Thursday afternoon I called in to The Sports Duds, Felger and Mazz, of 98.5 to defend my beloved home state of CT.  It seems Tony Mazz wants to remove Connecticut from the roll of call of New England States. And of course, it being good radio, The Tourist  Felger and some sit-in named sleeves went along with him.

Tony brought up the fact that Connecticut and its people aren’t real New Englanders.

Or for that matter real people at all.   We represent nothing, stand for nothing, and are just a place to drive thru to get to New York. While Mass and the rest of New England are real people who have “integrity”, Boston is a place where education is valued-they don’t put money first. And how you pronounce Worcester is what makes you a real New Englander. All qualities Connecticut doesn’t have or does wrong.  

When I told your fave eight year old blogger that some guy on the radio said he wasn’t part of New England he wasn’t upset, wasn’t even mildly perturbed - all he said at that moment was “That Guy needs to go back to School - of course we are part of New England” 

So let’s break down Tony’s reasoning:

Connecticut stands for nothing:  How about Connecticut stands for freedom? We not only stand for it but we keep America free. You want to tell the men and women of  Pratt & Whitney, who design and build the jet engines that keep our Air Force and Navy planes flying that they don’t stand for anything? How about the people who punch the clock at Sikorsky day in and out building  our military  Helicopters both combat and rescue that they stand for nothing? What about the men and women of General Dynamics Electric Boat? All they did was build every Sub  the US Navy has around the world keeping us safe - and by the way, win the cold war. But hey we drink soda, not tonic.

How about the medical and pharmaceuticals and tech industry? Connecticut is a leader in groundbreaking pharma and stem cell research. But those people don’t stand for a damn thing?  Every space suit worn by NASA astronauts was developed and made right here in Connecticut - but well that’s nothing compared to getting a drink from the Bubbler.

Education: CT has one of the best public education systems in the country. From grade schools all the way up to our public and private universities. Presidents, senators, judges doctors, plumbers, carpenters, nurses, the former VP of Red Sox baseball operations and now Cubs GM, and one New England Patriots Head Coach - all products of Connecticut schools. 

Sure, we can’t compete with Pro sports in the Greatest City in America , but when it comes to college athletics you don’t have a leg to stand on.  In fact we slapped you around so bad you ran off to the ACC.  Hiding behind what reasoning? “MORE MONEY” something you say doesn’t come into a real New Englanders reasoning. But I will give you a pass on it because we all know the real reason BC left, don’t we Tony? It wasn’t the cash, BC just couldn’t cut it. And when UCONN announced it was going Div One in Football that was all The Eagles needed to hear. They snuck out of the Big East like the Colts leaving Baltimore. Taking a spanking year in and out from CT in basketball was one thing, but it’s a lot easier to be year round losers to rivals 600 or 1,000 miles away. That’s integrity for you (I’ll be nice and not bring up any point shaving).

I Respect you Tony, I really do but you can’t claim to not be about the money and then rip Ray Allen for taking less. You can’t say you stand for something and others don’t when you are this far off base about the people of Connecticut.  Being a part of New England is more than how you pronounce a city name, what color the plate on your car is, or whether you eat a sub or a grinder. Down here in Connecticut we have all the same qualities, traditions, and values anyone up the pike has.

And just so you don’t look AS bad the next time you try saying we aren’t part of the original six colonies… they are:

1.   Virginia 1607

2.   New Hampshire 1623

3.   Mass 1628

4.   Maryland 1634

5.   Connecticut 1635

6.   RI 1636  

But you might have been talking about Statehood - Connecticut was the Fist New England State, we let you in about a month later.

So from Butchie and Me to you: SUCK IT MAZZ, we are part of New England and we aren’t going anywhere.