Party Like It's 1981

I decided to keep a game by game diary of the NBA Finals.  If you’re reading this, I am very happy because it means the Celtics won their 18th NBA Championship.  This definitely wasn’t going to end up on the blog if the Celtics lost.  I titled it “Party Like It’s 1981” for a few reasons.  It’s a reference to my blog post from the last time one of my favorite teams won the championship.  The weren’t playing the Lakers so I didn’t pick 2008 or 1984 or one of the seven other times that they’ve beaten the Lakers.  They were playing a team from Texas so I thought 1981 or 1986 would be more appropriate.  I went with 1981 because the Dodgers also won the World Series that year.  Of course, I’m hoping that happens again this year.  And lastly, 1981 was the first of three championships for the Larry Bird Celtics.  I hope the Tatum and Brown Celtics have more to come.  This paragraph was the only thing I edited for content after the fact.  Everything else was my reaction at the time.  Let’s get to it.

We already know how this blog post ends.

Game 1

Game 1 went very well.  Of course, the big question was Kristaps Porzingis.  He was awesome with 20 points in 20 minutes.  He also had six rebounds and three blocks.  He sparked a run when he came in about halfway through the first quarter and the Celtics led by 17 at the end of the quarter.  He had a block on Kyrie Irving late in the first quarter and it was at that point that I would have written “Series over” in my notebook if I had been taking notes in a notebook.  I was very confident going into this series and this game was exactly why.  The Celtics are just better than the Mavericks.  They had a bad stretch from the end of the second quarter into the third quarter and it looked like it might be a game.  And then the Celtics just reasserted their dominance.  The Celtics’ defense is awesome and they have too many good players.  Jayson Tatum only scored 16 points and the Celtics still won by 18.  The Mavericks are way too dependent on Luka Doncic.  He might have a crazy game and win one by himself at some point.  Maybe the Mavericks get one other game.  But I really think the Celtics are going to win this series.  Everybody was saying six or seven games and more ESPN.com experts picked the Mavericks.  My thought before the series was Celtics in five.  I’m feeling pretty good about that right now, but you don’t win a series in Game 1.  Game 2 is huge.  The Celtics are 1-2 in Game 2’s so far and the Mavericks are 3-0.  Losing a couple of Game 2’s hasn’t stopped the Celtics from winning the series quickly, but obviously they’d be in a much better position being up 2-0 instead of letting it get to 1-1.  One last note is that it was good to see Sam Hauser shoot the ball well.  He’s struggled recently, but he’s somebody that could swing a game with his three point shooting.  Game 1 was great.  Let’s do it three more times in the next three to four games.

Game 2

I didn’t like Game 2 as much as Game 1.  The Celtics won so that’s awesome, but it looks like Kristaps Porzingis got hurt again.  I would be surprised if he plays in Game 3, but hopefully he’s not done for the series.  The Celtics did not shoot the ball well in the first half.  They were better in the second half, but still ended up shooting only 25.6% on threes.  Their defense continues to be good.  Jrue Holiday was the best player for the Celtics with 26 points and 11 rebounds.  He had a big deflection which led to a steal and then he hit a three in the fourth quarter when the Celtics needed a basket.  Jayson Tatum had a bad shooting game, but he ended up with 18 points, 12 assists, and 9 rebounds.  I thought Derrick White was having a quiet game and then he ended up with 18 points (4/10 from three), 5 rebounds, 2 blocks, and 3 steals.  The Celtics had a 14 point lead in the fourth quarter and then the Mavericks went on a run.  White blocked a dunk that would have made it a one possession game then Jaylen Brown had a dunk to pretty much wrap it up.  Luka Doncic was really good in the first half, but the Celtics slowed him down enough in the second half.  Again, the Celtics just have too many good players.  But if they don’t have Porzingis anymore (I’m hoping he’s not done for the series, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he is), that certainly closes the gap a little bit.  It’s good to be up 2-0.  But they really haven’t done anything yet.  They won two games at home.  Jrue Holiday was on a team that lost the first two games on the road and then won the next four.  If the Mavericks win their two home games, then anything can happen.  But if the Celtics can get at least one in Dallas, they’ll be in great shape.  I’m totally in favor of winning both games in Dallas.

Game 3

The Boston Celtics are one win away from their 18th NBA Championship.  Today was the eighth grade dance that I had to go to.  I was counting the seconds until I was able to leave.  It’s not a bad eighth grade, but being with them instead of watching the Celtics in the NBA Finals is a nightmare.  Fortunately I was able to leave shortly after the game started.  I checked my phone as it was leaving and it was 9-2 Mavericks.  I listened on the radio on the way home.  The Mavericks had the lead up to 13.  That made me kind of optimistic.  As long as the Celtics didn’t let it get away from them, being down early was not a big deal.  The Celtics were going to go on a run and it would be demoralizing for the Mavericks.  Anyway, I got home and took a shower in time to watch the second half.  When I saw that the Celtics were down by one going into the second half, I was very confident that they would win.  Why?  Because the Celtics are better than the Mavericks.  But let’s back up.  Shortly after writing my Game 2 entry, I saw that Joe Mazzulla and Kristaps Porzingis had said that they weren’t concerned about his injury.  I didn’t believe them.  The news came out yesterday with whatever injury it was (not a common one) and he was listed as questionable.  It sounded like he was going to try to play.  But then when I was at the dance, I saw that he was out.  But still, the Celtics are better than the Mavericks.  Xavier Tillman got a chance to play with Porzingis out and he was good.  He played some good defense, made a big three, grabbed four rebounds, and was +9 in 11 minutes.  Give him some more time in Game 4 (I’m assuming Porzingis is done at this point).  Anyway, the third quarter was beautiful.  The Celtics were up 85-70 going into the fourth.  When it gets late in games, I like to start thinking about the number of points the Celtics need to get to where they’re definitely going to win.  The number I came up with was 110.  They never got there.  They had the lead up to 21 early in the fourth quarter and then they just couldn’t score anymore.  The Mavericks cut the lead to one, but they could never tie it or take the lead.  Luka Doncic ended up fouling out with a decent amount of time left.  Obviously he’s a great offensive player, but I was worried.  Why?  Because the Celtics already couldn’t score and I thought the Mavericks’ defense would be better without Doncic.  But the Celtics did enough after Doncic fouled out to win 106-99.  Jaylen Brown made a couple of huge shots and Derrick White hit a huge three and some free throws.  Jayson Tatum had 31 points, 5 assists and 6 rebounds.  Jaylen Brown had 30 points, 8 assists, and 8 rebounds (also +13).  Derrick White had 16 points, 4 assists, and 5 rebounds.  After Game 2, I would have picked Jrue Holiday as the MVP.  After three games, I would probably give it to Brown.  If the Celtics sweep, I probably will go to whoever has the best game in Game 4 out of Tatum, Brown, or Holiday.  Much like this game, the series isn’t over until it’s over.  The Celtics obviously should win.  But they still need to win one more game.  I really hope they sweep.  Winning Game 5 in Boston and winning the championship in front of the home fans would be fun, but don’t give the Mavericks any hope.  Bury them now.  Also, I love the idea of winning the championship on a Friday and then I can enjoy some NBA Championship Sam Adams beers and not have to go to work the next day.  But you don’t get anything for winning three games.  They have one more to go.  Let’s Go Celtics!

