HOLLYWOOD, CA- I had an inkling I wasn’t going to be successful gaining entrance to the Wild Card Gym Saturday afternoon to watch Manny Pacquiao train. And I’m not even upset.
I was just in the neighborhood with a couple of other boxing people and having not even called ahead and not knowing what time he might be training anyway, we ambled up the steps to the fabled gym to take a chance.
But first, 1123 Vine Street is a surreal location. A worn out strip center with a liquor store, a generous massage parlor, a barber shop, a space to rent, the funkiest 24 hour laundromat, and the Manny Pacquiao shrine / mecca of America, Nat’s Thai Restaurant made famous by HBO’s 24/7 series are among the temptations all must pass leading to the trainer Freddie Roach-owned gym on the second floor.
The tiny fenced-in parking lot was packed but I miraculously found a long thin space for the cumbersome 15-seat passenger van I drove in from Palm Springs over two hours away from the just completed Arthur Abraham training camp that abruptly has ended. King Arthur is heading back to his Berlin, Germany home Sunday to finish preparing for Andre Dirrell on Showtime for the Super Six World Boxing Classic on Showtime for the world’s best super middleweights (168 lbs.)
But I digress.
I meekly knocked on the Wild Card Gym door and a fair but firm gent named Rob greeted us as if we had the nerve to want to talk to the Wizard of Oz. It just wasn’t going to happen on this day. I don’t know if it were just a private workout or what but we received a resounding “no.”
After telling him how important we were and after and dropping names like Michael Marley, I saw the conversation was about to end without success.
Since I couldn’t get the van out without backing into a Mercedez Benz or two or three, we decided to take the short walk to the famous intersection of Hollywood and Vine and get lunch and do some site-seeing.
This became a four – hour exercise. It was raining and we were ready to make the trek back to Palm Springs.
But as fate would have it, one of my guests left his cell phone in the taxi that dropped us off back at the Wild Card. The phone still hasn’t been found.
This cost us a couple of hours.
Then I left the car keys in the van and locked it before realizing my error.
Now it’s dark, rainy and very cold.
The interesting, and very nice people at the laundramat came to our rescue and were able to get into the van with a coat hanger. This earned them some very serious street cred from me and I handsomely rewarded them for their effort and enthusiasm.
This was frustrating and cost us another hour.
While this was going on, the aforementioned National Boxing Examiner, Michael Marley, arrived in grand style from LAX Airport to begin his week long on – site coverage of the Pacman training camp for the Joshua Clottey on March 13 in my beloved Dallas, Texas.
Marley, traveling in style like the Duke of Earl. checked into a journeyman-type hotel near the gym and invited my group to Nat’s Thai Restaurant to down a few soda pops with him and the legendary Hermie Rivera who was already holding court at the prime table at Nat’s.
I’ll try again on Monday.
As Rosanne Rosannadanna used to say on Saturday Night Live, “It’s always something.”
