Good morning!
On a hot day in mid-July, about a dozen UMass football players showed up for an informal workout at McGuirk Alumni Stadium. It was shorts versus skins on a sweltering afternoon when you could smell the sweat from the sideline. Amidst the hooting and hollering, a shirtless kid with a mop of black hair took phantom snaps, dropped back and threw 50-yard spirals to players who caught them in full stride.

Upon closer inspection Taisun Phommachanh (Tay-jon Poo-ma-chan) is no kid. He’s 23-years-old, has game experience with Clemson and Georgia Tech, and is coach Don Brown’s choice to start for UMass tonight against New Mexico State in Las Cruces.

Phommachanh prepped at Avon Old Farms in Connecticut, where 247Sports rated him as the third-best quarterback prospect in the country. After his senior year he told a reporter, “I want a coach who’s going to be able to take me to the next level on and off the field.” 

UMass fans hope that Don Brown is the coach, UMass is the team and this is the time.

Before each season hope springs eternal for former players like Paul Manganaro, whose family paid for the scoreboard in the south end zone. “Ninety-five percent of the relationships I have in business and pleasure can be traced back to football,” said Manganaro, who lives in Winchester and is the defensive coordinator at Catholic Memorial in eastern Mass.

Manganaro played linebacker from 1982-85 when UMass was a reputable I-AA program, and he captained the team his senior year. “UMass showed the most interest, I wasn’t the best student but they stayed on me and I have a college degree because of it.”

He was coached by Jim Reid, who as an offensive analyst this season is studying opposing teams’ defenses looking for weaknesses. “Coach Reid is one is one of the best defensive minds in college football,” said Manganaro. “He’s influenced many lives. He’s brought a lot of alumni back.”

During Brown’s first tenure in Amherst from 2004-08, Manganaro helped form the Gridiron Club. “It’s been nice rekindling old friendships. We have over 500 members, friends, fans, everyone’s connected.”

Many of them drove to Amherst to watch the UMass spring game. “There was enthusiasm, a sense of urgency… and you could see we’re bigger and faster. What I saw was a love of the game and a willingness to play for each other.”

Who wins tonight? The Aggies beat UMass, 23-13, last year and are 7 1/2-point favorites to do it again tonight. Throw out a 63-15 win against I-AA Duquesne in 2018, and UMass is 0-10 in season openers and has lost by an average score of 40-10.

But there’s a sense that it’s now or never for this UMass program. New Mexico State is ranked 108th by CBSSports.com. The Aggies are beatable and UMass will prove it by pulling off the upset, 22-19.

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On July 5 at Yankee Stadium, Baltimore Orioles shortstop Gunnar Henderson fielded a grounder and threw the ball wildly over the head of first baseman Ryan O’Hearn. The ball struck YES camera operator Pete Stendel in the head and he was stretchered off the field. He suffered an orbital fracture and the NY Post reported this week he’s having a “tough” recovery and is still resting at home.

We asked Buckland native Skip Smith to recount his own close calls when he worked the camera in the Tampa Bay Rays’ dugout. “I’ve had a few close encounters,” he wrote from his home in St. Pete. “I took one to the arm during a Tigers game that left a good mark, and it was either Jeter or A-Rod who fouled a ball off my headset in spring training. It was like getting bopped when I was a kid — ringing and a headache for a couple of innings but that was it. 

“The one I really remember happened when pitching coach Jim Hickey was with the Rays. He was standing a couple of feet from me and we were chatting when a line drive rocketed right between us. It was pure luck it missed us.”

Smith said he’s seen others get hurt by batted balls. “A friend who worked low at Fenway took one off the face a few years ago. It really messed up his vision and I’m not sure he ever returned. The danger comes with the territory but I love being where the action is.”

“Now,” he said, “Ask me about helicopters.”

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Sad news that Greenfield native Danny Brown passed away last winter. Brown graduated from GHS, did a PG year at Vermont Academy and graduated from Middlebury College. He worked at Kendall Mills in Colrain until he was transferred to Victoriaville, Quebec, where he ran the factory that made the hockey sticks used by Bobby Orr. 

The local hockey community also lost Jamie Penfield, who passed away in San Diego two weeks ago. Penfield virtually grew up inside the Collins-Moylan Arena where he played Bantam hockey for Bob Weiss and at GHS for Rabbit Graves. “He was one of my favorites,” said Weiss.

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While channel-surfing on satellite radio, I stumbled upon Charles Pignon’s interview with 92-year-old author Gay Talese. In 1966, Talese profiled Frank Sinatra for Esquire Magazine. The article was titled “Frank Sinatra Has a Cold.”

Asked to compare Sinatra with Joe DiMaggio, the era’s other Italian-American icon, Talese remarked: “So black-and-white, Sinatra was an outgoing public personality. He embraced crowds and he reached out to the world. DiMaggio was an inward-turned solo star. He didn’t even associate with his teammates. DiMaggio was self-centered. He spoke with his bat. He didn’t make any attempt to help anybody but Joe DiMaggio.”  

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Last spring a local educator lost his bid to be Easthampton school superintendent because he addressed the school committee’s chairperson and executive assistant as “ladies” which they deemed it to be a “microaggression.”

The educator was Vito Perrone, a star linebacker at UMass who captained the 1985 team and whose aggressions on the gridiron were much more major than micro.

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SQUIBBERS: Undrafted UMass running back Ellis Merriweather scored a TD in his first preseason game with the Saints, and caught a short slant pass on Sunday that set the Saints up for a first-and-goal. … WFAN’s Joe Benigno always crushes the Jets and usually for good reason. But now, says the station’s morning host Gregg Giannatti: “If you’re a Jets fan, you got to get rid of the Benigno gene.” … Holes-in-one are getting costly for Forbes Byron who aced the 125-yard 9th hole at the Country Club on Thursday using a nine iron, his second of the year and third all-time. … Gunnar Henderson eschewed a chance to hit for the cycle against Oakland on Sunday by not stopping at first base after he hit a ball into the outfield corner. “If it was meant to be, it would be a true single,” said baseball’s philosopher king. … The Ravens’ 24 game preseason win streak ended on Monday after a late Washington field goal beat them, 29-28. … Only 3,095 showed up at the Coliseum to watch the A’s against the Royals on Monday. … Bettors who backed the Patriots on Saturday learned the hard way that games must go at least 55 minutes to be ruled official. The game was called with ten minutes left in the fourth quarter with the underdog Patriots leading the Packers 21-17. … A former Yankees minor leaguer told the Post that during an intrasquad game the analytics-obsessed franchise wanted hitters to either walk or hit the pitch harder than 95 mph. Boring baseball’s how they play in the house next to the house that Ruth built.  …. Ah, but cheer up Bombers fans, mighty Ben Rortvedt is up to .136.  …. Shohei Ohtani and Mike Trout are both injured,  but one thing going right for the Angels is their top draft pick (11th overall) Nolan Schanuel is hitting .368 since he was called up to bat leadoff. … Media commentator Howard Kurtz on the possibility that AI could supplant newspaper journalism: “People seem to take for granted the effort that goes into producing accurate and artful news stories. Now, if you’re talking about high school sports…” Ouch, that hurts!

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com