Game 4

I did not like Game 4.  I did not get to celebrate a championship on a Friday night.  The Celtics played terribly and got blown out.  Whatever.  It’s not worth spending time writing about it.  It will be more fun for the fans to win at home.  Hopefully they’ll get it done in Game 5.  Because if not, then they have to go back to Dallas and the Mavericks will have some hope.  But I think they’ll get it done on Monday night.

Game 5

I have few rules in life, but one of them is this:  any time the Celtics are playing to win their 18th NBA Championship on the 16th anniversary of their 17th NBA Championship, I have to keep a running diary.  Here’s what transpired.

8:38- The Celtics are wearing green for the first time in the NBA Finals.  It’s Game 5.  It’s stupid that it took so long for them to wear green and also stupid that they’re wearing green at home.  Nike is the worst.  In related news, the Dodgers unveiled their City Connect uniforms today.

8:39- Jrue Holiday scores the first basket of the game to give the Celtics a 2-0 lead.  Luka Doncic misses a three and then commits a foul.

8:41- Kyrie Irving misses a three.

8:42- The offense has been bad for both teams so far, but Jrue Holiday gives the Celtics a 4-0 lead.

8:43- The Mavericks get their first basket on an alley oop.  On the next possession for the Mavericks, Kyrie Irving turns it over and that leads to another basket for Jrue Holiday.

8:45- Big Al hits the first three of the game to give the Celtics a 9-2 lead.  The Mavericks call timeout.  The Celtics haven’t been very good on offense so far, but their defense has been good and the Mavericks’ offense has been worse than the Celtics’.

8:50- Luka Doncic gets a three point play after the timeout.

8:51- Kristaps Porzingis is into the game with Derrick White at the foul line.

8:53- The Mavericks are going at Porzingis defensively.  It’s now 13-11 Celtics.

8:54- Derrick White hits a three off a jump ball.

8:55- The Celtics call timeout with a 16-13 lead.  I don’t know if they can keep Porzingis out there defensively.

9:00- Porzingis has his first point after splitting a pair of free throws.

9:03- Sam Hauser hits a three on an assist by Jrue Holiday.  Then Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum get back to back layups off of turnovers.  The Celtics lead by 10.

9:04- Tatum misses a three to end the quarter, but the Celtics lead 28-18.  That was an excellent finish to the quarter.  Jrue Holiday was the best player for the Celtics in the first quarter.  He has an outside shot at Finals MVP.  I don’t care who it is as long as the Celtics win.  For all I care, give it to Luka Doncic in honor of Jerry West (1969 Finals MVP even though the Celtics won the series)  if the Celtics win tonight.

9:09- Sam Hauser hits his second three.  The Celtics lead by 11.

9:11- Porzingis had his best defensive possession of the game, giving Luka Doncic a hard time.  Doncic missed and the Celtics got the rebound.

9:12- Porzingis gets the ball in the post and scores on Kyrie Irving.

9:14- Jrue Holiday answers a Kyrie Irving three with one of his own.  The Celtics lead by 14.

9:17- Jayson Tatum gets a three point play and the Celtics lead 46-31.  This is good, but a 15 point lead in the first half in today’s NBA is nothing.  The Celtics need to pour it on.

9:25- The Celtics went with a small lineup (no Horford or Porzingis) and it didn’t work.  The Celtics call timeout leading by nine.

9:33- After Holiday scores on a nice assist by Tatum, Jaylen Brown gets a layup to get the lead back to 15.

9:34- Derrick White helped create a turnover, but he was bloodied after having his face smashed into the floor in the process.

9:35- Tatum assists a Jaylen Brown three.  He has nine assists.  I hope he ends up with like 16 assists or something ridiculous like how Rajon Rondo had six steals in Game 6 against the Lakers in 2008.

9:38- Jayson Tatum gives the Celtics a 20 point lead with a three, but Luka Doncic scores and gets fouled on the other end.

9:39- Doncic can’t complete the three point play and Payton Pritchard hits a half court three to end the half!  That’s what he does!  I was not surprised at all to see that go in.  Game over.

This shot passed Xavier Tillman’s three in Game 3 as my favorite shot of the Finals.

9:41- Okay, it’s not game over.  The Mavericks are definitely capable of making a run.  But that was a great second quarter.  Play a good third quarter and then it should be over.  Jayson Tatum was the best player for the Celtics in the second quarter.

9:59- We’re back for the second half.  Derrick White makes a three to make it a 24 point lead.  Keep pouring it on.

