Of Bad Beginnings, Unhappy Endings, Fresh Starts And Even Clear-Cut Calls
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Roger Grossman-
As I watched the final out of Sunday’s Cubs loss to the Brewers be recorded, locking in a 2-7 road trip to start the season, it really forced me to put what I was seeing into perspective.
The Cubs scored plenty of runs and looked very positive at the plate in most of those 9 games. They were trying to hit the ball the opposite way, they didn’t swing at a lot of bad pitches and they were back to being aggressive on the bases.
The pitching was the problem.
Don’t we think that will work itself out over the rest of the 153 games? We should because history says it will. Of course, past performance is no guarantee of future results, but it does provide hope.
The issue is that the Central Division is the best in baseball and recovering from this rough start to make the playoffs will be a major challenge.
Some other thoughts today: Here’s reason number 2.458 why sports and life are not fair: Arike Ogunbowale missed a free throw with less than a second left in Sunday night’s national championship basketball game.
The Irish came up a point short, 82-81. No player in Notre Dame history scored more points that she did, and you just hope that the one point she didn’t score isn’t what people remember about her career, especially considering she hit those two big shots that beat Connecticut and Mississippi State in last year’s Final Four games.
She deserved a better ending than that, but sports can be really cruel that way. So can life.
High school sports are back: With spring break behind them, high school athletes in all sports are running right off the beaches and into game action. Because the spring season is so short and Indiana weather makes it even shorter, there is no time to ease kids back into things. Most got one day of prep and then a game. As much as I would like to say kids should stay and train for their season, I won’t and even if I did it wouldn’t happen anyway.
My biggest concern is that injuries will pop up this week. In spring, injuries are more magnified than just about any other season. Think about it: a baseball or softball player who pulls a muscle or suffers some sort of ailment like that could miss 10 days. In 10 days, they could miss 5-7 games.
I would imagine this week is a very nerve-racking one for all spring sports coaches.
Spring time leads to trouble: As much as we are all excited about warmer weather, there is one downside to it. Seniors are not at the end of their high school days, but they can see it from where they are. Juniors are getting fired up to be seniors. Boys and girls are falling in love.
None of that is all that bad, but spring time is also a time for parties and those parties may involve drinking alcoholic beverages, vaping and/or “other stuff”.
I hope they don’t, but I know some will.
The stickers are on the boat: Monday afternoon, a brief ceremony took place outside my garage in which the 2019 registration stickers were applied to our boat and trailer. It’s an exciting day, because it means fishing will commence soon.
I know some of my brethren have been out already is search of those tasty early-season crappies. I expect to join them in the very near future.
Summer of change coming for the ‘Hawks: There are a lot of theories of how to fix the Blackhawks, but they all have a common theme—the roster that left the ice Saturday in Nashville cannot look like the same one that takes the ice next fall.
It is true that the ‘Hawks have tied up a lot of their salary cap funds in their foundational four of Jonathon Toews, Patrick Kane, Duncan Keith and Brent Seabrook.
Seabrook is in decline. Keith is about two years behind him. Toews and Kane were terrific this season, combining to score almost 90 goals.
But the ‘Hawks are once again absent from the quest for Lord Stanley’s “Holy Grail” in 2019 because of their play on the blue line and coverage in their own end. To be frank, it was bad, and it got Joel Quenneville fired. They missed last year also. Keep in mind that Chicago was the top see in the Western Conference in 2017 and had their hearts set on winning a fourth Cup title in eight seasons.
But they were swept by Nashville that season, and the franchise has not righted itself since.
Right is right and wrong is wrong, always: One of my core philosophies in life is “it’s never wrong to do the right thing.” I thought about that Saturday night watching the end of the Virginia-Auburn game. Kyle Guy jumped to shoot a shot that could have won the game, but he was bumped in the process. The referee closest to the play put air in his whistle and called a foul with no time left on the clock. Guy made all three free throws and the Cavs advanced.
Twitter came off it’s axis. “How could you call that”? “How could a referee decide a game like that?”
A foul in the first minute must be called a foul in the last minute. There is no difference. Go ahead and scream “that’s not fair!” if you want.
