Tony, Tony, Tony
That five of the most useful people I know in the performance-boating world are named Tony is entirely coincidental. At least that’s the best explanation I have. Yes, it could be some sort of cosmic karmic connection, and I’d be willing to entertain that if I weren’t from California, which automatically makes me suspect with readers in the Midwest and East Coast. Throwing gasoline on the endless fire of West Coast stereotypes is a bad idea with you guys, so I’m going with pure coincidence on the Tony thing. That’s my story, and I’m sticking to it.
Tony Scioli (left) with speedonthewater.com’s Jason Johnson at the 2015 Buffalo Poker Run. Photo courtesy/copyright Tim Sharkey/Sharkey Images.
Still, it’s very important that I keep my Tonys straight. Imagine if I called Tony Cutsuries, the national sales manager of Skater Powerboats, for performance data on the latest creation from Dave’s Custom Boats, when the main man for that kind of intelligence is DCB’s Tony Chiaramonte. And what if I asked Chiaramonte to have Skater’s Pete Hledin give me a call when he had time? He’d probably shake his head, hang up the phone and say, “That Trulio guy is a idiot.”
Likewise, if I asked Cutsuries what Dave Hemmingson was up to, the silence would be deafening.
and then