[MENTION=1890]Trail[/MENTION], those of us familiar with JG's literary output, like you and I, know that while Joe expressly claimed not to discuss what he did not witness in person, that self-imposed restriction on his own comments was actually not strictly set in stone.
While he repeatedly claimed to be "just a fan" (blatant BS, as he had far too much of a competitive background in amateur boxing to be that self-effacing), he was more than capable of analyzing and breaking down action footage brilliantly. In many ways, I consider one brief article he wrote with mostly short sentences to be his most fascinating piece of work on boxing history, where he melds his assessment of a then virtually unseen legend on film against his own eyewitness experiences to drop single mention bombs along the way.
After reading this piece from September 2005, the guy whose career and footage I found myself looking at far more closely wasn't Joe's main subject, but that of another forgotten great he only name drops once, two-thirds of the way through, and wonder who besides Joe could have ever compared Burley to
Le Bombardier Marocain. I'm hard pressed to imagine anybody else who could have threaded a comparison stringing Burley with both the Casablanca Clouter and the Black Uhlan of the Rhine:
http://home.earthlink.net/~joerein/charley_burley.html
Given more time, I would have humorously countered his badgering of me to start up a blog by pestering him to do more blending of his experiences in boxing with vintage footage of historic events he was not in attendance to witness live. I wonder what additional name bombs he might have dropped from his first hand reminisces if we'd gotten him to link rare footage of legends he never saw before with those he knew and saw in action live.
Joe's daughter [MENTION=10250]Kimley[/MENTION] deserves enormous appreciation from all of us for overcoming her father's long stubborn resistance to finally become computer literate and get online to become known to us around the world. Mr. Rein, you raised a lovely daughter.
If Kimley could break down Joe's reluctance to join us all here, then I'm sure, given time, we could have likewise prevailed on him to loosen self imposed restrictions limiting himself only to fights and fighters he personally saw and knew. If he could name bomb single mentions of Greb, Walker, John L., and Schmeling among fighters he never met or saw in action, through a single brief pithy article about yet another legend he never met witnessed in action himself, what other unexpected names might he have uniquely popped out in additional such contributions?
Only a matter of time before we got him to relax and open up more, but I'll flip that coin and be thankful to want what guys like Joe and [mention=117]Burt[/mention] have already given us.
Burt's brought some valuable differences from JG to the table. He came on board at the former ESB Classic years ago with detailed knowledge of Fitzie Fitzpatrick for example, who JG had never even heard of (until learning about the Irish Blockbuster for the first time from a very stunned yours truly).
On New Year's Day last year at the former ESB Classic, [MENTION=406]McGrain[/MENTION] created a thread asking if Floyd Patterson was robbed against Joey Maxim. Burt said he thought Maxim-Patterson could have gone either way, exactly
one minute after Joe submitted his third post on that same thread, where JG unequivocally asserted in his first two posts there that Joey schooled Floyd. The good Mr. Bienstock and the good Mr. Rein repeated their divergent opinions on Maxim-Patterson more than once online, and posted alternate views a few other memorable times on other bouts witnessed by the two of them, interesting opinions of contrast between these two fine gentlemen.
Maxim-Patterson gets a good spotlight though because of the extant kinescope of that broadcast, allowing us today to view something of what they were attending. (Funnily, a few ignorant dim-bulbs at the former ESB Classic questioned Burt's authenticity, and suggested he was plagiarizing JG. Nobody who remembers Burt's arrival at ESB, rapid learning and evolution of his distinctive posting style from text walls to a more readable format, and contributions to threads like last year's Maxim-Patterson discussion ever questioned his authenticity though. We knew right away Burt's the real deal, and of a distinct Great Depression/Greatest Generation raised vintage from the WW II and Atomic Age bottled JG. I know New Yorkers from both their age groups, and my father's right between their ages, so it wasn't hard for me to distinguish when and where they came from by their syntax and sensibilities. My mother's older best friend is online, was a Bobbysoxer in prewar NYC, and her email content reflects her origins.)

to JG and BB, and always a worthy thread to recharge with fresh activity for drawing new fans to JG's boxing legacy.