Obstruction of Baseball Justice

Weather is always a wildcard when you’re going to baseball games in the Northeast.  When I saw the Dodgers were playing at Citi Field right before Memorial Day, I was hoping for some pretty good weather. As we got close to the game, the forecast was looking questionable, but it looked like it would probably be okay.  It turned out to be the worst possible outcome with the weather.  That was the bad news.  The good news was that I was able to see the Dodgers play without getting Apple TV.  As it would turn out, I would have needed Apple TV to see the end of the game.

I went to the game with my father.  The rain started when we were on our way to the stadium, but it stopped before we got there.  It started again right before the game started.  So we watched the first inning on a TV in the Hudson Club.  But it didn’t last long so we went back to our seats for the second inning.  With the Dodgers threatening in the top of the third, it started again.  It started coming down pretty good and they quickly delayed the game.  We went back to the Hudson Club, but it was much more crowded than the first time we were there and we couldn’t find a place to sit.  The rain stopped pretty quickly so we went back to our seats, but they announced that more rain was expected soon.  During the rain delay, we were pretty much looking for a place we could go to stay dry.  They were showing the Knicks and Pacers on the video board, but we didn’t really get to watch it because we were trying to stay out of the rain.

This was our view for the parts of the game when it wasn’t raining.

This would have been a really good way to spend a rain delay if  we had seats that were somewhere that would have stayed dry.

There were some weird plays in the game.  Right before the rain delay, Michael Conforto and Shohei Ohtani tagged up on a Mookie Betts fly ball that was caught after being bobbled in right center.  The Mets challenged the play.  Watching it live, I thought that Conforto left early because of the bobble.  But when the Mets challenged, I remembered the rule about tagging up.  The runner can leave as soon as a fielder touches the ball.  They don’t have to wait for the catch to be completed.  Like the infield fly rule, the point is to protect the base runners from shenanigans by the team in the field.  Without that rule, an outfield could intentionally bobble a ball and keep doing it while running into the infield to keep the runners from advancing.  The other thing that they could have been reviewing was whether Ohtani beat the tag at second base.  On the replay, it was clear that Conforto left after the ball was first touched and that Ohtani was safe at second.  So the call on the field was correctly confirmed and the Dodgers had runners on second and third going into the rain delay.

After an hour and 38 minutes, they started the game again.  Will Smith and Teoscar Hernandez had RBI singles to give the Dodgers a 3-0 lead.  We got another weird play in the bottom of the fourth.  With the Dodgers leading 3-1, Starling Marte tagged up on a fly ball hit by Pete Alonso.  Teoscar Hernandez made a terrific throw and Marte was out at home.  Except he wasn’t.  The third base umpire called obstruction on Max Muncy.  What did Max Muncy do?  Absolutely nothing.  Apparently, he was obstructing Marte’s view of the ball being caught.  If a fielder is face guarding a runner to prevent him from seeing the ball being caught, then that should be obstruction.  That’s not what Muncy was doing.  He was just standing on the infield.  If the call wasn’t made, the Mets would never have complained.

So that call was ridiculous, but it looked like it wouldn’t matter much because the Dodgers led 5-2 after RBI singles by Max Muncy and Andy Pages in the top of the fifth.  It started raining again and after the Dodgers hit in the top of the sixth, we decided to leave.  It was around 10:45 and we had dealt with enough bad weather for the night.  It looked like we weren’t going to miss much.  The Dodgers still led 5-2 going to the bottom of the ninth.  We listened to Tanner Scott blow the save on the radio in the car.  The Mets scored three runs to tie it at five.  Of course, if they hadn’t gotten the run on that ridiculous obstruction call, three runs wouldn’t have been enough.  But I don’t want to blame the umpire when all you had to do was not blow a three run lead.  The good news was that we missed Rob Manfred extra innings.  I had gotten home, taken a shower, and was in bed by the time the game ended.  I didn’t see the end of the game because it was on Apple TV.  The Dodgers won 7-5 in 13 innings.  Apparently the third base umpire made the same obstruction call on the last run scored by the Dodgers (except it didn’t matter because the throw didn’t even come in to home plate).  So we got the same ridiculous call that is never made from the same umpire twice in the same game.

So after four hours and eight minutes plus a rain delay of an hour and 38 minutes, the Dodgers won the game.  Attendance was 40,449.  I never like to leave a game early, but it was a good choice.  The game didn’t end until almost 1:00 and we definitely weren’t making it that long.  And we had dealt with enough bad weather.  I wore my heavy winter jacket.  I definitely didn’t expect to still need that on May 23.  It was cold, but that wasn’t too bad.  The rain was the much bigger issue.