10:00- And Big Al hits a three.  The Celtics lead 75-50.

10:01- Kyrie Irving misses a shot, but he fell so they call a foul on Jrue Holiday.  Did the NBA tag in Scott Foster for the second half?

10:03- Big Al had two free throws.  He made the first and missed the second, but Derrick White got the offensive rebound and Jrue Holiday gets a layup.  The Mavericks call timeout down by 26.

10:06- We get highlights of Game 6 in 2008.  I want Gatorade dumped on Joe Mazzulla tonight.

10:10- The Celtics have gone cold and the Mavericks have cut the lead to 19.

1014- The Celtics call timeout with an 18 point lead.  The Celtics’ offense hasn’t been very good in this quarter.  They closed the first two quarters very well.  Hopefully they can do that again in this quarter.

10:19- The Celtics are getting a bunch of offensive rebounds, but they’re not doing a good enough job of taking advantage of those second chance opportunities.

10:22- Hauser and Brown make back to back jumpers to get the lead back to 21.

10:24- The Celtics lead 86-67 after three.  They didn’t play a very good quarter, but the Mavericks could only narrow the gap by two points from halftime.  I’m going to set the number to win for the Celtics at 115.  It probably shouldn’t take that many points, but if they get to 115 in the fourth quarter, they’re winning.  (As it turns out, I was being extremely over cautious saying 115.  I should have said 107 because that would have meant that that the Mavericks needed to score more than 40 in the fourth quarter to win.  The real number that the Celtics needed to win was 89 and they already had 86 points.)

10:28- Derrick White blocks a Dereck Lively dunk attempt.  Derrick White has been so much fun to watch this year.

10:31- We’re two minutes into the fourth quarter and nobody has scored.  I mean, if we go the whole quarter without anybody scoring, the Celtics are NBA Champions.

10:33- We’re almost three minutes into the quarter and Porzingis has the first basket for either team on a dunk after a nice pass from Jaylen Brown.

10:36- Ray Allen is in the building.  He hit seven threes in Game 6 against the Lakers in 2008.

10:37- Derrick White hits a three with the shot clock running down.  The Celtics lead by 21.

10:38- After Doncic scores, Jayson Tatum gets a three point play to make it a 22 point lead.

10:40- Kristaps Porzingis is coming out.  He’s probably done for the night.  He gave the Celtics everything he could in the Finals.

10:42- The Celtics lead by 20 with 5:48 to play.  I want the Mavericks to wave the white flag.  We’re not quite there yet.

10:43- Tatum scores, White gets a steal, and Tatum scores again.  The Celtics lead by 24 with 4:39 to play.  The Mavericks call timeout.  It’s white flag time.

10:47- We’re back from the timeout and Mavericks still haven’t taken out Doncic.  He slips and turns the ball over.  Jayson Tatum is going to the line for two.

10:48- Tatum makes both and the Celtics have matched their largest lead.  I’m drinking a Summer Ale right now by the way.  I think I’ve had a beer during every Celtics playoff game this year until Game 4 of the Finals.  I wanted to save the beer to celebrate the Celtics winning the championship.  I had the same plan tonight and I was hoping I could start drinking in the fourth quarter to celebrate the championship and here I am.

10:53- The Celtics are challenging an out of bounds call up by 21 points with 2:37 to play.  As long as the Mavericks are playing their starters, there’s no reason not to challenge this.

10:54- The Celtics win the challenge.  And now the Mavericks are waving the white flag.  Kyrie Irving played a bad game and he is out.  Luka Doncic is out.  I want Luke Kornet in the game.

10:55- And he’s getting set to check in.

10:56- Luke Kornet is in for Big Al.  Big Al is going to be an NBA Champion.  He will not catch Karl Malone for most playoff games without a championship.  Karl Malone should forever be number 1 on that list.

10:57- Hauser and Pritchard are in for Tatum and Brown.

10:58- Holiday and White are out of the game.

11:00- Final score:  Celtics 106, Mavericks 88.  The Celtics have their 18th NBA Championship.  This is their fourth championship of my lifetime, but only the second that I can remember.  In 2008 they won it against the Lakers.  Of course, that’s the best possible way to win a championship.  If you can’t beat the Lakers to win a championship because they lost in the first round (but congratulations on winning the Tournament of Meaninglessness), the next best way to win a championship is to beat Kyrie Irving.

11:14- Jaylen Brown is the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP.  It’s pretty crazy that Jayson Tatum led the Celtics in playoff points, rebounds, and assists, but he didn’t win the Larry Bird Eastern Conference Finals MVP or the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP.

This was fun.  Let’s do it again next year.

Random thoughts after the Celtics won the championship:  Basketball Reference has Hall of Fame probabilities.  I assume these numbers will be updated, but they had Tatum at 17.7%, Horford at 12.23%, Holiday at 0.75%, and Brown at 0.32%.  I assume those numbers will be updated now that they won the championship, but those numbers were pretty ridiculous.  It’s the Basketball Hall of Fame, so many players make it.  Tatum and Brown were pretty much locks assuming they play at least five more years.  Horford is now a lock.  I don’t know about Holiday, but I wouldn’t be shocked if he got in.

People really thought the Mavericks were going to win this series.  Why?  More than half of the ESPN experts picked the Mavericks.  All the ESPN experts who picked the Celtics said six or seven games.  Before Game 1, I sent John a tweet from Keith Smith (not of ESPN) predicting the Celtics to win in five and laying out the case for it.  I said that was how I was feeling.  The Celtics were so much better.  Let’s assume that the top two players on the two teams were even (hold on, I’ll come back to that one).  The Celtics were much deeper than the Mavericks.  The Celtics had Holiday, White, Porzingis, and Horford.  The Mavericks can’t match up with that.  As for the two best players on each team, Tatum and Brown were both clearly better than Kyrie Irving.  And I’ve thought for a long time that Luka Doncic is overrated.  I’ll agree that he was the most talented offensive player in the NBA Finals.  But what about the other half of the game?  He’s nowhere close to Tatum or Brown as a defensive player.  Brian Windhorst was completely right about Doncic after Game 3.  Doncic played one good defensive game.  Congratulations.  There’s no shame in losing a short series to a better team.  LeBron James got swept by the Spurs in 2007.  But LeBron James was always in great shape.  Luka Doncic is in terrible shape and he has been for his whole career.  If you want to be a championship caliber player, get in shape and play some defense.

