As we settle in for more March Madness, thought some good news basketball stories would be fun:
This one is old, but get the tissues:
There’s always one of these proving kids are just…amazing
And just because Pink makes me happy. Love that it was like the world’s largest game of charades as they try to explain to her what’s happening. And her pianist is a kick.
That’s all I got for you this weekend. I’ll try and put together the climate posts for next weekend. I do have some good stuff set aside to share.
I’m not a huge March Madness fan, though I LOVE, LOVE, basketball (GO Nuggets!) but with CSU in a game (sad to see them go in the second game) and CU men’s and women’s teams kicking butt, I have been checking in on those games. And I’ve got the gardening bug and have been doing what I can before the next snowstorm, including digging up a flagstone path and patio in the middle of my backyard. That works off a ton of stress.
And for those wanting an update, Zander is still having good days – yesterday we went out and sat in the sun, his favorite thing to do. Last night he slept on top of my head, like he always does, and decided when he wanted attention he would swish his big Maine Coon tail across my face until I petted him (that would never fly when he was well). We are coming near time, but I’ll take the good days we have left.
What’s your good news this weekend?
Good news and March Madness open thread
lowtechcyclist
The USC* women’s team got off to a rousing start, demolishing Presbyterian College, 91-39.
I feel kinda bad that Presbyterian had to face them in the opening round – my wife taught there for a year, and one of my grad school friends is a professor there. But them’s the breaks.
*That’s University of South Carolina, in this case.
Baud
@lowtechcyclist:
USC was fortunate not to draw the Methodists.
Spanky
@Baud: Methodists can’t jump
ETA: Now the Shakers, on the other hand …
mrmoshpotato
Dan Curtis’s (Dark Shadows creator) Dracula is on Svengoolie tonight, so that should be interesting.
Go Tarheels! Go Cyclones! Go Illini!
mrmoshpotato
@Spanky: I hear the Shakers can shake it.
Butch
I lived in DC briefly and when I was there someone gave me tickets to see the pro basketball team – I think it was called the Capitals. I decided that the best way to watch basketball is to sit in the bar until the last two minutes of the game.
wjca
Oh, good! As a Californian, I automatically assumed it was the University of Spoiled Children.
scav
@mrmoshpotato: Yeah, but there’s no home-grown talent. Clean lines though.
mrmoshpotato
@Butch: Washington Wizards. The Capitals is the hockey team.
Butch
@mrmoshpotato: Thanks for the correction – it was a few years ago and I’m not surprised I misremembered!
CaseyL
Imagine being a big enough Pink fan that you go to see her in concert near your due date. She should send the parents a bouquet or something, at the very least.
It’s good to hear Zander is still being Zander :).
Gin & Tonic
@Butch: The Capitals are the ice hockey team. The basketball team are the Wizards.
ETA: Slow typing.
Rusty
Here is good news, March Madness crossover story. Yale #13, which beat #4 Auburn, didn’t have their pep band with them. So the pep band for Idaho who was playing at the same site quick learned the Yale fight song and someone found them all Yale t-shirts. I like to think that the close Yale win was maybe a bit in part because of their impromptu pep band. Musicians being the best!
Phylllis
@lowtechcyclist: Give PC credit, they stayed in the game and ran their plays. As for the rest of South Carolina men’s hoops, our lonely eyes now turn to Clemson. But the future looks bright for the Gamecock men.
And we are loving the Yale Bulldogs today. Because f*ck Bruce Pearl, and his spiritual twin, Kim Mulkey.
mrmoshpotato
@Butch: Good ol’ Wikipedia! Had to double check that myself.
Dangerman
In honor of March Madness. This goes back a few years; 1992, I think.
Hank Gathers had just passed. LMU was playing Michigan in the First Round.
What LMU did to Michigan still brings shivers; destroyed them as the Cinderella dog. Jeff Fryer dropped 11 3’s on them. The other might, the Oakland player dropped 10.
But the LMU/Michigan game was something special; if you love beautiful basketball and March Madness, that one might be on YouTube someplace.
ETA: Purest shot I ever saw? Brad Holland. Good grief. Jason Kapono probably is up there. Fryer that day at least was their equal.
JCJ
@mrmoshpotato: if it was long enough ago it might have been the Washington Bullets. I saw them in Indianapolis a long time ago when they still had that name. Elvin Hayes was quite the scorer
wjca
Definitely would NOT want to name a DC team that these days!
Dangerman
Before anyone complains, I’m thinking college; with Pros, what Steph Curry does is sick.
