B.P.

 

Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

. . . if walking is so fundamental to golf (as Jack Nicklaus and the PGA would have you believe) then the players should carry their own bags. I tried to make the same point this past Sunday in my own foursome (with only tepid agreement), arguing that just about anyone can walk 6,500 yards (less than four miles) in about five hours (an average round on the PGA tour, I figure) without being adversely affected. If you notice, the players do a lot of standing around in between walking from shot to shot. Casey Martin won the right to drive a cart on the PGA tour, but no one should make him feel like he’s cheating.

. . . could the South-West Conference lacrosse tournaments have been any better? Well, yeah, from a local standpoint, if the Newtown High School boys had won a championship. But considering the boys’ tournament was wiiiide open and any one of the four qualifiers (Newtown, New Milford, New Fairfield and Brookfield) could have won the title (which No. 2 seeded Brookfield did) and considering the girls tournament came down to a thrilling battle between New Milford and Newtown (which the ‘Hawks won, 12-8), it really couldn’t have. What a way to start, huh?

. . . speaking of lacrosse, I had to leave right at halftime of the Newtown-Avon girls’ lacrosse state tournament game up in Avon on Monday. The ‘Hawks were down, 6-3, but I left thinking I was going to miss another rally. Alas, after rallying against Masuk in the SWC semi-finals and New Milford in the SWC finals, the girls just didn’t have another one in them.

. . . I think my eyes bulged right out of my head the other day when I was typing up the results from the CIAC Class L track and field championships held last week at Wickham Park in New Britain. I mean, they didn’t bulge just from typing, but from comparing the times and distances that won the respective events to the national records in those events. For instance, Andre Reid of South Windsor won the shot put with an incredible throw of 61 feet, 2 inches – yet, the national record is an even more incredible 81 feet, 3 inches set by Michael Carter of Jefferson, Texas back in 1979. And in the javelin, Mike Marchitto of East Haven won with a toss of 175 feet, 8 inches – yet, the national record is 259 feet, 10 inches (nearly  50% further) set by Art Skipper of Sandy, Oregon back in 1988. Just incredible.

. . . three of the most miserable stretches of road I have ever driven on are Route 10 in Cheshire, Route 10 in Plainville, and Route 7 in New Milford. Driving on one of those roads (I was on two of the three this past week) makes we wish that crazy inventor (I can’t recall his name, but it’s in Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader) had successfully managed to get his flying car to market. That’s what I need, especially when I have to go to New Milford for something.

. . . as I write these very words, I am watching Carl Everett (Mr. Personality, to you) tattoo a Ramiro Mendoza pitch about 10 million miles into the upper reaches of Yankee Stadium and I am wondering – can it be true? – if this is really the year that the Red Sox beat the Yankees. All these World Series championships have dulled my senses and I can’t remember the last time it happened. Please don’t make me look it up.

. . . Football training camps are open! Football training camps are open! Football training camps are open! Football training camps are open! (Kinda sounds like, “The Giants win the pennant! The Giants win the pennant!”).

. . . the Philadelphia 76ers are going to find out that beating out the Milwaukee Bucks for the NBA Eastern Conference title is not unlike two Christians fighting for the right to be the first inside the Coliseum.

. . . if you have young sports fans in the house, you really ought to introduce ‘em to Dan Gutman. He’s the guy who wrote Honus & Me, Jackie & Me, Babe & Me, The Million Dollar Shot and They Came From The Outfield. I got my son, Ben, to read Honus & Me and he devoured the thing in one afternoon. From there, he jumped all over the rest of the book. Perfect stuff for young readers.