The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Early returns have been promising for Yankees
Most everyone figured the Yankees had no chance to compete for championships this season, but the team has managed to get off to a strong start.
Took the family to Washington D.C. for a few days last week and, like Clark W. Griswold on his way to Walley World, I managed to cram just about every major tourist site into our brief vacation window.
When it was over I asked the boy what his favorite part of the trip was. The White House? Capitol Building? Monuments? The Smithsonian? Nope. That stuff, he said, wasn’t nearly as interesting as the orangutans.
On our last day we visited the national zoo. As we made our way through the place, we noticed several large towers connected by rope and signs marking it as, “The OLine,” thinking nothing of it until, about 30 minutes later, there was a commotion.
We looked up and saw a couple of very large orangutans swinging from tower to tower via the rope bridges, directly above a pedestrian crossing. Had they dropped they’d be loose in the park (or, more likely, dead.) But, of course, it was part of the attraction and they weren’t in danger.
It was an awesome sight to behold and the more I thought about it the more I realized that yes, this was far and away the most enjoyable and exciting thing we saw in Washington. Sure, history can be fascinating. But the most astute scholars would agree that it can’t hold a candle to observing monkeys do their thing.
• Most everyone figured the Yankees had no chance to compete for championships this season. They’re too young at the plate; too thin on the mound. Maybe in a year or two, we said.
Well, the first three weeks have shown this is a team that might be ready right now. And, believe it or not, they’ve been fun to watch.
From large human Aaron Judge launching baseballs into orbit to middle school-sized Ronald Torreyes tied for the team lead in RBIs to rejuvenated Chase Headley and Jacoby Ellsbury batting well over .300, the Yankees are actually exciting.
Even the pitching has been terrific. The only guy struggling is their ace, Masahiro Tanaka.
It’s a viciously low sample size, but the early returns are promising.
• During the Patriots’ White House visit this week, Rob Gronkowski interrupted a media briefing to ask press secretary Sean Spicer if he needed some help. Gronk has apparently been paying close attention. Because, most of the time, Spicer does indeed need help. Lots and lots of help.
• Chris Sale is phenomenal. But would it kill the Red Sox to offer the poor guy a little run support?
• The recent success of Yale men’s basketball, and what should be another Ivy League contender, is making it difficult for coach James Jones to complete the non-conference schedule. There are some strong opponents, including road games at Wisconsin, Creighton and TCU and a home date with Vermont, but still a few open dates that need to be filled.
• So much for the old “fly the friendly skies” mantra.
• We hit some baseball games on the way to Washington, and realized the stadiums in Philadelphia and Washington are almost indistinguishable. Don’t get me wrong, both are very nice and great places to catch a ballgame. But the designs are pretty much carbon copies of each other, and similar to several other new parks in MLB.
It seems we’ve entered a new era of cookie cutter stadiums. In the 1960s and 70s, the stadium trend was multi-purpose and bland. In the 2000s, they’re ballfields in the middle of a shopping mall. Lovely places to see a game. But, unlike Fenway and Wrigley and the old Yankee Stadium, they’ve got no soul.
• Everyone already knew the Celtics position as top seed in the Eastern Conference is a mirage. Getting thoroughly thumped in the first two games by the Bulls is a bit of a surprise. Rajon Rondo’s thumb injury might be the break (no pun intended) Boston needed to get back into the series.
• Rondo still wants to do his part. On Friday night he attempted to trip the Celtics Jae Crowder as he ran past the Bulls bench (as Rondo explained it, he was merely “stretching” his leg. Of course he was.) Rondo was also wearing a short-sleeved suit jacket, a look no one’s attempted to pull off since Ricky “Wild Thing” Vaughn in the movie “Major League.”
• Tiger Woods still has more majors (14) than knee/back surgeries (8), for those scoring at home.
• Major League Baseball is considering putting microphones on umpires, similar to the NFL, so they can explain replay decisions to the crowd and viewing audience. This seems like a waste of time, because, unlike football, baseball calls are selfexplanatory. And it does nothing to shorten games or attract new viewers. It’s merely change for the sake of change.
• Serena Williams announced she is five months pregnant, meaning she was expecting when she won the Australian Open in January. That prompted this tweet from Scott Cacciola, a former Register sports writer now with the New York Times. “Wasn’t she technically playing doubles?”
• Greg Bird, the Yankees’ rookie first baseman, looks a little too much like Jim Harbaugh for my liking.
• The Course at Yale was selected to host an NCAA men’s golf regional in 2022. Word is upgrades around the course are being made with the intention of making a play for the Division I national championships, an event not held on a New England course since 1958.
• We also hear the natural grass of historic Yale Field could be replaced with field turf by next spring.
• Our favorite park on last week’s Mid-Atlantic swing was Camden Yards in Baltimore, a modern stadium teeming with character. The brick warehouse in right field is a magnificent backdrop that gives the place an oldtimey feel. And the day we visited, that yesteryear ambiance was ratcheted up a notch with the greatest promotional giveaway of all time: free fedoras for all the kids. What a sight. Thousands of pint-sized fans roaming the park on a Sunday afternoon looking like Sinatra on the cover of “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!”