Back to good and bad predictions.  My favorite NBA podcaster Zach Lowe was right about the Celtics all along.  He predicted them to win the championship before the season, he predicted them to win the championship going into the playoffs, and he predicted them to beat the Mavericks (he said six games, but he deserves a pass on that one).  On the other hand, Bill Simmons predicted the Lakers to beat the Celtics in the Finals before the season because he was scared of Austin Reeves or something.  The Lakers weren’t good last year and then they had a decent run in the playoffs.  What reason was there to think they would be any better this year?

Losing to the Lakers in 2010 was miserable.  I think it would have been even more miserable to lose to Kyrie Irving.  I can at least respect the Lakers.  Kyrie Irving was my least favorite Celtic guy who played for the Celtics of all time (as noted in this post, he doesn’t deserve to be called a Celtic).  I heard some people talking about what might have happened if Gordon Hayward hadn’t gotten hurt in his first game with the Celtics.  I’ll tell you what would have happened:  Kyrie Irving would have messed everything up.  He played two seasons with the Celtics.  He got hurt in his first season and the team made a really good run in the playoffs without him.  And then he made his second season the most miserable season I can remember as a Celtics fan.  They’ve had teams that were worse, but those teams weren’t talented.  He took a talented team and made them completely miserable.  At that point, I was losing a lot of interest in the NBA.  The NBA was being run by these superstars who were disgruntled and doing whatever they could to assemble super teams (Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, etc.).  But the last four champions have been built the right way.  The Bucks, the Warriors without Kevin Durant (it wasn’t fun losing to them, but I could respect them), the Nuggets, and now the Celtics were built without all these dislikable superstars who forced their way onto teams.  Besides being the most dislikable guy who played for the Celtics ever, Kyrie Irving has just been a generally bad person for several years. Somehow, everybody except for Celtic fans seemed to forget this.  Nets fans probably remember also.  If Hamas was watching the NBA Finals, I’m sure they were rooting for Kyrie Irving since he’s cool with anti-semitism.  If Luka Doncic ever wins a championship, I sure hope it’s without Kyrie Irving.

Where does this Celtics team rank among Celtics teams?  It’s very hard to say.  I’m not going to try to compare them to the 11 Bill Russell Championship teams or the two championship teams from the 70s.  Of the Larry Bird championship teams, the 1985-1986 team was definitely the best.  And I think that has to be the best Celtics team of my lifetime (perhaps the best Celtic team ever, but I hesitate to put a team without Russell ahead of a team with Russell).  It’s hard to compare the last two championship teams.  They were similarly dominant in the regular season.  The 2007-2008 team won two more regular season games.  But that team also lost eight playoff games.  In fairness, the 2007-2008 Celtics had a much tougher road to the championship than this year’s team.  They never should have gone seven games against the Hawks, but that team had good players (including rookie Al Horford).  Then they had to play LeBron James, the Pistons (who haven’t won a playoff game since that 2008 series against the Celtics, but they had an excellent run in that decade), and the Lakers.  This year’s team played four teams that were probably worse than the Cavaliers, Pistons, or Lakers in 2008 and the Heat without Jimmy Butler were probably worse than the Hawks in 2008.  But you can’t blame this year’s team for being so much better than everybody else in the NBA.  So anyway, I don’t really have a good answer to the question of where this year’s team ranks.

Where do Jayson Tatum and Jaylen Brown rank in Celtics’ history?  I can give a better answer on that one.  Right now I have Paul Pierce as the fifth best Celtic of all time (behind Russell, Bird, Havlicek, and Cousy).  Tatum should pass him.  He hasn’t yet, but only because of how young he is (Pierce played 15 seasons with the Celtics, Tatum has played seven).  If he wins multiple championships, then we can start talking about how he compares to Cousy, Havlicek, and Bird.  But he should pass Pierce.  I think Jaylen Brown has a chance to pass Pierce.  If he won another championship, he’s probably going to end up ahead of Pierce.  They’re both young so I’m hoping for more championships to come.  But we’ve seen how hard it is.

Brad Stevens did a tremendous job of building this team.  Obviously it all goes back to Danny Ainge trading Pierce and Garnett (which I acknowledged on the blog was the right move at the time).  After trading Pierce and Garnett, Ainge used the picks to draft Brown and Tatum (in both cases, the 76ers and Lakers could have drafted them and that makes it even better).  There were people who didn’t like the Porzingis trade.  To me, that was like the Pierce/Garnett trade.  It was obviously the right call.  I wish Marcus Smart could have been a part of this.  But they traded Marcus Smart for Porzingis and got draft picks also.  People were talking about how they were going to miss Marcus Smart.  I love Marcus Smart, but there was not one single moment this season when the Celtics missed him.  Then Brad Stevens traded for Jrue Holiday.  I was a little skeptical of that trade because I thought the Celtics were at their best over the last couple of years when Robert Williams was healthy.  I quickly realized the problem with that thinking:  Robert Williams is never healthy.  Porzingis has trouble staying healthy and Robert Williams is much worse.  Holiday was the perfect replacement for Marcus Smart (he’s Marcus Smart, but a good amount better).  And you can go back to the trades to get Al Horford and Derrick White.  I think there were people who didn’t like the Al Horford trade, but I remember looking at his stats and he was still putting up good per 36 numbers.  And of course, Kemba Walker was done (Kemba Walker and Isaiah Thomas are two other guys who I wish could have experienced this, they’re both a million times more likable than Kyrie Irving).  I liked Brad Stevens as a coach, but he’s been much better as an executive.

