Bits & Pieces

Looking Live, Overhearing, Great Plays, Cool Signs And All Kinds Of Stuff …

By Kim J. Harmon

It has been several weeks since Bits & Pieces took over the left two columns of these sports pages, but my official reporter’s-style notebook is getting bogged down with little notes, asterisks and enigmatic words that wouldn’t make sense to anyone but me and it’s about time I jot them down, here, so I can throw the notebook away.

Plus, I added in a couple of other things that are irking me. So, read on.

You Are Looking Live …

Kick the darned ball!

I have watched two Monday Night Football events (once because I was keeping an eye on my fantasy quarterback and once last weekend when the Giants went to Atlanta) and I’m dreading having to watch another.

Never mind the guys in the booth. I actually like Ron Jaworski and Mike Tirico and even Tony Cornheiser.

It’s all the garbage leading up to the game.

I got home on Monday around 5:15 pm and my son was watching the pre-game show. The pre-game show! How long does it take to break down a football game, for God’s sake? For the love of Pete, it’s not calculus.

And then when 8:30 pm came along we broke away from the Cleveland-Boston baseball playoff game … for what? A ridiculous country-western intro and a stupid monologue by DeWayne “The Rock” Johnson cutting on Eli Manning.

Kick the darned ball already!

I’m old enough to remember the CBS broadcasts of the NFL back in the 1970s and early ‘80s. The pre-game – The NFL Today – then came on at 12:30 pm and opened with Brent Musburger exclaiming, “You are looking live …” at Giants Stadium, Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, the Superdome in New Orleans or some other NFC site.

And then for the next 20 minutes they would do a couple of puff pieces, take a brief look at the games, make some picks and go to the kick (those were also the days when the television cameras would actually take a look at the offensive team huddling up and not scouring the sideline looking for a ubiquitous shot of the head coach or some guy throwing a tantrum).

Just give me the game and toss all the peripheral garbage aside, please.

The only innovation of the last decade that I even like is the computer generated first-down marker.

At least that’s useful.

Overheard

Overheard at Treadwell Park as a group of youth soccer players ran around the perimeter of the field, warming up for practice:

“Come on, let’s not waste our energy on this.”

Yeah, warming up is for suckers … and guys who don’t want to blow out their hamstrings.

Great Play #1

At a recent volleyball match, Sarah Truitt recorded one of the best digs I had ever seen. A setter, she was stationed on the right side of the net and was moving up to cover a spot on the floor when the spike came from the other side with the ball headed for the far corner and an easy point.

But Truitt – with her momentum still taking her towards the net – reached her right arm straight out and somehow bumped the ball back over the net.

I can’t remember if Newtown earned a point on the sequence, but what does it matter? It was a great play.

Hi, My Name Is Kim And I’m, Uh, A Yankees fan …

Most of my friends realize I’m a disillusioned New York Yankees fan and, frankly, it’s just getting worse as I listen, everyday, to the insipid hand wringing of fans absolutely enraged that their team, for the FOURTH YEAR IN A ROW, have failed to reach the World Series.

Oh, sure, they have been in the playoffs for 12 straight years, but – boo hoo – they haven’t won the World Series since 2000.

So what if the Cubs haven’t won one since 1908.

Or the Indians haven’t won since 1948.

Or the Giants haven’t won since 1954.

Or the Phillies haven’t won since 1980.

Or the Brewers haven’t won since 1982 (their only title).

Or the Orioles haven’t won since 1983.

Or the Tigers haven’t won since 1984.

Or the Royals haven’t won since 1985.

Or the Mets haven’t won since 1986.

Or the Dodgers haven’t won since 1988.

Or the A’s haven’t won since 1989.

So what if the Red Sox have won just World Series title in the last 90 years.

And so what if the Rangers, Mariners and Nationals/Expos have never won.

The Yankees might not have won a World Series title since 2000, but they were actually in the championship series in 2003, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998 and 1996. That’s six times in the last 12 years, for crying out loud.

I mean, how piggish can Yankees fans get?

It’s the sense of entitlement that really rankles me. Just because a team spends a lot of money (about a billion dollars in payroll alone over the last four years) doesn’t guarantee anything. It reminds me of a story that CNN broke last year about the Mercedes-Benz AMG CLK-GTR Limited Edition Roadster, a $1.7 million car (one of only five or six ever made in 2004) that could go zero to 124 mph in just under 10 seconds.

That is, if the driver could get the darn thing started.

Apparently, on the initial test drive the co-owner of the dealership that sought to sell the car drove it for only 10 blocks with a prospective buyer when the oil light came on.

Besides that, the transmission reportedly did not shift properly, the hydraulic jack system failed and the windows came unglued.

Spending a lot of money does not guarantee anything. Having the best (and most expensive) players at every position has done little good for the Yankees. Having the right players – players like Scott Brosius, Luis Sojo and Paul O’Niell – would work a lot better.

Cool Sign …

 

At the Newtown/Masuk volleyball match last week (an epic one, going five games) nine students walked into the Hawks Nest with letters written on their chests.

Now, high school fans showing up with stuff painted on their chests or faces is nothing new – especially not around here – but in this case it was pretty cool.

With the guys all sitting in order on the bleachers, they spelled out O-B-E-R-S-T-A-D-T in support of their classmate, Steve Oberstadt, who was seriously injured a few weeks ago in a horrific car accident.

These kinds of fans we need more of.

 

Great Play #2

Kasey Schulz is a remarkable soccer player, one of the best in the state – of that, there is no doubt.

But in a match with Immaculate at Treadwell Park, she still managed to take everyone by surprise.

She had possession of the ball, beat her defender, and brought the ball down on the left wing. She was just outside the penalty area, a few feet off the end line, when she served a ball onto the net that had no business doing what it did.

Going into the net.

It was a perfectly-placed shot that sailed over the hands of the goaltender and just inside the upper right corner of the net.

And for a brief moment there was no reaction – not from anyone. And then it was if it dawned on everyone, “Hey, wait a minute – she scored?”