Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

Weird – for the past 25 years I thought Bucky Dent hit his three-run homer against the Boston Red Sox in that American League Eastern Division playoff in the fifth inning. But I turned on YES on Monday morning as my kids were filtering out of the house to catch the bus and there it was, the top of the seventh inning with two men on and two out and Dent scratching his way into the batter’s box.

Weird.

But it was still dramatic. Mike Torrez fires the first pitch low for a ball and then heaves one inside that Dent fouls off his instep. Then he drills the 1-1 pitch into the screen above the Green Monster for the most dramatic home run in Boston history.

Twenty-five years later and I still get a charge out of that.

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Being a New York Yankees fan, I am in this mode where I pay casual interest to the regular season because, let’s face it, the real season doesn’t start until October. But the way the Red Sox are playing, I may have to focus a little more.

Or, then again, maybe not.

The Sox’ June swoon is still to come.

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Right – it’s almost June and we STILL haven’t gotten to the Stanley Cup finals or the NBA finals. When is it going to end? My lord, the season ends in mid June, the players get two weeks off, and then they have to report to training camps.

Madness.

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Hale Irwin – who three-putted from two inches in a tournament last weekend – should take a lesson from me. Whenever I step up to a close putt I hover over it forever until someone finally says, “Go on – you can have that.”

That strategy shaves three strokes off my game.

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+1

That’s how many more wins, so far, the Newtown High School baseball team has this year than last year. Sure, it is not a huge gain, but it is a gain. Let’s hope that number keeps climbing higher and higher.

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It’s tournament time in the South-West Conference. Can you believe it?

The team tennis championships were held this week (semi-finals on Tuesday and finals on Thursday) and the Newtown High School girls and boys had a chance to compete for a championship. Next week, it will be the individual tournament.

And that’s when most of the other tournaments get underway – softball, baseball, track, golf and lacrosse. Girls’ track has a shot at a championship, the boys’ lacrosse team is looking to defend its 2002 title, and the softball team has a decent chance.

It will be a fun week.

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 “We should keep playing. I don’t think the heavy stuff is going to come down for quite a while.”

“Caddyshack” – the best movie ever made about golf. Of course, the worst movie ever made about golf was “Caddyshack 2.”

Caddyshack was on television last Saturday and then – at my wife’s 40th birthday party – we popped in the tape and watched it again and all the guys were standing around quoting the lines while the women were staring at us like we were brain damaged.

So what else is new?