Sticks of Fire: a Tampa blog

Rudy Poeschek made a name for himself around here by being an enforcer for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the mid 1990’s. Following the lead of another successful athlete in Tampa Bay, Poeschek was arrested Sunday. This guy let his five year old daughter ride in the car with no seat belt. He probably would have gotten away with it, except he hit a sewer drain while cornering. The impact flattened a couple tires and apparently caused him to whack his head. But much like opponents at the ThunderDome, that didn’t stop him. Rudy kept driving his car, right through a palm tree. Then three mailboxes. And another palm tree.

Assuming he didn’t want to spend any time in the Hillsborough County Penalty Box, he scrambled back to the bench, in this case a neighbor’s garage. Once discovered there, Poeschek showed he is still quite a conditioned athlete, running from deputies and circling a (unfrozen) pond twice. There are no reports that fans surrounded the lake cheering “RU-DY, RU-DY, RU-DY.” It was at this point that the officers decided to quit screwing around, and shot Rudy with their new weapon of choice, the TASER.

Just like in his days of hockey, Poeschek pays no attention to rules. He’s been arrested 9 times since January ‘03, and twice this month, mostly on charges that he has no clue how to drive a car.