Having a week off is swell and all but I really have never taken one off without any plan to do some travel or big project. The only plan was to explore my idleness. Has this been wise? Let's review:  •  Until about 11:00 am yesterday, I was going to Syracuse to see the game between UMass and the …

Not really. But I am going:  •  “Massachusetts beat Akron, 68-63, with a 22-5 run to end the game today, which means the Minutemen will travel to the Carrier Dome on Tuesday to face Syracuse in the NIT quarterfinals. Of course, the two teams are familiar with one another. UMass defeated Syracuse …

Here we are on the last religious holiday left in the calendar. Somehow merchandisers have yet to figure out how to take advantage of Jesus on the cross to sell me a chocolate lump or to fashion an ad campaign for cars. For a brief while in high school there were a spate of Good Friday jokes like …

Being the novice masters shot putter that I am, I am keenly aware of the importance of athletic excellence. Yet I have to point out again that the connection of athleticism and the Olympics creates at best strange bedfellows and at worst a catalyst for tragedy as we are seeing this weekend in …

Another Friday. They flow by like the days of the week. A week or so from spring and still there's feet of snow. That's not exactly helping. Morton's teetering and the Orange are gone. At least things are going better for me than they are for Eliot Spitzer. WFAN had an interview with his …

With more than a foot or two standing here and much more as soon as you move off the lake, there is a fat chance I am going to see a robin anytime soon so popping into the brew pub for a late lunch yesterday provided the treat of watching the Mets and the Red Sox play in a pre-season game. I was …

That's better. For the shortest month going, it sure did drag. Happy to report that Boston beat the Twins. I have been living on Red Sox DVDs a bit recently. This one covering to the end of 2005 is helpful mid-winter viewing as we got to hiss a lot at the Yankees.  •  Relive my first of March post …

Who the hell decided leap day gets added to February? Why can't we have an extra long June? Why can't we have two Christmas Days? No, February that sucky whiner of a month needed the extra day. So here we are. Not in March.  •  Update: corroboration Cadmanesque? Are we now going to question a …

Good news out of Seattle's spring training camp:  •  “He does not have an ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. None. Dickey either was born without one, or the tissue simply disintegrated when he was a teenager. A dozen years after discovery of his situation cost him a virtual …