Bracket busted
20 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Basketball, Sports, Tar Heels Tags: college basketball, Duke, Final Four, Florida State University, March Madness, Michigan State, UNC Tar Heels
My picks for the final four this year: Duke, Michigan State, Florida State, and North Carolina. Duke went out early and Florida State didn’t make the Sweet Sixteen. What I get for ACC loyalty. Actually, Duke was a decent pick, but FSU was only because they were on a streak and which I thought could be sustained a few more games. Oh, well.
With injuries to UNC, I have a feeling my ultimate winner – and President Obama’s – may not make it, but we shall see! I have Michigan State and UNC in the finals, by the way, and they are both still alive for the moment.
Kendall Marshall off-balance. He landed breaking his non-dominant wrist.
I know that everyone is saying that Kentucky is a lock now, that it is Kentucky against the field, but I am still betting against them.
The Mavericks and the Red Sox
13 Jun 2011 Leave a Comment
in Baseball, Basketball, Red Sox, Sports Tags: Dallas Mavericks, Red Sox
The Dallas Mavericks are winners! They defeated Miami and “King James” for the rest of us.
Two interesting posts from the New York Times live blog of the game.
10:42 P.M. |This one is over.
The Dallas Grown-Ups will surely finish this one, as the Miami Children continue to run around without any direction or purpose, much like I do in regards to my entire life. I empathize.
10:43 P.M. |Long Summer
It’s going to be a long summer for LeBron, D-Wade, and the rest of the Heat.
Classy move by LeBron untucking his shirt with a minute to go, too. Someone get him a life coach. Shotgun not it.
I also heard on the radio that LeBron shook a few hands and left the court almost immediately after the game was over. What a classy guy – not!
The Heat will likely win a championship sometime, but for right now, I’m happy that it wasn’t this year.
Earlier the Red Sox who finished in such a disappointing way last year, started the seaon 0-6 and then 2-10 and seemed to take forever to get to .500. won their 9th in a row – and I think, the 3rd sweep in a row.
Carl Crawford has had his moments since coming to the Red Soxs, but Adrian Gonzalez is just as amazing as advertised. And he – or something has Big Papi on a tear that has lasted for weeks now. But recently it is not just the wins, it is the number of runs being scored and most of all it is the pitchers stepping up. And speaking of pitching, it seems likely that Daisuke Matsuzaka had pitched his last game for the Sos and possibly the last in this country and he heads for Tommy John surgery.
Congratulations, Mavs! Go Sox!
West Virginia: Mining and Basketball
07 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in Basketball, Culture, Economy Tags: Denise Giardina, Massey Energy, mining, West Virginia
I read this piece at lunch today and it brought tears to my eyes. Denise Giardina’s Mourning in the Mountains was an op-ed in today’s New York Times.
PEOPLE in West Virginia had hoped that on Monday night we would gather around televisions with family and friends to watch our beloved Mountaineers face Butler in our first chance at the men’s N.C.A.A. basketball title since 1959. Men working evening shifts in the coal mines would get to listen thanks to radio coverage piped in from the surface. Expectations ran high; even President Obama, surveying the Final Four, predicted West Virginia would win.
Then, on Tuesday morning, we would wake to triumphant headlines in sports pages across the country. At last, we would say, something good has happened to West Virginia. The whole nation would see us in a new light. And we would cry.
Instead, halfway through Saturday night’s semifinal against Duke, our star forward, Da’Sean Butler, tore a ligament in his knee, and the Mountaineers crumbled. And on Monday evening, while Duke and Butler played in what for us was now merely a game, West Virginians gathered around televisions to watch news of a coal mine disaster.
On Tuesday, the headline in The Charleston Gazette read instead: Miners Dead, Missing in Raleigh Explosion. And we cried.