Anyway, we went to the first game of the series because Clayton Kershaw was pitching.  This was the 12th game I attended that was started by Kershaw.  I’ve been to every regular season game he’s pitched at Citi Field except for his start there in 2011 (his second career start at Citi Field).  I guess at that point in his career, I didn’t make a point of seeing him whenever I could (he hadn’t won a Cy Young yet).  Besides eight games at Citi Field, I’ve also seen him pitch at Nationals Park (before the blog), Dodger Stadium, Citizens Bank Park, and Yankee Stadium.  The last time I saw him was in 2022.  I remember in that game watching him leave the mound after five good innings and thinking that might be the last time I got to see him pitch.  This time he only pitched two innings.  Going into the game, I was well aware that this could be the last time I got to see him pitch (hopefully not, but it’s a possibility).  I only actually got to watch him pitch one inning that wasn’t on TV since we watched the first inning in the Hudson Club.  And of course, when he came off the field in the second inning, I was just waiting for him to come back out there for the bottom of the third.  Unfortunately, that never happened because of the rain delay.  So I hope I get to see him again, but that might be it.  If I don’t get to see him again, I saw him pitch 72 great innings in person.  Here are his numbers with me in attendance:

12 starts, two pinch hit appearances (0-1 with a sacrifice bunt)

Dodgers:  12-2 (one of the losses was in a game when he only pinch hit)

Kershaw’s Win-Loss Record:  5-0

72 innings

1.25 ERA

75 strikeouts

39 hits

18 walks

0.79 WHIP

2 complete game shutouts

The weather and the obstruction call against Max Muncy were lowlights (so were Rob Manfred extra innings, but I wasn’t there to watch them), but the food and beverage were highlights.  I get to like 1-3 games per year at Citi Field, but I know the one place there to get Sam Adams Summer Ale.  There’s a little cart on the field level just off to the first base side that has Summer Ale.  It’s weird that it’s available there and apparently nowhere else in the stadium.  But that’s the way it’s been for at least the last three years.  It was not Summer Ale weather, but I was definitely going to enjoy my favorite beer while watching my favorite pitcher.  I got one right before the game started.  I didn’t have any food until after the rain delay.  I wanted a non-meat option on a Friday.  There weren’t a whole lot of interesting non-meat options.  Of course there’s pizza, but I’m skeptical of ballpark pizza.  It might be good, it might not be, but even if it’s good, I don’t want to pay stadium prices for a slice of pizza.  The Citi Field website had a lot of information about what was available at the concession stands.  Two non-meat possibilities were mac and cheese and mozzarella sticks.  But the website didn’t have information about the food available in the Hudson Club.  There was a concession stand in there with grilled cheese and tomato soup.  That’s what I got and it was really good.  Unlike my beer selection, it was the perfect choice for the weather.  And after the rain delay, I didn’t have any wait to get my food.  So that worked out pretty well.

It was 59° and raining, but that wasn’t going to stop me from enjoying a Summer Ale.

That might be my only game at Citi Field this year.  Unless I get to another game in New York before the end of June, my next Major League Baseball game will be in Tampa.  Since the Rays are playing outdoors this year, I guess I might have to deal with rain again.  But at least it won’t be cold.

Old Memories and a New Pope

After I graduated from college, I was able to get back on campus regularly.  I had younger friends and friends who went to graduate school and law school for six out of seven years after I graduated so I had a place to stay.  Southwest flew from Islip to Midway and Coach USA had a bus from the airport to campus.  All of that has changed.  Now it’s such a hassle to get to Notre Dame.  My friend Jon was in his last year of law school during the 2013 football season.  Since then, I’ve been to two football games on campus (the last one was now nine years ago).  I wish I could get there more often.  I went last year during Easter vacation and I was planning on going to baseball and softball games and everything was rained out.  I planned a trip there this winter for basketball and hockey, but the forecast was very questionable and I didn’t want to get stranded out there when I was supposed to fly back on a Sunday and go to work the next day so I canceled that.  So I decided to go out during Easter vacation for a baseball game after my trip to Portland.  Once again, the forecast was looking questionable, but this time the weather actually turned out to be fantastic.

Last year I took dreary pictures on campus.  The pictures this year were not dreary.

Pope Francis died the day after Easter and this brought back lots of memories.  The last time a reigning pope died was the Saturday after Easter 20 years ago when I was a student at Notre Dame.  I remember finding out about the death of St. John Paul the Great on ESPN.com.  I went to the vigil Mass in the basilica and it was packed.  He was the best pope of my lifetime and I think that probably won’t change even if I live for another five decades.

I remember the same bunting on the basilica after Pope John Paul II died 20 years ago.

I didn’t get to Mass in the basilica, but I stopped inside.

I had a ridiculously early flight from Portland to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to South Bend.  I got to my hotel near St. Mary’s and then went to Fat Cap Smoked Meats for lunch.  I had a pulled pork sandwich and beans.  It was really good.  Then I took a nap before heading over to campus for a baseball game.

