Briefly.
Trivia #1: Who was the first person elected to the MLB Hall of Fame who was not first a player, manager or general manager?
Trivia #2: What happened on March 17 – St. Patrick was born; St. Patrick died; The day St. Patrick was captured by Irish pirates; The day St. Patrick escaped from Ireland and returned to Britain?
Answers below
I read a most-confusing article in Monday’s Herald. Is was about David Price saying, if he was 22 or 23 years old, he would be having surgery on his elbow. What? That can’t be good. He goes on to say; “It doesn’t matter if it sends up red flags, whatever it is. Whenever it’s dealing with something like that, you want to know what’s going on in there and that’s what we did. If we didn’t do that, there’s no place, of there’s no telling where I’d have been mentally because that was a lot different for me even though it calmed down a lot. At the end of it, I realized this was, it was really no different than what I usually go through in spring training, that I expect to go through in spring training.” Again, what?!?!?
A ping-pong table in the Sox’ clubhouse. OK, who’s going to get the first ping-ping-related injury?
The Charles Barkley, Samuel L Jones, Spike Lee Capitol One commercials crack me up. “…depending on the par-tay!”
The Dance!
It will forever baffle me that there are two play-in games for an 11th seed.
Northwestern was invited to the dance for the first time in the school’s history becoming the final major-conference team to make it.
At least one team from the First Four (teams playing Tue/Wed this week) has advanced to the second round each year.
Only four times have the top four teams in all four regions survived the first round.
Only 12.5% of the time do the top four seeds in any region make it to the Sweet 16.
There has never been an Elite 8 without at least one #1 seed.
There has been at least one team seeded 10 or worse to survive the first weekend in 30 of the 32 years since the field expanded to 64.
This week’s sign of the apocalypse: Yale University may change ‘freshmen’ to ‘first years’ to avoid sexism.
The MBTA is considering cost-cutting moves that include eliminating weekend commuter rail service for up to a year in an effort to close a looming $42M budget gap. Now that would suck.
Did you catch the Kyle Busch/Joey Logano fight after last Sunday’s race? That’s just what Nazcar needs more of – Road Rage! Funny, in the article I read the incident notes how Busch’s “#18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota” was sent spinning in a wild wreck after contact with the “#22 Team Penske Ford” of Joey Logano… That’s like “#12 Tom Brady connected with the #87 jersey, Gronkowski…” Do race fans really give a crap what number car either was driving?? Or maybe they really don’t know names, just numbers??
It’s been four years since Manny Ramirez was a full time player (in Taiwan) and last seen on an MLB field with the Tampa Bay Rays in 2011. He also served as a hitting coach with the Cubbies. Now, he has a new, cushy deal with the Kochi Island fighting Dogs in Japan. Aside from the money, his Manny now has use of a Mercedes and driver; Practices are optional for him; He gets a hotel suite on the road and he will receive unlimited sushi for the entire season. He will wear jersey number “99”, identifying him simply as “Manny”.
I mentioned Haverhill’s Justin Reyes weeks ago. Yesterday he led his St. Thomas Aquinas Spartans over Saint Rose for a berth in the Division II Elite Eight. (Poor bastards have to go to South Dakota – but let’s not digress). Justin, a junior, was named the Most Outstanding Player in the regional round and was earlier named one of 25 finalists for the Bevo Francis Award as the best Small College player in the nation. Reyes was also named ECC Player of the Year. His Spartans, a #7 seed, have now won 18 or their last 19 and take on #2 Northwest Missouri State next Wednesday.
Trivia answer #1: Tom Yawkey
Trivia answer #2: The day St. Patrick died
Happy St. Patrick’s Day, regardless of your heritage. DYK, St. Patrick’s Day is holy day in Ireland. It wasn’t even a public holiday in Ireland until 1904, although it had been observed with parades and churchgoings since the 1700s. The U.S. started celebrating in 1737 with parades starting in 1766. The festivities in America influenced Ireland, where in the 1960s pubs first began to open on the holiday.
“May your right hand always be stretched out in friendship but never in want.” – an Irish toast
What’s one Irish toast without another:
“Here’s to a long life and a merry one.
A quick death and an easy one.
A pretty girl and an honest one.
A cold pint – and another one.”
“Watch out where the huskies go
An’ don’t you eat that yellow snow.
Watch out where the huskies go
An’ don’t you eat that yellow snow.”
Ed's Head On Friday 