Clarence Clemons --R.I.P. Big Man

I don't know where to begin. All I know is how to end it. So I'll start there. R.I.P. Big Man. May Baby always be with you. Clarence Clemons was "The Big Man." And while many of you know my tech world work, back in the day, with the Celebrity All Star Hockey team, I truly knew, worked and hung with "rock stars" as the General Manage of the rag tag bunch of actors, hockey players and musicians who on a regular basis would go out and play hockey games for charity only. And no star perhaps was bigger, nor more humble, in so many ways than "the Big Man," Clarence Clemons. On more than a few trips the joyfully warm, always upfront and so, so colorful Clarence Clemons would come along. One day when I was talking with him on the phone about travel plans about an upcoming game back in the early 90s and Clemons said, "don't forget I need a seat for Baby." He was referring to his sax, and she almost never left his side. Clemons would come along on trips, not as a player on the ice, but as our guest coach, but that never stopped him from playing too. His hulking presence at times overshadowed another big star, Kelsey Grammar, who like Clemons also helped "coach" the team often in a very "Frasier" like way. But Clemons was not along only to "coach" he came along to play. And play he did. Clemons would play after the game, often times with our resident "house band" Nik and The Nice Guys, the official band of the team and for many years the top "sports" in music. He was really larger than life. He was funny. He was witty. On trips we would talk music. Life. Woman. And Baby never was far from him. I remember calling him up one day about an upcoming game and asking, "can Baby come along. We'd like you to play." And play he did. R.I.P. Big Man. Those game on the road will always be etched in my mind. You made so many after game parties so, so special.