SZ654

BY JIM DAWSON

FEBRUARY 27, 2017

SMORGASBORD OF SPORTS

If you are a New Englander, this is a fine time to be a sports fan. There are so many local sports teams that give great pleasure in their pursuit of the playoffs and championships.

Saturday you could see both URI and PC win home games in tough battles that went down to the wire. First URI used the rebounding of Hassan Martin (18 boards!) and the foul shooting of Jarvis Garrett (12 for 12) to upset VCU 69-59. Garrett has had to overcome ulcerative colitis. URI went 31 of 39 from the foul line and out-rebounded VCU 42 to 28. URI held them to 1 for 15 on 3’s (.067).

Next up was PC facing a 12 point deficit to Marquette with 7 and change left. Led by Kyron Cartwright (16 points and 8 assists) and Rodney Bullock (20 points, 10 rebounds), the Friars eked out a 73-69 win. PC beat Marquette on the boards (34 to 23) as Diallo (8) and Holt (7) helped out. Ed Cooley has this year’s edition playing much more like a team than earlier.

So both URI and PC are in the hunt for a date at the Dance. Both teams have a chance at 20 win seasons. Dan Hurley of URI and Ed Cooley of PC have done masterful jobs coaching their teams. I went to RIC so I can root for both teams.

The Boston Bruins beat Dallas Sunday to go 3-1 on their tough road trip. Now they get 5 of the next 6 games at home. The coaching change to Bruce Cassidy (6-1) has given the team a small spark. And the teams now have all played about the same amount of games. Boston is in range for a playoff spot (70 pts.) while fighting Ottawa (72 pts.) Toronto (69), the Islanders (68) and Florida (66). Montreal (74) may be out of reach, but...

Brad Stevens has done an amazing job coaching the Celtics who are in 1^st place in the Atlantic Division and only 4 games (loss column) behind the Cavs for best record in the Eastern Conference. This is without Avery Bradley who has missed 18 games (including Sunday’s vs. Detroit). Bradley is not only one of their best defenders, but as the Globe’s Gary Washburn (2/26) noted, Bradley will return as the Celts’ 2^nd best offensive player.

Saturday I saw the Red Sox overcome a 5-run deficit to beat Minnesota 8-7. LF Allen Craig threw out the tying run, Leonardo Reginatto at home. Sunday the Sox were rallying, down 4 to Tampa Bay in the 7^th, when Rusney Castillo pulled a rock and got thrown out on the base paths to end the inning. So Boston lost 4-3. That’s the 2^nd gaffe Castillo has made as he jogged to 1^st for an easy DP the other day having lost track of the outs. Those mistakes and his salary will keep him in Pawtucket.

BULLETS

• The Pawtucket Times’ Jonathan Bissonette (2/18) had theses alternate sites for the PawSox: the Apex site, the Tidewater parcel off Taft St. on the banks of the Seekonk River and Morley Field near the Moshassuck River and the Providence line.

• Rob Bradford (WEEI.com-2/26) revealed that 3B coach Brian Butterfield is recovering from his 2^nd knee replacement. The left knee he calls Gale Sayers because it’s healed. The recently operated right is Bill Buckner. Butterfield’s #55 is for Willie McGinest.

• Per Bill Chuck (Cafardo/Globe – 2/26) only 2 players hit at least 20 hrs and no sacrifice flies: Mark Trumbo (47 HRs) and Mitch Moreland (22)

• In March, the Red Sox will be on TV 16 times (NESN and MLBN).

• Per the Globe, there will be an Army-Navy football game at Fenway in 2018.

QUOTES

Bennet Omalu, the neuropathologist who discovered CTE (Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy) and its link to concussions in the NFL, gave a talk at BC. This is the man that the NFL (both Tagliabue and Goodell) has tried to discredit. The Herald’s Ron Borges (2/24) had these quotes:

“Truth does not have a side... Truth does not have a perspective. Truth is not convenient. It is inconvenient because it is the truth.”
“The NFL Brand is bleeding today whether they like it or not...It is beginning to lose the trust of the people. When an industry loses the trust of the American people have put in it, they are finished.”
“If they just admitted this is a tough game for tough men, it is not a child’s game that would increase their credibility.”
“Instead they say they are developing better helmets. If helmets protected players from concussions, why are they still having concussions? There is no helmet that can prevent concussions. It is a lie.”

“They say they have concussions protocols. It is a show! It is a joke.”

