Sun Jan 17, 2010
Juggernaut
Today our GOYA basketball team won 62-34 (I think) to raise its record to 3-0-1 (there is no overtime in the regular season, sadly). We were shorthanded this weekend because several of the boys were at winter camp at Antiochian Village but we will be at full strength next Saturday for what promises to be a big challenge - Mt. Carmel, playing on its home court. Here is the remaining schedule. Please consider coming out to support our boys!
Sat 1/23 12:20pm vs Mt. Carmel
Sun 1/24 2:20pm vs St. Rose of Lima
Sat 1/30 6:10pm vs St. Rose of Lima
Sun 1/31 4:40pm vs St. Mary
Sat 2/13 12:30pm vs St. Mary
All games are at Mt. Carmel. Playoffs begin at the end of February.
Sun Jan 10, 2010
Bad And Good Sports Day
Today was a horrible day for us Patriots fans but there was, at around the same time, a good victory - our GOYA basketball team (made up of GOYAns and SOYO members from St. George) won its first game of the season (the opener was a tie). The game, against St. George (the Catholic church near Ararat St.) was pretty close in the end, partially because we gave everyone a lot of playing time so it was hard to establish a rythm. Our boys played hard and, most importantly, were good sports. I was thankful that so many parents came out to cheer on the squad - I can remember many games from my youth where our team was cheered on by my family and one or two other sets of parents, and that was it. I am Coach Leasca's assistant, so this was my first coaching experience in a game. There is, for me, much room for improvement - I am in way over my head:) I will post the times for next weekend's games at some point this week. If you are a parishioner, please consider coming out to support our boys.
Thu Jan 07, 2010
College Football And Money
George Will has a nice article today on college football programs here. Check it out. In I Am Charlotte Simmons, Tom Wolfe, while describing the hoops program of the fictional college in the book mentions that big-time programs are huge drains rather than moneymakers, and successful ones are even bigger money-losers. Will touches on this a bit in the article which, like the section in the Wolfe book, makes us think about these programs a little differently.
Thu Dec 24, 2009
SMU
This is a pretty random post for Christmas Eve but...
I do not follow college football too closely because I am usually busy with church stuff on Saturdays and I do not have cable. I check out the headlines on the various sports websites but that is it. So it was to my surprise tonight that I went to ESPN's site and saw that SMU (Southern Methodist University) was playing in a bowl game. For me and for most sports fans, I imagine, the name SMU immediately brings just one thing to mind: the death penalty.
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Fri Sep 18, 2009
RIP
Cross-posted on localworcestersports
Fred Cusick, the greatest sports announcer I have ever listened to, passed away recently at the age of 90. More here.
[17] comments (135 views)
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Sun Aug 16, 2009
Vick And Remorse
Cross-posted on Local Worcester Sports.
Howard Bryant's recent article on Michael Vick's return to the NFL (and perhaps respectability) is about as good as I have seen on this topic. A few of my thoughts:
-Most articles on Vick's return mention how exciting he will be playing in the Wildcat formation or somesuch thing. They also mention how Philly is a winning team that has superstars, so Vick will not be the big man in the locker room. But the genius of the Eagles (or the Pats or a handful of other teams) signing Vick is that if it doesn't work out and they cut him it is really no big deal. None of these teams would be dependent on him to win.
-Is Vick truly remorseful? Who knows? Byrant makes the very good point that Vick didn't regret stuff until he got caught. It will take years to know, if ever. I will not speculate further on this point, because then you get into philosophical points about if he wasn't remorseful but if the ads helped people understand cruelty to animals, does that make it ok, etc.
-I hope things work out for all parties involved. One of things that has come out of all this is how repulsive animal cruelty is.
-I say all of this, but I cannot but keep from flashing back to such repulsive words as hanging, drowning, and electrocuting - all things which happened to the fighting dogs under Vick's aegis. There is just something utterly reprehensible to all of this that makes it hard for me to see Vick and his situation objectively.
Check out Bryant's article here.
[13] comments (177 views)
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Fri Aug 07, 2009
Ryan/Ventura...And Winfield?
Cross-posted on localworcestersports.blogspot.com
Phil Mushnick has an article today on the 16th anniversary of Robin Ventura charging the mound against Nolan Ryan (and getting pummeled). I remember watching this while on summer vacation from college. I think Mushnick leaves out the real context of the brawl - Ventura was the first guy since Dave Winfield in 1980 (!) to dare charge the mound against Ryan, who was an institution by time Ventura did his thing. Interestingly, Mushnick, who truly is the voice of the average fan in showing how leagues and teams take advantage of fans, schedule games at times making it impossible for kids to watch, etc., mentions Winfield in another context later in the article. The long time between people charging Ryan was the main theme of Sportscenter that night, as I remember. I wrote the author an email on the subject - I am interested to see if he remembers this angle and/or thinks it was as significant as I remember.
[19] comments (174 views)
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Tue Aug 04, 2009
Mt. Watatic
Last week Fr. Peter and I took off very early one morning and journeyed up to Ashburnham, on the NH border. We had a fabulous breakfast at a diner on Main St. and then hiked up Mt. Watatic. It took us about an hour to get to the top and then 45 minutes to get back down to "base camp". It was great to be out in nature (although we tweeted like crazy and recorded a podcast whilst on the summit) and it was almost like a mini-retreat. How often do you get to sit on top of a mountain and look out over God's creation? The hike itself is challenging (there were many steep parts) yet easy. We got a great workout with fantastic views and were back in Worcester shortly after 12 noon. And it is so close - not much further than Fitchburg.
More...
[20] comments (133 views)
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Sun Jul 19, 2009
Mick The Quick
I read an interview today with Mickey Rivers and blogged about it over at the sports blog.
[27] comments (150 views)
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Fri May 08, 2009
RIP Dom DiMaggio
The Little Professor passed away today. Read the story - he seemed like quite a guy. I had no idea he was one of the founders of the Pats franchise. You can check out his stats here. Keep in mind that he, like many of his peers, lost a lot of time to the war. The Baseball Crank's take is here.
[32] comments (131 views)
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