Mercer > Duke?

I like Duke and Coach K, and wanted to see their freshman make a run in the tourney. While it was nice that my hometown team Mercer landed on the map for beating Duke, I knew I’d never hear the end of it from some of my Facebook friends. Most weren’t obnoxious.

Always remember going to the Mercer/Jacksonville game in 1970 at the Macon Coliseum when Artis Gilmore was one of the top players in the country. In high school many of my best friends had parents that taught at Mercer. At Baskin Robbins I used to serve pints of ice cream to Mercer All-American Cindy Brogdon. Several of my SPdL Chapel Choir compatriots went on to Mercer: Rick Statham, Thad Warren, Miriam and Mark Crumpler, Steve and Joe Suggs, Danny Downing, Thad Warren, David Hurt – even Dock Hollingsworth.

Mercer’s regular season uniforms were deemed unacceptable by the NCAA – black number on black jerseys. So the reason the Bears won was because of the new uniforms. After the Bears beat Duke I knew I’d never hear the end of it on FB from Drew, whose son is a trainer for Mercer’s football team. Drew is a constant presence on FB – ten times more than me. He always yawns at my posts on uniforms, so I knew attributing the Duke upset to the uniform change would get Drew’s goat. Didn’t take him long to respond.

After Friday’s games only 18,000 out of over a million who entered remained alive in the billion dollar bracket challenge. After Saturday everyone had been eliminated – there were no perfect brackets remaining.

Haven’t watched the tournament. Saturday I did watch my first Braves game of the year. Uggla’s HR was a high fly that barely cleared the fence near the LF foul pole. It shouldn’t be a surprise that Dayton made the Sweet Sixteen. They looked real good when they played Tech.

Had a work emergency late Friday afternoon. Ceil said supper would be late, so I cashed in a Cheeseburger Bobby’s free burger coupon in Sandy Springs. We were out of pepperoni for the kid’s homemade pizza. Usually Ceil and I have onions and peppers on our pie. Instead she used ground beef. I had a taste and it was better than usual.

Saturday I cleaned upstairs until 2 pm. Ceil brought up scrambled eggs and oatmeal for breakfast and later warmed up pizza for lunch. M and C went with friends to see the hot new movie. I watched House of Cards on Netflix, some of the Braves game, and some of the golf tourney.

Sunday I drove M down to PCC and picked up C. Watched the end of the golf tourney while folding laundry and cleaning the kitchen. Went back to get M. Later I read a good chunk of my book “The Day I Died” written by an NBC Radio reporter who’s covered NASA during the 60’s, 70’s, and 80’s. Great stories about the space program, not so much about when he had a heart attack.

Back in the 70’s my favorite football player was Jim Kiick of the Dolphins. I’m doing to buy the book Dave Anderson wrote about Larry Czonka and him on Amazon.

The SI article on Puig makes a decent point, comparing the youngster to Namath and Ali. Makes me all the more an old fogey for not liking him. For all his considerable talent, all the hot dogging, throwing to the wrong base, and getting thrown out on the bases just turns me off. How much of an impact do these things have on his WAR?

Perhaps in his prime Puig’s overall play lessens the negative impact of his mistakes. With time and injuries his skills could erode, making those mistakes harder to overlook. Mattingly and his teammates are saying all the right things, but you wonder if Puig will eventually be more nuisance than asset. Could be the next Manny Ramirez.