New York Islanders.
Tampa isn't exactly abuzz with hockey fever. Sure, you see people around town wearing their jerseys and displaying car flags, but the first game didn't sell out. But you have to understand that it's Easter and Passover and the weather has been incredible and daylight savings has taken hold and the Rays' season has started and... well... there are other things on our collective mind at the moment.
That said, it hasn't stopped the Bolts from trying to generate a little hype. That includes having their mascot, Thunder Bug, pull a stunt by living on the roof of the Forum in a tent until the first two games sell out.
Now that the first game is over, he's still pushing for Game 2. I went up with my friend Al to hang out over at the Forum and see what kind of mischief we could make.
This is Carl. He lives in Brandon. He used to be a season ticket holder until he was in a car crash last year that wrecked his hip, made him unable to work and sapped his finances.
He started camping out next to the box office entrance at the Forum Wednesday morning in hopes of being the first to be able to buy two of the 200 playoff tickets that were made available for $8 Thursday afternoon.
What's Carl reading? The biography of Phil Esposito, of course.
To lure more people into buying tickets, the Lightning began cooking free hamburgers and hot dogs for anyone who wanted them, regardless of whether the people eating had bought tickets or not.
Pretty decent of them, I'd say.
How can you tell the difference between team captain Dave Andreychuk and this five-story mural on the northwest wall of the Forum?
The mural actually moves.
The Lightning host this 6-foot-tall bobblehead in the lobby of their Forum offices. The NHL had one for every team made up for the All-Star Game this year and then auctioned them for charity. The guy who won the Lightning auction paid roughly $5,000, shipped it back to Florida for $600 and then called the team to ask if they wanted to have it for a while since he didn't have enough room at his house.
Team president Ron Campbell, who had been bidding against the guy unknowingly and had stopped at about $4,500, was more than happy to oblige.
How sad is it that my head is only slightly smaller than his?
Up on the sixth floor of the Forum, behind a set of double doors and on top of an elevated platform Jason Franke, the man behind the ThunderBug costume, sits on the roof of the facility and waits for fans to end his self-imposed, ticket-selling exile.
It's not the harshest existence in the world. Yes, he does sleep in a tent. There is no air conditioning, but then, he doesn't really need it in late March/early April in Florida. He's been lucky this year - there's been no rain. Skies have been blue and humidity relatively low. Last year was another story. Lots of weather. Plenty of misery.
This year, Kane's furniture has supplied a love seat, recliner and sofa. IHOP brings him $50 worth of breakfast every day. And he gets paid to be up there.
Life is good.
Could this be a sign of things to come for the team as well?
Here, Al tests the comfort and structural integrity of the love seat.
The TV is hidden under an end table. In the bright glare of the midday sun, it's pretty useless to try and watch anything. (The tarp is there to cover the TV and table in case of rain.)
Still, it is Florida and sitting on any roof for any length of time can prove to be a rather warm experience. Franke keeps a fully-stocked cooler with juice and Gatorade. His laptop keeps him entertained and connected to friends and family. And this plastic kiddie pool on the northern part of the platform is there in case of emergency wading needs he might experience.
There's nothing special about the setup, other than it being totally provided for free. If I were him, I'm move this love seat into the tent instead of sleeping on the floor of the platform.
A coffee table without some sort of ornamental upon it would be gauche. Here, Franke displays two of his Lightning miniatures tastefully ringed in a Sunshine Network visor.
Inside the tent is, well, what you'd expect to find if a bachelor in an oversized insect hockey costume was hanging out for a week. The bee head is the first indication. (It was airing out while perched on a running floor fan.) His costume jersey sits on the makeshift bed, waiting to be donned at a moment's notice.
The floor of the tent would be nightmarish to code inspector. Lots of electrical cords and flammable artificial fibers. Franke did have excellent taste in DVD movies: Top Gun, Meet the Parents and Blazing Saddles were the three most visible titles.
What, no Slapshot?
One mitigating piece of evidence: A gossip magazine featuring juicy tidbits on... Star Jones?!?!?
Dude...
These boots were made for clomping.
Stocky and relatively softspoken, Jason was an extremely decent guy to let us hang in his pad for a few minutes. (I've adhered to the Mascot Code and protected his identity in this photo.) When I mentioned to a team official that they might be subjecting him to cruel and unusual punishment, he replied, "If we didn't let him do it, he'd be pissed. He lives for this. It's been 6 months to a year in the making."
Jason has the best view of downtown Tampa. He can even hear cars and trucks on the nearby Selmon Expressway honk their hellos at him.
His perch also gives him a great view of Tampa Bay Storm practices on the portico of the Forum, as well as a vantage point for witnessing traffic incidents.
"The other day, I saw one of the Marriott valet guys T-bone the trolley," he said.
Jason, your summons to testify as a witness should be arriving in the mail one day very soon.