I should share the story someday about how I used to play pickup with some Lakers and Clippers. They would come with 6 or 8, split up numbers 3 or 4 a side, but needed some schlubs (like me) to fill out a full game. Damn that was fun. Circa 1990. Long damn time ago.
For the curious, I could shoot. Slow as molasses in winter and no hops.
Betty
It has been instructive to watch several interviews that Rex Chapman has done about his basketball career and his struggles with addiction as he chronicled in a new book, It’s Hard for Me to Live With Me. The description of his time at University of Kentucky makes me wonder how many of these young people suffer emotional abuse at these high profile “sports” schools. The demands on them can be extraordinary.
lowtechcyclist
@wjca:
My dad graduated from Southern Cal shortly after WWII, but my wife and I have three degrees between us (her BS and MS, my PhD) from U. of South Carolina. So I don’t exactly take sides between the two.
Brendan In NC
Glad to hear the news about Zander still being Zander. It’s still a few weeks off, but I’m about to become a Fur Uncle again. And TaMara – you’ll recognize Toby’s breed very quickly:
C:\Users\Bmontgomery\OneDrive – CBRE, Inc\Pictures\Dog photos\Toby\IMG_0369.jpg
Gin & Tonic
@JCJ: Pretty sure that was the Baltimore team, not Washington.
DEBG
Acts of kindness and generosity, like those wonderful kids on the basketball team, always choke me up. Happy tears.
Spanky
@wjca: The Bullets were originally the Baltimore Bullets, before they moved one metropolis south. Baltimore is another place that would NOT name a team that name nowadays
ETA, in other Baltimore sports news, I see Peter Angelos has finally died. He was the guy who must have been Dan Snyder’s role model.
Baud
@Brendan In NC:
Your link is to your home hard drive. Maybe a front pager can delete it.
frosty
@wjca: Originally the Baltimore Bullets before they moved, which at least was alliterative. Not a good name for a Mobtown team either.
ETA I’m too slow again!
Uncle Cosmo
@Gin & Tonic: Same franchise, established in 1961 in Chicago, moved to Baltimore two years later and took its name from an earlier pro hoops team that played in Churn CIty from 1944 to 1954. Moved to DC in 1973 as the Capital then Washington Bullets, renamed Washington Wizards only in 1997. In their last decade the Baltimore Bullets played some epic NBA playoff series vs the New York Knicks – incredible amount of talent on both teams .
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
Wikipedia says the Bullets didn’t become the Wizards until 1997. (I’d thought it was earlier than that, but what do I know.) (ETA: Beaten to this part by Uncle Cosmo.) They were still the Bullets when they won the NBA championship in 1978. (There was even a “Bullet Fever” song that got airplay during their run through the playoffs that year.)
OT – You indicated a day or two ago that you had a VERY low opinion of David Trone. I asked you about that, but I don’t know if you ever saw that. (At this point, I can’t even remember which thread that was in to go back and search for it.) Did you by any chance respond, and if so, do you remember which thread?
Sister Machine Gun of Quiet Harmony
Voted in the Missouri Democratic Primary for Biden. I found out the Primary was today a little over an hour before the polls closed at noon. Apparently, our stupid state government passed a law making the parties responsible for running the primaries. I didn’t get the usual notice in the mail. By chance, I looked at the Post Dispatch this morning and saw an article about it.
PaulB
Two palate cleansers for your weekend. The first, for the Disney nostalgia fans, is an HD video of the Disney Main Street Electrical Parade, which was mothballed in 2016. For the trivia buff, the song is “Baroque Hoedown.” (I’ve been watching “Behind the Attractions” on the Disney channel, which led me to look for this YouTube video.)
The second is that we’re approaching the 30-year anniversary of the first viewing of “Riverdance,” an interval entertainment at the 1994 Eurovision Song Contest, provided to the audience while votes were being counted. The 8-minute spectacle brought the crowd to its feet and launched multiple award-winning and record-breaking stage shows. (I first watched a live touring production of “Riverdance” a couple of decades ago, but had no idea until recently that its first performance was at Eurovision.)
trollhattan
How to tell schools are out for spring break: the weather turns suddenly from sunny and 70, to 54 and pouring. Whee!
This was slated as an outside day. Hrrmph.
Spanky
@lowtechcyclist: Yeah, we had a long visit from the hvac guy, and the thread was long dead.
Trone’s ads all seem to me to be pandering, but I think there’s another reason, one that might resonate with you.