Families and friends wait alongside emergency personnel after a mine explosion occurred at the Upper Big Branch Mine, in Montcoal, W.Va., on Monday April 5, 2010. (AP Photo/Jon C. Hancock)
4:33 a.m. ET, 4/6/10
Like most people I haven’t spent a lot of time in West Virginia, but I have spent time in Southwest Virginia where Massey Energy also has mines. It is beautiful countryside, scarred in places by strip mines. I wonder what besides mining could drive the economy. While I was working for the Department of Corrections in Virginia, we planned a prison for one of the mountain tops. The jobs to be created were such a boon to the area, the community college started classes to train correctional officers before we even broke ground. But prisons are not the answer. What about eco-tourism?
Back to Giardina
Despite the sunny skies and unseasonably warm weather, the mood here in southern West Virginia is subdued. As of Tuesday afternoon, 25 men have been confirmed dead, two are critically injured, and four are missing and presumed dead. Their fellow West Virginians work round the clock and risk their own lives to retrieve the bodies.
Already outrage is focused on Massey Energy, owner of the Upper Big Branch mine. Massey has a history of negligence, and Upper Big Branch has often been cited in recent years for problems, including failure to properly vent methane gas, which officials say might have been the cause of Monday’s explosion.
It seems we can’t escape our heritage. I grew up in a coal camp in the southern part of the state. Every day my school bus drove past a sign posted by the local coal company keeping tally, like a basketball scoreboard, of “man hours” lost to accidents. From time to time classmates whose fathers had been killed or maimed would disappear, their families gone elsewhere to seek work.
We knew then, and know now, that we are a national sacrifice area. We mine coal despite the danger to miners, the damage to the environment and the monomaniacal control of an industry that keeps economic diversity from flourishing here. We do it because America says it needs the coal we provide.
West Virginians get little thanks in return. Our miners have historically received little protection, and our politicians remain subservient to Big Coal. Meanwhile, West Virginia is either ignored by the rest of the nation or is the butt of jokes about ignorant hillbillies.
Here in West Virginia we will forget our fleeting dream of basketball glory and get about the business of mourning. It is, after all, something we do very well. In the area around the Upper Big Branch, families of the dead will gather in churches and their neighbors will come to pray with them. They will go home, and the same neighbors will show up bearing platters of fried chicken and potato salad and cakes. The funeral homes will be jammed, the mourners in their best suits and ties and Sunday dresses.
And perhaps this time President Obama and Americans will pay attention, and notice West Virginia at last.
As I write this it is still too dangerous to send rescue teams down into the mines. And there are no signs of life from the four miners who are still missing.
Sure signs of spring
07 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in Baseball, Basketball, Culture, Red Sox, Sports Tags: Duke, Easter Eggs, March Madness, President Obama, Red Sox, Reggie Love
The NCAA basketball tournaments are over. We can only hope that UConn is not so dominent next year and someone else has a shot at the women’s championship. I did have Duke in the men’s final which salvaged something although not as much as Reggie Love, President Obama’s assistant and former Duke player, who had Duke winning it all.
I planted my spring pots of pansies for the front steps, started some herbs and played with all the indoor plants this weekend. All signs of spring.
The Yankee’s opened at Fenway on Sunday night. (I really dislike opening night. One is supposed to skip school and work on opening day!) The Sox took opening day, but lost last night. Here is Wiley Miller’s take in Non Sequitur
There was the Easter Egg Roll at the White House where the President tried to help this poor bewildered child who was having trouble starting.
It’s gonna be 80 today!
Elite Eight
27 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Basketball, Sports Tags: March Madness
Out of the wreckage that is my bracket, I still have four teams alive. Duke, Baylor, Kentucky and West Virginia.
Starting with the teams left I will predict the final four will be Kansas State, Tennessee, Kentucky and Duke. Duke will beat Kansas State and Tennessee will beat Kentucky . After that I have no clue. But if Duke wins it all, expect Reggie Love to give President Obama an earful.
Don’t take any of this to the bank – I picked Duke – Kansas in the final. I have to say that I miss Northern Iowa even if I never thought they would beat Kansas. And what ever happened to BYU?
