Good morning!
It’s the time of year when sports news moves slower than George Scott trying to beat out a double play. It reminds me of young Norman Rockwell’s painting of himself scratching his head and staring at a blank canvas with the due date tagged to the top of the frame.
Fortunately there’s plenty of smaller items to report, a smorgasbord for your reading pleasure. Let’s get started with news from down Springfield way that earlier this month Ralph Calvanese was inducted into the Springfield Hockey Hall of Fame.
An Agawam native, Ralph worked behind the scenes for parts of five decades as the Springfield Indians/Kings/Falcons/Thunderbirds equipment manager. He was quiet and efficient, but best of all the players loved his skate sharpening skills.
During my days covering the team for the Valley Advocate, I’d hang around after practice and talk to him looking for a scoop. One day he gave me an old Springfield Kings hockey helmet, a blue Jofa like Wayne Gretzky wore when he was with Edmonton. This was when wearing a hockey helmet had gone from optional to mandatory, and it became a prized possession.
Ralph was honored during a rinkside ceremony before a T-birds game at the MassMutual Center. He’s had a good life and a good career, and he surely deserved the recognition.
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A year ago this month, quarterback Tyler Lytle announced he was transferring from Colorado to UMass. “Walt Bell said he was the greatest thing since Tom Brady,” said a former UMass assistant coach.
The 6-foot-2 Lytle was heavily recruited out of high school but never moved up the Buffaloes depth chart and transferred with two years of eligibility remaining.
Lytle started the season opener against Pittsburgh, was sacked five times and broke his wrist in the 51-7 loss. True freshman Brady Olson of Milford started the next two games against Boston College and Eastern Michigan and threw for 499 yards, five touchdowns and three interceptions.
Olson began to regress, however, and Bell gravitated back to Lytle and the team’s other two quarterbacks, Zamar Wise and Garrett Dzuro. After Bell was fired, Dzuro started the last two games and Lytle quit at the end of the season.
“That’s what happens when you recruit a guy and put him into a game and it doesn’t work out,” said the source. “[Lytle] was terrible.”
Terrible how? I asked.
“He can’t run. He can’t read defenses. He can’t throw. Anything else you want me to tell you?”
Now it’s up to coach Don Brown and his quarterbacks coach Steve Casula to restore Olson’s confidence.
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School commissioners in Rutland, Vermont, voted 6-5 on Jan. 11 to return “effective immediately” to the days when the high school’s athletic teams were called the Rutland Raiders, and the school’s logo was an arrowhead.
According to the Rutland Herald, a majority of students and alumni preferred Raiders over the new nickname the Ravens. “Anybody can be offended by anything,” school commissioner Tricia O’Connor told the Rutland Herald. “If you’re looking to be offended I can guarantee, something’s going to offend you, [but] because you’re offended doesn’t mean there has to be something wrong.”
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In November, Odell Beckham Jr. signed a $750,000 contract with the Rams and said he’d take his pay in Bitcoin. At the time, one Bitcoin was worth $64,293 but as of Monday, “One Bitcoin is worth $35,000,” said radio host Dan Patrick. “So the deal is worth $412,000 and he’s going to be taxed 50 percent on the $750,000. Wow.”
Although the markets have dealt OBJ a raw deal down to $201,000, his incentive-laden contract may yield larger dividends. In 10 games (including playoffs) he has 37 catches for 428 yards and seven touchdowns according to footballdb.com.
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The Pennsylvania Racing Commission (PRC) has suspended jockey Michael Sanchez for 60 days for betting against his own mounts. Sanchez foolishly opened a TVG account in his own name, and TVG alerted the authorities. “Good for TVG, they were paying attention,” said turf writer Bill Finley who joked, “He should’ve opened the account in his uncle’s name.”
Finley told his Sirius-XM co-host Dave Johnson that he wanted more info for his racing column but that the PRC was stonewalling him. “The Pennsylvania Racing Commission is horrible, the most useless group of people on the face of this earth. They don’t even answer the phone.”
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Despite his fall from grace, Bob Baffert has his usual good crop of Kentucky Derby hopefuls in the stable. Today at Oaklawn Park, he’ll send Newgrange to post in the $750,000 Southwest Stakes. Sired by Empire Maker, the 3-year-old prodigy has two wins in two starts and $102K in earnings.
Baffert’s colt Bletchley Park — named after the British estate where WWII codebreakers worked — debuted last week at Santa Anita Park and lost by a length to 24-1 longshot Happy Jack, and Steve Asmussen’s 8/5 favorite Epicenter ran second to 28-1 longshot Call Me Midnite in the Lecomte at the Fairgrounds.
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SQUIBBERS: WFAN’s Boomer Esiason after Cincinnati stopped Tennessee’s 2-point conversion attempt: “This goes to all coaches out there and I don’t want to upset the people from MIT, Harvard and Yale: Don’t go for two until you have to. That’s my algorithm and I’m sticking to it.” … Word out of Tampa Bay is that Rays players were relieved when MLB brass declined ownership’s request to split home games between Tampa Bay and Montreal. … Luke Pavicich made his UMass debut between the pipes on Tuesday after “Iron” Matt Murray let in four quickies against BU. The 19-year-old New York native gave up one goal on nine shots in the 6-4 loss. … Insiders say the Red Sox are concerned that Bobby Dalbec can’t catch up to anything pitched over 95 mph. … CBS’s Ian Eagle on the 44-yard pass from the Bengals’ Joe Burrow to C.J. Uzomah on the last play of the half: “That’ll be nice window dressing on the stat sheet, but that’s it.” … A Cincinnati TV station reported that the Bengals pro shop sold out of Evan McPherson jerseys after four field goals including the 52-yard game winner. … Mets manager Buck Showalter tabbed Craig Bjornson to be his bullpen coach. Bjornson had the same position with the Astros until 2017 and with the Red Sox until last year. … The Yankees must be having second thoughts about not signing Manny Machado despite his ill advised “I’m not Johnny Hustle” comment. Machado had always wanted to wear pinstripes, not Padres brown-and-gold, and he’s missed just 15 games in three seasons. … GHS grad and former Trump senior economic advisor Kevin Hassett spoke on Fox News last week about the state of the economy. “The stuff they’re doing makes no sense,” Hassett said of the Biden administration’s economic policies. … NFL analyst and former Bills lineman Ross Tucker claims the Buccaneers have the best press box food in the NFL: “They have multiple carving stations and they serve Bananas Foster at halftime.”
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet95@yahoo.com