Since we came to this county, at least one (sometimes more) of the commissioners owned liquor stores, and as a group they have been the biggest collection of idiots and dullards to occupy any office. That’s a span of nearly thirty years. This being Calvert County, the overwhelming majority have been Republican, but not all. My take on Trone is that he’s cut from the same mold. I’ll happily admit I’m biased by previous experience, but he’s done nothing to make me think I’m mistaken.
oldgold
The great sports writer Wright Thompson has written an excellent article on Caitlin Clark for ESPN Magazine. It is lengthy, but if you are interested in Caitlin, it is well worth your time.
https://www.espn.com/womens-college-basketball/story/_/id/39740282/caitlin-clark-iowa-2024-ncaa-women-basketball-tournament-ready-march
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky: Thanks – that gives me a bit more to go on.
Still plenty of time between now and May 14 to learn more about both him and Alsobrook.
Uncle Cosmo
Baltimore Orioles fans point to Peter G, Angelos (RIP) as the classic example of Be careful what you wish for, you might just get it. “It” in this case being local ownership – After the Bullets move to DC and the Colts to Indy, we were all terrified that some out-of-towner(s) would buy the O’s and move them as well (DC at first, later Charlotte or Nashville). Then came Mr Angelos, the mesothelioma bazillionaire.
IMO he really did want the best for Baltimore and the Orioles. But he wanted to be recognized as their savior, and whenever someone else associated with the team started to get a significant amount of the credit, PGA would fire them. (Down to Jon Miller, one of the most brilliant play-by-play announcers of his time.) A second problem was he wasn’t as good at wheeling & dealing as he thought; most infamously, he brought Albert Belle to Baltimore, which worked out terribly for all concerned. Mr Angelos suffered from that offshoot of Dunning-Kruger syndrome where people who are outstanding in one walk of life (here, product-liablity law) presume they’d be outstanding in an unrelated field they know nothing about (here, running an MLB franchise).
In any event, the Orioles’ future seems bright – they are a couple of years ahead of schedule on the way back to excellence and the farm system is loaded, and a new ownership team is about to take over, aiming to keep the team in town and competitive for most of the next decade at least (after which I will be too superannuated to give a frying flock). O’s & Crows, hon!
lowtechcyclist
@trollhattan:
This. The local weather observed the first 24 hours of our county’s spring break by dumping 2.5 inches of rain on us.
Spanky
@Uncle Cosmo: To be fair, if you need a lawyer you really want to find the biggest asshole in town. But you really don’t want that lawyer running your sports team.
Uncle Cosmo
@Spanky: TBH I think one of PGA’s issues was that Greeks consider themselves the sharpest traders on the planet (though the Armenians might give them a run for that title) and he thought the skills would transfer over to baseball ownership. That Belle deal was one helluva disaster.
trollhattan
@oldgold: +1. Read that today and came away with tremendous respect for both Clark and the author, who is new to me. Charles Pierce-level writing and not a spec of pandering–he really, really put his time into this.
Sent it to Runner Girl who, at the same age has many of the same self-doubts and unreasonable expectations heaped upon herself and her teammates. They part ways when it comes to the millions in product endorsements, however. {sadface}
trollhattan
@lowtechcyclist:
Damn, that’s a LOT of rain. Since I typed that post the temp has dropped to 51. Good thing we didn’t burn all our firewood.
Cathie from Canada
Our pets don’t know how long they live, only how well they live. Zander will appreciate how well you are helping him live, even if his days are shorter.
oldgold
@trollhattan: If you like his writing, here is a sensational article he wrote about Dan Gable. It is riveting.
https://www.espn.com/espn/feature/story/_/page/Dan-Gable/the-losses-dan-gable
NotMax
@trollhattan
Last night was March the effin’ twenty-second and was so brisk I resorted to switching the space heater on.
Did. Not. Sign. Up. For. This.
lowtechcyclist
@trollhattan:
Ain’t it though? Makes me appreciate my yard’s good drainage.
It’s about the same temp here. No firewood though, just the heat pump. And even now that the rain’s gone, there are still plenty of clouds so no help from the sun. But I’m comfortable in a flannel shirt and a sweater.
lowtechcyclist
@NotMax:
I’m sure glad we didn’t celebrate my recent birthday with a trip to Maui!
Melancholy Jaques
@Uncle Cosmo:
Baseball deals have to be evaluated at the time they were made. Injuries, especially career ending injuries, are not predictable.
