Good morning!
Northfield’s Alex Loud remembers a time in late February when he was teaching in Maine and the morning DJ said, “It’s that day in winter when you can stand with your back to the hemlock and feel the warmth of the sun.”
Frankly I’d rather be standing with my back to a coconut tree watching the Astros play the Nationals in West Palm Beach. It’s time to hop aboard the proverbial Orange Blossom Special with stops in Pottsville, Santee, and Gainesville.
Two weeks ago on his podcast The Show with Jon Heyman, the New York Post’s Joel Sherman summed up being on the baseball beat. “If you’re asking what a day in the life of an experienced professional writer is like, it’s just that I’m never not thinking about it.
“I’m never not thinking about who I should call or text, what I should write, how I could do it different than it’s been, or what the competition’s doing. I am 24/7. It’s not healthy I don’t think. It’s just with me all the time. I can’t shake it. It’s The Godfather, ‘This is the life we’ve chosen.’ But it is obsessive.”
Those words hit home. I’ll be watching baseball but taking a three-week hiatus from writing about it. In the meantime, leave peanuts out for the mice, water the houseplants and don’t let the sap buckets overflow.
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Jack Hughes scored the winning goal for Team USA 30 minutes after he had his two front teeth knocked out by a high stick. The next morning Dan Patrick played Kathryn Tappan’s postgame interview with Hughes. “This is all about my country, a ballsy, gutsy win. That’s American hockey right there. We’re USA. We’re so proud to be Americans.”
“You couldn’t script it,” marveled Patrick. “In fact if you tried to script it, somebody would say, ‘All right let’s ease off on the guy loses his teeth, OK?’”
Here’s a few other thoughts about that glorious Sunday morning. Milford’s Matt Boldy, who scored the team’s only other goal in the game, played two years at Boston College and had two goals and three assists in six games versus UMass from 2019-21. … Michigan native Connor Hellebuyck played for UMass Lowell from 2012-14 and helped the RiverHawks go 54-22-6 and make the NCAA tournament both years. … NBC miked up Brady Tkachuk and his longest sound bite was, “You’re welcome. You’re welcome. You’re welcome.” … “Can I get the unedited version?” asked Eddie Olczyk … The often overlooked 1960 U.S. Olympic team that beat Czechoslovakia, 9-4, to win the gold medal included Gene Grazia who played for West Springfield High School at the Big E Coliseum and went to Michigan State on a hockey scholarship.
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The UMass basketball team is fourth in the MAC in home attendance, drawing 48,510 into the Mullins Center with one game left. That’s more than last year (45,189) but less than the year before (55,633).
Attendance was helped by 7,524 fans who showed up to see No. 22 Miami-Ohio beat UMass on Feb. 17, and 5,096 who showed up for the 30th reunion of the ’95-’96 Final Four team and saw them lose to Buffalo.
On Tuesday the Minutemen led by 18 points at Ball State and lost in overtime. This afternoon they’re at Bowling Green to face the Falcons and the MAC’s leading scorer, Javontae Campbell, who torched the Minutemen for 47 points on Jan. 3.
If UMass loses today and again Tuesday it will finish under .500 and out of the playoffs, and coach Frank Martin should get the axe.
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Considering the success of the Final Four reunion, how about a Pat Kelsey Getaway Day and a Matt McCall Hoodie Day?
Kelsey split town a half hour before his introductory press conference in 2017, after he apparently realized he was on the verge of making a colossal mistake.
McCall, who was 61-82 in five years at UMass, let his players wear their hoodies over their heads during the national anthem. He currently sells real estate in Palm Beach County.
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After last week’s column was published it occurred to me that Julius Erving wasn’t the only player who helped Jack Leaman become the school’s all-time winning basketball coach. Other key contributors included Mike Pyatt, Al Skinner, Mike Pagliara, Jim Town, Derick Claiborne, the late Alex Eldridge and Greenfield’s own Mark Donoghue.
Donoghue transferred from Dartmouth and helped UMass go 41-17 in two seasons, averaging 14.2 points and 8.2 rebounds.
