New Haven Register (Sunday) (New Haven, CT)
Sunday Gravy: State events proving to be a big draw
The addition of Karolina Pliskova and CoCo Vandeweghe as wild card entries late last week gave the Connecticut Open five players ranked in the top 10 worldwide and an American tennis player who fans are familiar with.
This is the best field to come to New Haven since 2006 when the tournament boasted six in the top 10. Among those competing this week are world’s No. 1, Simona Halep, and No. 6 Petra Kvitova. By comparison, the Travelers Championship golf tournament had five ranked in the top 10.
It’s not easy to bring the world’s best the week before the U.S. Open (tennis) or the week after (golf ), but Connecticut’s two premier sporting events have managed to not only bring in marquee players, but also have other activities on site to make the event attractive.
1 The Boston Red Sox are now drawing comparisons with the 1998 New York Yankees’ team that was honored on Saturday. The Red Sox are on pace to win 114 games — same as those Yankees did.
Boston beats teams into submission much like those Yankees did. The Sox have a great lineup that has been mentioned in this column previously, and a quality pitching staff. Their bullpen is not as good. It also remains to be seen how Alex Cora will manage similarly or differently once the postseason begins.
Even if the Red Sox win 114 games, if they don’t win 11 in the postseason, it won’t matter. They will be remembered like the 2001 Seattle Mariners that won an MLB-best 116 games and didn’t even make the World Series. The pressure is officially on.
1 I’m setting the over/ under of Major League Baseball managers being fired at season’s end at five. 1 According to the Stats BY STATS Twitter account, the New York, Mets are the first MLB team since 1894 to win a game by more than 20 runs and lose a game by the same margin. So the Mets have that, which is nice.
1 I always made sure I watched — or taped — UConn vs. Tennessee. So count me among the many happy to see the best rivalry in women’s college basketball return for two years beginning with the 2019-20 season.
1 What are the odds that both Urban Meyer and D.J. Durkin will be coaching their respective Big-10 Conference schools when Ohio State plays at Maryland on Nov. 17? Both are on paid administrative leave while their respective schools conduct internal investigations.
1 I’ll take Alabama to win the college football national championship again. You take the field.
1 Jim Furyk’s four wild card selections for the U.S. Ryder Cup will be: Tiger Woods, Phil Mickelson, Tony Finau and Kevin Kisner. This team should be the first in a quarter century to win on European soil next month.
1 Before that, the FedExCup playoffs begin this week. This will be the last year the playoffs extend past Labor Day and include four events. In 2019, the Tour Championship will be held over Labor Day weekend. 1 Arguably the state’s best high school conference enters year No. 25 when the season starts next month. Yes, the Southern Connecticut Conference is a quartercentury old. League commissioner Al Carbone said that through the league’s website (www.southernconnecticutconference.org), a number of the great moments in the league’s history will be remembered throughout the school year. 1 Best of luck to Durham’s Karen Woodward, who looks to defend her title Sunday in the Ironman Mont-Tremblant at Quebec Canada. Woodward won in the 40-44 age group last year.
1 Singer Aretha Franklin’s first movie cameo was as a waitress in the Blues Brothers. She and her husband co-own a restaurant when the title characters, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd, come there to recruit the husband to come back on the road with their band.
The husband was Matt “Guitar” Murphy, who goes back on the road despite Franklin’s pleas. Murphy, who had a very impressive music career in his own right, died two months earlier than Franklin did.
If you haven’t seen the movie, you are missing out. A classic.
1 Speaking of Franklin, her death Thursday was the same date (Aug. 16) as two other American legends: Babe Ruth and Elvis Presley. Very impressive company.
1 The movie The Irishman is scheduled to be released on Netflix in 2019. I’ll let you go read about Martin Scorsese’s plot on your own and just mention some of the cast members: Al Pacino, Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel and Ray Romano.
If that alone doesn’t excite you, I don’t know what to tell you.