EMAIL

Quiz Answer - Boyce & Hart ??? - Professor Peter

Correct-a-mundo, Peter. Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart. Wrote over 300 songs and did the original Monkees vocals until they got with it. - Z

The names that come to mind are Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil.

The Wizard

Wiz, good guess but No. Two men – Americans. - Z

Then it must be Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart.

The Wiz

It is. Over 300 songs. The Monkees before those other guys (all vocals).

Jim,
The Key West brain trust (Curtis, Knute, Born & Shea), otherwise known as 'The Missing Dawsons Foursome' has concluded that the quiz answer is Boyce & Hart. Proving once again that when you combine four marginally adequate IQs occasionally something right can occur.

B Shea

That’s quite a brain trust, Bill. Yes it’s Boyce and Hart - Z

Good 'Zine, Jim. Yes, it will be interesting to see if Wright captures that fourth

spot in the rotation. As we know, knuckleballers are capable of pitching many innings. I'm betting on him over Eduardo Rodriguez and Pomeranz. Maybe E-Rod goes to long relief? In any event, the Red Sox have a solid starting rotation and fans hope the injuries will be limited. Have to like the Goodell Clown Shirt worn by Matt Patricia!

Brad Dawson
I would go with Wright too. Pomeranz is a LHP so he could be in the bullpen. Eduardo probably has minor league options. They could store him in Paw't. in case of an injury to a starter.

Do you think that Goodell has the cojones to show up at Gillette for the 1st game next year? Methinks he gets a sudden case of the yips and comes down with scurvy or some other condition that prevents him from showing. Maybe yellow fever since he's a coward. - Z 

Re the Patriots Super Bowl win:

And maybe, just maybe they might someday beat the NEW YORK FOOTBALL GIANTS!

Bailey

Bailey you rascal. Figures you'd be a NY Giants fan. The next time the Giants are fortunate enough to make the Super Bowl, the Patriots will be there to beat them. - Z

Sportzine is available at jimdawsonsports.com thanks to Buffalo Steve Lenz

THE HOT CLUB

Ernie said to me, “You’re good at trivia.” He then posed this bit of trivia: Name the 8 Presidents whose last name ends in ‘son’. I got 6. Answer at bottom of the HC section.

Peter was to my left and Paul was to my right. I asked the bartender to buy Peter and Paul a beer. Peter said, “Mary couldn’t make it.”

Richard Flinn (Naval Academy Preparatory School, English Department Head) and I were talking about Maine as Victoria has a place on Swans Island. I was telling him that we would stay over night in Ellsworth before taking the car ferry the next day from Bass Harbor. Richard knew Ellsworth and said he spent time in Blue Hill where they have a Fair every year. Richard also pointed out that writer EB White wrote Charlotte’s Web in Blue Hill. Wikipedia has this regarding the 18^th century farmhouse where White lived and wrote: The EB White House is set on the east side of SR 175, overlooking Allen's Cove at the southern end of Blue Hill Bay on Brooklin's east side.

And per Richard Flinn, the artist that did all the murals of former PawSox players at McCoy Stadium is named ‘Tayo’, a RISD grad. In 2012 Carol ‘Tayo’ Heuser did the bronze statue of Ben Mondor that is located outside McCoy beyond the left-field bullpen

Ernie’s trivia answer: Madison, Jefferson, Andrew Johnson, Lyndon B Johnson, Andrew Jackson, Woodrow Wilson, William Henry Harrison and Benjamin Harrison. Ernie said it was used at the Hot Club trivia night as a tie breaker.

LAST ISSUE’S QUIZ ANSWER

So who were the duo that had a hit song that reached Gold but were more known for writing songs for others? Tommy Boyce and Bobby Hart, which Professor Peter, the Wiz (eventually) and the Key West Brain Trust (Curtis, Shea, Knudson and Born) all got.

Sidney Thomas Boyce and Robert Luke Harshman are best known for the songs they wrote for the Monkees. Every Monkees album had Boyce & Hart songs. They also did the original vocals for the Monkees TV show which the band re-recorded later per Wikipedia. They wrote Come a Little Bit Closer for Jay & the Americans and Steppin’ Stone for Paul Revere and the Raiders. The duo also wrote the theme song of the daytime soap Days of Our Lives. Their big hit was I Wonder What She’s Doing Tonight.

THIS ISSUE’S QUIZ

This singer/multi-instrumentalist had an early band but is better known for his work with two giants of the music industry, one of whom he still tours with. Name?