After watching Sunday's season opener between the Mets & Kansas City, the only way to describe the outcome, a 4-3 Royals win, would be to borrow a line from David Byrne, specifically off the Talking Heads' 1980 opus, "Once in a Lifetime":
"Same as it ever was!"
Oh, indeed. Kansas City's Edinson Volquez outdueled Matt Harvey again, and the Mets were held off the scoreboard until a 3 run rally in the 8th against the Royals' bullpen. It didn't help matters that ESPN milked this for more than it was worth, covering the Royals' pre-game celebration of their World Series victory, and delaying the first pitch until nearly 8:40 (ET). Tuesday's game, the finale of the two-game series, will start around 4 (ET), so maybe the daylight can help the Mets. Then again, maybe not......
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Meanwhile, the rematch of last year's AL Wild Card qualifier between the Yankees & Houston has been put off due to snow. I know we didn't get a whole lot of snow during the winter, but every now and again, a mild winter produces a white Spring in the early going. It happens, peeps.
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The snow has also threatened to wreak havoc with high school sports in the home district today. Troy High was supposed to have its softball and lacrosse home openers this afternoon, and, as of this writing, I haven't heard of any cancellations. Shan't be surprised if everyone was given the day off. It'll take a couple of days before they'll be able to try again, methinks.
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Staying on the hometown tip, with Troy moving back up to Class AA next fall, at least in football, Section II announced last week that the Flying Horses' home opener will be on September 2-----vs. Shenendehowa. Coach Bob "The Builder" Burns and his crew are being thrown to the wolves right away, but the upside is that the schedule includes a revival of the in-city rivalry with LaSalle, which is also a home game, two weeks later, on September 16. The full schedule:
Sept. 2: Shenendehowa
Sept. 9: @ Bethlehem
Sept. 16: LaSalle
Sept. 23: Shaker
Sept. 30: @ Colonie
Oct. 7: Schenectady
Oct. 14: @ Columbia
4 home games this year, and, barring a scheduling conflict with the Valleycats on Labor Day weekend, I should be able to cover all 4 for "High School Fridays".
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Meanwhile, Bishop Maginn announced last week that it would not field a football team for 2016. Coach Joe Grasso was quietly let go in January. The Griffins only dressed 21 players last season, and the lack of depth was evident in a loss to Troy. According to media accounts, only 5 boys tried out for football for this coming season. I know Maginn's been on hard times, having moved into a new building at the start of the school year (Green Tech is moving into the former Maginn building), but could the end be near after 40-odd years?
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As Chaucer wrote, "all good things must come to an end". And, so, the University at Albany is saying goodbye to women's basketball coach Katie Abrahamson-Henderson, aka "Coach Abe", after six seasons. "Coach Abe" is heading south to Central Florida to try to turn that program around. With 5 straight America East titles in hand, the Lady Danes know that their next coach has a tough act to follow. I wonder if they could find a way to bring former Siena coach Gina Castelli back to the home district.......!
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Some folks were wigging out over the fact that ESPN decided to extend their business relationship with WWE by sending SportsCenter anchor (and former WWE announcer) Jonathan Coachman to Texas last week to cover the Showcase of the Immortals. Like, no one whined when ESPN began covering UFC, so what's the difference? Not that I was actually interested, but what this suggests is that down the road, WWE Chairman/CEO/resident nutcase Vince McMahon may be looking at some leverage when his current deal with his other media partner, NBC/Universal/Comcast, home of USA Network, comes up for renewal. Would Raw and/or Smackdown move to the ESPN family of networks? Considering that reruns of the AWA broadcasts that ESPN had in the 80's air in rotation on ESPN Classic (now a premium channel), it's entirely possible, or that McMahon may be angling to acquire the AWA/Global/USWA library from ESPN down the line. Stay tuned, pilgrims, that's all I can say.
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