Hey:
Rockville Centre has their St. Patrick's Day parade the Saturday after the big one in Manhattan every year. For a few years, Tara, Tim and I marched with Mercy and it was always a great day. The pandemic cost us 2020 and 2021, bad weather cost us 2022 and 2023, and then last year Mercy decided not to participate. Even still, I had taken that Saturday off and had our own little extra St. Patrick's Day party.
This year, I didn't bother taking the day since I assumed Mercy wasn't marching. (if they did, they did a lousy job advertising that they were) Of course, I completely forgot all of this as I drove to RVC Train Station and the parking lot was closed. I ended up going to Baldwin to catch the train, because I would have had to wait a whole hour for the next train to the city out of Oceanside.
Then I got to the city and watched my college basketball team go down in flames. That's where we will start.
NCAA TOURNAMENT-RIP SJU
So, I had a dilemma filling out my bracket... Do I hedge, have St. John's lose in the first round and hope they burn me that way, or pick them to go far and hope they don't burn me. Well, you can pretty much write the story yourselves from here.
I picked the Johnnies to the Final Four. And they thanked me by doing the one thing I prayed they wouldn't do*, and that was lose to that loudmouthed, overrated scumbag John Calipari and his Tyson Foods subsidiary Arkansas Razorbacks.
If you look at this loss objectively and if you follow basketball at all, this result should not have come as a shock. St. Johns all year couldn't shoot, and it was really a matter of time where that was going to catch up to their asses.
But they hooked us in, didn't they? They hooked us in with their in-your-shorts defense, their Rick Pitino patented full cross press, and their offensive rebounding. As much as I kept telling myself that a team that shoots as bad as they do could not possibly make a run, I watched them breeze to the regular season Big East title, waltz through the Big East tournament and blow Omaha out on Thursday night.
It really felt like they were something special.
And I suppose that in some ways they were. It's been years since there was any sort of buzz around St. John's in particular and college basketball in general around these parts. I felt bad for Timmy and other kids of my friends who were either too young or weren't born even back in the early part of the century, the last time St. John's was any good. Shoot, it was exactly 40 years ago when they made it to the Final Four, and you want to talk about NY becoming a college basketball town? Especially that year, 1985, where the Knicks were awful, the Rangers pretty much as bad, and the Islanders dynasty coming to an end the previous spring. St. John's was the only game in town that year. And the city fell hard for them.
You could feel that coming this year too. The Knicks and Rangers aren't as bad as their 1985 versions are, but let's face it, neither one of them are winning their respective league's championships. Shit, the Rangers probably won't make the playoffs, and the Knicks are destined for a second round exit.
The Johnnies were our only hope.
And they blew it.
Now, there is of course, a thought that getting on college kids for not winning is wrong. They are after all, college kids, not professional athletes. And I can dig that, except..
NIL Money has changed the equation on that. A few paragraphs back I called coach Cal a few choice names. And while I stand by those comments, I also realize my team's coach isn't exactly Father Flannigan either. He has admittedly relied on the transfer portal to build the Red Storm roster. He also relied on 1991 SJU graduate and self made billionaire Mike Repole, who has been the programs biggest booster. Per Kirsten Fleming in the Post...
His money made it possible for Coach Rick Pitino to recruit athletes like Kadary Richmond and RJ Luis. Few have been as pivotal — or visible — as Repole, 55, in this wild new era of college sports, where student athletes are able to be compensated under NIL (Name, Image and Likeness) rules and move freely to other schools through the transfer portal.
St. John’s reportedly has an NIL payroll of around $4 million, believed to be No. 1 in the Big East.
$4 million? Mr. Repole is my favorite team owner, him and Steve Cohen!
Do I feel guilty about this? No way.
Look I told you all a few weeks ago that we took Tim to see St. John's, and the basketball team was no small part of the sales pitch. Nobody on the tour with us were looking to go there to play basketball, but a couple of them were asking about going into MSG to watch them or how many people could fit into Carnesecca Arena. If they had made a deep run into the tournament, you don't think that would have been worth a whole bunch of new matriculants?
But alas it wasn't to be. At it sucks.