Sunday morning health care and basketball
21 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Basketball, Civil Rights, Congress, Health Care Reform, Obama Administration, Politics, Sports Tags: Democrats, Health Care, March Madness, Paul Krugman, President Obama, Republicans, Rick Boucher, Stephen Lynch
I’m like about 90% of the country (including the President) waking up to find out that Kansas really did lose. I watched the game, but still hoped it would be different this morning. Yesterday was a disaster for my bracket: I lost both Kansas and BYU from my final four and the only reason I haven’t lost Duke and Kentucky is they haven’t had their games yet. March Madness a few years ago was like this: upset after upset. Great games, but hell on one’s picks. At this point, I’m just watching to see what happens next.
And we are also watching health care to see what happens next. The Republican/Tea Party folks must know they are going to lose. Yesterday they showed their true colors. The story in the Washington Post by Paul Kane begins
Members of the Congressional Black Caucus said that racial epithets were hurled at them Saturday by angry protesters who had gathered at the Capitol to protest health-care legislation, and one congressman said he was spit upon. The most high-profile openly gay congressman, Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), was heckled with anti-gay chants.
Republican members of Congress addressed the crowd both before and after the incident. Where were they to control their followers?
Democratic leaders and their aides said they were outraged by the day’s behavior. “I have heard things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to get off the back of the bus,” said House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking black official in Congress.
Between race (I believe that the opposition to anything proposed by President Obama and the wanting to see him fail is simply because the Republicans can’t stomach having a black man in the White House.) and abortion (The opposition to a woman’s right to choose stems, I think, from a deep seeded belief that women are incapable of having their own religious convictions or of making a rational decision), I worry what happens during the fall campaigns.
So I have to turn to Paul Krugman’s column earlier this week to remind myself what we are trying to do.
So this seems like a good time to revisit the reasons we need this reform, imperfect as it is.
As it happens, Reuters published an investigative report this week that powerfully illustrates the vileness of our current system. The report concerns the insurer Fortis, now part of Assurant Health, which turns out to have had a systematic policy of revoking its clients’ policies when they got sick. In particular, according to the Reuters report, it targeted every single policyholder who contracted H.I.V., looking for any excuse, no matter how flimsy, for cancellation. In the case that brought all this to light, Assurant Health used an obviously misdated handwritten note by a nurse, who wrote “2001” instead of “2002,” to claim that the infection was a pre-existing condition that the client had failed to declare, and revoked his policy.
This was illegal, and the company must have known it: the South Carolina Supreme Court, after upholding a decision granting large damages to the wronged policyholder, concluded that the company had been systematically concealing its actions when withdrawing coverage, not just in this case, but across the board.
But this is much more than a law enforcement issue. For one thing, it’s an example those who castigate President Obama for “demonizing” insurance companies should consider. The truth, widely documented, is that behavior like Assurant Health’s is widespread for a simple reason: it pays. A House committee estimated that Assurant made $150 million in profits between 2003 and 2007 by canceling coverage of people who thought they had insurance, a sum that dwarfs the fine the court imposed in this particular case. It’s not demonizing insurers to describe what they actually do.
Beyond that, this is a story that could happen only in America. In every other advanced nation, insurance coverage is available to everyone regardless of medical history. Our system is unique in its cruelty.
And one more thing: employment-based health insurance, which is already regulated in a way that mostly prevents this kind of abuse, is unraveling. Less than half of workers at small businesses were covered last year, down from 58 percent a decade ago. This means that in the absence of reform, an ever-growing number of Americans will be at the mercy of the likes of Assurant Health.
So what’s the answer? Americans overwhelmingly favor guaranteeing coverage to those with pre-existing conditions — but you can’t do that without pursuing broad-based reform. To make insurance affordable, you have to keep currently healthy people in the risk pool, which means requiring that everyone or almost everyone buy coverage. You can’t do that without financial aid to lower-income Americans so that they can pay the premiums. So you end up with a tripartite policy: elimination of medical discrimination, mandated coverage, and premium subsidies.