My hotel was just northwest of campus and the baseball stadium is on the southeast corner of campus so I had to walk all across campus to get there.  I took my time and made a couple of stops and got to the game just in time for the first pitch.  We were playing Purdue Fort Wayne.  We scored a run in the first, but then gave up three in the third.  The game started at 5:30 and I was planning on leaving to see the second half of the Celtics-Magic playoff game.  I love Notre Dame, but I don’t care that much about our baseball team.  If it was a regular season game for the Celtics, then I probably would have stayed for the whole baseball game, but I didn’t want to miss an entire playoff game.  So as the baseball game progressed, I decided I would leave after five innings.  We scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to take a 5-3 lead.  So I got to see more than half the game, I enjoyed a hot dog, and I got to leave with Notre Dame leading (we went on to win 8-6).  It was in the 70s and sunny so it was a good experience.  There are a couple of ways that it could have been better.  First of all, they should play on grass and dirt.  There’s no excuse to play baseball on artificial turf when it’s outdoors.  The last time I got to a Notre Dame sporting event on campus (my only other one since before the pandemic) was an inning of a baseball game when Jon got married three years ago.  I noticed this time that they had changed the turf.  There used to be a shamrock design in the outfield.  That’s not there anymore.  So turf is bad enough to begin with, but they made it even worse.  The other thing that would have made it better would have been beer.  I knew they wouldn’t have beer and I’m not really complaining.  The crowds at the baseball games are pretty small (it’s free admission, but I guess they counted people because the box score listed the attendance for this game as 349) so whatever.  It’s not like they’re going to have a good craft beer program there.  But they did just announce that they’re going to have beer at football, basketball, and hockey games so that’s a long overdue development.

This was my view for the first pitch.

I moved so that I was sitting in the shade after I got a hot dog.  Notre Dame has the bases loaded in this picture.

The good thing about staying northwest of campus was that I had to walk past the Grotto on the way to or from campus.

I had an early afternoon flight the next day so I had some more time on campus in the morning.  I wanted to go to Mass on campus in the basilica, but on weekdays the Masses are at 11:30 in the morning (too early on my first day and too late on my second day) and at 5:15 in the evening (conflicted with the baseball game).  I had two other options on the day I was leaving.  There’s Mass in the basement of the basilica at 6:45 in the morning.  That’s what I was leaning towards at first, but after getting up at a ridiculous hour to go to the airport, I wanted a little more sleep.  So I went with the other option, an 8:00 Mass in the chapel of Stinson-Remick Hall (a building that didn’t exist when I was there).  That worked out very well because the celebrant was Fr. Bill Miscamble, my favorite professor at Notre Dame.  He’s Australian so he has a great accent.  I took US Foreign Policy and Australian History with him (I’m pretty sure I got an A and an A-).  His Australian History class solidified my desire to go to Australia.  I wanted him to be the president of Notre Dame, but he was probably too old to be considered by the time Fr. Jenkins retired (it should have been him instead of Fr. Jenkins when Fr. Malloy retired).  I said hello to him after Mass and then walked around campus for a while.  The last two times I was on campus, it was spring, but the weather was pretty rough.  I got some pretty glorious weather both days that I was there.  So it was a good trip out to Notre Dame.  I hope I’ll get back later this year for a football game and some fantastic fall weather.

I stopped in this chapel my first day on campus so that I would know where it was.  It was full for Mass the next morning.

I hope I’m back to see Touchdown Jesus and lots of touchdowns this fall.

The first time that we got a new pope during my lifetime was when I was a student at Notre Dame.  The second time was during my first year teaching at my current school.  A student told me that the pope resigned and I didn’t believe him.  I checked the internet and of course he was right.  I’m pretty sure Pope Francis was elected on a half day for parent teacher conferences after the kids had left.  I went to the Big East Tournament that night and saw Notre Dame win (it was our last Big East Tournament, I will never stop longing for the days of Notre Dame being in the Big East).  This time, the kids were in school when the pope got elected and they were pretty excited about it.  It’s a couple months after this year’s Big East Tournament, but we got a Big East pope.  How many popes have come from the Big 10 and SEC?  When I heard the name Robert Prevost, I looked him up because it wasn’t somebody who was talked about as a likely choice.  I was surprised that he was American and then I saw he went to Villanova.  If I had to make two predictions about the pope, I would have said that he would not be an American (wrong) and that he would not choose the name Clement XV.  Clement XIV was the pope who suppressed the Jesuits so nobody was going to take Clement XV right after a Jesuit pope.

