Bits & Pieces

Brrrrrrrrrrrr - This Is Spring?

By Kim J. Harmon

What in the heck was I thinking?

Eight of us opened the new golf season – like do every year – on Good Friday and last week we opened the 2007 season at Oxford Greens.

Sure, it was cold. But isn’t it always cold on Good Friday?

Not like this – brrrrrrr. Our first clue that we were out of our minds was when we got up to the pro shop and the starter told us we could do off whenever we were ready because everyone else was calling up and bailing out on their tee times.

Oh, it was cold. It was so cold the ball felt like a stone and wouldn’t go anywhere no matter what kind of swing we put on it.

It was so cold I didn’t even realize I had a fever until I got home that afternoon.

But, gosh, I can’t wait to get out there again.

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If you haven’t yet experienced the Arena Football League on ESPN, I suggest you tune in Monday night when the Philadelphia Soul take on the Dallas Desperadoes at 8 pm.

It is football, plain and simple, but it comes with a wild, untamed element that even the National Football League can’t muster.

Though I love the NFL (and my New York Giants), it has always been my contention that the league is simply too staid and way to picayune about rules and formations. For instance, the offense has to line up in one of a handful of very specific formations and, once set, must remain perfectly still until the ball is snapped. Should the soft hairs on a lineman’s forearm rustle in the breeze before the ball is snapped, he will be whistled for a false start.

But the AFL, gosh, it allows receivers to get a running start!

In the NFL, a game with only one or two touchdowns is common since the philosophy is to slowly and steadily move the ball downfield. In the AFL, a team can score from anywhere on any play and a 14-point lead with 20 seconds left in the fourth quarter is anything but safe.

Sure, if the two leagues were to butt heads I would take the NFL over the AFL, but for an off season football fix the AFL is a darn good one.

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The Arena Football: Road To Glory game on the PS2 has gotten mediocre reviews across the board, but let me tell you – for some reason it is one of the most addictive games I have ever played. It’s a lot of fun to throw a pass from my own end zone off the screen in the opposite end zone and watch my receiver come down with the touchdown.

Can Madden do that?

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It ain’t just me (Mike Greenberg on the Mike & Mike Show on ESPN has been railing about it all week), but it is kind of laughable that the Major League Baseball season manages to open in cold Northeastern and Midwestern cities.

The New York Yankees opened in New York – in the freezing cold and snow – against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, a team not only from a warm weather city but one with a dome.

The Cleveland Indians had an entire four-game series wiped out due to a lake-effect snowstorm that dumped over 18 inches of snow on the city … and it was a series against the Seattle Mariners, who have a retractable roof stadium in a city that sees little if any snow.

The Chicago White Sox had a game called due to cold … against the Minnesota Twins, who have a domed stadium.

Okay, snow doesn’t always strike this late in the year but the cold is always a problem the first week or so and Major League baseball should put aside whatever minor business issues there are (i.e., lots of teams dislike hosting April games because they are the least attended) and think about the fans who plunk down their $30 or $40 a seat only to endure frostbite conditions.

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It is understandable the outrage that has erupted over the recent comments WFAN and MSNBC host Don Imus made about the Rutgers University women’s basketball team but all this hue and cry for his being fired are unwarranted.

He should be slammed.

He should be suspended.

He should probably even make a sizable donation to a charitable foundation like the NAACP or even maybe even sponsor a scholarship for Rutgers University women’s basketball.

But fire him? Why don’t we just stop listening to his show?

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Public outrage over offensive comments like those made by Don Imus is natural (and right), but I have found it kind of funny that outrage seems to pop up every single day over some seemingly innocuous comment made by someone on television, on the radio, or in a news article somewhere.

It seems like a professional baseball player can’t even say to a reporter, “I think we have the best team in the division,” without players from other teams going nuts.

It’s not just sports. It’s everything.

Public sensitivity, it seems, is running at an all-time high and it’s not just this unfortunate scourge of “political correctness.”

There will come a day when every comment uttered will be considered offensive to someone. In fact, someone right now may be responding to that comment by exclaiming, “That is offensive, saying I’m that sensitive.”

To be on the safe side, everyone everywhere should just shut up.

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Voltaire once said, “I may disagree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it.” That can be edited to, “I disagree with what you say and I will defend to the death my right to be offended by it.”

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You want to know what’s wrong with our society? Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have raised about $50 million just so they can tell us how great they are and what an evil monster the other person is when that $50 million can be used to, oh I don’t know, help feed the millions of people – and the thousands in their own districts! – who go to bed hungry every night.

Yep, that’s one of the things wrong with our society.