Good morning!
Helen Gould has decided not to reopen the family’s maple sugar house, and a Shelburne Falls rite of spring has disappeared like the snow from a late winter storm.
We bumped into each other last September behind Wilson’s, another iconic landmark that was soon to be shuttered, and she said it was time to end what her late husband Edgar had started decades ago.
Even if someone buys the business, it’ll never be the same, like the barbecued hamburgs never tasted the same after the original Denny’s Pantry was sold.
There will be no more parking near the wood shed and smelling the sweet aroma of boiling sap, no more steaming hot pancakes and crispy corn fritters soaked in amber syrup, no more coffee refills, dill pickles on the side and extra elbow room to read the Recorder.
Somebody ought to write a song, Gould’s is gone and my sweet tooth’s aching.
Hockey East commissioner Joe Bertagna is on a farewell tour and the longtime boss must be noticing the dwindling crowds.
According to figures posted by collegehockeynews.com, attendance is down for all but two teams in Hockey East — UConn is off by almost 900 per game, BU by more than 800, UMass-Lowell is off by 500, and UMass-Amherst is down by 300. The only two teams in the black are Providence College and BC.
The Big Ten Conference averages 6,687 fans a game and the National Collegiate Hockey Conference averages 5,187. These figures far outdistance the three Division 1 conferences in the northeast. As of this writing, Hockey East is averaging 3,579, the ECAC is drawing 2,096 and Atlantic Hockey puts 1,208 spectators through the turnstile.
The exception is on Chestnut Hill where the BC Eagles are averaging 1,400 more fans a game at the Conte Forum than last year. Somebody should ask Jamie DiLoreto, the director of marketing and fan engagement at Boston College. I already tried, but he didn’t answer the phone.
■■■■
Big hoops game at the Mullins Center today at 12:30 p.m., when UMass hosts No. 6 Dayton. The last time the Minutemen put a dent in the collegiate landscape was December 2017, when they beat Providence and Georgia in back-to-back games at the Mullins Center.
The Flyers (22-2) have won 13 straight and average 81.6 points, sixth-best in D-1. Their inside game features 6-foot-9 sophomore forward Obi Toppin (19.7 ppg), whom Dayton Daily News beat writer Tom Archdeacon referred to as a “muscled Pegasus” in his account of Tuesday’s 81-67 win against URI.
The only thing most Patriots fans know about quarterback Jarrett Stidham is that he threw a pick-six against the Jets that blew the spread. Prior to the Patriots taking him in the fourth round of last year’s draft, ESPN The Magazine asked an unnamed scout to analyze the 6-foot-3, 215-pound QB from Auburn. “I do like the arm,” he said. “He puts passes in tight spots and seems to want the ball when coverage is tight.”
Stidham sounds like Bill Belichik’s kind of guy if TB12 decides to split town.
Hardcores got their football fixes at MetLife Stadium on Sunday, where the XFL’s New York Guardians beat the Tampa Bay Vipers before 17,000 fans and 3.1 million TV viewers. They heard coaches call in plays — 81 Key Captain W Stutter Go— watched defensive tackle Nikita Whitlock play with his hair on fire and got a close-up look at the punch that Ricky Walker landed on center Ian Silberman.
In the nightcap, former UMass running back Marquis Young gained 12 yards on seven carries for the Dallas Renegades against the St. Louis Battlehawks.
Desmond “Des” Pullen sends regards from north of Seattle, where he coaches youth soccer and heads the Snohomish County Children’s Commission.
Pullen taught at Eaglebrook and ran the Recorder’s soccer program for more than two decades. “My wife Karen and I moved to Washington State from Deerfield in 2007. I now am semi-retired but still coaching soccer to 16-year-old girls. Please give (former sports editor) Gary Sanderson my regards.”
Good riddance to David Price, but losing Mookie Betts is going to haunt the Red Sox for a long time. The Bosox got quantity for quality: center fielder Alex Verdugo, career minor leaguer Connor Wong and shortstop Jeter Downs — named after the Hall of Famer who played for the Evil Empire.
Verdugo has a career .282 batting average with 14 home runs in 443 at-bats. After he got the call-up to the Big Show in 2017, he overslept and was late to the park. According to Baseball America, “[Verdugo] stays dialed in at the plate, but an indifferent attitude affects the rest of his game.”
The Dodgers figured if the Red Sox would take Hanley Ramirez they’d take this guy.
Mookie’s last plate appearance in a Red Sox uniform was Sept. 29 against the O’s, and he went out in style. The score was tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth and Betts drew a leadoff walk. The next batter, Rafael Devers, bounced an infield chopper past second base and when right fielder Stevie Wilkerson lobbed the ball back to the infield, Betts kept running and scored. “Hopefully, that’s not the last time we see Mookie,” said NESN’s Dennis Eckersley.
Alas, it was end of game, end of season, and end of Mookie.
SQUIBBERS: Longtime Amherst College hockey coach Jack Arena’s pucksters have rebounded from a 2-9-2 start and are undefeated in the last seven games (5-0-2), putting the program on the brink of its 14th winning season in 15 years. …. The Miami Heat will be represented by Duncan Robinson in tonight’s three-point competition at the United Center. Robinson played his freshman year at Williams before he transferred to Michigan. “Duncan’s the first D-III player since Devean George to make it to the NBA,” said Williams College SID Dick Quinn, referring to the LA Laker who played college hoops at Augsburg (Minn.) University from 1995-99. … Pat Kelsey’s Winthrop (S.C.) Eagles are 12-1 in the Big South and had a 14-game winning streak snapped by second place Radford on Monday. Kelsey was UMass AD Ryan Bamford’s top choice to replace Derek Kellogg three years ago but fled the altar after a campus visit. … Coach Cal’s former point guard, D. Wolfgang Kellogg, notched his 200th career win last weekend when LIU beat Merrimack. … The NY Post’s Greg Joyce reports that Baseball Prospectus gives the Bosox a 28.5 percent chance of making the payoffs, and in the wake of the disastrous Hot Stove season, Boston’s over/under has fallen from 89 wins to 85. … MLB’s proposed playoff format would increase the maximum number of postseason games from 43 to 59. … Leverett ice sculptor Nathan Peterson on the benefit of shaving in 31-degree temps: “This is just about right. Get around zero and it’s like granite.” … If I was shipwrecked on a deserted island and had but one book to salvage, it would be Roger Kahn’s “Boys of Summer.” Kahn died on Feb. 6 at age 92. His memoir about covering the Brooklyn Dodgers for the New York Herald Tribune (“A writer’s newspaper”) is as readable today as when it was published in 1972. … Jane Levy’s biography “Sandy Koufax: A Lefty’s Legacy” references Harry Bright, a Pittsburgh Pirate infielder who played in the 1950s. According to Levy, Bright’s nickname was Not Too.
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley.