The 2037 All-Star committee, in conjunction with the Reno Zephyrs and the National Mechanical Bull Riders Association teamed together to put on a Mechanical Bull Riding competition for the All-Stars and was held at the
BOOMTOWN Casino, on the outskirts of Reno, not far from the Nevada-California state line.
The BOOMTOWN Casino and it’s sister venue, the BOOMTOWN Saloon in Lewiston, Idaho have put on
Mechanical Bull Riding competitions for years, and this competition promised to be especially spicy. 16 All-Stars choose to participate in the event – illustrating that ball players can be a unique breed. The participants included ‘Cool Hand’ Lucador, ‘XXX’ Roberts, ‘Bananas’ Oglethorpe – who told the crowd before the event that he needed to make the most of his lone All-Star trip and wouldn’t miss it for the world. 'Iron Curtain' Crilanovich and ‘Mounds’ Gallo – who wanted to know if riding a mechanical bull was like riding a Hairy Coo, were part of the mix, as was ‘Pooky’ Vis, ‘Poseidon’ Garcia and rounding out the IL squad was Norm Batstone, who proudly announced that ‘
Canadians will ride anything’!
Riding for the Sovereign League was ‘The Grinch’ Weeks, ‘The Celestial Jaguar’ Rodriguez, who vowed to win this and then tame a mechanical jaguar; ‘Chief’ Velasquez, who asked for a buffalo and ‘Footloose’ Salinas – who simply sang that he was
footloose; ‘Blinky’ Franco was pulled away from the
Pac-Man machine in the ‘Old School Arcade’ to participate along with teammate ‘Iguana’ Tall; Alexander Craig and ‘Grin’ Cuervas – who said whatever Batstone can do, I can do better, rounded out the SL team. Pat Watson was asked why he declined the opportunity and he responded with, “You know in Fargo they call me ‘Glass’.
The competition began with groups of four riders at a time – the rider who lasted the longest before the 15 second clock expired won the heat, and if a tie, a select panel of former-All-Star MVP’s would vote who had the best ride. The five judges were Antonio Santos, Rocky Kowalski, Tony Parker, Mike Britt, and Ramon Leach.
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After a demonstration on the do’s and don’ts of mechanical bull riding, the contest began. First up was Batstone, Crilanovich, Cuervas and Weeks as each League sent up a pair in each heat of the first round. First up would be Norm Batstone, and when the horn blew, and the bull jerked to a start, the London closer flew off for a time of 0.1 seconds. Norm jumped up – hands spread wide looking for a mulligan, but he was told, ‘alas, this ain’t golf’. Be it luck, divine fate or a sense of a bad (or good) joke, Antonio Cuervas was up next – and he survived that first jerk – but nothing else as he spun off into the air, laughing as he flew as he did after his 1.2 second ride - indeed last longer than Batstone.
It would be Scotty Weeks who survived the 1st heat, and as heat #2 came it was apparent that at least some of the All-Stars were paying attention as Esteban Rodriguez, Ramiro Salinas, Sandor Vis and Antonio Gallo all managed to survive their rides – Vis by literally giving the bull a death-grip hug during his 15 seconds of ‘eternal hell’. It would be the ‘Jaguar’ who was voted the winner – who turned and jumped, spun and tumbled towards Salinas, shouting ‘Footloose, Louise, give me my Sunday shoes!’ Heat 3 came down to ‘Cool Hand’ and ‘Bananas’ – both staying on their bull while their SL counterparts met quick, painful looking endings. In the end, it was the Alleghenies 1B who managed a brief 2-seconds with his arm in the air like a real cowboy who earned the judges award. The last heat saw ‘XXX’, ‘Poseidon’, Alexander Craig and ‘Blinky’ all fall off – leaving the judges to vote for the best fall – which went to the young Florida 2B for his
dramatic rolling, crotch grabbing, screams of agony as the last rider of the round.
So it was Weeks, Rodriguez, Lucador and Roberts in the second round – and the judges choose to have the IL riders face off and the SL riders face off – so it was a battle of the Rising Sun with Weeks v. Rodriguez, and West Virginia v. Florida for a shot at the title of All-Star Mechanical Bull Champion. Scotty Weeks led the semi-finals off with a solid ride, despite fighting the bull with every jerk and whirl. Esteban Rodriguez started smoothly, seeming to know where the bull was going – but in the final seconds, he got cocky and let go with his right hand – and went flying off his ride, putting Weeks into the final. Lucador and Roberts rode their metal opponents well – each finishing their ride – and when Antonio Santos and Tony Parker voted with the Farstrider and Rocky Kowalski and Ramon Leach sided with the Allegheny, it was up to Mike Britt to break the tie – leaving Roberts screaming about Britt’s vote and ‘Aurora Bias’.
A coin flip determined that it would be the Evas Weeks going first and as he mounted the bull, the horn blew as the announcer informed the crowd that the bulls had the settings nudged up a tad. The surprised Scotty Weeks’ eyes bulged as the bull jerked with a force not seen earlier – he held on, but barely and was in no position to survive the second jerk – and in a matter of moments, 'The Grinch' was staring at the floor. So it was the luck of a coin flip that the lucky Lucador was able to hold on – at least a bit longer than Weeks, before ‘Cool Hand’ Lucador also landed on the ground. The judges unanimously voted for the longer ride and the Allegheny was presented with a bucking bull trophy and a tall, cowboy boot shaped glass of beer as victor of the competition.