Bits & Pieces

By Kim J. Harmon

 

I think a player says all he needs to say about himself when he whines to league officials that his coach is working him too hard in practice. A player who doesn’t want to work is a player who doesn’t want to win.

I’m not surprised that it was players from the Arizona Cardinals who complained. There has never been a culture of winning in that franchise. But I am disturbed because it was some guys on the New York Giants who started this whole thing a few weeks ago.

[Congratulations to Dave Smith, editor of our Antiques and The Arts Weekly. At an Amateur Trap Association event last Sunday sponsored by the Wolcott Landowners Protective Association, dead-eye Dave shot a perfect 100-of-100.

[The definition of fiscal (and moral) insanity is giving a seven-year, $136-million contract to an accused rapist who may be spending the next several years in prison.

[I have a handful of movies I could watch just about every day and never get sick of them – The Rock, Dawn of the Dead (the 1978 original), Tremors, and My Cousin Vinny. Another was just named by ESPN as the No. 1 sports movie of the last 25 years – Hoosiers.

[I don’t know how Dan Brown could make a 450-page religious treatise so suspenseful, but he did it with The Da Vinci Code, which I (the last guy on Earth to read it, I suppose) I finished last weekend. The fact that (insert ending of novel here) didn’t bother me at all.

[I generally enjoy Shakespeare and the Shakespeare Project’s production of Much Adoe About Nothing at St. John’s Church in Waterbury was nice (my daughter is in it), but did you ever notice it took the ol’ Bard five verses to say “Shut up!” and another five verses to say, “I’m tired … I’m going to bed.”

Hey, isn’t this supposed to be a sports column?

[YES carried an old Yankees-Tigers game from 1976 when rookie pitcher Mark “The Bird” Fidrych was on the mound smoothing the dirt, talking to the baseball, and running out to congratulate the infielders after a nice play. After the game, he was besieged for a curtain call and, gosh, the smile on his face was that of a kid walking in the living room on Christmas morning.

The Bird went 19-9 that year and then blew his arm out. He won just 10 more games before finally retiring in 1980. His time was short, but baseball needs more guys like him – personalities, characters, and infectious spirits. Everyone is so darn serious nowadays.

[Why should we care that Tiger Woods is in this slump? The guy made something like $40 million last year in endorsements. I wish I was in that kind of slump.

[Is there anything more tiresome than the Home Run Derby at the major league baseball All Star game? Oh year, the Slam Dunk contest at the NBA All Star game.

[Don’t forget – the Connecticut Babe Ruth 14-year-old State Tournament is in Newtown this year. It opens on Friday at Newtown High School with a dedication of the new scoreboard (donated by Safeco Insurance) and a first pitch thrown by First Selectman Herb Rosenthal.

And the following day, the Newtown Babe Ruth 10-year-old All Stars (two-time State Champions) will open the New England Regional Tournament in Winchester, Massachusetts, against Vermont.

[Anyone who doesn’t think swimming is exciting should have been watching the Olympic Trials on Sunday afternoon. Seeing Amanda Bear explode off the wall in the third leg of the 200-meter breaststroke – on her way to a new world record – was astounding.

[Ben Michaelson of Seymour was in the trials, finishing third in the 200-meter butterfly. When the names were being announced before the race, I thought his sounded familiar. That’s because I remember seeing his name all over the record board at Seymour High School when Newtown went over there for a meet.

It would have been great to see a Connecticut kid in the Olympics.

[Less than a five-second difference between first- and eighth-place in the women’s 200-meter backstroke – now that’s close.

[Swimming on the North End Middle School team has sure made an impact on my son, Ben, who usually is only interested in watching basketball, baseball or football on television. But when he stepped into the living room on Sunday, he said, “Oooh – swimming.”

Come on, it is an exciting sport.

[One problem I have, though, is convincing my son that soccer is an exciting sport, too. International soccer can be a little dull, especially in the World Cup when countries (like Norway) are going up against powerhouse countries (like France) and hoping, praying, pleading for nothing more than a 0-0 tie.

But soccer, in general, is exciting. The only thing I’d change, though, is moving the offsides line from midfield closer to the penalty box, much like the North American Soccer League (NASL) did some years ago.

[The Hartford Senators and Pittsfield Hillies will have a vintage base ball rematch in Hartford on Sunday, July 31. Newtown’s Ray Shaw reports that former major league pitcher Jim Bouton - entrepreneur and member of the Hillies - is in discussions with Greg Martin of Hartford on forming an 1880s vintage base ball league with teams from Connecticut (like Newtown?), Massachusetts and Rhode Island.