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UMass hockey coach Greg Carvel learned before the UNH series that assistant coach Tom Upton had taken the head coaching job at Brown. “I hired Tommy four years ago because he is extraordinary at holding players accountable while earning their trust and connecting with them,” Carvel said in a Brown University press release. “Tommy is ready for this next challenge.”
Upton joins Ben Barr and Jared DeMichael as former Carvel assistants who’ve moved on to be the head coach at Maine and associate head coach at No. 1 Michigan State, respectively.
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Two members of Brian Bagdon’s schoolgirl wrestling team shone for Frontier at the D-III states at Gloucester High School last week. Senior Jocelyn Antes defended her title in the 126-pound weight class, and eighth grader Ainsley Southergill placed third in the 114-pound weight class — pinning two sophomores and two seniors along the way.
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The UMass softball team will continue its barnstorming tour this weekend in Madeira Beach, Florida. At this writing the Minutewomen had won six of their last nine games to pull within three wins of .500 (6-9). Los Angeles native Odyssey Torres was batting .485, and Brooke Musch of Camden, New York, was hitting .319 and was 8-for-8 in stolen base attempts.
Meanwhile in Columbia, Maryland, the UMass baseball team won its first three games under co-coaches Brandon Shileikis and Max Weir, assistant coach Tim Gelzinis and volunteer assistant Josh Sherman.
Redshirt freshman Ty Fox hit two home runs and drove in six to pace an offense that batted a collective .319. Eleven different hurlers pitched at least one inning during the three games, paced by Callen Powers who gave up three hits and a run in 5.1 innings.
After a three-game set against Siena this weekend, UMass will kick off the MAC schedule next Friday at Toledo.
SQUIBBERS: Phil Corrinet is seeking “raffle items, golfers and new members” for the Kiwanis Club and its “Warm the Children” tournament on May 11 at the Country Club. Call 413-427-2075. … St. John’s missed its last 24 field goal attempts and didn’t score a basket in the final 17:28 of a 72-40 debacle against UConn on Wednesday. … Can’t forget the late Mickey Lolich who pitched over 300 innings for the Tigers four consecutive seasons from ’71 to ’74, and Cambridge-born Wilbur Wood who used a knuckler to win 24 games for the White Sox in ’72 and ’73 after being jettisoned by the Red Sox and Pirates. … Sportsbooks are offering 6-1 there’ll be a first-time World Series winner this season from among the Rockies, Rays, Brewers, Padres and Mariners. … Over/Unders of note: Yankees (90.5); Mets (90.5); Cubs (88.5); Red Sox (87.5); Orioles (85.5). … Mets broadcaster Howie Rose will only do home games this season. “If you could parachute me into the booth and back home again and not have to deal with the traffic I’d go on forever,” the 72-year-old Rose told the New York Post. … Speaking of the Mets, a disgruntled fan emailed Mike Francesa: “This year’s roster feels more like a David Stearns algorithm than a real baseball team.” … Missed seeing Jim and Jean Turati at the Mullins Center this season. Maybe they were just hiding. … Hadley’s Richie Cook says UMass plays down to the competition. “If UMass played GCC, they’d win by two points.” Or lose by two. … Mark Enoch says he suffered from curling withdrawal after the Olympics ended. … Happy No. 80 to former Recorder editorial page chief Denny Wilkins who set sprint records back in the day on the Lower Level track at Deerfield Academy. … BYU linebacker Jack Kelly was a national champion BMX rider at age five who transitioned to football in high school. “Turns out he’s a stud linebacker,” NFL draft guru Dane Brugler told Ross Tucker. “You see that [BMX] fearlessness in him on the field.” … UMass men’s hoops has missed 216 free throws this season, second worst in the MAC. … Casey Stengel, watching Mickey Mantle his rookie season: “This kid ain’t logical.” … When author Doug Brunt asked Lee Child to sign a first edition copy of his first Jack Reacher book, Killing Floor, he signed it, handed it back and said,“The truly rare ones are the unsigned ones.”