The Celtics played 101 games this year.  I tried to figure out how many I didn’t watch because of conflicts with college football or they were weeknight games on out West.  I came up with six that I’m fairly confident that I didn’t watch, but there might have been a few more. My father probably missed even fewer than I did. It was a lot of fun to experience this from start to finish.  

The Celtics are the favorites to win the championship next year.  Tatum and Brown definitely have the potential to win multiple championships, but it won’t be easy.  The motivation won’t be the same.  Horford will be a year older and there are always concerns with Porzingis with his health.  So I would love it if they could find another big man to help.  But for now, none of that matters.  The Celtics are NBA Champions for the 18th time.

Two and Ohtani

This post is overdue and with the Dodgers playing in New York once again, I finally decided to get around to it.  The Dodgers are currently playing a three game series at Yankee Stadium.  This is only their third regular season series at either Yankee Stadium.  I went with my dad in 2013 and I went with Adam in 2016.  But this year, the ticket prices were absurd.  I was looking at $75 for standing room last night and tonight.  Sunday night is not as expensive, but I’m not going to the game and missing Game 2 of the NBA Finals.  So I’ll just watch it on TV.  And it was weird scheduling.  The Dodgers played two series in the Eastern time zone (Cincinnati and New York), then they went back to Los Angeles, and then came back to the Eastern time zone for two more series (Pittsburgh and New York).  So that was 12 out of 15 games in the Eastern time zone (six in New York) with three games in Los Angeles in the middle.

Anyway, the Dodgers were supposed to be playing a three game series at Citi Field starting on Memorial Day.  The Memorial Day tickets were pretty expensive and the Wednesday game was at 4:10 so the only game I really considered going to was on Tuesday.  As it turned out, they got rained out on Memorial Day.  I was expecting the split doubleheader on Tuesday, but they went with the real doubleheader instead.  So we would be getting two for the price of one.  This was going to be my third doubleheader.  In the pre-blog days of 2010, I went to Dodgers-Mets in April.  It was very cold and the Dodgers lost both games by a combined score of 14-5.  We left fairly early in the second game.  In June 2021, I started my summer vacation by watching the Mets and Braves split a doubleheader.  It was the first game since the pandemic started with no limits on attendance, but they still were only playing seven inning games for doubleheaders at that point.  So I was excited for a doubleheader with good weather and nine inning games.  I expected to get there a little late for the first game because my dad had to pick me up from school, but we got to our seats just in time for the first pitch.

It was Tylor Megill against Tyler Glasnow.  It was a matchup that would seem to favor the Dodgers since their Tyler spells his name correctly.  But Megill was better.  Both pitchers went seven innings (shocking for 2024) and Megill didn’t give up any runs.  Glasnow was good, but he allowed two runs on a home run by Francisco Linder in the third.  That was all the scoring until Freddie Freeman had an RBI single in the eighth to make it 2-1.  Chris Taylor tied it up with a squeeze bunt in the ninth.  It looked like the Mets were going to win it in the bottom of the ninth.  Two singles and a walk loaded the bases with one out.  Daniel Hudson fell behind Tyrone Taylor 3-0, but got him to pop out on a full count.  And then Jeff McNeil popped out to end the ninth.  The good news was the Dodgers didn’t lose.  The bad news was that meant we had to play Rob Manfred Extra Innings and runners just appeared on second base for no reason.  Mookie Betts drove in a run on a lead off single (that sentence is so stupid that it makes my brain hurt).  But then Freddie Freeman hit a two run homer.  So the Dodgers scored two real runs in the tenth. Blake Treinen got a strike out, fly out, and strike out in the bottom of the tenth on three batters to end the game.  So the Dodgers won 5-2, but really they won it 4-2 because the third run shouldn’t have existed.  And it was so much more satisfying winning this extra innings game 5-2 rather than 3-2 because it was a legitimate win and not a win only because of a runner appearing on second base for no reason.

Usually I’ll post a picture of the first pitch, but this was the first Shohei Ohtani at bat that I’ve seen in person.  I’ll get to him.

Game 2 was Jose Quintana against Gavin Stone.  I saw Gavin Stone last year in Oklahoma City.  He was much better in this game than he was last year in triple-A.  He pitched seven innings of shutout baseball.  Quintana pitched six innings and allowed three runs.  Is there a former pitcher up for canonization?  Because a doubleheader in 2024 where the starting pitchers went 7, 7, 6, and 7 in the two games seems like a miracle. The Dodgers took the lead in the first with a solo home run by Will Smith.  Miguel Rojas had an RBI double in the second to make it 2-0.  We decided to leave after five.  It was a warm day (81° when the first game started and 76° when the second game started), but it was very windy where we were sitting.  That wasn’t too bad, but it started to get kind of cold once it got dark (even though the wind died down a little bit).  So we saw 15 innings of baseball for the price of one game.  I would say that 14 of those innings were played without stupid rules, but all 15 innings were played with the designated hitter in a National League game so I can’t say that (the designated hitter is always stupid, but it’s especially offensive in a National League game).  As we left the stadium, we could hear the radio call of Miguel Vargas hitting a home run to make it 3-0 in the sixth.  And that ended up being the final score.  Attendance was 36,021.  There were a lot of open seats early with the 4:10 start when it was originally supposed to be one game at 7:10, but it filled up as the first game went along.

This was the first pitch in the second game.