Having an American pope is pretty exciting.  I went to Popeyes (Pope Yes) to celebrate.  It was my first time having their spicy chicken sandwich.  I remember a few years ago there was a big Chick-Fil-A vs Popeyes debate.  It’s been a while since I had the Chick-Fil-A spicy chicken sandwich, but the one from Popeyes was really good.  There was lots of good stuff on the internet, like the video of Pope Leo XIV being introduced with the 1990s Chicago Bulls music being played.  There was controversy over which baseball team he was a fan of (it turns out he was in attendance to see the White Sox in the World Series in 2005).  Obviously he went to Villanova, but there’s a chance that he was a Notre Dame football fan growing up in Chicago.  And I saw somebody speculate that he’s eaten more hot dogs than the previous 266 popes combined.  That is probably true.  And being from Chicago, Pope Leo XIV would definitely not put ketchup on a hot dog.  I would be in favor of him proclaiming that putting ketchup on a hot dog is a sin.

At his first Mass as pope the next day, Pope Leo XIV started his homily in English.  It was very weird to hear the pope speak English with an American accent.  When I went to the Vatican last summer, I figured Pope Francis would be the only pope I ever saw in person.  But I definitely want to see Pope Leo XIV in person.  Four out of the last five popes have visited the United States (the one who didn’t was John Paul I and he was only pope for 33 days).  So I expect Leo XIV to visit at some point.  I would definitely try to go see him, but I imagine it might be tough to get to see him.  If I can’t see him here, I wouldn’t rule out going back to Rome at some point.  Of all the foreign cities that I’ve been to, I think Rome was my favorite.  London and Sydney are right up there also, but I would go back to Rome before I would go back to London.  Going to Sydney again would be awesome but Australia is just so far away.  So Rome is the non-North American city that I’m most likely to revisit (the Blue Jays have renovated their stadium and Toronto is easy to get to so I might go back to Toronto at some point).  St. John Paul the Great will always be my favorite pope during my lifetime, but Leo XIV is already solidly in second place.  I hope he turns out to be a great pope as well.

Monster and Lobster

Easter vacation meant that it was time for me to go somewhere and watch baseball.  My last baseball game in person was back in July at Yankee Stadium.  It was good to see some baseball in person once again.  I was supposed to get to Notre Dame for basketball and hockey in February, but weather led me to cancel those plans.  I decided to go instead for baseball during my Easter vacation, but I wanted to combine that with a trip somewhere else.  I decided to go to Maine because I had spent very little time there.  Before this trip, there were nine states where I hadn’t seen a sporting event:  Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Mississippi, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Hawaii.  I’ve spent nights in Vermont and Hawaii.  I’ve driven through South Dakota and Wyoming.  I’ve been to historical sites and/or museums in West Virginia and Mississippi.  I haven’t done much in Rhode Island this century, but I went to visit Providence when my brothers were looking at colleges last century.  For New Hampshire and Maine, I pretty much just stopped in each state for a meal (before the blog for New Hampshire, but I also drove through New Hampshire with John to get to Maine in 2015).  Those were probably the two states where I’ve spent the least amount of time.  The Portland Sea Dogs were home the week of Easter so I went up there before heading to Notre Dame.

I went to see the Portland Sea Dogs at Hadlock Field.  The stadium is right next to the Portland Expo Building, home of the Maine Celtics of the NBA G League.  The Portland Expo Building opened in 1915, but Hadlock Field borrows a feature of Fenway Park, which opened in 1912.  The Sea Dogs are the double-A affiliate of the Red Sox so they have the Maine Monster in left field.  That was cool, but other than that I would say it was a below average minor league ballpark.  The concourse was underneath the stands so you can’t see the game when you’re getting something to eat or drink.  The food and beer selection was limited.  I didn’t really care about the food selection being limited.  It was my first game of the season so I wanted to have a hot dog.  So I got a Fenway Frank.  But there didn’t seem to be any unique options there when it came to food.  As for beer, there actually seemed to be a bit of a local selection.  The problem was there was no list of beers that were available that I saw anywhere.  They had cans displayed up high and from a distance you can’t tell what’s what if you’re not familiar with the cans they have displayed.  So anyway, I asked for a recommendation and the person working there named a few that she said were the most popular.  One of the ones she mentioned was Allagash White.  That comes from Portland, but I’m pretty sure I’ve had it before and didn’t like it.  So I went with another one she mentioned, the Tubular IPA from the Orono Brewing Company in Orono, Maine.  It was pretty good.  I just wish I could have had a better idea of what all the options were.

It was warm when the game started.  That didn’t last.

The game started a little after 6:00 so the sun was still out.  And it was pretty warm in the sun.  But it got cold once the sun went down.  The box score says that it was 56° and that’s probably what it was when the game started, but it was probably in the mid-40s as the game went on.  Attendance was 6,868, but it definitely cleared out as it got colder.  Also a pretty thick fog started to roll in during the fourth inning.  I can’t remember being at  another baseball game that was so foggy.  The game was the Reading Fightin Phils against the Sea Dogs.  It was not well pitched.  The Sea Dogs allowed 14 hits and 9 walks.  The Fightin Phils allowed 10 hits and 6 walks.  The Fightin Phils led 8-4 after seven innings.  With the cold weather, bad pitching, and the fact that I had to get up ridiculously early for a flight the next day, I left after seven.  I missed the Sea Dogs scoring five runs in the bottom of the eighth to win the game 9-8.

