Drowning in the Bracket Pool after Day One?

Did you hear all those moans and hollers echoing throughout the office, bar, store, living room, every 30 minutes or so yesterday? It was an upsetting opening day to March Madness 2015. The New York Times was led to publish: Low seeds beat high seeds all over the place. Meanwhile, back at the Little Bitty…

Are you ready for the Madness? In Syracuse, not so much

Did you pick a bracket somewhere, anywhere, this year? My dear wife Karen and I dove into two pools. We chose our brackets by passing my iPad Air back and forth Tuesday. If my alma mater Maryland wins six games in a row, let me tell you, I may make a bit of a splash.…

Eleven strikes in a row for Tom Stagnitta.

A pretty exciting almost for Tom ends at 288

Big excitement bubbled for our CiCi’s Pizza team in the Thursday Night Men’s League at Bowling Green Lanes in North Syracuse, N.Y. When last I reported on our fortunes in this second half of the season, we’d started the night in fourth place, but had won just two of seven points that week, and I’d…

The bruise will remain on the Orange, no matter

The big and heavy anvil dropped from the NCAA sky and landed flush upon the head of the Syracuse community Friday. After nearly a decade of investigations regarding multiple instances of running afoul of its rules, intercollegiate sports’ governing body released a 94-page report that ripped into Syracuse Univerity officials over that period of time…

Crowd storms look pretty from the comfort of home, but …

As I get set to watch my Maryland Terrapins host the Michigan Wolverines at the Xfinity Center in College Park on my flat screen at noon today, I’m still smiling abourt the way my squad handled the No. 5 team in the country on Tuesday night. Yes, serving Wisconsin just its third loss of the…

I can still hang out with KP and Tater and talk about golf

It may take awhile until the golf courses of Syracuse are green enough and dry enough to accept these first spring steps. And I’ll pretty much play in the brown muck to get out there for initial swings with my longtime golf buddies KP and Tater. This February, though, has crushed our spirit in cold…

Talking Springsteen, ‘SNL’ and Syracuse with blogger Phil Prehn

I’ll always jump at the chance for a live chat with somebody whose blog I follow. So when Phil Prehn emailed during this bitter Syracuse winter to set up a coffee get-together at Cafe Kubal, up James Street from my dear wife Karen and I’s Little Bitty in the Syracuse city neighborhood of Eastwood, I…

We’re quite stylish bowlers up there in fourth place

It’s been a good second half of the season for Cici’s Pizza so far in the Thursday Night Men’s League. I was the last to arrive of our fantastic five last night, having volunteered to fill the CX5’s tank for my dear wife Karen because she so graciously allows me to take advantage of the…

Sometimes the record doesn’t have a thing to do with the game

They walked to the white dome through the frozen tundra. No sled dogs or igloos. It was Syracuse basketball fans heading through the cold and snow Saturday, destination Carrier Dome. They didn’t care that their Orange will not be playing in any postseason this year because of a self-imposed penalty that may or may not…

Sad, miffed and still slightly confused about Syracuse Orange and college sports in general

I’ve let this news of my hometown Syracuse University’s self-imposed penalty of no post-season play for the Orange men’s basketball squad swim around in my head and gut a couple of days before attempting to make sense of how this makes me feel about college sports, life in general in this college city and how…