The Citi Field beer selection left a lot to be desired.  They need to have more good beer on tap.  It wasn’t all that easy to find good beers in cans on the upper level either.  I found Sam Adams Summer Ale on tap at this little stand on the field level.  The only reason I looked for it there was because it was right by where Vin’s seats were and I remembered them having it there from when I went to a game with him last year.  So I ended up getting my favorite beer on tap, but good beer needs to be more widely available at Citi Field.  I thought the food options were better than the beer selection.  I got some tacos during the second game.  If it had been my first game of the season, I would have gotten a hot dog, but I did that when I went to the game in Des Moines back in April.  The tacos were good, but if I go to any more games at Citi Field this year (there’s a decent chance that I won’t, but we’ll see), I would go with something else because they were expensive.

This was my first time seeing Shohei Ohtani in person.  He’s been playing in the US since 2018, but the last Angels game I went to was in 2015 when I went with Pete and Katie.  He was hitless in five at bats in the first game and then he didn’t play in the second game.  I’m probably getting to two more Dodger games this year so hopefully he’ll have an impact in those games.  I hope I get to see him pitch next year.  And he was recently cleared of any wrongdoing as far as gambling goes.  That whole situation reminded me of the Manti Te’o situation 11 years ago.  There was definitely a story, but a lot of people wanted to jump to the worst possible conclusion.  And it turned out that the facts did not support the worst possible conclusion.  Of course, I’m glad that he won’t be in any trouble.  He is the most interesting player in baseball when he’s pitching.  He’s the best and most likable designated hitter in baseball (because he’s also a pitcher).  And I would still have absolutely no hesitation in getting rid of the designated hitter even though it would hurt the Dodgers.

So those were my first Major League games of the year.  I’m hoping to get to at least three more this season.  But for right now, I’m much more concerned with basketball.  The Celtics are back in the NBA Finals.  They made it there the first four years of my life.  And this is their fourth time since the first four years of my life.  Let’s Go Celtics!

United States of Sports

I was trying to plan my Easter vacation trip and often my Easter vacation trip revolves around some Major League Baseball.  This year, I didn’t have any Major League Baseball games I wanted to go to since I’ve been to all 30 current stadiums (after my Easter vacation trip to Texas last year).  So I decided to combine my trip to Notre Dame with a trip to see minor league baseball in a state where I had never been to a sporting event before.  Of course, I’ve already seen a sporting event in most of the 50 states, but I still had 11 to go.  It seemed easiest to combine a Notre Dame trip with a sporting event in another Midwestern state.  The only Midwestern states where I hadn’t seen a sporting event yet were Iowa and South Dakota.  The schedule worked out for me to go to Des Moines to see the Iowa Cubs.  I last spent time in Iowa nine years ago when I visited the Field of Dreams.  I was also very briefly in Iowa when I went to Omaha six years ago (to get from the airport to the city, you have to drive through a sliver of Iowa).

The game was the Iowa Cubs against the Toledo Mud Hens (the Tigers’ triple-A affiliate).  Triple-A is fun because there will be players that you’re familiar with.  Pete Crow-Armstrong played 13 games in the Majors for the Cubs last year.  Somehow I remember him even though he didn’t play against the Dodgers.  He led off the game with a home run for the Cubs in the bottom of the first.  He scored from second base on a passed ball in the seventh when the pitcher didn’t cover home quickly enough.  And then he had an RBI double in the eighth inning (he got credit for one RBI there and a second run scored on an error).  The Cubs won 5-1 and they played that ridiculous Go Cubs Go song.  The box score listed the attendance as 3,025.  I don’t know how many people paid for tickets, but the actual number of fans at the game was much closer to 325 than 3,025.  It was a Thursday night in April with a game time temperature of 56° and it felt much colder than that as the game went on.

This was my view at the start of the game.

I zoomed in for a better view of the Iowa State Capitol beyond the center field wall.  It was my second favorite golden dome during my Easter vacation trip.

The Cubs play at Principal Park.  I had mixed feelings about the stadium.  The beer selection was excellent.  There was a concession stand with a wide variety of craft beer from Iowa.  There were three that I was interested in.  One was a stout that I think was the beer I had from Iowa when I was in Omaha.  Another one seemed much too summery for the early April weather.  So I ended up having a CTRL ALT Bier, an amber ale from the Singlespeed Brewing Company.  It was excellent.  Since it was my first baseball game of the year, I had to go with a hot dog.  I got a grilled dog that was very good.  But it was the Midwest, so sadly they only had yellow.  I put yellow on the dog because that’s better than ketchup, but the Midwest needs to learn about real mustard.  Later in the game, they did a thing where they were shooting hot dogs into the stands in between innings and I got one.  It wasn’t grilled so it wasn’t as good as my first dog.  I wasn’t too hungry so I just took a couple of bites.  I almost ended up with a foul ball.  It landed two rows in front of me and there was nobody else around, but some kids ran over so I let them get it.  I still haven’t ever gotten a foul ball at a game.  I thought the scoreboard display was very good.  The negatives of the stadium were that the concourse didn’t go all the way around the stadium and it was underneath the stands.  I always like being able to see the field from the concourse.

My first baseball/outdoor beer of 2024 was a good one.

I watched a little bit of the game from way down the right field line because it was warmer there while the sun was still out.

I assume this was for kids to play in when it’s hot.  I felt bad for the employee who had to sit there and keep an eye on it.

It was good to be back at a baseball game.  Hopefully it will be much warmer at all the other games I go to this season.

The only thing I wanted to do in Iowa other than the game was to get food from a place that was featured on Man v. Food.  Both the Adam Richman and Casey Webb versions of Man v. Food had a Des Moines episode.  Both episodes had a place that was within walking distance of my hotel.  Adam went to the High Life Lounge for broasted chicken.  Casey went to Fong’s Pizza, which is like an Asian pizza fusion place.  As somebody who lives in the Pizza Belt, I’m hesitant to get pizza outside of the pizza belt.  I would have done it if I didn’t have another easy option.  But the High Life Lounge was right there.  So I got some broasted chicken with sweet potato tots and beans.  Broasting combines pressure cooking and deep frying.  It just seemed like some regular fried chicken to me, but all the food was very good.

This was delicious.

