Why Does March Madness Mean so Much?

March Madness brings out the best of us every year.

When I was younger, I would enter every bracket I could. Friends, families, co-workers and strangers alike would be subject to my masterful analysis and game picking.  Eventually I got tired of trying to remember who I took and how much I was losing.  I took several years off.

Time has passed and I wanted to get back into the game.  So now, every year, well every year for the past three, we have a family March Madness Brackets Challenge.  Usually 10-15 of us will put in a couple of bucks, look for the vulnerable 5/12 seeded games, pick our teams and hope for the best.  The winners will be lucky to see any money much less win a life changing amount.  LC gathers cell phone numbers for group texts (my opportunity to talk trash over text) and creates the pool.  I'll be lucky to win a C-Note if I can pick more upsets than everyone else.

I'm a gainfully employed adult who does not believe winning the brackets will change my way of life, so, so why does it mean so much?

I'm sitting here in my unlit family room, cursing the TV because Tennessee lost and St. Mary's got blown out by an over rated UCLA team.  I'm occasionally standing up because I'm too nervous to sit.  I'm coaching from my chair, asking why someone didn't go up strong, or box out, or shoot when left open.  I'm making fun of family members who pick teams because they like their colors, mascots or because their friend's cousin's daughter went to that college.  These actions are all in the hopes of winning enough money for a night out at a pub and grille. Why?

After that UCLA/St Mary's game, it finally dawned on me.  Hear me out.  

Spring has finally arrived.

After the NFL playoffs are over at the end of January (the Super Bowl doesn't count as it is is more entertainment than sport...sue me), the winter doldrums set in.  Shoveling snow, lack of light, shivering from car to house, car to office and vice versa and constantly cold temperatures drain the life out of me, as I'm sure it does everyone else.  

It's not until the first round of the NCAA Tournament that I come out of my work shell.  Thursday and Friday, I think about what I have going on that day for meetings and leave early to catch games.  I go out for a walk watching streams or ESPN to see scores and action. I grab a beer, sit outside and see what games are next.  In fact, after that UCLA/St. Mary's game, I took E-Dog outside so she could do her business, wearing just a long sleeve shirt and shorts for me, as I did not want her barking this late.  I'm happy being outside without being freezing, snowy or foggy. 

I don't care that much about the brackets or winning a couple of bucks that will probably just go to Dunkin Donuts.  I care that it means that by the end of the end of the Tournament, it will 60 degrees outside.  I guess I'm a Florida boy at heart.  

Go Gonzaga!!

photo courtesy of kstp.com

Pete Rose Is Jealous of this Cheating Scandal

The Houston Astros scandal reminds me a lot about Pete Rose.  But are these two scandals alike such that indefinite or lifetime suspensions are in order?

Pete Rose was suspended indefinitely from Major League Baseball as a result of his baseball betting while the Manager of the Cincinnati Reds in the 1980's.  Before that, he was suspended for 30 days because of a nasty confrontation with an umpire in 1988, at the time the longest managerial suspension in baseball history.  While a player, he was suspected of corking his bats while chasing Ty Cobb's all time hit record in the early 1980's.  And even he's impressed by the magnitude of the Astros' cheating.  His lifetime suspension is really the bellwether for game play suspensions. 

I never once bet on Danny Jackson's starts; he sucks!!

Perhaps disgusted and pissed by being the victim in the Chris Correa hacking scandal back in 2016, the Astros decided to cheat on their own the following year.  Headed by Joey Cora (That's his name to me even when he was managing the Red Sox), Carlos Beltran and (presumably) Alex Bregman, the Astros systematically watched signals from below the dugout in an attempt to discern pitch calls, then used that information to signal to the batters when offspeed pitches were being thrown.  This clearly is the only way that a five foot four Jose Altuve could hit 30 home runs, and a talentless hack like Alex Bregman could do the same.  I'm sure Pete Rose did this back in the day.

But I don't think Rose was smart enough to apply the advanced techniques that the Astros used.  Buzzers under their uniforms, garbage can banging, blinking lights in the outfield, whistling and employing a person whose sole job was to take pictures of the opposing manager during games were all employed by the Astros during the 2017-18 seasons.  Rose just bet on his team to win (although occasionally avoiding Danny Jackson games because he sucked).

But sign stealing has always been part of the game.  Players from 1900 were accused of stealing signs by standing in the bleachers and using hand signals to signal the batter.  Bobby Thompson's Pennant winning Home Run in 1951 was allegedly enhanced by sign stealing by the Giants that year.  The White Sox used to use their scoreboard to signal pitches back in the 1980's.  The Red Sox were warned not to use their Apple watch to steal signs a couple of years ago (kind of an odd device to use, but so millennial...whatever). If it wasn't a part of the game, then why do catchers go through elaborate routines to call a pitch, especially when there's a runner on second base?

So Pete Rose has to sit on the outside looking in at the Hall of Fame and wonders what will come of the Astros and Red Sox cheating scandal.  I don't think anything more should come from it. 

   

Ceder Point Vs. Hersheypark Endgame

That time of year again...the family vacation.  While we didn't bring along Aunt Edna, drag our dog on vacation or go to WalleyWorld, we did happen to make stops at two of the region's top amusement parks.  Cedar Point and Hersheypark. Time for the comparison blog!

When I first bought tickets for these two parks, I knew it would be a matter of which park was better.  C had gone to Hersheypark before.  I had gone to Cedar Point before, and G had a friend that seemed to "summer" on Lake Erie.  Would we kill the kids or would they kill each other?  Could we coax them onto roller coasters without yelling at them?  The questions were boundless, but the important one is the one that we're answering today - which one was better?

Time 5 riding Raptor

Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio (they haven't changed that name Chevy Chase-style, yet?) was our first stop.  It was a Thursday and the weather was sunny-ish, humid and in the low 80's.  We saw that there might be thunderstorms later in the day, but the skies were clear when we got there...We got fast passes for this park so that we could maximize the ridership.  It was an extra $89 per person.

Hersheypark in Hershey, PA.  It was hazy, hot and humid.  It had to have been at least 90 degrees.  We did not get fast passes here because it was a staggering $135.00 per person for unlimited rides - plus the tickets.  I mean that's 3x more than the ticket to get in.  I could have paid $100 but 10 of the 13 rides would have been excluded.  That sounds like a much better deal, honestly. I guess I'm not going to Chocolatetown next year.

Now this is a biased question, really.  My undiagnosed high blood pressure was not suitable for the rides.  The warning placards told me so, at least.  So which one was better was my perception of the children's good times.

C:    I believe that he liked Hersheypark more.  He was familiar with the park having gone a couple of years ago.  He talked us into waiting in line for an hour for a milkshake at the store before the park.  Compare that to thunderstorm cloud burst that he had to endure while riding the train.  "I'm soooo wet!" he must have exclaimed at least 3 times on that ride. He did like Magnum XL-200 and Gemini - C and G went on those rides at

G: Definitely a Cedar Point guy.  He rode Raptor at least 5 times with his sister.  Enjoyed Magnum XL-200 and Gemini with his Brother.  Enjoyed all of the Cokes that he got at the fill up stations and the Crab Fries at Chickie & Pete's (Definitely not the best sports bar in America).  At Hersheypark, he seemed hot and seemed disgusted with the wait at Wildcat.  No Fast Track here. 

DLG:  She liked Ceder Point and Hersheypark equally, it seems.  She spent at least $60 playing the impossible to win rubber ball toss.  The girl manning the booth I think felt bad for her because every time she played, she gave DLG a stuffed animal.  Ellie thanks you.  She had a lot more luck at the next spot although she had to rely on C to get her the two things.  One of them was a multi colored unicorn that I was plotting to throw out as soon as we got home.  Cedar Point was close since she clearly liked the roller coaster.

Mom and Dad:  Who cares can we just get out of here and go to Dinner?

Verdict?  Cedar Point.

Even David Ortiz is a Victim of Our Times

Not David Ortiz too!

I was thinking this to myself when I heard the news that David Ortiz was shot in the back in his native Dominican Republic.  Big Papi shot?  It couldn't be happening to one of the most famous baseball players in modern baseball history.  He was just 43 years old for God's sake with a wife and two kids.

After a couple of days of reflection, it's apparent that Ortiz is just another victim of our times. 

Mass shootings and random acts of violence so numerous that I've lost count.  The United States was never a lone actor when it came to mass killing.  We just had more news outlets reporting it.

Social media profiles that are so ubiquitous that we can follow around our heroes on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook 24 hours a day.  I'm sure numerous people knew exactly where Ortiz was going to be at 9pm on Sunday night.  I'm sure the motive hunters didn't need any sort of tip off that Ortiz was going to be at the Dial Bar and Lounge with his buddies.  I mean the video seems to indicate that the shooter knew exactly where he was sitting! 

News outlets (from both sides of the aisle look for ratings) fomenting hatred, intolerance and bigotry to such a degree that people with just a touch of the "crazy" are getting more and more likely to find someone to hurt.  Kind of like The Running Man (And Arnold Schwarzenegger was the victim of his own assault just a couple of weeks ago...)

But he is just part of the violent news cycle that we look at with fascination.  People make money by getting clicks and people get clicks by being bombastic.  And that's assuming what we're reading is real and not a deep fake.  Things are moving on from the act itself and to the sordid motive that Ortiz was fooling around with a druglord's wife.  Soon it will move from that to the stories behind all of those who have been captured and why 7 men agreed to kill for $8000.  Soon we'll move on completely to the next story.

All I know is that this could have been a lot worse for Ortiz and us.  It just makes me think of his famous line after the Marathon bombing.  This is our f*cking Papi.

Volleyball is the Next AAU Sport

It seems that Southern Alliance Volleyball is the next AAU sport for the JMR household.  First it was AAU Baseball.  For the past 8 years, it seems that every Summer brings a new vacation hotspot.  Reading, Pennsylvania check.  Upstate New York (3 times) check.  Flemington New Jersey? Also check.

Then came basketball AAU.  That was a hoot, traveling to places like the Reggie Lewis Center to watch the kids play 15 minutes of basketball every weekend.  And the best part was when the two boys both played AAU baseball and basketball, which at the time were both Spring sports. 

And just as the boys were wrapping up their AAU experiences (in basketball at least), DLG started playing AAU basketball.  And the next year, she started playing AAU volleyball along with basketball.  This was driving me crazy.  And in the Spring no less - when the Red Sox and the Kentucky Derby are calling my name.

And finally, when DLG finally ended her AAU basketball career after a pretty bad concussion, volleyball was all that was left.  And DLG was excelling.  It's tough enough to be a 12 year old on a U14 team, but she was also going to be the starting setter for the team.  The field general.  A lot of responsibility will be heaped upon her shoulders.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago.  DLG's first tournament was going to be in Hartford CT.  Not the worst place to be if you know where you're going, but how about somewhere nicer?  Newport, RI?  New York City?  Boston (Don't worry, that's next weekend)? Nope, Hartford.  At least we get to stay in one of the nice suburbs, like the one I grew up in, right?  Nope Rocky Hill, which is just as lovely as you can imagine.  Let's put it this way.  Another hotel was adjacent to our hotel.  It was a a Motel Six or  a Super 8.  I would go for my walks in the morning and see the same guy sleeping in his car in that parking lot with drug paraphernalia next to his car window.  I was worried when I saw him slumped over each time.  But I realized he had parked in different spots so he was just living in his car. 

But all that disappeared when we got to the Convention Center. 

After constant negotiations over buying sweatpants, sweatshirts and water bottles, the matches finally started.  DLG's serves were dropping in.  And her sets and bumps were really good.  She was expected to block, save or kill the ball being the setter, bet every time she had an opportunity, she was playing well.  This was their first tournament of the year, so the expectations were pretty low.  And when we lost every match, there was reason to believe the low expectations.  But certain rotations looked pretty strong even though this was their first time playing together.  DLG played on this team last year, and I think this year's group looks a lot stronger than last years'.

Maybe it's the new setter?💁