Mike Vaccaro did a column the other day listing 6 St.John's teams that were a 1, 2 or 3 seed. The 1985 team made the Final Four, and the 1999 team made the Elite Eight. Here are the teams that followed those seasons. Both bit the dust in the second round like they did this year.
March 16, 1986
Auburn (8) 81, St. John’s (1) 65
The 30-4 Johnnies had scuffled to a nine-point win over No. 16 Montana State in the first round of the West region, where for the second straight year they were the 1 seed. That proved to be something of a harbinger for their second-round pairing with Auburn, which jumped to a 12-point halftime lead at Long Beach Arena and cruised home behind Chuck Person’s 27.
Montana State had two brothers, Kral and Shan Firch** who gave Walter Berry, Mark Jackson et al all they could handle. I should have known if they had that much trouble with the Firch brothers, there was no way they could stop Chuck (the Rifleman) Person. But I was a mere 12 years old and had just seen the Johnnies get to the Final Four the year before. What the hell did I know?
March 18, 2000
Gonzaga (10) 82, St. John’s (2) 76
Nobody in the country was playing better than St. John’s, which knocked off defending champ UConn in the Big East final, but after sneaking by No. 15 Northern Arizona in the first round in Tucson, Ariz., the Johnnies fell to the Bulldogs — in Year 2 of a rise to prominence that remains ongoing. The Johnnies led by three at the half but had no answers for Matt Santangelo (26 points, six 3s).
The year before, the Johnnies had made it to the Elite 8 and was a missed Erick Barkley three pointer at the buzzer from having a chance to go to the Final 4.*** In fairness, Gonzaga would become a power in the following years (albeit one that always ends up a dime short), but this was a SJU team I thought would get at least back to the Elite 8. Instead, they bought it in the second round.
There was also the 1992 team who I could have sworn was a top 3 seed. (They weren't-they were a 7 seed) lost in the first round to Tulane. I picked them to go to the Championship Game that year. I picked them only to the Final Four this year. In both cases they screwed me 9 ways to Sunday.
They who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it (Aw shaddup!)
FWIW- (and it aint worth much) I went 28-4 in the first round. I picked McNeese State and Drake Business School correctly in upsets.
George Foreman-1949-2025
A man who boxed for a living and bragged about eating cheeseburgers while training may not have struck anyone as a guy who could live well into his 70's, but you put anything past big George Foreman at your peril. If ever a man re-invented himself many times over, it was George Edward Foreman.
He was the heavyweight champion the day I was born, having upset Joe Fraizer the previous January in Kingston, Jamaica. (Down goes Frazuh! Down goes Frazuh!)
He was also the heavyweight champion the night I had a legal drink with my family for the first time. On November 5, 1994, I was at my Uncle Will's 75th birthday party, and after one of my grandmother's friends told me I was getting fat****, I decided being that I had turned 21 exactly 3 months before, that would be a good time for me to start slugging down some Rum and Cokes.
Foreman knocked out Michael Moorer in Las Vegas that night, 21 years, 9 months, and 2 weeks after he had knocked out Joe Fraizer.
He lost the title he had won from Fraizer to Mohammad Ali at the Rumble in the Jungle, October 30, 1974 in Kinshasha, Zaire. Ali rope-a-doped his way back to the belt.
Foreman took time off after his loss to Ali, but then came back for a series of fights, including another win over Fraizer at the Nassau Coliseum in June of 1976 that to be honest I had never heard of before. But then he fought Jimmy Young in Puerto Rico in March of 1977 and lost a unanimous 15 round decision. After the fight, he suffered from exhaustion and heat stroke and thought he was going to die. He retired from boxing at that point and became an ordained minister.
I remember reading in the paper in 1987 that he was attempting a comeback at age 38. A comeback in boxing at that age was unusual enough, having not fought in 10 years was even more unusual. But what was most unusual was where he once had an afro and was built like a Mack truck, now he was bald and had a huge belly. Where once he was described as brooding and moody, now he was smiling and laughing with the press and the fans. After he won his first four fights, he told the media he was "interested in fighting this Mike Tyson fellow." Tyson would shortly thereafter unite the heavyweight title by disposing of Michael Spinks in a minute and a half and at that point looked unbeatable. Foreman, meanwhile, was basically running a tomato can of the month club.