Or to put it another way, you end up with something like the health care plan Mitt Romney introduced in Massachusetts in 2006, and the very similar plan the House either will or won’t pass in the next few days. Comprehensive reform is the only way forward.
Krugman concludes
Can you imagine a better reform? Sure. If Harry Truman had managed to add health care to Social Security back in 1947, we’d have a better, cheaper system than the one whose fate now hangs in the balance. But an ideal plan isn’t on the table. And what is on the table, ready to go, is legislation that is fiscally responsible, takes major steps toward dealing with rising health care costs, and would make us a better, fairer, more decent nation.
All it will take to make this happen is for a handful of on-the-fence House members to do the right thing. Here’s hoping.
Are you rethinking your position Stephen Lynch? And what about you, Rick Boucher in Virginia? Do either of you really want to be the vote that kills Health Care Reform?
One day before the House votes on health care
20 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Basketball, Congress, Health Care Reform, Politics, Sports, Tar Heels Tags: Health Care, March Madness, Michael Capuano, Nancy Pelosi, President Obama, Stephen Lynch, UNC Tar Heels
It is Saturday afternoon. The Tar Heels won their NIT game, my NCAA bracket is doing so-so. and the Sox won. There is a lot going on including the all important countdown to 216 votes in the House.
A couple of things have happened. President Obama has made his “remember why you are a Democrat” speech (or maybe it is live up to Abe Lincoln) before the House Democratic Caucus. There are sufficient votes in the Senate for the bill as it will be amended by the House and it looks like Nancy Pelosi will get to 216 sometime before tomorrow’s votes if she is not already there. The picture and the quotes that follow are from the New York Times Prescriptions blog.
“You have a chance to make good on the promises you made,” Mr. Obama said. “This is one of those moments. This is one of those times where you can honestly say to yourself: ‘Doggone it, this is exactly why I came here. This is why I got into politics. This is why I got into public service. This is why I made these sacrifices.’ ”
“Every single one of you have made that promise not just to your constituents but to yourself,” he added. “This is the time to make good on this promise.”
He had opened his speech by quoting Lincoln
“I am not bound to win but I am bound to be true,” he said.
I have to believe that once the bill is passed and signed and benefits begin to kick in there will be support for the bill. I really liked the President’s characterization of the the Republican’s trying to get Democrats to vote no.
“I notice that there has been a lot of friendly advice offered all across town,” he said. “Mitch McConnell, John Boehner, Karl Rove — they are all warning you of the horrendous impact if you support this legislation.”
He continued, “Now, it could be that they are suddenly having a change of heart, and they are deeply concerned about their democratic friends. They are giving you the best possible advice in order to ensure that Nancy Pelosi remains speaker and Harry Reid remains leader and all of you keep your seats — that’s a possibility.”
Mr. Obama chuckled at himself, and lawmakers in the audience laughed.
“But it may also be possible that they realize that after health reform passes and I sign that legislation into law, it’s going to be a little harder to mischaracterize what this legislation has been all about,” he said.
So with all this, what is going on the Representative Stephen Lynch? Lynch represents the part of Boston not represented by my Rep, Mike Capuano, who is voting “yes”. Lynch has announced that he is voting “no” because the bill does not do enough to control the cost of insurance. There is a lot of pressure on him by the local unions, include SEIU of which I am a member. According to the Boston Globe
More than 20 Massachusetts labor leaders made a last-ditch appeal to US Representative Stephen F. Lynch late yesterday, urging him to “do the right thing’’ and vote for a national health care overhaul.
In a letter delivered to Lynch’s South Boston office, the group suggested a vote against the bill would damage his standing with their membership.
Lynch, a former president of Ironworkers Local 7, declared Thursday that he will vote against the health care bill. He said the current bill does not do enough to force insurance companies to reduce costs.
“Congressman, we will not be able to explain to the working women and men of our union why you voted against their interests,’’ the letter states. “We have stood together time and time again and you have made an enormous difference.’’
