by mike | Mar 11, 2024 | Basketball, Life, Sports, Uncategorized |
My bride, Jacqueline, is a Hawkeye through and through. After we met in the early ’90s we would fly back to Cedar Rapids once or twice a year to visit her parents, Carol and Jack Benzinger, before they passed away in 2011 and 2012 respectively. On a visit in the early...
by mike | Feb 19, 2024 | Baseball, Books, Movies, Musical Theater, Sports, Uncategorized |
I don’t recall exactly when The Year the Yankees Lost the Pennant, published in 1954, came into the Sirota household. Maybe I picked it up at a library sale…a possibility, as back then I haunted the West Farms Branch (in The Bronx) of the New York Public Library....
by mike | Aug 21, 2023 | Baseball, Death, Sports, Uncategorized |
Raymond Johnson Chapman played shortstop in the major leagues for nine seasons. His legacy, sadly, is not one that Ray himself would have wished on anyone. DIRTY BASEBALLS Ray Chapman, born in Kentucky in 1891, was raised in Illinois. He realized the dream of so many...
by mike | Jul 17, 2023 | Baseball, Basketball, Football, Sports, Uncategorized |
Earlier this month I tuned into a game between the Cincinnati Reds and the Milwaukee Brewers. The Reds’ phenomenal rookie, Elly de la Cruz, had just reached first base with a single. He promptly stole second, just beating the throw, and on the next pitch he broke for...
by mike | Apr 3, 2023 | Baseball, Basketball, Life, Sports, Uncategorized |
So where’s my usual post? Sorry, but I’ve been so wrapped up with the NCAA Basketball Tournaments (men’s and women’s), and the opening of the baseball season, that the next real article won’t appear till the following Monday. The Lady Hawkeyes from Iowa made it to the...
by mike | Mar 28, 2023 | Basketball, Sports, Uncategorized |
I can’t let this week go by without a giant WOW for our two basketball teams. The San Diego State Aztecs men’s team is headed to the Final Four in Houston after dispatching the #1 seed Alabama, then eking out a victory against old rival Creighton. And the Lady...