In February of 1990, Tyson was knocked out by Buster Douglas in Tokyo, still as far as I'm concerned, the biggest upset in sports history. Douglas became even more fat and out of shape than Foreman, and lost his first title defense to Evander Holyfield.
Holyfield's first title defense would be against ... well, George Foreman. Foreman had managed to beat a couple guys who at one time been contenders, including Gerry Cooney. The Foreman-Cooney fight was dubbed Two Geezers at Ceasars. Foreman knocked Cooney out in two rounds. That gave Foreman 19 wins since he started his comeback. He would win 4 more before he got his shot at the belt.
Foreman and Holyfield would meet on April 19, 1991, and Foreman went the distance, but Holyfield won a unanimous decision. And I thought that was the end of Foreman's boxing career.
But he kept going.
A couple years later, he fought Tommy Morrison of Rocky V fame. Mike Lupica was hosting the midday show on WFAN at the time and someone called and asked him who he thought would win. After hanging up on the guy, Lupica cracked. "Tommy Morrison couldn't beat Rocky Balboa in a street fight. What makes you think he can beat the big guy?" Well, Morrison not only beat him, he beat him up badly. It went the distance, but Foreman looked like a truck ran over him. The fight again went the distance, but Morrison won it in a rout. And again, I thought that was the last we'd seen of Big George.
Until November 5, 1994.
He was 45 years old at the time, by far the oldest person to win the heavyweight title. The 20 years and 1 week between title reigns I have to imagine is still the record.
And that was just the stuff in the ring.
Outside, as I said he was an ordained minister and also an entrepreneur. Who amongst us didn't have a George Foreman Grill at one time or another?
More recently, we got a kick out of Big George globetrotting with Willam Shatner, Henry Winkler, Terry Bradshaw and comedian Jeff Dye (the sidekick) on NBC's Better Late than Ever. That show ran for two seasons 2016-17 and 2017-18. The four old times (and young sidekick Dye) traveled first through Asia, and then through Europe.
In the third episode of the second season, the guys were in Lithuania. Shatner's family was originally from Lithuania, and they were looking to trace his roots. At one point they were judging a goat contest. After George had judged the winning goat, they told him they had a surprise for him. The family of Jonas Cepulis was there to meet him. Cepulis was the Soviet fighter that Foreman defeated at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City for the gold medal. He told the family that they spoke often and had made plans to get together, but Cepulis had passed before they could make it happen. On the show, he met Cepulis widow, his two daughters two of his grandkids, and his brother. He was brought to tears as he hugged each of them.
That will be my last memory of George Foreman. Big man, big heart, larger than life. RIP.
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Most of the baseball season kicks off this Thursday. The Mets open in Houston and the Yanks host the Brewers at the Stadium. I say most of the baseball season because two teams have actually played regular season games already. That be the Dodgers and Cubs who played last Monday and Tuesday in Tokyo.
I think March 27 is too early to start the baseball season, starting it the day after St.Patrick's Day is an abomination. Shoot, I had a rule for years that I didn't tune into any spring training game before March 17th, since usually before that you still had lots of guys who weren't going to make the team still playing.
And playing these games in Japan? I get it, MLB makes a truckload of $$$ off these games, I read somewhere that tickets for the games cost as much as Super Bowl tickets, and the sports biggest star is Japanese. But the games started 3 AM in LA and 5 AM in Chicago. Who the hell wants to do that on a Monday morning if you got a 9-5 job you got to get to?
Speaking of which, I do have a job to get to Monday morning, so I'll wrap this up here.
Thanks everyone for reading this.
Stay Safe
and Have a Great Week
*well, that and not lose to Omaha in the first round
**One of the newspapers ran an NCAA Trivia Quiz that year, and the first question was who held the record for highest mpg average in NCAA history. The choices were Wilt Chamberlain, Pete Maravich or Kral Firch
***feel free to fact check me on that. That's how I remember it, but I could be wrong.
**** rude, but not inaccurate
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