“It takes courage to make history,’’ they wrote. “We know that you have always had the courage to do the right thing — national health reform is the right thing for Massachusetts families. Please stand with us once again and do the right thing.’’
It looks like he will join Senator Scott Brown in being the two “no” votes from Massachusetts.
Another Republican objection disappeared this afternoon when the House Rules committee decided against “deeming” and will now hold two votes. As explained in the Washington Post
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said the House will take three votes on Sunday: first, on a resolution that will set the terms of debate; second, on a package of amendments to the Senate bill that have been demanded by House members; and third, on the Senate bill itself.
Van Hollen, who has been working on the issue with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), said House leaders concluded that that order — approving the amendments before approving the Senate bill — makes clear that the House intends to modify the Senate bill and not approve the Senate bill itself.
“We believe this is a better process,” House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said of the vote strategy. “We determined we could do this. . . . We believe we have the votes.”
This is all possible because Senator Reid has done his head count and has the votes to pass the reconciled bill.
I think we will know who the 216 votes will be by tomorrow morning.
And before I retire to watch basketball (do you believe that St. Mary’s beat Villanova?! ) here is a link to the amendments the House will be making to the Senate bill.
2010 Final Four Picks
18 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Basketball Tags: Final Four, March Madness, President Obama
I am going to try doing my bracket two ways this year. For the office pool, did picks all the way though to the final four. But I am also going to try to pick one round at a time and see what happens.
My final four for this year are:
Kansas, Brigham Young, Kentucky and Duke. Kansas to win it all.
Yes, I know that BYU and Duke are long shot picks. But Duke seems to be in a pretty easy bracket and I don’t much like Syracuse.
I had to make my picks by noon today, and already I should have gone with President Obama who picked Murrary State over Vanderbilt.
March Madness 2010 begins
13 Mar 2010 Leave a Comment
in Basketball, Sports Tags: George Vecsey, March Madness
I have to admit that except for watching North Carolina lose a couple of times and seeing parts of some Big East games, the college basketball season has past me by this year. Which will not prevent me from filling out my bracket, of course. But first the news that the NCAA may try to expand the tournament to 96 teams.
Stupid move! These are supposed to be college students getting a degree not money makers for the NCAA. Would the idea be to do away with the league tournaments? Those are exciting and always produce surprise winners. The NCAA would be better off figuring out how to get the players an allowance in addition to the scholarships – so they have a little pocket money for pizza and to take a girlfriend (or boyfriend) out to a movie like normal college kids.
George Vecsey wrote recently in the New York Times
It is never a surprise when sports officials act out of greed — the outrageous prices at New York’s two subsidized ballparks, the gouging at the coming World Cup of soccer in South Africa, for example.
Sometimes, I am stunned when people don’t have respect for their own product. I am talking here of the threat to dilute the N.C.A.A. men’s basketball tournament from a compelling 64 in the first round to a ludicrous 96. (The N.C.A.A. counts 65 teams, including the early play-in game, but I prefer to consider that a gimmick.)
This lumbering monstrosity is looming on the horizon because the folks from the N.C.A.A. want to make more television money to not share directly with the players.
The N.C.A.A. is thinking of ruining the tantalizing first days of the tournament, when a great deal of the nation roots for some zippy little No. 16 from a third-tier conference to upset a No. 1 seed. It’s never happened, but we can only hope.
…
The first Thursday and Friday are so enjoyable that I like the first round better than the Final Four. Coppin State beat South Carolina once upon a time. Hampton beat Iowa State. Santa Clara beat Arizona. Those are epic moments. Why diminish them with some low-rent first round?
Going into this month’s tournament, a No. 15 team has beaten a No. 2 team four times. I caught one on television — in 1991, when Dick Tarrant’s Richmond team beat Jim Boeheim’s Syracuse team. Nothing against Syracuse. Nothing personal, but it was fun to watch.
