The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
McAdoo’s downturn is jarring
The Wiffle Ball, a Connecticut treasure, has been inducted into the National Toy Hall of Fame. The iconic plastic ball was invented in Fairfield and is manufactured in Shelton.
On a side note, an unhittable Wiffle pitch — the fearsome Chipball — was developed and mastered in my Orange backyard. But I digress.
Few people even know the toy Hall of Fame exists, much less that they hold yearly inductions. Heck, I didn’t even know. So I can only assume there’s been heavy backlash over the snubbing of Tickle Me Elmo. Those steroid allegations have yet to be proven. ⏩ Ray Handley wasn’t the worst coach ever employed by the New York Giants, at least in terms of winning percentage. That honor goes to Bill Arnsparger, who coached back when the team played some home games at the Yale Bowl in the early ’70s and managed to win just seven of 35 games.
But Handley was an unmitigated disaster. He inherited a Super Bowl champion from Bill Parcells in 1992 and promptly ran it into the ground, winning 14 games over two seasons before being canned. Many failed head coaches resume their careers as coordinators or assistants.
Handley’s tenure with the Giants was so bad he never coached again, at any level, despite being only 48.
So it’s rather jarring testament to how far Ben McAdoo’s star has fallen to see he’s still two wins shy of matching Handley’s total of 14 career wins. This after setting a franchise record for wins by a first-year coach last fall.
McAdoo, a fairly successful offensive coordinator, is out of his depth as the man in charge. He’s dull, unimaginative and, if reports are accurate, lost the respect of his own team. (And what’s with the hair? He looks like a 1950s Texaco gas station attendant.)
There’s still half a season left to get three more wins and surpass the dreaded Handley Line. But three wins seems like a tall order. And there’s no guarantee McAdoo is around to finish the season.
At least he’s got enough reputation left to resume coaching somewhere as a coordinator. Either that or fall back on a career as official spokesman for Brylcreem.
⏩ Here’s the part where I openly acknowledge I’m the last person who should razz someone else for their hairstyle. I’ve been rocking the Karate Kid look since seventh grade.
⏩ The preseason was once again unkind to the Yale basketball team. Life without sophomore forward Jordan Bruner, out for the year after injuring his knee in an exhibition game, and Makai Mason, who’ll miss around two months with a foot stress fracture, won’t be easy. But they’ll still be a force in the Ivy League.
⏩ It was quite a night for a couple of New Haven natives playing Division I basketball. Tremont Waters’ debut for the LSU basketball team concluded with 27 points, six rebounds, five assists and five steals in an easy win over Alcorn State. Raiquan Clark, a sophomore at LIUBrooklyn, had 34 points, seven rebounds and three steals in a close loss at Tulane.
⏩ And it was a pretty good week at Southern Connecticut State University.
On Saturday, Bethany’s Collin Walsh, a former track All-American, took part in the 55 meter dash at the annual alumni track meet. Walsh was a Milford police officer who last year took a job in Washington working counter-terrorism for the U.S. State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service.
Rapid onset multiple sclerosis left him paralyzed. He’s undergone extensive treatment, and was able to complete the 55 meters with the help of crutches and supports.
⏩ Wethersfield’s Laura Morrison, a graduate student at SCSU, was added to the women’s cross country roster because of low numbers days before the conference championship meet. She finished 10th to earn all-conference, then placed fifth at the NCAA regionals. She’ll compete in the NCAA Division II Championships next Saturday in Evansville, Indiana.
⏩ And Election Day was once again a success for Jay Moran, Southern’s athletic director, who dabbles in local politics on the side. He was elected to a third term as mayor of Manchester on Tuesday.
⏩ Kristaps Porzingis is the most enjoyable Knick to watch since Bernard King — not including those glorious couple weeks of Linsanity.
⏩ New Haven’s Chad Dawson, attempting to slow the rapid decline of his boxing career, will fight on Dec. 8 at Hialeah Park near Miami. He’ll take on Edwin Rodriguez in the evening’s cofeatured bout, to be televised live on Fox Sports 1. At 35, Dawson (34-5, 19 KOs) hasn’t been the same fighter since beating Bernard Hopkins to win the world’s light heavyweight title in 2012. He’s lost four of seven fights since, knocked out three times. Rodriguez (29-2, 20 KOs) is one of Dawson’s former sparring partners.
⏩ Yale graduates Mark Arcobello, Brian O’Neill and Broc Little skated together on Team USA’s top line Friday at the Deutschland Cup, an Olympic tuneup held this weekend in Germany. A lot can happen between now and February. But an all-Yale line leading the U.S. at the Olympics could be the story of the Winter Games.
⏩ Forget the Hall of Fame. Here are the undisputed four best toys ever created:
1) Wiffle Ball: Feel the wonder of uncorking a wicked deuce without the Tommy John surgery.
2) Big Wheel: To any 3-year old, it’s the equivalent of tooling around the neighborhood on a Harley Davidson Fat Boy.
3) Atari 2600: An ’80s masterpiece. Cool enough to want to play every day; lame enough to get bored in an hour and want to play outside.
4) Monopoly: Ruthlessly bleeding your family into bankruptcy has never been more enjoyable.
And the most overrated toy of all-time: the Slinky. It doesn’t walk down stairs as much as tumbles uncontrollably down them. It’s also a scientific fact they are manufactured to last 15 minutes before becoming irreparably tangled.