So that was Iowa.  I tried to come up with a list of all the different kinds of sporting events I’ve seen in 40 states plus Washington DC (in the order that I've been to each place, not necessarily the order I’ve been to each state for a sporting event).  It’s entirely possible that I’m forgetting something, but here’s the list:

1. New York- Mets, Yankees, Knicks, Nets, Rangers, Islanders, college football, college basketball, college hockey, minor league baseball, independent league baseball, college baseball, collegiate summer league baseball, NBA G-League

2. New Jersey- college football, Jets, independent league baseball

3. Connecticut- minor league baseball

4. Pennsylvania- college football, Phillies, Pirates, college basketball, curling

5. Ohio- Indians, Reds

6. Florida- Marlins, Rays, college football

7. Massachusetts- Red Sox, Celtics, college football, college hockey

8. Delaware- minor league baseball

9. Maryland- college football, Orioles

10. Washington DC- Nationals, college basketball

11. Virginia- minor league baseball

12. Indiana- Notre Dame football, basketball, hockey, baseball, fencing, minor league baseball

13. Illinois- White Sox, Cubs

14. Kentucky- minor league baseball

15. Tennessee- minor league baseball

16. Georgia- college football, Braves

17. Michigan- Tigers

18. California- Dodgers, Padres, Giants, Angels, A’s

19. North Carolina- college football

20. Nevada- minor league baseball

21. Arizona- Diamondbacks

22. Colorado- Rockies

23. Wisconsin- Brewers

24. Texas- Astros, college football, Rangers

25. Washington- Mariners

26. Missouri- Cardinals, Royals

27. Arkansas- minor league baseball

28. Oklahoma- minor league baseball

29. Kansas- minor league baseball

30. Utah- Jazz

31. New Mexico- minor league baseball

32. Alabama- minor league baseball

33. Minnesota- Twins

34. Iowa- minor league baseball

35. Nebraska- college baseball

36. North Dakota- independent league baseball

37. Montana- minor league baseball

38. Idaho- minor league baseball

39. Louisiana- Pelicans

40. South Carolina- minor league baseball

41.  Alaska- collegiate summer league baseball

I’ll list the states where I haven’t seen a sporting event with the sporting event that I would most want to see in each state.

1. Rhode Island- Providence basketball

2. New Hampshire- minor league baseball

3. Wyoming- Wyoming football

4. West Virginia- West Virginia football

5. South Dakota- independent league baseball

6. Oregon- Oregon football

7. Maine- minor league baseball

8. Vermont- wiffle ball at Little Fenway, Little Wrigley, and Little Field of Dreams

9. Mississippi- Ole Miss or Mississippi State football

10. Hawaii- Hawaii football

What I would most like to see in each state is not necessarily what I would be most likely to see.  Going to a college football game in a state that’s far away to see anybody other than Notre Dame is not very likely for me.  Minor league baseball is probably the most likely option in any state that has minor league baseball.  The two hardest states to do are going to be Wyoming and Hawaii because of distance and lack of options.  It’s doubtful that I would ever be in either of those states for a college football game unless I waited until I retired.  I guess Hawaii does play some Week 0 football games so maybe that’s not out of the question someday (I mean, I did see Hawaii play a Week 0 game in Australia).  A Hawaii baseball game during my Easter vacation might be more likely.  Wyoming doesn’t have minor league or college baseball.  They do have a collegiate summer league team in Casper, which seems like it would be very difficult to get to.  Hopefully I can knock out those New England states over the next few years.  A baseball game in South Dakota could be combined with a trip to Minnesota at some point (Sioux Falls has a team).  Oregon is very doable when combined with a trip to California at some point.  West Virginia isn’t that far away, but it’s not the easiest place to get to.  Minor league baseball in Mississippi could be combined with a future trip to the South.  We’ll see how many I eventually get to.  I’m hoping to do at least one more this year.

Notre Rain

It had been two years since I was on campus at ND when I was there for Jon’s wedding.  My last sporting event on campus was outdoor hockey at Notre Dame Stadium in January 2019.  I thought about going last year during Easter vacation, but I wanted to see the Rangers in Texas and it was a lot easier to combine that with a minor league game in Oklahoma City.  I wasn’t going to any Major League games during Easter vacation this year so I decided to go to Notre Dame for baseball and then combine that with a trip somewhere for a minor league game.  I decided to spend two days on campus just to have some extra time on campus, but also that would allow me to see the baseball team play Michigan State and the softball team play Michigan.  Neither of those games happened.

I had been paying attention to the weather for a week or so and the forecast wasn’t looking great.  There were times when it looked like it would be okay and times when it was looking really bad.  It turned out to be really bad.  Pretty much everything is on the table when it comes to weather at Notre Dame in April.  Anything from 30° to 70° is equally likely and you can add 10° on both sides of that range as possibilities. I got the bad weather.  When I left for my trip, the games were looking very questionable, but still possible.  My route to Notre Dame was New York to Atlanta to South Bend.  When I got to Atlanta, I saw that the baseball game had been canceled.  I was still holding out hope for the softball game the next day.  Anyway, I got dinner at Bru Burger Bar.  My beverage choice did not match the weather.  I had a Sunlight Cream Ale from the Sun King Brewery.  They have a location in Sarasota, Florida, and several breweries in Indiana (including Mishawaka).  The beer was fine, but nothing special.  The burger I had was pretty good.

After dinner, I was pretty tired from waking up early for my flight, but I figured I should get on campus.  I went to the Grotto and walked around campus for a little bit.  It was good to be back on campus.  As it turned out, they probably could have played baseball.  Conditions were not good for baseball, but it was playable.   The high was 57° and the rain had pretty much stopped by dinner time.  I guess they decided to call the game early to save Michigan State a trip down to Indiana.

As bad as the weather was, this is always a good sight.