And the No. 3 versus No. 14 upsets? Fifteen of them. I’ve caught some of them, including Kevin Mackey sidling up to Bob Knight before the Cleveland State-Indiana game in 1986, saying, “Take it easy on me, big guy,” and Knight predictably going off, knowing Cleveland State was loaded and about to beat him.
No. 13 seeds beating No. 4? Twenty-one of them. I’ve seen Pete Carril’s Princeton team stun the defending champion, as I called it, the University of Catatonia at Los Angeles. It was hilarious, watching the champ trying to figure out the back-door offense. That’s what we want in the opening round.
More network money would produce more games involving the seventh or eighth teams from major conferences — teams that couldn’t even reach the semifinals of their own conference tournament.
Part of the fun is debating who from the bubble makes it and who doesn’t. And winning a bracket means picking those upsets when 13 beats a 4. Vecsey is right: The early games can be the most exciting.
Vecsey ends perfectly.
Sixty-four is perfect. Or 65, depending on how you count. Just don’t get too greedy.
Let the madness begin! But let it be the games not the NCAA that is mad.
World Series
29 Oct 2009 1 Comment
in Baseball, Basketball, Boston Celtics, Red Sox, Sports Tags: baseball, Boston Celtics, Phillies, Red Sox, Yankees
So the Phillies are off to a good start and I’ll be pulling for Pedro (the former Red Sox ace) to help the Phillies win tonight. There is a theory that Sox fans are watching the series hoping that the Phillies can beat the Yankees, that if the Phillies were playing the Angels we wouldn’t care so much. Could be true. But as Tony Mazzarotti wrote in today’s Boston Globe
The transformation of Rasheed Wallace is complete, the enemy of the people now serving as the man of the hour. As seamlessly as Wallace has joined the Celtics on the floor this season, he made a similarly fluid entry last night in his first home game at TD Garden.
In Boston, Rasheed now dresses in white.
“I didn’t know if the fans wanted to keep it personal and still call me those names or what,” Wallace mused in the wake of the Celtics’ 92-59 annihilation of the outmanned, overmatched and outclassed Charlotte Bobcats. “It was cool though.”
Cool, indeed. Cool as Wallace entered the game to chants of Sheeeeeeeeeeeeed with 4:06 remaining in the first quarter, cool as Wallace drilled his first two shots, both 3–pointers, helping the Celtics build a 22-11 lead in the opening quarter. Cool even as Wallace dressed in front of his locker following the game, when he donned a black sweat jacket bearing the name and logo of the Philadelphia Phillies, as sure a sign as any that he has embraced Boston as firmly as Boston already has embraced him.
‘Sheed, it seems, plays by the same rules many of you do. If he is not necessarily rooting for the Red Sox, he is at least rooting for whoever is playing the Yankees.
The Celtics, by the way, are 2-0.
So to Red Sox fans, the New York Yankees are still the evil empire.
But why is today October 29 and just the 2nd game of the Series is being played tonight? The answer is in provided by Tyler Kepner in a New York Times story from last Sunday. Some of the reasons are:
¶When baseball scheduled the World Baseball Classic for March 2009, the players wanted two more weeks of spring training games after its conclusion. So pushing the Classic later would have further delayed the start of the regular season, and the players would not have been ready if it had started sooner.
¶The calendar did not help. Except for the Sunday night opener, the schedule always begins on a Monday, and the first Monday of April 2009 was the sixth. Teams do not want to start the season with a weekend series, because they already draw well on weekends. Opening on a Monday allows teams to sell out a weekday game that would otherwise be a hard sell.
¶The idea of starting the regular season in late March and playing only in warm-weather cities and domes is considered too problematic to be realistic. If both teams in New York and Chicago open on the road, that means overlapping home dates later. And the teams in warm-weather cities and domes would complain about losing dates for later in the season, when they can sell more tickets than they can in late March and early April.
¶The idea of shortening the regular season from 162 games is unrealistic, because teams would not willingly give away moneymaking home dates.
So you have a combination of greed and the quirks of the calendar that will have fans in New York and Philadelphia freezing in their seats. And another thing: Why no day games?
