Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I discuss our Spring Break travels to… Baltimore.
And Aberdeen.
And the exotic Havre de Grace…
Maryland.
Yeah, not the fanciest places you’ve ever heard of but you know it’ll be a good story.
You’re welcome.
Today is my third and, alas, final day in eastern Maryland, celebrating Spring Break in not exactly the most traditional way.
Right on brand for me though.
Last night my son and I took in an Aberdeen Ironbirds game at Ripken Stadium, getting the full “Ripken Experience” as they call it ’round these parts. (The complex really is like Disney World–if Disney were Cal Ripken Jr.)
It was actually the second game of the day we saw. The first was a collegiate contest between Notre Dame of Maryland University (yup, that’s a thing) and Hood College. (Hood I’d heard of–it’s just up Route 15 from me.) Hood was up 10-2 when we picked it up (at the field 100 yards from our hotel room), blew its entire lead, then won 11-10 in 10 innings.
Amazingly, four hours later we witnessed a nearly identical crushing defeat for the home team at another field 100 yards in the opposite direction from our hotel room. The aforementioned Aberdeen Ironbirds (single-A affiliates of the Baltimore Orioles) came nearly all the way back from an 8-1 deficit to lose 8-7 to the Brooklyn Cyclones. The ‘birds scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth inning but left the tying run on third base.
But damn that crab dip pretzel was great. #maryland
Anyone who ever suggests that golf is boring: watch a tape of the 2025 Masters. Sunday afternoon. What I thought would be one eye on the TV, watching Rory McIlory cruise to a green jacket… it soon became me glued to my screen for two hours like some kind of 1950s family mesmerized by television for the first time.
Golf. Not boring. A dramatic Masterspiece.
Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I celebrate all things Y2K.
I figured it was as good a time as any.
Enjoy.
Okay, it was the college basketball final none of us wanted to see, and honestly the result wasn’t the one I wanted either, but damn that was a great game Monday night. Don’t let the sloppy last 10 seconds fool you; this one was legit.
Remember all that talk at the beginning of the tournament, how Florida had a player who was seven foot nine and he wasn’t even playing?
Yeah, they did okay without him.
This weekend I experienced probably the best thing I ever saw on a screen and also the worst.
The worst was Saturday night (actually Sunday morning), as my temporary team (that would be the Duke Blue Devils) lost its semifinal game against the Houston Cougars. A Duke win would have sealed my position at the top of my “company” bracket challenge, a position which carried no monetary prize, just bragging rights for a year. Way better than money. Duke’s collapse was up there with Mike Mussina’s near-perfect game, Game Seven of the 2001 World Series, and Tom Watson at the 2009 British Open. Soul-crushing. And setting up the final no one wanted to see.
At the other end of things, perhaps the greatest thing I ever saw, occurred for me Sunday afternoon, mere hours after I was crushed by the outcome of a basketball game.
I was at Alamo Drafthouse for the 5:00 showing of A Minecraft Movie, and damned if it wasn’t like the greatest movie I’d ever seen. I couldn’t explain to you the plot, couldn’t tell you a thing about Minecraft, but somehow it was ambrosia on the screen in a 1960s theater of the absurd sort of way.
It was also just what I needed.
(Pause for effect.)
And yeah, Alex Ovechkin’s record-setting goal was pretty good too.
Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I discuss this weekend’s Final Four, the conclusion to this year’s NCAA Men’s Division I Basketball Tournament.
A.K.A March Madness.
For once my guest and I are caught up on the madness, offering insights on the teams that are actually still in it, not hopelessly eliminated before the episode even drops.
And because it’s us, we talk about unusual food items too.
Enjoy.
It’s still unclear to me whether it was to celebrate an anniversary or April Fools’ Day, but yesterday’s MLB Immaculate Grid was the greatest I had ever seen. Completing it, honestly, was the most fun I’ve had since before Covid.
Each category? Someone who played in the Major Leagues.
Anyone.
Ever.
Over 23,000 correct answers in each square.
That’s just brilliant.
My grid is reproduced below. Each row has a theme. Can you guess?
And after all that the Final Four is all the number-one seeds?
Pfft! I coulda done that with my eyes closed.
Oh, well. At least I can say I guessed a few of them correctly. Exceptions being the ones I actually tried to guess.
So March Madness ends today.
April Madness starts tomorrow.
Today on Math and Musings Franklin and I are celebrating a bit, toasting MAM’s 200th episode. We talk a little basketball, a little unusual food items… the staples of O’Connell living.
Enjoy.