Nice tributes by the Herd

It's been a pretty brutal season for the Bisons on the field (nice of the players to decide they need a meeting 71 games into this mess). And it's been a tough last couple of weeks off the field too with the deaths of former Mayor Griffin and Tim Russert, who were South Buffalo guys just like GM Mike Buczkowski.

But you've got to give it up to the way the Bisons have handled ceremonies for Griffin and Russert. Griffin's initials (JDG) were painted on the field and both were feted with moments of silence and video tributes. Saturday night's tribute to Russert was particularly poignant as the team replayed Russert's Opening Day video where he gave a "Go Bisons" and said "Here are your 2008 Buffalo Bisons." The players took the field to big applause for Russert, just as they did in the opener on April 11. Nice touch.

Tim Russert Bobblehead Day in 2005 was a huge hit at the ballpark with Russert signing copies of his book and the bobbles (which featured his distinctive "Florida, Florida, Florida" wipe board changed to "Buffalo, Buffalo, Buffalo"). Russert made mention of the Herd's Governors Cup title in 2004 on Meet the Press and taped a video for Opening Day for the last several years. Still can't believe the Russert post on our Inside The News blog. As of Monday morning, there are more than 300 comments, easily the most I've ever seen on one of our blogs.

It will be interesting to see how the Bisons honor these two devoted fans. Maybe add Griffin's name with former Sabres tenor Joe Byron to the Fan of the Year Award or name the stadium plaza after him (I can't see the entire ballpark getting Griffin's name because of the lost revenue).

As for Russert, what do you think about this kind of tribute: I'd like to see the team create The Tim Russert Memorial Buffalo to the Bigs Award, given to the player who makes the most impact with the parent club that season after playing with the Herd, just as Russert did in going from Buffalo to Washington.

---Mike Harrington