Misty-eyed memory

By Leigh Torbin

In true Collegian fashion, my misty eyed memories of three
wonderful years in the campus center basement with Casey:

The unbridled love of the Boston Red Sox...How she'd stay on me
with that tough love to keep going when it took five hours to write a
routine column because I'd get so wrapped up in totally random
things and the quest for just the right cheesy 80's song and deciding
which of D.P. Dough's 17,281 different calzones to have sent over
to the Batcave...

The wonderful, motivating "Torbin Write!" sign she made for me with some photo from a lingerie ad for when I wouldn't get going at moments like that. Man, I wish I still had that thing...I also clearly hear her voice yelling "Torbin write." Lord knows I heard that phrase enough...

Her actually allowing my often insane yet colorful ramblings to run in the paper...Her unequivocal agreement that the Yankees do in fact suck. I can't comprehend the joy she must have felt knowing that the day she passed, Derek Jeter was hitting .187. Talk about going in peace!!!...

The look on her face if you ever pronounced (Holyoke) it holy-oak and not whole-yoke. Holy cow, she'd let you have it...Her love of all UMass sports and perspective to know that tennis had an important match that day when the whole world was thinking basketball...Of course hockey wasn't really tooting its horn yet...

Good times with her and Matty in that house apartment his senior year with Juice and some other guys whose names I forget...

Lou Merloni, Casey's boy, now and forever, whether he's with Cleveland, Anaheim or Milwaukee, I can't just see him up at bat without thinking of her...

The evervescent smile on Casey's face and her refreshing good charm...I was lucky enough to know the southern Casey too and the incredible job she did - not knowing a soul - of instantly assimilating with NASCAR Nation while never losing touch with who she was or where she came from...I'll never forget the 2000 South Carolina-Florida football game because it was an amazing game. Winner take all for the SEC East on national TV, UF goes down 21-3 at the Swamp when the Bachelor himself, Jesse Palmer, comes off of the bench in relief of Rex Grossman to lead the Gators back for the win, throwing the game
winning TD to a lineman.

One of the country's wildest venues has seldom been wilder. And while I already couldn't forget that game, so far as I can recall, that was also the last time I actually saw Casey which now makes it that much more meaningful to me.

It was great to see her doing so well professionally. I stood with her at the end of the third quarter in the press box (my favorite part of a game at the Swamp) and I'll never forget the bewildering look of utter amazement in her eyes when the whole stadium sang the traditional "We Are the Boys From Old Florida." It was a long, long, long way from Warren P. McGuirk Alumni Stadium, yet to this day her
mesmerized reaction to it is still very near in my mind...

She didn't make the return game in 2001 in Columbia but it sounded like she'd be OK and we all hoped we'd see her again at the Swamp in
2002...

Matty shaved his head. That's touching and all, but I wish I
could forget the image...Although I heard little of late and saw less,
I know how she persevered through her illness over several years
hanging in for the long haul like any dedicated Sox fan would, since
we all know full well that the best things come to those who wait
and also that it wasn't over when the Germans bombed Pearl
Harbour...

Matty's Buck Martinez story from the blog. That's way too perfect. I'll remember that for a long time...But, she's left us for a better place. One where the Sox are 85 time defending World Series Champs (since somehow losing to the Cubs in 1918), the Yankees have been relegated so far they're half way to the California Penal League, there's REALLY good satellite TV service, great internet connections to read this stuff, and Jerry Remy's voice echoes on the wind.

What more could she want?
Leigh worked with Casey at the Collegian at UMass and then worked in Media Relations at Florida, while Casey covered South Carolina.