You can see the Portland Expo Building on the right.

This was probably the peak fogginess.

So that was my first baseball game of the season.  I have eight states left where I’ve never seen a sporting event.  I’ll cross at least one more off the list this summer.  But there was one other part of my time in Portland that needs to get mentioned.  Before going to the game, I went to the Highroller Lobster Company.  It was featured on Man v. Food.  Casey Webb tried several things there.  I had the lobster cheese crisp taco, which was one of the things he had.  The taco shell was made of cheese.  It was good, but the shell made of cheese was nothing special.  If I was going to be in Maine, I had to have some lobster so I’m glad I stopped there.

The lobster taco was good.  The coleslaw was not very good. 

I’ll finish with my Spring 2025 sports villain power rankings (here are the March 2024 power rankings).  It’s a little bit harder to come up with villains when my favorite basketball and baseball teams are reigning champions and my favorite college football team got to the championship game, but everybody on this list is deserving of a spot:

30.  Ime Udoka

29.  Kevin Durant

28.  Anthony Davis

27.  Kyrie Irving

Ime Udoka is the only one in the playoffs this year.  The other ones would all be higher if they were in the playoffs.  But as for the two with Celtics connections, it’s hard to consider them huge villains anymore when things have worked out so well for the Celtics without them.  Kyrie Irving tried to leave the Celtics for dead.  Instead, he went and messed up another franchise and then lost to the Celtics in the NBA Finals.

26.  Brian Kelly

Brian Kelly would be higher on the list if things haven’t worked out so well for Notre Dame without him.  It’s funny how Marcus Freeman very easily could have been at LSU.  He chose Notre Dame over LSU when both teams wanted him to be their defensive coordinator.  If Notre Dame didn’t promote Freeman when Kelly left a year later, he might have ended up as LSU’s defensive coordinator under Brian Kelly.  But we have Freeman and LSU has Kelly and Notre Dame has clearly come out ahead of LSU.

25.  Logan Webb

The Giants need to have a representative during baseball season.  It’s pretty much Logan Webb by default, but the Giants are off to a good start so somebody else might emerge this season.

24.  Caleb Williams

23.  Lincoln Riley

22.  Chad Bowden

We beat Caleb Williams in the most wonderful way possible the last time we played him.  We’ve won our last two against Lincoln Riley.  So those two don’t rank as high as they could.  Chad Bowden gets the top USC spot (sort of, we’ll get to the next group in a minute) for leaving Notre Dame for USC.  He would be higher on the list, but I’m really not worried about Notre Dame not having Chad Bowden anymore.

21.  Bill Belichick

20.  Pete Carroll

These two cheaters are coaching once again.  Never forget that Pete Carroll was using professional players at USC before that was legal. Bill Belichick will probably move up if he lasts more than a year at North Carolina because Notre Dame plays them in 2026.

19.  Paulo Banchero

18.  Franz Wagner

17.  Kentavious Caldwell-Pope

The Celtics should definitely win this series against the Magic, but they had to have some people on this list because I don’t enjoy watching them and their defensive strategy of “injure as many Celtics as possible.”  Banchero went to Duke, Wagner went to Michigan, and Caldwell-Pope injured Jayson Tatum.

16.  Jake Cronenworth

15.  Manny Machado

14.  Fernando Tatis

Cronenworth went to Michigan, Machado is as unlikeable as possible, and Tatis is a cheater.

9.  (tie) Jose Altuve, George Springer, Carlos Correa, Alex Bregman, and Yuli Gurriel

Gurriel was off the list the last time because he wasn’t in the Majors, but he’s back.  These cheaters are guaranteed Sports Villain Hall of Famers as soon as they’re done playing.

8.  Tony Petitti

Last year I ranked him and Greg Sankey together.  I despise the Big Ten and SEC with every fiber of my being for how they’re destroying college sports, but I’ve always hated the Big Ten more and Greg Sankey was trying to help Notre Dame after the Sugar Bowl got delayed (he talked about the possibility of pushing back the Orange Bowl since we lost a day of rest after the Sugar Bowl was pushed back a day) when there was no benefit for the SEC.  So he’s off the list.

7.  Rob Manfred

Major League Baseball has to find a better commissioner when he retires.  He will not be missed when that day comes.

6.  Ryan Day

The fact that he beat Notre Dame in the championship game has little to do with this ranking.  Ryan Day is here because he wanted to fight 86-year-old Lou Holtz after he beat us in 2023 and because he can’t beat Michigan.

