Steamer's fame went sky high by our 3^rd season.Al Roker, from The Today Show fame, made this possible by talking trash about Pennsylvania mascots on a dismal Groundhog's Day forecast.  Look, Al, all weather guys should love Groundhog's Day. You need to thank us for giving you the day off. No, Al hates that day and everything about it.  So, don't let his jolly jovial BS fool you. He needs his cake hole stapled, to match the stomach job he had done a few years ago. What am I saying?  Al put Steamer on the map!  Did you know Al is also a cartoonist? A few years ago I was one of those nut-job bystanders jumping up and down in front of the camera on the Today show. I made a big poster with a cartoon of Roker saying, WE LOVE AL IN ALTOONA.  It was raining that day, thanks Al.  And, he took that day off too. He must've sensed I was coming. (If you look carefully at the picture in the back left you can see the yellow Al Roker sign I was holding up.  My friend I was talking to on the phone at that moment, who was watching the show, snapped this photo with his cell phone.  Sorry for the poor quality)  

But, on an interesting note, Willard was there that day and I had a chance to talk to him. Here's another story, within a story. On Memorial Day 1989, Willard Scott and the Today show were in Johnstown, PA celebrating the 100^th anniversary of the Johnstown Flood.  Guess who Willard interviewed that day?  No, not me.  Ranger Randy Cooley of ASK THE RANGER fame. It was the groundbreaking of the new National Flood Memorial Heritage Site. ( FYI- wanna see a freaky movie? Go to the Flood Memorial, watch their in-house flick and I bet you give up water for lent ) So, I drew a caricature of Randy, Willard and the NBC peacock. Old Willie said my name and thanked me on national television. I was so happy I didn't have to wait until I was 100 years old for him to say my name on the boob tube. Don't laugh, Willard will still be living when I am 100.  Of course you know he's like 250 years old himself. He signed the Declaration of Independence, somewhere. ( Here's Willard wearing a Ranger's hat talking with the good folks of Johnstown )

Back to the future, so I saw Willard 15 years later, when he was filling in for Al that day. I thanked him for saying my name of tv, and he totally threw me off when he said, "Oh, yeah, I remember that day.  It was rainy there too." Now, either he's got a good memory, or he knows like most people do, it's always raining in Johnstown.  That's why they all wade around down there with their pant legs rolled up to half staff.

Thanks to Al Roker, Steamer's name was a running joke with other NBC shows like Leno and Conan.  This meant greater expectations now. How would I try to keep Steamer's name hot in the public's eye.  I should have just written to Johnny Knoxville to see about dedicating one entire episode of Jackass to Steamer. I was soon about to embark up the wrong tree. 

One of the big sport networks were taping an Altoona Curve game one Sunday afternoon and someone double dogged dared me to do something different to get on camera.  Of all the days, too, it was the day I was leaving for the beach.  My pals was out in the car, AC full blast, in the parking lot and ready to go.  So, what do I do around the 7^th inning stretch?  I did the 7^th inning Crawl. It's not what you think. I Climbed one of the 80 foot light towers at our park.  Oh, people still talk about it today.  What a sight!  "We saw Steamer going up, but saw Cory coming down."  Ha ha, funny.

Our head of maintenance gave me the okay to do it. He must've been smoking a peace pipe that day."Oh, sure you'll be able to climb up there." I never thought to ask him if I'd be able to get back down.  Now, visualize, if you will. Steamer's body is bong-shaped, but his head resembles a 3 foot can of Mountain Dew.  I climbed up a narrow, cylinder shaped tunnel, with my big ass Ronald McDonald shoes, did I mention it was 80 feet up!  Hello?! That means I could have looked down the attack of the 50 foot woman's bikini top.  I struggled like a bowling ball making it's way threw a crazy straw.  Once I got up to the penthouse suite, and my nose bled, I found out, via walkie talkie, that more people were watching me, rather than the game.  My assistant climbed up with me.  He was under me, which was great, cause if I fell, I would have fallen on something soft.

This kid must've written for Johnny Knoxville too, because the first thing he hands me when we are on top of old smokey was the T shirt Air Gun.  Fans at any sporting event love this bit, cause they know they could have a chance at getting a free, cheap t-shirt.  All I can tell you is that my brother said the shirts fell out of the sky like bombs. He told me this story while making a whistling sound, followed by a thud.  Resembling a torpedo or missile sound effect. I'm glad I didn't pound anyone to the ground that day.  Cause from where we were standing, people were scattering everywhere.  From above, it looked like the concession stands shouted, FREE BEER!

Ok, time to get down now.  As I started my descend, my bong shaped body gets caught going up over my head. Kind of like when a little tyke is trying to take his shirt off, and is struggling with it as it's blinding him and his arms are stuck overhead.  So, I climbed back up.  Invented a few new words that day.  Said to my assistant, "Look, Paul, I can see your house from here.", and stripped down to my alter ego, Cory the friggin' baffoon.  Luckily, my undergarments were a t-shirt and a pair of swimming trunks. 

So, my early departure for the beach wasn't going to happen.  I phoned my two buddies out in the parking lot, from the light tower.  You should have seen them trying to look up to find me.  I ended up driving to the beach, cause those boneheads were intoxicated.  How did I know? I told them to look up to the 80 foot light tower to see us waving.  What do Bartles and James do?  One looks under the car and the other is waving up at the other light tower on the other side of the ballpark.  Great, I thought. I'm the DD today.

After the game is over, I assume that most of the fans have gone home by now.  I carefully throw Steamer's bits and pieces over the light tower to the fathoms below.  Remember, I was wearing swim trunks, so I can say Fathom, although I can't fathom what the heck fathom means. I had to carry the Steamer head back down the pipe.  And, as I get bottom of the ladder stood about 50 people clapping their hands.  I smiled, and noticed 4 little kids by my side and they asked, where's Steamer? 

So, I quickly throw the head over the side of the sky box level, which is only like 40 feet from the ground. Thank God they didn't see the rest of Steamer's body plummet to the ground 5 minutes earlier.  I said to them, as green fur was falling out of my hair and sticking to my body, "Steamer's gonna be up there awhile.He packed his lunch and fell asleep." And, then I left ....and laughed .....and fainted. It's Not Easy Bein' Green...Part Drei coming soon, ja'wol!