Paddy Boom Loves the Red Sox (Part Two)

To see part one of this interview, click here

Long before Paddy Boom (@PaddyBoomnyc) drummed for the Scissor Sisters, he was a diehard Red Sox fan. Paddy took a few minutes away from his record emporium in the Catskills (@boomandbloomrecords) to talk about his fave baseball team.

STADIUM JOURNEY:

You were one of the most colorful players in the history of Horace Greeley High School lacrosse. What are your fondest memories of suiting up for Greeley lax?

PADDY BOOM:

To be honest, I was never a great athlete and I’m a hundred percent OK with that. The traditional sports weren’t where I found passion. I’m a certified Mistral boardsailing instructor. My passion has always been music. However, I had a great time playing lacrosse, mainly for the camaraderie and Hijinx. When I say I played lacrosse, I mean, playing around on the sidelines, due to my small size and my meh stick skill, I would be put in once in a blue moon. I was let on the field to participate when we were either winning by a lot or losing by a lot. As in, “this game is toast. Where’s Seacor?’ I wasn’t star material, but I had a hell of a good time on the bench doing all sorts of mischievous activities; tying teammates’ laces to the bench while they were sitting, breaking into opposing teams' locker rooms, burying a teammates stick, etc. I really enjoyed the camaraderie of the bus rides to away games, that’s really where I shined on the team. I always had a boombox - powered by 10 D batteries - for the away games and became the DJ. I cranked out cassettes of Zeppelin, the Clash, The Who and Creedence jams. Things got pretty wild at times. Notably, after one game, things were getting rowdy in the back of the bus and one teammate started smashing the lights inside our bus with a bat while the driver just barreled down the road. We played Byram Hills once and it got a bit hairy with the opposing team surrounding our bus as we tried to leave the parking lot. Their team started yelling and banging on the bus with their sticks, rocking the bus back and forth which was exciting.

STADIUM JOURNEY:

I don’t know if you ever played golf, but you had a fun job collecting balls. What was that like?

PADDY BOOM:

My first paying job was at the local Mt. Kisco Country Club golf course that I could walk to from my house. There was a legit caddy shack, just like in the classic movie. There was a hierarchy to getting loops for the good paying golfers. $15 a bag was good pay in 1982. When I showed up at the caddy shack, I was given the name “rabbit” by the head caddy master Joe Cerrantes. A rabbit was a newbie to the art of caddying. The grunt job for budding caddies was shagging balls for $3 a round. Shagging meant standing out on the practice fairway and picking up fifty or so practice balls as they were launched from a fixed spot about half a football field away. I’d be staring blindly into the sun as golfers blasted balls towards me to work on their game. It was scary because you couldn’t see the ball half the  time. I prayed it didn’t hit me, which it did on occasion. It stung hard. Occasionally, I did play golf on Caddy Day, which was on Mondays. I wasn’t very good at golf but it was always a good excuse to hang out. At the time I started actually caddying, Caddyshack, the movie, was out, and a lot of that stuff was so true. Getting in good with the caddy master was key as he set you up with jobs. Our caddie Master, Joe Cerrantes, was a heavy set guy with bluish cataract eyes, who chain smoked Parliaments and had a constant smokers cough. If you got in with his graces, you got the good loops with generous rich guys who might buy you lunch at the snack bar as an added bonus. However, if you were new or he didn’t like you, you got all the “slashers,” the guys who routinely hit balls into the woods, which you had forcing you to go to get. Undoubtedly that meant getting scratches and bug bites. Alternately, a rookie gig was any all-ladies afternoon “shotgun” type game.

STADIUM JOURNEY:

So you sell vinyl records, among other things. What’s so special about vinyl? Discuss the magic.

PADDY BOOM:

I sell mainly used vinyl at my shop Boom & Bloom in the Catskills, I’ve been collecting records since I was ten years old, and the magic of collecting, thankfully, has not worn off. Now, as a vinyl merchant, I enjoy the process of helping people find what they’re looking for. There are deep memories and associations with albums, and I enjoy hearing the excitement surrounding a “lost gem” that someone might find in my store. It’s corny to say, but, I’m in the business of happiness, and I found a use for all my random music knowledge too. People leave my store happier than when they walk in and you can’t say that about most stores. I’m sort of like a sonic drug dealer. People come in looking for something to change their mood, and they get it.

STADIUM JOURNEY:

What’s the Ted Willams of vinyl, the holy grail?

PADDY BOOM:

It depends who you ask and what they are into. “Value” is completely subjective. There’s market value and sentimental value. I recently found an original Velvet Underground with Andy Warhol with a bunch of $2 records. That’s money right there. Last time I checked it was valued over 2k.

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Paddy Boom spins a live show, Vinyl Freedom, twice a month. Catch it here: https://wavefarm.org/listen.

Jon Hart is @manversusball