5.  Jim Harbaugh

The Chargers have a few Notre Dame players and I can’t root for them because Jim Harbaugh cheated to win a national championship at Michigan.

4.  Nico Harrison

3.  JJ Redick

2.  Luka Doncic

LeBron James

LeBron James was number 2 last year because Jim Harbaugh had just won the national championship by cheating and the Lakers weren’t going anywhere in the playoffs.  The Lakers probably aren’t going anywhere this year either, but now that a year has passed and Jim Harbaugh isn’t at Michigan anymore, LeBron James is back to number 1.  Nico Harrison is on the list for trading Luka Doncic to the Lakers.  I get why he wanted to trade Doncic.  He was never in shape and he doesn’t play defense.  The problem is that he didn’t get anywhere close to what they should have gotten.  And he probably gave the Lakers a championship at some point in the future.  I don’t like Luka Doncic at all.  I find him incredibly dislikeable even before he was a Laker because of the lack of defense, not getting in shape, and arguing with the referees all the time, but he is a good enough offensive player that you can build a championship team around him.  And considering that he’s on the Lakers and good players just fall into their lap all the time, the Lakers probably will be able to win a championship with Luka Doncic even if he never gets into shape and even if he never becomes a good defensive player.  JJ Redick would be the most dislikeable coach in the NBA even if he didn’t coach the Lakers because he went to Duke and he slandered the great Bob Cousy.

And let’s add somebody to my Sports Villain Hall of Fame.  The current members are Barry Bonds, Tom Brady, Reggie Bush, Phil Jackson, Rafael Palmeiro, and Roger Clemens.  I’m adding Josh Reddick.  He is by far the least notable member of my Sports Villain Hall of Fame, but he gets in for two reasons.  First, the Dodgers traded for him in 2016 and he had two home runs and nine RBIs in 40 games while hitting .258/.307/.335.  And the second reason is that he was part of the cheating Astros in 2017.  If he only had one of those, he wouldn’t be a Hall of Famer, but the combination is enough to get him in.

My next baseball game is likely to be when the Dodgers come into town to play the Mets in late May. I don’t have any tickets yet because hopefully the Celtics will be playing in the Eastern Conference Finals at the same time so I would want to see what the schedule is for that before buying tickets for Dodgers-Mets. There will definitely be more traveling for baseball once we get to the summer.

No Bill Murray

It’s March and as is tradition, I attended the Big East Tournament with Vin this year.  I was trying to figure out how many Big East tournaments I’ve been to with him.  I think this was number 8 with him.  The first Big East Tournament I blogged about was 2013.  Vin was supposed to go with me that year, but he got sick and my Dad came instead.  We went every year from 2014-2019 except for 2017.  In 2017, I went to the ACC Tournament at Barclays Center, but I don’t think Vin came for that.  We were supposed to go to the Big East Tournament in 2020, but I had decided not to go and then they canceled the tournament.  After a hiatus of several years because of the pandemic, we were back at it last year.  We went again this year for the seventh time since I started the blog.  I’m fairly confident we went in 2012.  I was also trying to think of how many times I went before I started the blog.  I think I went once when I was at Georgetown and once when I was at Notre Dame.  After that, I don’t think I went again until 2012, probably because I was going to graduate school at night.  So this was at least my eleventh Big East Tournament and at my eighth one going with Vin.

Anyway, I used to go multiple nights, but it was only Thursday night this year.  Tickets are definitely more expensive than they used to be, Notre Dame isn’t in the Big East anymore (as always, my dream is to be independent in football, be in any conference other than the Big 10 for hockey, and to rejoin the Big East for the rest of our sports), and it is tough getting home late and not getting much sleep as I get older.  If I could do it over, I might have gone on Friday night instead of Thursday night.  Friday night was about twice as expensive when I got tickets, but if I had waited until the last minute, prices had come down significantly.  You get better teams on Friday night for the semifinals and I wouldn’t have to go to work the next day.  Going to the championship game on Saturday is fun also, but it’s only one game and there are a lot of automatic bids up for grabs that day so it’s a good day to be home and watch as many games as possible on TV.

