Mike O'Connell

We’ve gone very quickly from staying in because it’s too cold to staying in because it’s too hot. Super.

My son introduced me over the weekend during our time indoors to “reaction videos.” You familiar with these? Third degree television viewing that’s at least cubed as bad as the real thing. Watching a video of someone else watching a video of someone doing something.

Right.

Idea for next album: me listening to someone else’s really great album.

Idea for new book: me reading someone else’s bestseller.

Hmm… better pick one no one will recognize.

Shakespeare’s in the public domain now, right?

Good thing I got out of Binghamton when I did. Seems as though as I was posting Monday morning the Bing was getting 14 inches of snow. Hmph.
Oh, it’s not the 14 inches of snow at the end of April that surprises me, it’s that I was somehow able to miss it.
If you’re going to be good or lucky… choose lucky.

Report from the road complete: Nats farm team does justice to the parent club, and more importantly its stadium does too.

In a word, yes, the new ballpark of the Fredericksburg Nationals trumps the club’s previous home by a 500-foot dinger. Though that’s a little like saying the reliever coming in is a better pitcher than Charlie Brown.

From the worst minor-league park I’ve ever been to (that was the one in Woodbridge) to one of the nicest, Virginia Credit Union Stadium in Fredericksburg is Single-A baseball with Northern Virginia money. The old park was expensive and crappy; this one is expensive and nice. Home run seats in a Single-A park? That’s a nice touch. Playground? Classy dining area? Historical exhibit? All swell. They didn’t take any chances, but they didn’t screw up anything either.

My favorite part of the game Wednesday was getting to go with my son. I’d been to plenty of those kid-friendly morning starts in my life, but always solo as an awkward grownup. This time I was an awkward grownup with my son. That’s less awkward somehow.

As unawkward as a geeky math teacher from the suburbs can get.

Well, the weekend didn’t end with Tiger Woods donning another green jacket, but I did get to see some damn good golf, some damn good baseball, and parts of at least two good series on “TV.”

I’m happy to say Ken Burns’s latest offering, Benjamin Franklin, is up to Ken’s usual level of excellence. (I’m a Ben Franklin fan anyway, but wow that guy was a lousy father and husband.) Also I should say that HBO’s Winning Time has really turned it around since I gave my original take some weeks ago.

Series concludes May 8.

Life goes on happily.

To summarize Monday’s championship game between Kansas and North Carolina: it did not disappoint.

Shades of 2003, when the Jayhawks fell behind early to my favored team, this time they completed their comeback and will soon hang that 2022 championship banner at Allen Fieldhouse.

To think I was going to go to bed at halftime. Shame, shame.

When KU started the second half like a team ready to win, I knew it was only a matter of time.

And speaking of time, I do love the short turnaround between the end of March Madness and the beginning of the Masters (not sure how Nantz feels about that one). And have we ever had the opening round at Augusta occur on Opening Day of the baseball season?

Seriously, somebody pinch me.