When the Os signed Belle, he was coming off a 328/399/655, 48 2B, 49HR season. Sure, he was age 30, but right now Bryce Harper is 30. If he were a free agent, think of how many teams would be trying to sign him and for how much money.
comrade scotts agenda of rage
@Uncle Cosmo:
Nats fan here. Born and raised in DC. Followed a lot of O’s baseball from the mid-70s until more or less That Fucking Asshole purchased the team and it became clear he was the primary roadblock to preventing baseball from returning to DC.
Lived back in DC after college for 11 years, refused to go to Camden Yards. I have lots of close friends born/raised in Ballmer, lifetime O’s fans hon, and they fucking hated the man. Again, I didn’t hate the team, hated the fucking owner.
I know it’s poor form to speak ill of the dead but I’ll speak ill of That Fucking Asshole until the day I die.
If there is a hell and I end up meeting him there, he’ll wish he got into heaven somehow.
When certain people here knee-jerk the “Fuck LBJ” comment, that’ll be me “Fuck Angelos”.
Matt McIrvin
@PaulB: I got to see the Main Street Electrical Parade while it was at Disney World back in 2013, and it’s still one of my fondest memories of that visit–I never went to a Disney park as a kid but I’d seen that on TV and been fascinated by it.
lowtechcyclist
@Spanky:
Snyder’s record makes Angelos look brilliant by comparison. Thank goodness both are out of the picture.
Brendan In NC
@Baud: It figures – I’m an old man trying to learn new tricks…
Brendan In NC
Let’s try this instead – Glad to see Zander is still being Zander. It’ll be a couple weeks – but I’m about to become a new Fur Uncle/Dogsitter – TaMara, you’ll recognie the breed…
http://C:\Users\Bmontgomery\OneDrive – CBRE, Inc\Pictures\Dog photos\Toby\IMG_0369.jpg
Baud
Via Reddit, some semi-good news
Looks like Threads might beat out Bluesky.
Gin & Tonic
@Uncle Cosmo: Yup, I, being a Knicks fan since their glory days, remember those series very well. Finesse players like Unseld and De Busschere were what made them.
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
Musk’s dream of a total services website withers a little more each day.
Baud
@Frankensteinbeck:
I hadn’t heard any news about it in a while, so I assumed things had stabilized.
prostratedragon
@Spanky:
Now the Shakers, on the other hand …
Ooooh, them crossover dribbles … 🎶
raven
Go Illini!
Frankensteinbeck
@Baud:
Looks like the trend just keeps continuing. The platform bleeds ever so slowly. I wonder how much of his own money Musk has had to pump into the debts he foisted on it by now?
prostratedragon
@Rusty: I’ve heard of that kind of crossover at the Dance in past years. It’s a nice tradition.
Ruckus
Just watched the second YouTube.
That is a hell of a video. So many of us get or have cancer. Only one person in my family of 5 did not have cancer. Dad. He had Alzheimers so he didn’t escape much. The other 4 of us have had cancer, and 3 of them are gone, 2 from cancer. I’ve had 2 different cancers. Both found early enough (YEAH for good healthcare!) and taken care of. YOU DO NOT WANT CANCER and I hope that we find ways to stop or at least slow down cancer. We at least have ways to find it and help these days, if one has healthcare. There are many in this country who do not have any. For fucks sake we could at least provide healthcare to those that can’t afford it. I live in LA county and take public transportation a fair amount. I see people every time I do that obviously do not have what some would call a life – sure they breathe, but that’s free, unless one needs health care to make that happen. This concept that basic healthcare is/should be a profit driven business is, to use a word that we all understand, bullshit – of the highest order. I get free healthcare but that is because of the VA and that I am retired. Healthcare should be a right, and provided free for those that can’t afford it. I sure couldn’t without the VA. And I worked for 60 yrs.
laura
🏀HOOPS There it is🎶
Trollhattan is not lying about how cold and rainy it is- after a handful of lovely false-spring days. Bad news at the casita de amor- I tried to schedule an urban harvest of our orange tree only to be informed that we are in the quarantine zone for the oriental fruit fly. Sadly, we had to hire a handyman yesterday to pick the tree and load almost all if it into the garbage. Couldn’t even green waste it. So I had a friend come over and we squoze over a gallon of juice and now I’m fixing to make an orange cake, and squeeze more juice in hopes that the neighbors will want it. The house smells like an orange julius, so we’ve got that going for us.
raven
Full disclosure, this is from Will Liecth who somehow landed here in Athens. I bring it up because someone will and it may as well be an Illini.
