Good morning!
When the editor wants good, straight copy and the writer wants the story in the newspaper, the result is old fashioned just-the-facts reporting, so here goes.
Homeless and sought by authorities, 59-year-old Martin J. “Marty” Tirrell turned himself in to U.S. Marshals on Wednesday in Des Moines, Iowa. Tirrell was charged with two counts of bank fraud, two counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud and one count of access device fraud, better known as credit card fraud.
A federal grand jury handed down the six criminal indictments on Jan. 23, alleging Tirrell had defrauded individuals and institutions out of $1.5 million between September, 2016, and December, 2017.
Tirrell was born and raised in Franklin County and had been a sportscaster at local radio stations until 25 years ago, when he left for Iowa and billed himself as the “Mouth of the Midwest.”
During Thursday’s pretrial hearing he was assigned a federal public defender. A federal judge agreed to release him to a halfway house provided he submits to random drug and alcohol screenings and doesn’t leave Polk County.
The trial date was set for April 1 at the U.S. District Courthouse on East Walnut Street in Des Moines. Asstistant U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Iowa Rachel Scherle will be the government’s lead prosecutor. She said she expected the trial to last “four or five days.”
Queried about what penalties Tirrell will face if convicted, she answered, “Wire and mail fraud up to 20 years, credit card up to 15 years and bank up to 30 years.”
Asked why it took three weeks after indictments were handed down for Tirrell to be arrested, Scherle answered,
“We have to know where he is. He is homeless, so when we don’t know where someone is we can’t arrest him.”
The end game was Wednesday, and Marty Tirrell has six weeks to prepare for the deal of his life.
The UMass basketball team is destined to have its fourth straight losing season. The Minutemen (9-16) would need to win their remaining six games and two in the A-10 tournament for a .500 record, and that ain’t happening.
Two reasons for the disappointing season are Rutgers transfer Jonathan Laurent and Vanderbilt transfer Djery Baptiste.
Both are decent rebounders, but the rest of the team can’t score enough points to justify their presence in the lineup. In the last five games, Laurent’s totals are 14 points, 12 personal fouls and four turnovers. Baptiste has a dozen points, ten fouls and five turnovers.
A bit more offense from these two and those eight losses by five points or less would be wins.
Entertainment critic Dominic Patten called the Super Bowl performance by Maroon5 and Travis Scott “solidly one of the worst halftime shows ever.”
“I had to watch it realizing the Beach Boys and Phil Collins ain’t coming back,” said Greenfield native Steve Kramer, who was at the game.
“The refreshments cost less than at the Franklin County Fair,” added Kramer. “Beers were $5, hot dogs were $2, pretzels $1.50 and water $2. Falcons owner Arthur Blank insists on keeping it affordable.”
Dolphins great Bob Kuechenberg died last month at age 71. An offensive guard for 14 seasons, Kuechenberg played more games for the Dolphins (196) than anyone but Dan Marino. Dave Hyde reported in the Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel that Kuechenberg named his boat the “34 Trap” and that his father worked in the circus as a human cannonball.
Props to UMass equipment manager Josh Penn, who recently worked his 500th game behind the UMass bench. “Penner’s been a close friend to hundreds of players,” UMass coach Greg Carvel wrote in his newsletter. “He does his job impeccably, helped the new staff come aboard, and is an invaluable part of the hockey family.”
WARMUP PITCHES: The first pitch of the MLB season will be at 2:35 a.m. EDT on March 20 in Japan. Oakland will play Seattle at the 55,000-seat Tokyo Dome, aka the Big Egg. … The Red Sox play the A’s and Mariners 14 times between Opening Day and May 5. It’ll be time to warm up the DVR with four 10:07 p.m. starts between March 29 through April 3. … Oakland southpaw Sean Manaea no-hit the Red Sox last year, but is out until after the All Star break rehabbing from shoulder surgery. … Chris Davis is penciled in to be the Orioles starting first baseman depite his .168 batting average and 192 strikeouts last season. Davis will make $23 million next season, and the season after, and the season after. … White Sox infielder YoanMoncada led the Majors with 217 Ks in 650 plate appearances, but the one time Red Sox prospect batted .339 (19-for-56) the last two weeks and makes $550,000. …. Southpaw Luke Hagerty, who turns 38 on April 1, signed a minor league deal with the Cubs and will try to become the oldest hurler to make his Major League debut since Satchel Paige in 1948. … Headline in The Onion: “Bryce Harper asks if Phillies willing to move to another city.” … Kudos to the Red Sox for moving their weekend games to 1:05 p.m. this season. No more of those 7 p.m. Saturday starts. … The traditional 11 a.m. Patriots Day game will be one-upped in London on June 30, when the Red Sox have a 10:10 a.m. EDT start against the Yankees. … The Tigers and Royals will play in Nebraska on June 13, two days before the College World Series. Club seats cost $600 (including fees) on StubHub. … Former Mets color man Josh Lewin has joined Don Orsillo and Ted Leitner in San Diego. Lewin will do Padres pre- and postgame shows. Orsillo went to the West Coast after the Red Sox hired Dave O’Brien, and Ted Leitner got his start on WTIC in Hartford.
SQUIBBERS: At FanDuel in New Jersey on Dec. 27, bettors could wager $100 to win $650 on the Patriots to win the Super Bowl. … Sirius-XM’s Ross Tucker on Kyler Murray’s decision to forsake the Oakland A’s for the NFL draft: “If you are a Texas kid who takes his sophomore high school team to the Texas championship you are a legend. The A’s drafted a guy in the first round who wanted to play football at OU. That should’ve been a red flag, so shame on them.” … Winthrop University is 17-8 and 9-3 in the Big South under coach Pat Kelsey. Why can’tUMass get coaches like that? … Former NMH hoopster Kellan Grady was 1-for-10 from the field for Davidson during last Saturday’s loss at UMass. … Ed McCaffrey told Sirius-XMcohost Bob Papa that the biggest postgame story of Super Bowl LIII was Sean McVay’s sporadic use of running back Todd Gurley. “I got nauseous every time they panned to him and he wasn’t in the game.” … Minnesota Wild jerseys look like they came off the rack at Krispy Kreme. … New York Rangers coach Dave Quinn is a disciple of Jack Parker, who was his coach at BU. Quinn told the NY Post’s Greg Joyce: “Jack had a great line. He would always say to us, ‘Let me explain this to you, not so you can understand, but so you can’t possibly misunderstand.’” … Nebraska’s spring football game is sold out — 80,000 seats — but hey, what else is there to do in Nebraska? … Only in Florida do you see signs for “New York Style” Chinese food.
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached by email at sports@recorder.com.