The next day, the weather was supposed to get worse as the day went on.  When I woke up, I saw on Twitter that the softball game had also been called the night before.  There were no indoor sports happening while I was there.  So I wasn’t going to get to a sporting event on campus.  In all of my traveling, I’ve never completely missed out on an event because of the weather.  I missed a baseball game in Cincinnati because of a very delayed flight (I did get to an Indians game and the Pro Football Hall of Fame on that trip so it wasn’t a complete miss).  I had a game rained out when the Blue Jays were playing in Buffalo, but I purposely planned on going to two games in case that happened.  But I was at Notre Dame for two days and I was going to go to two games and neither one happened.  Oh well.  If I was going to completely miss out, that was what I would want to miss out on.  Just being on campus was more interesting than going to a baseball game or softball game.  So it was disappointing, but whatever.

There would be no sporting events, but I had another day to spend on campus.  I tried to get to the Grotto while it was still dark because it looks great with the candles all lit up in the dark.  I left my hotel before sunrise, but with my long walk from my hotel to the grotto (1.4 miles according to my phone), it was pretty bright by the time I got there.  I spent some time there.  Then I went back to my hotel for breakfast.  Then I went back to campus for the 11:30 Mass at the Basilica.

This picture gives you some idea of how dreary the weather was.

Hopefully Jesus will see us score many touchdowns at Notre Dame Stadium this season.

I took this picture after the 11:30 Mass.

Lots of good times were had in St. Edward’s Hall.

I had forgotten that Muffet McGraw got a statue on campus.  It is well deserved.  Hopefully Micah Shrewsberry and Niele Ivey will have statues someday also.

I had a view of the Linebacker from my hotel room.  I remember going there with Kyle for his first ever beer in 2006.  He didn’t finish it.

Then I just kind of hung out on campus for a while.  I went to the bookstore.  I didn’t buy anything, but I did notice that the best stuff there was the Champion stuff.  We have this big deal with Under Armor and they don’t make stuff that looks good (except for the stuff they give to Marcus Freeman, but they only recently made some of that stuff available to buy).  Most of our uniforms are not very good.  Football is okay, but not wearing gold pants for two games this past season was really bad.  Hockey isn’t too bad (except for the Big 10 logo on the jerseys since we’re in the Big 10 for hockey).  The basketball uniforms aren’t very good.  Some of the baseball uniforms are terrible.  What’s really bad is the green uniforms for most of the sports.  Under Armor insists on doing green jerseys with blue numbering and lettering outlined in gold.  It looks bad.  They finally improved the green football jerseys this year by changing the numbers to white outlined in gold (the reverse would be better for football), but they messed those up with the green pants.  The best green item available at the bookstore was a sweatshirt with Notre Dame and the ND logo in gold outlined in white (made by Champion).  I already own that one.  But that’s what they should be using for green uniforms.  If you’re using green, don’t use blue.  Just go with green, gold, and white.

These jerseys are terrible.

These jerseys are better, but the pants make us look like Marshall.

These are excellent.

Change the number on the sleeves to the interlocking ND and these would be perfect.

Get rid of the blue if you’re wearing green.

The Celtics don’t wear these anymore.  Notre Dame should just steal them.

It’s not just the green basketball uniforms that are bad.  These uniforms need some blue.

I might add some white to these, but they are pretty good as they are except for the ridiculous Under Armor logo.  It should be smaller and not right in the middle.

Again, get rid of the blue.  But more importantly, get rid of the green pants.

Get rid of the blue pants.  Baseball pants should be white or gray.  We do have baseball uniforms that aren’t terrible.  We should just wear those.

A.J. Pollock was tied with Mookie Betts for most home runs in the regular season on the 2020 World Series Champions.  And in this picture he shows you what a Notre Dame baseball uniform with a green jersey should look like.

I ended up going to the new art museum on campus, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art.  It was being built the last time I was there.  When I was a student, there was the Snite Museum of Art.  I don’t know if I ever went there when I was a student.  Apparently the new museum replaced the old one.  It was free and I wasn’t going to the softball game so it was something to do.  There was some good religious art there.  I wasn’t too interested in the other stuff.  There was a chapel in the museum.  It looked like they might have Mass there, but I couldn’t find a schedule.  The last thing I did on campus was go to Chick-fil-A.  I saw it the last time I was there, but I didn’t eat there.  I didn’t have any fast food during Lent (except for a Shamrock Shake for St. Patrick’s Day) so Chick-fil-A at Notre Dame was a good way to celebrate the Easter season.

There were several depictions of the visit of the Magi in the museum.  This one was my favorite.

Fr. William Corby grants general absolution during the Battle of Gettysburg.

This wasn’t part of the museum, but here’s the statue of Fr. Corby granting general absolution.  The same statue can be found in Gettysburg.

This is the chapel in the museum.

They could have played baseball on Tuesday, but Wednesday was bad.  It ended up being pretty much the worst possible weather.  The high was 39° and it was wet all day.  At one point before my trip, the forecast was calling for more than four inches of snow.  I would have been totally fine with that.  I got snow in February 2016 and it was cool to have snow on campus.  It looks beautiful and it brings back memories of being a student that you’re probably not going to get when you go to a football game.  But no, it ended up just being cold, windy, and rainy.

Despite the weather and the games being canceled, it was good to be back on campus.  I’d love to get back in the fall for a football game, but we’ll see about that.  We’re playing Army at Yankee Stadium and Navy in the Meadowlands.  I’ll most likely go to the Army game.  I like the history of Notre Dame playing Army at Yankee Stadium.  I most likely will not go to the Navy game.  I’ve been to two games at that stadium.  It’s the most boring stadium imaginable and it’s difficult to get to so I’m totally fine with just watching football on TV at home that day.  Maybe I’ll see our basketball team play St. John’s at Madison Square Garden.  Oh wait, we’re not in the Big East anymore.  As always, my dream is to rejoin the Big East.  Anyway, it’s always good to be back on campus and hopefully it won’t take me two years to get back again.