Anonymous at Work
Question: How is Barkley handling Auburn losing to Yale?
laura
@Ruckus: I get free healthcare. Pardon me, but you earned every bit of that. We could have all manner of social goods and services but for billionaires. We should collectively do something about that.
raven
@Anonymous at Work: He’s a fucking moron. He babbled on about how great the SEC is in basketball and look what he got! He has given Yale credit and hasn’t whined about the Auburn player who got tossed early in the game. Also, Bruce Pearl is a fucking scumbag.
RevRick
@Anonymous at Work: Evidently, his son called shortly after the game and said, “I’m driving, who does Auburn play next?” To which Barkley replied ( in his own telling) with words not sayable on national television.
Baud
@raven:
I hope you’re enjoying this year’s tournament. I know how much it means to you.
Ruckus
@Betty:
The demands on them can be extraordinary.
I worked, as a hobby for 20 yrs, then full time 10 yrs in professional sports. It’s not a bad life but it can be one with some pretty crappy periods of time. When I worked full time would stop in hospitals whenever possible to see participants. And yes the demands can be extraordinary. Once had to stand and listen to someone chew my ass out for something that was never made actually clear or made any sense whatsoever and for which I’m pretty sure I had nothing to do with, for about 15 minutes. Injuries are a part of the mix, worse for some sports but possibly career ending for many, and then there is the rest of their lives. But there is nothing like finishing well and being revered for being able to do something that most can not accomplish.
RevRick
Growing up in Connecticut, I didn’t have a lot of in-state teams I could root for, it being 40 years past the time that Yale versus Harvard was The Game, the time before the NFL was conceived in a Canton, Ohio Buick dealership showroom. UConn was part of the sad Yankee Conference in my youth. Geno Auriemma and Jim Calhoun made UConn a basketball powerhouse when both were hired in the mid-80s. Calhoun made the brilliant marketing decision to pitch the Big East, with the possibility of playing before a national audience at Madison Square Garden, rather than the school itself. I mean Storrs, CT, suburb of swinging Willimantic?
I much prefer basketball to football and baseball (with their two and eleven person committee meetings), and hockey is difficult to watch if you don’t see it live, so I became a UConn college basketball fan about the same time my daughter discovered a certain Nordic god playing for Duke (spits).
I am, of course rooting for a repeat national championship.
raven
@Baud: So far so good. My old man felt better when his team lost so he could stop agonizing.
Manyakitty
@Baud: unfortunate. I find myself less and less interested in the social media landscape and don’t think I’ll be adding any new ones.
Jackie
Zags are headed to the Sweet Sixteen!!!🏀
Anonymous At Work
@RevRick: @raven’s issues aside, he sounds like he put on a brave face for national television. I honestly haven’t been impressed with any particular league this year as “the dominant league,” just teams here and there. Much more parity than in the past.
JCJ
@Gin & Tonic: name was changed in 1995 to the Wizards.
raven
@Anonymous At Work:
It’s not my issue,.
dnfree
@PaulB: We saw the star of Riverdance many years ago at a St. Patrick’s concert in Chicago. He was only 17, and so nervous when he danced, but mesmerizing even then.
Jackie
Great article about NJ’s Andy Kim going up against the New Jersey Democratic Party that kept Bob Menendez in power for so long:
David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch
New Larry Bird commercial is hilarious (link)
New Caitlin Clark commercial is too cute (link)
David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch
@oldgold:
It’s a masterpiece. 17,774 words and I’ve read it 4 times straight through. the photo editor also did a great selection.
Ruckus
@laura:
Any citizen and anyone legally living in this country should get free healthcare. Born here, naturalized, waiting legally.
But then this is fucking humanity and some have to feel above at least someone because they are fully, and only one part of the body. The lower, large exit port.
We have people that are billionaires, some many times over. I used to read Forbes and liked checking out every year the Forbes 400. The 400 wealthiest in this country. Now each and every one of them is worth well over $2 BILLION. That’s the 400 wealthiest people in the US. And I’m living in a rent controlled apt and living on SS. I’m OK BTW because I had skills and worked 60 damn years.
I take the LA Metro electric train and because of my age it costs me $.35 to travel 45 miles across LA County. The busses to and from the ends of my ride each cost $.50 for less than 3 miles each way.
Paul in KY
@Dangerman: Remember watching that game. Loved LMU’s style of play. RIP Hank.
Paul in KY
@RevRick: Will be surprised if UConn doesn’t get the back to back. They are a machine. Wish Hurley was coaching at UK.
Paul in KY
@David 🏈 Mahomes! 🏈 Koch: I can assure you that they didn’t play lacrosse at Bird’s high school.