The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Tournament masks sport’s underbelly
It’s Easter, the only morning of the year where it’s perfectly acceptable to eat chocolate for breakfast. It’s also the perfect time to remind everyone that Cadbury Mini Eggs are the most delicious — and addictive — candy ever created.
They’re only available in stores at this time of year. As part of our family’s annual tradition, I’ll clean out the local Target for its remaining supply on Monday.
It was an especially brutal ⏩ year for college basketball. Barely a month ago, alleged recruiting violations by at least 20 major colleges were uncovered during an FBI investigation, with another 80 potentially on the hook.
And yet Michigan State, Arizona, Kentucky and North Carolina, storied programs mired in some of the most outlandish scandals, were all eliminated early. So we won’t hear a peep about rampant academic fraud, money laundering and sleazy agents during the Final Four.
Not that it ever really matters. Corruption has reigned supreme in the NCAA for decades. Yet March Madness, as it does each spring, conveniently diverts our attention away from the sport’s seedy underbelly no matter who’s involved.
Instead, we’re overjoyed with three weekends that bring us the upstarts and upsets and wonderful human interest stories that make us forget, for a short time, how ugly the business of major college athletics really is. It’s a perennial formula for success the NCAA banks on every March.
In three weeks Sister ⏩ Jean did more to boost the image of the NCAA than Mark Emmert has in eight years as president of the NCAA.
The contention that ⏩ UConn’s success is bad for women’s basketball never carried much weight. After two thrilling Final Four games on Friday night, one of which eliminated the Huskies before the national championship game again, it’s an argument that makes no sense whatsoever.
John Sterling unveiled ⏩ his home run call for Giancarlo Stanton on Opening Day. He attempted to spout off something in Italian, even though neither he nor Stanton is Italian. His pronunciation came off choppy and unintelligible. Our guess is he wanted to say “Giancarlo. You can’t stop him.”
Unfortunately, you can’t stop Sterling either.
We would have bet the ⏩ farm Sterling would go with the simpler and far superior call of “Gone Carlo! Giancarlo!” Too obvious?
Much-hyped rookie Shohei ⏩ Ohtani, who will hit and pitch for the Angels this season, is being billed as the Babe Ruth of Japan. As someone who lived through Hideki Irabu, marketed as the Nolan Ryan of Japan, we’re betting Ohtani doesn’t quite live up to the name. He did poke a nice single on Opening Day, however. Maybe he’ll be the Mike Hampton of Japan?
This joke — perhaps it’s ⏩ true? — made the rounds on Twitter this week, courtesy of Idaho HS Hoops: “Heard a story of an AAU coach who put all 10 of his players on the floor at tip off. The refs told him that five needed to get off the court. He didn’t and received a ‘T’. He then turned to the parents behind the bench and said, “See, I told you that they all couldn’t start!”
Too much Sister Jean? ⏩ Nonsense.
Rusty Staub, who passed ⏩ away this week at age 73, is the only player in Major League Baseball history to record at least 500 hits with four different clubs. His most impressive feat, however, is his record-tying eight successive pinch hits. That’s clutch.
More baseball trivia: ⏩ Staub played 2,951 major league games, fourth-most among players not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Can you name the three nonHall of Famers who’ve played more career games? Answer later in the column.
The NFL will change its ⏩ rules to make lowering one’s helmet before contact an ejectable offense. What no one seems to know is what will be considered legal, how referees will determine something to be illegal, and whether they’ll bother to enforce the rule at all.
The problem is defensive players aren’t bringing down tackling dummies; they’re going after moving targets. It’s certainly possible we could see entire lines on both sides of the ball thrown out before halftime. There’s a need to make the game safer. Passing rules without clear definitions only leads to confusion.
And even after more ⏩ rules changes, no one still really seems to know what constitutes a legal catch.
The new artificial turf at ⏩ historic Yale Field looks fantastic. The only thing we miss is the shrubbery that rose above the outfield wall. It had to be removed to bring in the turf. Yale officials say they’re considering bringing it back. Hope they do.
University of New Haven ⏩ ace pitcher David Palmer has an ERA now. After tossing 35 innings without an earned run allowed this season, he surrendered a two-run homer to American International in the first inning on Friday. His new streak began immediately. Palmer finished the game with eight more scoreless innings. He’ll take a gaudy 0.41 ERA into his next start for the Chargers, ranked No. 6 in Division II.
Trivia answer: Pete Rose ⏩ (3,562 career games), Barry Bonds (2,986) and Omar Vizquel (2,968).
So much for the Flyers ⏩ sticking with the hottest (and brightest) goalie for the final playoff stretch. Former Yale star Alex Lyon was sent back to the AHL. How about this for a pay disparity? According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, Lyon makes $4,725 per day while on an NHL roster; when he’s in the AHL, he earns just $378 per day.
At the opposite end of ⏩ the Easter sweets spectrum are Cadbury Crème Eggs, the grossest candy in creation. Because the last thing I want to see after biting into Easter chocolate is synthetic raw egg yolk.