Good morning!
Being a football coach is like being a watchmaker, synchronicity is everything. “Know your situation,” UMass coach Joe Harasymiak stressed in training camp. “The situation is always changing.”
Players practiced two-minute drills and four-minute drills, punt blocking and route coverage, everything but the snow angel — never do a snow angel until the game’s over.
In the final minute of last week’s three hour, 54-minute marathon against Buffalo, Jeremiah McGill intercepted a Bulls pass at his own 19-yard line to preserve a 21-20 lead and a celebration ensued. Players stood on the bench and serenaded the cheering crowd, they waved bye-bye to the Buffalo players and Derrieon Craig flopped down near midfield and did a snow angel.
Referee Marcel Kerr saw it and flagged Craig for unsportsmanlike conduct and moved the ball back to the 10-yard line. Two running plays and two timeouts later, Buffalo coach Pete Lembo was ready to burn his final timeout until A.J. Hairston threw an incompletion that stopped the clock for him.
ESPN analyst Forrest Conoly had seen enough. Conoly grew up in Berlin, Connecticut, and was nicknamed the Berlin Wall at Florida State where he was an offensive lineman on Bobby Bowden’s 1993 championship team. He knows his football.
“OK. OK. OK,” he said. “I’m sorry, this is the second time on third down that they’ve thrown the football when they’re supposed to run the ball. Make. The. Other. Team. Use. Their. Timeouts.”
UMass punted to midfield and Buffalo scored in four plays, capped by Ta’Quan Roberson’s 16-yard pass to Victor Snow in the left corner of the end zone. It was Snow’s eighth catch and second touchdown of the afternoon.
“You’re kidding me,” said Conoly. “You play single man on their most dangerous receiver? There were so many coaching decisions I don’t understand. I’m baffled.”
Conoly also was perplexed by why Hairston hadn’t let the delay of game timer run down to the final second during a methodical 16-play drive on the previous series. “Tempo is OK but let the clock run,” he said.
After the gun sounded, Conoly asked Lembo if he was surprised UMass threw on third down. “Yeah,” said Lembo, “they gave us a little more time than we were anticipating.”
Wrapping up Buffalo’s 28-21 win, play-by-play voice Cooper Boardman said, “You could live a thousand lives and maybe not see a game like that.”
Oh yes you could, just grab yourself a UMass football schedule.
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Carlton Fisk’s 12th inning home run off the foul pole happened 50 years ago last Tuesday. The Red Sox were trailing 6-3 when Bernie Carbo pinch hit for pitcher Roger Moret with two outs and two on in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Carbo worked the count to two balls, two strikes and expected Rawly Eastwick to throw a fastball. “He was a fastball pitcher in a fastball league,” Carbo said in his autobiography “Saving Bernie Carbo” which was co-authored by Peter Hantzis.
Pete Dailey and I were watching in our apartment at 112 Conway Street, in a house owned by our hockey playing buddy Billy Delia. Birdie Conant was there and a couple of others, and after Carbo’s home run into the bleachers and Fisk’s home run off the foul pole, Birdie and I decided to drive into Boston for game seven.
We were broke and couldn’t get into the park, our caper was to watch from the top of the Citgo sign on Kenmore Square.
We parked on an access road between the Hojo’s motel and a BU dorm on Commonwealth Avenue, looked up and figured, why not? The night watchman let us into the building and led us up to the roof. He was into it, it was a special night.
I’d been eating an apple and decided to toss it off the roof. “Watch this,” I said, and the apple landed dead center on the top of someone’s car. “Wow,” he exclaimed.
We made it about halfway up the Citgo sign and could see the crowd but not the field. We climbed back down and walked to a bar called Copperfield’s but the place was so jammed they’d locked the door.
We returned to my car and listened on the radio. The game was tied 3-3 in the top of the ninth inning when Joe Morgan singled home Ken Griffey, and in the bottom of the ninth Will McEnaney retired the Red Sox in order.
Carlton Fisk walked and struck out three times. It’s always what have you done for me lately, he’d say. Carl Yastrzemski’s fly ball to center field was the last out. “It’s in the park,” said Joe Garagiola.
I turned off the radio but the night wasn’t over. Somebody in the BU dorm yelled at us, and we yelled back. A few minutes later a kid stepped outside and stood next to the door. After a while they beckoned him back inside. We were too bummed out to take the bait.
Cinci was the Big Red Machine. It won 108 games to Boston’s 95, but years later Johnny Bench would say, “We lost that Series, three games to four.”
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It’s astounding how poorly UMass treats its fans. “Went to last night’s UMass hockey game,” emailed Northfield’s Bill McGee. “Terrible experience. $17 parking rip off, box office claimed no senior tix available — only, get this, $46 for the top row in Section X. A stranger took us in because he had 2 extras. Steve from Greenfield, thank you.”
A retired utilities executive, McGee confirmed to me that he didn’t see the $46 ticket offer online.
“Box office people,” he said.
On Thursday a ticket rep at the UMass box office had no comment, but suggested emailing the marketing department.
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Barb Weinberg’s UMass field hockey team hosts Harvard on Sunday at 1 p.m., and Ball State on Friday at 4 p.m. At this writing the Minutewomen are 13-2 and ranked No. 16 in the D-1 National Coaches Poll, and tied with Miami-Ohio for first place in the MAC but holds the head-to-head tiebreaker.
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SQUIBBERS: Fox Sports pulled a “Dewey Defeats Truman” on Sunday when the banner beneath Michael Strahan’s star-of-the-day segment was “Jaxson Dart for First Career Comeback Win.” The Giants lost, 33-32. …. Winners’ shares won’t be determined until after the fourth game of the World Series, but last year’s champs the Dodgers hauled in $477,441 per share, and the Yankees’ losing share was $354,572. … Every team that makes the postseason gets a slice of that pie. The Red Sox will get about $10,000 per share despite being eliminated in the first round of the wild card. … Florida AD Scott Stricklin fired football coach Billy Napier this week after four years and a 22-23 record. “Stricklin’s hired Dan Mullen and Billy Napier,” said Paul Finebaum. “Rarely does an athletic director get to hire a third football coach.” Gators fans are hoping Stricklin will get a big name like Lane Kiffin or James Franklin. … Jays closer Jeff Hoffman on his strategy for saving game seven: “Pound the zone and don’t get to (Cal) Raleigh.” … The NFC leads the AFC, 26-13, in head-to-head competition through week seven. … Attendance at the Rogers Center was 5,620 over seating capacity for Tuesday’s pennant clincher. … No truth to rumors that UMass AD Ryan Bamford has been standing at the corner of Amity Street and Mass. Ave. holding a cardboard sign asking for NIL money. … Kudos to Turners Falls native Jack Putala for Amherst Regional’s 4-2 record thus far in his first season as head coach of the Hurricanes. … Cody Liimatainen is on the mend after suffering a broken leg playing against Easthampton two weeks ago. Folks are referring to Madi’s little brother as the Joe Theisman of Powertown. … According to statmuse, Mickey Mantle batted .257 and hit 18 home runs in 65 World Series games. After he retired Mantle said, ”You don’t realize how easy this game is until you get up in that broadcasting booth.”