Good morning!
The hard part of getting to the Tsongas Center was trying to choose between Exits A, B or C off the Lowell Connector. A few stop lights later the home of the UMass Lowell River Hawks hockey team appeared like a spaceship shrouded in blue haze, guarded by crater-sized potholes on Father Morissette Boulevard.
Uber drivers dropped off passengers and motorists paid $10 to use the parking garage. Stubborn types like myself found spots beyond the “No Event Parking” signs next to a brightly-lit soccer field on West Hall Street.
My first visit to the 6,000-seat facility was to meet friends and compare it with how the Mullins Center puts on a show.
Inside the spacious lobby, kids bounced around inside an inflatable fun house and students gave $10 ticket vouchers to people who’d brought canned goods to the Thanksgiving food drive.
Peter Hantzis and his wife Linda Hantzis were waiting for me near the box office. They had purchased the tickets, which online would cost $31.25, including the $6.25 ticket fee.
Lowell is on the I-495 corridor between Route 2 and the Granite State. According to the last census, its population is 110,000, the median income is slightly under $50,000, and the poverty rate is 22.4 percent, more than double the statewide average.
“This is a city of immigrants — Greek, Irish, Portuguese…” said Hantzis. “It’s always worked. Lowell is a great city. The people work and get along.”
A clinical psychologist, Peter Hantzis grew up in Chelmsford and is an adjunct faculty member at UMass Lowell. Linda recently retired as the advertising director of a high tech firm in Bedford named Amptek that she said, “literally does rocket science.”
We first met six years ago while Peter was promoting a book he’d co-authored with former Red Sox outfielder Bernie Carbo. Hantzis played at Northeastern and batted .392 his senior season. An ardent Red Sox fan, his favorite player is Ted Williams. “He was a hitting scientist,” said Hantzis. “You know, his daughter Claudia has a bed and breakfast in Putney called the Splendid Splinter.”
I kidded Hantzis that his interest in the Red Sox borders on OCD. He laughed and said Luis Tiant deserves to be in the Hall of Fame. “He had 49 shutouts and that’s more than anyone in there now,” claimed Hantzis, who was overlooking 63 shutouts by Warren Spahn and 110 by Walter “Big Train” Johnson, among others.
“They can’t let Mookie Betts leave,” said Hantzis. “When’s the last time they had a five tool player? If you look at what he does, he can go 0-for-4 and still win the game.”
They go to Cooperstown every August to watch the induction ceremony. “You know who draws the biggest line for autographs?” asked Hantzis. “Pete Rose. Bernie and him are good friends.”
Carbo’s pinch-hit home run in the sixth game of the 1975 World Series is part of Red Sox folklore. In 2010 Hantzis sat next to him at a Red Sox anniversary dinner, and the normally reticent Detroit native opened up about his personal life. They conspired to write “Saving Bernie Carbo,” a book told from the perspective of both player and analyst.
The River Hawks were playing UConn, and our seats were a few rows behind the Huskies’ bench. These days communications majors are taught that noise equals excitement, and we had to talk over the piped-in music and revved-up pep band. The noise was louder than at the Mullins Center, where people can escape to the concourse.
Over the summer, the school announced it was moving its Saturday start times to 6 p.m. “The move is meant to create a more fan friendly start time,” said the press release, “and comes after months of surveying season ticket holders and the student population.”
Grandmothers walked around wearing game jerseys, and down on the ice children sang the national anthem acapella. The white linoleum floors are polished, and the walls are adorned with plaques, photos and trophy cabinets.
The Tsongas Center security has stopped using metal detectors. “We make it really simple,” smiled the usher. “Even if you went down to the glass (rinkside), no one would bother you.”
At the Mullins Center, fans wait in the cold to go through airport-like security. The usual night’s haul is pocket knives, toenail clippers and alcoholic nips. When I mentioned that the heavy-handed security might be bad for business, UMass Director of Event Management Meredith Reid replied, “We are trying to provide a safe environment.”
“A lot of venues,” I reasoned, “have gone beyond their fear of a 9/11 attack.”
“Not me,” she said.
At the top of the stairs inside the Tsongas Center, a student named Mason was selling scoresheets for a buck that included the rosters, lines and defensive pairings. Only scouts are allowed to get that info at the Mullins Center. They need to show a card at the ticket window.
