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There is so much going on in June this year in local, national, and global sports.
There are – between boys and girls – more than a dozen local athletes competing in the IHSAA boys’ and girls’ track and field championship meets. The boys finished their business yesterday.
The final game of the Indiana-Kentucky high school all-stars’ basketball tour will be in the late afternoon today, 5:00 p.m. at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in downtown Indianapolis.
Brooke Zartman and Joslyn Bricker, who sit atop the Warsaw career scoring leaders, will participate in the final game of the Indiana-Kentucky All-Star basketball tour later this afternoon at 5 p.m. in Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
I’ll be present on behalf of the Times Union to share a summary of the action in Monday’s newspaper, but more important, a chance to get some words from the All Stars following their last game as high schoolers.
FIFA Men’s World Cup Soccer will run from June 11 through July 19 adding to the summer fun. The tournament will create some interesting sports viewing in mid-July when the sports world customarily takes a bit of siesta.
Better yet, each World Cup match will be played among the four time zones right here in North America. The U.S.A. will host 11 matches, with three matches in Mexico, and two matches in Canada.
I’m eager to see the ads during the tournament’s televised matches. It will give us older folks a clear view of who is trying to reach the younger target market with what products and services.
I’m more excited about this year’s NBA Finals (already two games completed at print time) than I was in June 2016 when I had a strong feeling the Cleveland Cavaliers would win the first major sports championship for Cleveland since the Browns did four the year I was born; 1964.
The New York Knicks and the San Antonio Spurs offer a blend of a team (San Antonio) with a nice run through the rest of decade with its three top players between the ages of 20- and 23-years old.
The pundits put it best, noting the Spurs have the big guy, the soon-to-be elite guard, and the bully.
The question in my mind is, did the Knicks set records in margin of victory on their run to the finals because the NBA’s Eastern conference is so weak, or because they were playing well at the right time?
Bear in mind, the Knicks beat 6-, 7-, and 4-seeds to reach the finals. The East’s top seed (Detroit) harvested some wins among a conference who had more teams tanking than the Western Conference had.
The NBA Finals best four-out-of-seven series gives me the same feeling of win-win as the Chicago Cubs – Cleveland (Indians, then) 2016 World Series did. My heart was broken when the Tribe lost in game seven that season, but happy for many Cubs fans in this area whose collective loyalty is arguably among the nation’s best.
I’m looking forward to a few days on Lake Michigan’s beaches, eating Kilwin’s ice cream BEFORE dinner because the wait for a table in June along the Lake Michigan Coast is at least an hour.
I want for nothing on Father’s Day in two weeks because my two adult children handled more heavy lifting than they customarily did in the past for Mother’s Day. I neither cleared nor washed a single dish nor a single glass. I told them, “THAT was my Father’s Day gift. You’re off the hook in June.”
By the time all this stuff is behind me, I’ll – after the FIFA World Cup – have NFL training camp on the brain, and counting down days barely a month from them before I am back in the press box August 14th for a home scrimmage and two consecutive weeks of Tiger football behind the press box mic.
As much as I pine for scholastic sports to resume in August, I’ll have just a little bit more to enjoy so the time between now and then moves quickly.
Enjoy your summer offerings of sports and leisure, too.