We got to see DePaul and Creighton followed by Villanova and UConn.  I was hoping to see Georgetown, but they lost to DePaul the night before.  Surprisingly, DePaul put up a really good fight against Creighton.  They led by 15 at halftime. With 2:12 left to play, DePaul made a layup to go up 62-51.  ESPN says they had a 98.1% win probability at that point.  And then Creighton went on an 11-0 run to tie it with 21 seconds left (3 threes and a layup).  DePaul had a chance for the last shot, but Ryan Kalkbrenner blocked a shot with three seconds left, DePaul missed a three and we were going to overtime.  In the first overtime, Creighton led 72-64 and they had a 94.2% win probability.  But DePaul outscored them 9-1 for the rest of the first overtime (tying it with one second left) to send it to a second overtime.  DePaul had the lead early in the second overtime, but Ryan Kalkbrenner made a shot with 2:12 left to give Creighton the lead and they led for the rest of the game.  DePaul made it a three-point game with 54 seconds left, but Creighton made their free throws late and won 85-81.  Ryan Kalkbrenner had 32 points, 9 rebounds, and 5 blocks for Creighton.  Layden Blocker and Isaiah Rivera combined for 42 points, 14 rebounds, and 6 assists for DePaul.

It was at this moment that winter came to an end.

There are a few things I always hope for at the Big East Tournament.  I want good beer.  I remember last year Sam Adams was a sponsor of the tournament, but there was no Sam Adams that we could find at Madison Square Garden.  This year, we were able to get some Cold Snap on tap (the Sam Adams late winter seasonal, which will soon be followed by their spring/first two-thirds of summer seasonal, Summer Ale).  When I go to a doubleheader, I always root for a quick game in the first game, but it seems like I never get it.  But if the game was going to be long, at least we got a great game.

This was good.  I’m looking forward to my first baseball beer of the year.

The last thing I always want to see at the Big East Tournament is the old Big East teams (St. John’s, Villanova, Seton Hall, Georgetown, Providence, and Connecticut) because they’ll have more fans at Madison Square Garden than the Midwest teams.  Of course, St. John’s would have the most fans, but it seems like I never get to see them.  It seems like they were perpetually playing in the 8/9 game which would mean they would need to get to the semifinals to play at night.  This year, they weren’t in the 8/9 game, but they were the 1 seed so they still didn’t play at night until the semifinals.  I think the best crowd would be St. John’s-Connecticut.  Connecticut rejoined the Big East in 2020 and I didn’t see them last year so it had been at least a decade since I was at a Connecticut game at the Big East Tournament.  But they definitely had more fans than Villanova at the second game.  Because of double overtime in the first game, the second game didn’t start until 10:19.  If the games were reversed, it definitely would have emptied out after Connecticut and Villanova, but with that game being second, it was very full even with the late start.  Villanova led 36-31 at halftime and Vin and I both left.  I would have loved to stay for the whole thing (if we had stayed for the whole thing, maybe we would have run into Connecticut assistant coach Luke Murray’s father Bill Murray on the way out like we did nine years ago when Luke Murray was an assistant at Xavier), but it just wasn’t going to happen since I had to go to work the next day.  As it turns out, I missed a terrible second half.  Connecticut won 73-56 in what turned out to be Kyle Neptune’s last game as Villanova’s coach.  I will root for Villanova against anybody other than Notre Dame because they’re a Catholic school and they won National Championship Games against North Carolina and Michigan this century, but I don’t follow them closely.  Looking back, it’s a little surprising that they hired Kyle Neptune.  Obviously, they did it because he was a long-time Jay Wright assistant, but he only had one year as a head coach.  He went 16-16 at Fordham (8-10 and eighth place in the Atlantic 10).  Kyle Neptune was not ready to be a head coach at a school that should be competing for national championships.  So I hope they bring in somebody who will get them back to that level.

It was a good crowd for the second game.

It was good to see Vin again. Hopefully we’ll get back again next year.  One thing that I forgot to mention was that they announced Rick Pitino as the Big East Coach of the Year during a timeout in the first game and I booed him.  That’s a sports grudge that I’ve been holding onto for this entire century.  And that brings me back to something I haven’t done on the blog in many years, ranking the teams in the tournament by who I want to see win.  Normally, the teams at the top go Notre Dame when we’re in it, old Big East Catholic schools, new Big East Catholic schools, other Catholic schools, Butler, and then everybody else.  Other than Notre Dame, I will root for schools that don’t play football at the FBS level.  Michigan is always last on the list if they’re in the tournament (once again, they will rank 70th out of the 68 teams in the tournament).  This year, it will still be all Catholic schools at the top, but not quite following my normal rules.  Let’s get to it.  I’ll go in reverse order:

70. Michigan

69. Michigan makes the championship game and some catastrophic event prevents the game from being played without anybody dying.

68. Michigan makes the championship game and it’s determined before the game that all of their players are ineligible so the game is never played.

Having a pandemic that killed millions of people and not having a tournament was worse than Michigan winning, but if we could not have a tournament without millions of people dying, that would definitely be better than Michigan winning.

67. North Carolina

66. Connecticut

65. Duke

North Carolina is the school that got away with 18 years of fake classes for athletes and it’s now the school of Bill Belichick.  Danny Hurley is as dislikeable as any coach in college basketball these days.  Jayson Tatum went to Duke so I’ll put them ahead of North Carolina and Connecticut.

