Third overtime’s the charm for the Caps, Caps, Caps! But is this the real deal?
Or is it like the teasing breath of spring before the coldness of winter returns?
Temperature in Northern Virginia this morning… 35 degrees.
Reply
Never mind my local sports teams and their pathetic playoff woes. The teams to watch right now are in Philadelphia.
While I find it unlikely that the Flyers will beat the Penguins in their first-round matchup, the 76ers have a very real chance of making the NBA Finals. They’re the hottest team in basketball right now, and they’re playing like their looking to complete a Philly triple.
Philly triple?
You remember the Super Bowl, no? Philadelphia Eagles defeated the New England Patriots.
College basketball? Villanova wins it all. (Villanova University is in Philly, by the way.)
Could the Sixers make for the improbable (and I believe unprecedented) Philly Triple?
If it happens, you heard it here first.
Speaker of the House Paul Ryan is leaving Congress so he can “spend more time with his family.” Oh give me a break. You’ve got a team of speechwriters and this is the best you can come up with? “Spending more time with my family” is the oldest line in the book. It’s more like how one would “retire” from Congress on Saturday Night Live, or perhaps a Mel Brooks movie.
Many years ago the late Joe Sullivan said he wanted to do a study of the real reason every time a politician said he was leaving office to “spend more time with his family.” He and I discussed this in about 2005. I said 100% of the time the real answer is… I thought I was going to lose.
I stand by my answer.
(By the way, this whole exchange is included in the “monologue” track on Live ‘n On Q.)
Now if you’ll excuse me I’m going to go spend some time with my family.
Breaking news this week… cereal companies are returning to their traditional sugary recipes following several years of slumping sales of “healthy” option cereals with “natural” ingredients and all that jazz.
Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes (love writing that) from General Mills and Chocolate Frosted Flakes from Kellogg are among those in this new wave of good taste. That drab-colored Trix unveiled a few years ago? Bye.
Oh, there are still healthy cereals out there. That’s what a free market does. But food makers, please… don’t replace the good stuff with things the government wants us to buy.
This is America, dang it, and we won’t stand for it!
Shohei Ohtani is the biggest story in sports this week, this month, and if things continue, it would not be a stretch to say this century.
Shohei Ohtani? The Japanese Babe Ruth.
If Ruth could run like Carl Lewis.
A week does not make a career, but good Lord. Ohtani made his second major league start yesterday, and took a perfect game into the 7th inning. In seven complete he had 12 strikeouts with one walk and one hit. This was his second win of the young season, his first coming last Sunday when he yielded a pedestrian three hits and three runs over six innings.
Did I mention he hit three home runs this week moonlighting as a designated hitter?
This is not real.
Pitching I could see. New guy in a new league could fool batters a couple times around. But hitting .389 with three home runs? That’s no fluke. That’s no gimmick.
Hitting a baseball, in addition to being the most difficult thing in sports, is also one of the most honest.
It’s a week; I get it. Cooperstown is still a ways off. But Ohtani’s achievements can be described only as Ruthian.
“Like finding out Beethoven and Cezanne were the same person,” Daniel Okrent once said to describe Ruth’s hitting and pitching skills.
And was Emperor.
It’s that time of year again. Delete the March Madness app off my phone to make room for The Masters app.
A short but illuminating piece from last week’s Loudoun Times-Mirror (fast becoming my favorite local rag) describes the actions “transparency advocates” have taken to shine a light on incentives offered by local governments to Amazon re: its “HQ2” development. This is the sweepstakes Amazon is running as its board decides where to build its second headquarters, somewhere in North America. Will your local government be the one to offer enough from you the taxpayer?
Apparently we’ll never know. According to NoVaSaysNo.com: “Our state and local governments have signed non-disclosure agreements with Amazon, preventing residents from even knowing what is being offered with their tax dollars.”
Loudoun officials declined to answer questions from the Times-Mirror. The “Loudoun County Department of Economic Development” (I’m reaching for my wallet already) gave a bureaucratic response referencing Virginia Code sections eight numbers long.
The best bet at any sunlight on this particular issue is through Freedom of Information requests. Such requests have been submitted by, among others, members of the D.C. Metro chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America.
Democratic Socialists of America.
Shouldn’t they favor something like government support (I’m actually thinking of a nastier word) of business ventures? Anyway, I think it’s the first time I’ve ever found myself on their side.
First time for everything.
You know what they say about politics and bedfellows.
Well, it’s not the final anyone wanted, but it’s still the finals of the NCAA Tournament and that drama rarely disappoints.
One of the things I love about it is that they do start the game so damn late. Nine-twenty Eastern is the tip time tonight. That’s great. Have the riffraff go to bed and let the real sports fans watch this one. As I’ve written before, this is #30 for me. The first NCAA Championship game I ever watched was in April of 1989, and featured these same Michigan Wolverines. Well, not the same Wolverines; the players tonight weren’t even born then. Look at the tape of that game some time and see how young Steve Fisher and P.J. Carlesimo look. Heck, I was young too.
I’d already gone to bed that evening and woke up only to see the overtime (won by Michigan, by the way). It’s one of the true bonding experiences I had with my father. Watching sports on TV late at night: classic.
Should I wake up my–nah, nevermind.
I will think about it though.
Did I just see newly-acquired Yankee slugger Giancarlo Stanton hit not one but two home runs in his first game as a Bronx Bomber?
Oh, yes. And it’s still March.
And this is going to be fun.
It was a guilty pleasure last night, watching Roseanne on ABC, 20 years after the Conners left the small screen following a decade on the air. I’d looked forward to it for months, of course, as I do with everything that returns from my childhood. Most things are a total disappointment. This was not. Roseanne brought it, and viewers (and advertisers) did as well. All original cast members were back, and, thanks to the marvelous things plastic surgeons can do these days, everyone looks exactly the same. The writers, too, were clever about how to bring back two actresses who’d played the same character. (No spoilers here.)
The biggest noise concerning the episodes that aired last night was the Conner family’s politics. Dan and Roseanne are Trump supporters, while Aunt Jackie is decidedly not. I thought the best and most surprising part about the episode is that is was actually Jackie who was the butt of many of the political jokes (though she got in a few digs as well). We’ll see if this holds up through the rest of the season, nine episodes over the next two months.
I like the format of the new Roseanne, on broadcast TV but available immediately on demand. Nine episodes is just about right, too. I don’t need a full year’s worth anymore. The jokes are a little punchier and more than ever the show makes fun of itself. It’s basically the Fuller House model, and I am a big fan of Fuller House. Rumors abound of a thousand other ’90s-era TV show reboots, and I am in for every single one.