Mason said he was enrolled in the Manning School of Business, which is comparable to the Isenberg School of Management in Amherst. “They call themselves the Isen-Bros like they’re special,” huffed Mason. “It’s one of the most recognized business schools in the country, but UMass-Lowell is really working.”
The UMass-Lowell softball team was honored on the ice between periods. The story goes that after he became president of the state university system, former UMass-Lowell chancellor Marty Meehan decided that the Minutemen should play the River Hawks in every sport.
“Marty Meehan gets things done,” said Hantzis. “He was here when they made the move to Division I. He was very important to this school.”
UMass-Amherst dominates most of the sports, but not hockey. In the last seven years under coach Norm Bazin, the River Hawks are 16-2-1 against their big brothers from Amherst. Bazin’s prototypical defensemen are six-foot, 200-pounders, and their goalie is aptly named Tyler Wall. A sixth-round New York Rangers draft pick, the 6-foot-3, 215-pound senior is second behind Minnesota State’s Dryden McKay with a .945 save percentage.
The two rivals won’t be facing off until a home-and-home series on Feb. 21 and 22, but at this writing they were tied for second place in Hockey East and on a collision course.
During the ride home I tuned to FM and found the student station. They were talking about the softball team, and looking at last year’s opponents. “Where’s Binghamton?” one of them asked.
“Connecticut?” answered the other.
River Hawks hockey fans know how to find Lowell, but the Mullins Center is the better venue. Despite its annoyances like water fountains that deliver only a trickle, tickets cost only $12 ($10 for seniors), the parking is free and it’s an easy drive from anywhere except Northampton.
Living in the Pioneer Valley has its advantages, and the Mullins Center is one of them.
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Only 2,212 fans turned out at the Mullins Center to watch the UMass basketball team play Yale on Wednesday. The Minutemen led by seven with 3:30 to play when Tre Mitchell missed a 3-pointer five seconds into the possession. “The product of a young team,” said NESN’s Jay Burnham, referring to the early launch. It was also the product of a coach who hadn’t stressed working the clock. The Bulldogs went on a 14-2 run and won in overtime. UMass has lost six straight games and plummeted to 201st in USA Today’s Sagarin Ratings.
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SQUIBBERS: A framed photo of a crime scene fingerprint hangs on the wall of the Boulevard Diner in Worcester. The print was lifted after a break-in in 1935. … Faces in the Mullins Center crowd: Nashville scout Rob Scuderi, who grew up in Syosset, N.Y., and played for Boston College and in the NHL. “My dad was a cop and he used to work a detail where the Islanders played,” said Scuderi. “My dad still plays. He’s 70 years old.” … The Council on Compulsive Gambling in New Jersey reported that 84 percent of all legal wagers in the Garden State are made on sports apps. New Hampshire will have its Draft Kings app up and running in time for the NFL playoffs. “It’s like having a casino in your pocket,” a N.J. council member told the NY Post. … Deerfield grad (’01) Katie Guay of Westfield reffed Tuesday night’s UMass-Brown hockey game in Providence. … Wednesday’s NMH/Deerfield game ended in a 1-1 tie at McCollum Arena, where spectators bought coffee just to warm their hands. (Editor’s Note: Recorder sports reporter Thomas Johnston was delighted to receive a complimentary hot chocolate while covering the game). … Former UMass hockey player TJ Syner is now Jack Arena’s assistant at Amherst College. His uncle Jim Syner is Boomer the Thunderbirds mascot at the MassMutual Center. … Speaking of Springfield’s AHL affiliate, James MacDonnell has T-birds season tickets and doesn’t mind driving from his home in Hinsdale, N.H. “I love to watch the kids,” said the town’s tax collector. “I’ve been watching them for years and when they get called up it makes me feel my support hasn’t been lost.” … Bear Country’s Jeff Tirrell and Shawn Hubert closed out their 2019 football season last weekend at Gillette Stadium. The pair broadcast their 404th high school football game together, and they watched from the press box as Swampscott blanked Amherst, 21-0, in the MIAA Division 5 Super Bowl. … Kansas Jayhawks coach Les Miles to Yahoo Sports, on the single-mindedness of coaching football: “When I wake up in the morning and I turn that film on, it’s like reading a book and it’s exciting. I don’t read books, but if I read books it would be like reading a book.”
Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley.