Last modified: Wednesday, July 1, 2009 2:22 AM EDT FARINELLA: Bedroom eyes (inadvertent glimpse one of many surprises) BY MARK FARINELLA SUN CHRONICLE STAFF Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while listening to the same four songs, over and over, while scanning the FM dial for something other than a Michael Jackson retrospective: ** I've experienced some of everything in my 30-plus years of covering the New England Patriots, but for sheer shock value, nothing will ever match the day 25 years ago when I walked into what I thought was the media workroom at the old stadium and found instead the boudoir of Charles W. "Chuck" Sullivan, then the executive vice president of the team. That memory came flooding back in a rush the other day when the news broke that singer Michael Jackson had died at the age of 50. If you read Saturday's paper - and I certainly hope you did - you would have read my recollections about Sullivan's role in trying to promote the continent-crossing "Victory Tour" at the height of Jackson's popularity, and how that misguided effort began the ruination of the Patriots under the Sullivans' already threadbare ownership. I followed that story every step of the way as it broke and continued to develop, but nothing drove home exactly how desperate the Sullivan family had become as well as being confronted with the sights and smells of an individual's bedroom where a luxury box (and part-time media workroom) was supposed to be. The Patriots had broken camp at then-Bryant College and were back in Foxboro, about to resume their regular-season schedule for the last couple of weeks of the preseason. Dutifully, I pulled into the administrative parking lot at the old stadium (at the time, called "Sullivan Stadium") and walked up the flight of stairs that led to the entrances to the two "super boxes" located above the north end zone seats. I turned down the darkened hallway leading to the door of the super box closest to the end of the building, opened the door expecting to see other reporters setting up at their work stations, and instead found a king bed with its coverings disheveled, temporary lockers serving as closet space, items of clothing strewn about the floor, a desk and dresser, and drapes covering the large expanse of glass that looked out to the football field below. About the same time, as every one of my senses was telling me that this was a room in which someone was living, I heard and felt the thunderous footfalls of the late Jim Greenidge, then the Patriots' media relations director, shaking the floor beneath me as he ran down the hallway to the entrance of the room in which I stood. Greenidge, a very large man, burst into the room in practically a state of panic, perspiring heavily and gasping for air. "Mark," he shouted, "you're not supposed to be in here! You have to leave ... now!" Understand, no one had told me prior to this particular day that the media would be convening elsewhere in the stadium upon the team's return from Bryant. So, somewhat confused, I tried to ask Greenidge exactly what it was I was seeing. But instead, I just got the bum's rush out of the room, accompanied by threats of having my credentials revoked if I revealed what I saw to the public. Needless to say, the world learned soon enough from what I wrote that Chuck Sullivan was taking up temporary residence in the stadium that his family would lose to bankruptcy less than four years later. I still have my credentials. And the real "Victory Tour" for the Patriots began in earnest on Feb. 3, 2002, when Adam Vinatieri's field goal sent the St. Louis Rams to defeat in Super Bowl XXXVI, in the eighth season of Robert Kraft's ownership of the team. That, of course, is my second most memorable moment from all these years of covering the Patriots ... ** Welcome back to the Hockomock League, Don Byron. The former Abington High boys' basketball coach has taken over the reins at Oliver Ames High School in Easton, and those with good memories will recall that he was also The Sun Chronicle's Coach of the Year for boys' hoop in 1985, when he coached Mansfield High ... Byron replaces Creig Muscato, whom we absolutely have to get back into a local gymnasium ... ** Let's see, Manny Ramirez is serving a 50-game suspension and the Los Angeles Dodgers have the best record in baseball. I wonder what that means ... ** Who will step forward to fill the shoes of the late Billy Mays as America's foremost pitchman? And why do I care? ** What does it say about me that of the three original "Charlie's Angels," I liked Kate Jackson the most? But my biggest crush of that era of action-adventure television was on Lindsay Wagner as "The Bionic Woman." ** Quick funny story to accompany Mike Gelbwasser's Q-and-A with my long-time friend, Alex Salachi, that appeared in Monday's paper ... Alex, the former basketball coach at Xaverian Brothers High in Westwood, has spent the past several years performing as an "extra" in many movies, TV shows and commercials. One of his first roles was to be in the background of "The Next Karate Kid," which starred Pat Morita and future Academy Award-winner Hilary Swank, and it was to be filmed at a Boston-area bowling alley. I was visiting Alex's summer house in Falmouth on a Sunday when he learned he'd have to be a bowler for several hours, and he told me that he had not bowled since his high school years. So we set out on a "quest for bowling," searching for a tenpin establishment on the Cape where he could polish his skills before going before the cameras. It took the better part of the day before we finally found open lanes in New Bedford, and we bowled for so long, both of us were horribly sore from the experience. And after all that, you'd be hard-pressed to find Alex anywhere in the bowling alley scenes ... MARK FARINELLA may be reached at 508-236-0315 or via e-mail at mfarinel@thesunchronicle.com. Read Farinella's blog, "Blogging Fearlessly," at thesunchronicle.com/farinella.