64. Arkansas

63. Kansas

John Calipari is at Arkansas now and he’s very high on the list of dislikeable coaches.  Having Calipari just ahead of Duke on the list is also fitting because Duke builds their team on hired mercenaries just like Calipari does and yet somehow people ignore that fact about Duke.  Kansas has definitely been cheating over the years so they’re low on the list.

62. UCLA

61. Oregon

60. Louisville

59. Michigan State

58. Purdue

57. Illinois

56. Maryland

55. Wisconsin

We get to a group of mostly Big 10 teams.  UCLA and Oregon are at the bottom of this for joining in the attempted murder of the Pac 12 instead of fighting against it (the Pac 12 may have survived, but they’ll be permanently disabled).  Louisville gets mixed in with this group because I consider them a Notre Dame rival in basketball.  They would be even lower in the rankings if Rick Pitino was still there.

54. Texas

53. Oklahoma

52. Alabama

51. Auburn

50. Georgia

49. Kentucky

48. Ole Miss

47. Florida

46. Missouri

45. Tennessee

44. Texas A&M

43. Mississippi State

42. Vanderbilt

Now we get to the SEC teams that aren’t coached by John Calipari.  Texas and Oklahoma are at the bottom of this group for being part of the attempted murder of the Big 12 and also because they were tied for 13th in the conference at 6-12.  I know they’re probably better than the Atlantic 10 teams, but if you’re 6-12 and the 13th/14th best teams in the conference, get out of here.  There are way too many SEC teams in this tournament.  Let me see teams from the Atlantic 10 and Missouri Valley get a chance.  Vanderbilt is the highest out of this group because they actually care about academics.

41. Clemson

40. Baylor

39. Arizona

38. Iowa State

37. Texas Tech

36. Houston

35. BYU

Now we’re into the teams in the Power 4 football conferences that aren’t the Big 10 and SEC.

34. Memphis

33. Liberty

32. New Mexico

31. Utah State

30. Colorado State

29. San Diego State

28. Akron

This is the group of teams that play FBS football in non-power conferences.

27. Grand Canyon

26. UNC Wilmington

If Grand Canyon was actually in the Grand Canyon, they would rank higher.  UNC Wilmington is low on the list because I don’t want to root for anything that’s part of the University of North Carolina system.

25. Drake

24. Robert Morris

23. Bryant

22. Troy

Are these colleges or some random dudes?  Troy sneaks up this high on the list as a school that plays FBS football because I’m grateful to them for hiring Gerad Parker as their head coach and allowing Notre Dame to replace him with Mike Denbrock.

21. Lipscomb

20. High Point

19. McNeese

I have no thoughts about these schools.

18. Yale

It’s a school that cares about academics more than they care about sports.  There might be lots of reasons not to like Yale, but that’s admirable.

17. Alabama State

16. Omaha

15. Norfolk State

14. Montana

13. SIUE

12. Wofford

11. American

It’s a group of 15 and 16 seeds.  American is the highest on this list because I’m a proud American (despite the sorry state of politics in this country).

10. VCU

Why does VCU sneak up this high on the list?  Because they have a fun tournament history and they’re in the Atlantic 10.  I would have preferred to see Dayton or one of the other Catholic schools representing the Atlantic 10, but I’m fine with rooting for the only team representing the Atlantic 10 (I wish there were more).  

9. UC San Diego

Why are they the highest ranked non-Catholic school?  Because if they win the National Championship, that would mean that Michigan lost their first game and that would be wonderful.

8. St. John’s

I’ll begrudgingly root for St. John’s against a non-Catholic school.  I’ve wanted St. John’s to be good for a long time.  They didn’t have to turn to Rick Pitino to do it.  If almost anybody else was coaching St. John’s and they were having this success, they would be number 1 in my rankings this year.

7. St. Francis (Pennsylvania)

I like St. Francis.  There are a lot of Catholic schools that I would rank them ahead of besides St. John’s, but they didn’t make it to the tournament this year.

6. Marquette

5. Xavier

4. Creighton

Now we get to the Big East schools that aren’t St. John’s or Connecticut.  Villanova, Seton Hall, Providence, and Georgetown need to get back to the tournament soon.

3. St. Mary’s

2. Gonzaga

It’s really respectable how these two have dominated the WCC.  I would love to see either one win the national championship.  Gonzaga is going to the new Pac 12 and St. Mary’s has been rumored to be doing the same.  They really should be in the same conference so I hope St. Mary’s does join Gonzaga in the Pac 12.

1. Mount St. Mary’s

I just found out about this, but the Mount St. Mary’s Wikipedia page has a section titled “Connection to Notre Dame and Saint Mary’s College in Indiana.”  That’s enough to get them the top spot with Notre Dame not in the tournament this year.  Go Mountaineers!