THIS COLUMN WAS WRITTEN IN FRONT OF A LIVE STUDIO AUDIENCE
QUICK QUIZ
How many beers were sold at the infamous 10-cent Beer Night riot when the Cleveland Indians hosted the Texas Rangers at Cleveland Stadium on June 4, 1974?
A). 25,000 cup
B) 35,000 cups
C) 45,000 cups
D) 60,000 cups
QUOTABLE QUOTES
“Anyone can run where the holes are. A good football player makes his own holes.” – Fullback/Halfback Joe Don Looney, brilliant at Oklahoma, analyzing his pro career; six years, four teams.
“We all choke, and the man who says he doesn’t choke is lying like hell. We all leak oil.” – Professional golfer Lee Trevino.
“You’re so dumb, you don’t even know how to spell I.Q.” – Mickey Rivers to Carlos May, who had just told Rivers he was so dumb he had an I.Q. of 10.
IDLE THOUGHTS
Saginaw’s Draymond Green has officially hit the big time. NBC’s Saturday Night Live did a parody of Green during its Weekend Update segment and featured player Devon Walker did a superb job of portraying Green. Update co-anchor Michael Che interviewed Green/Walker about his recent suspension with Green/Walker quickly producing a little black book featuring his “hit list.”
UConn women’s basketball team opened its season with an early and unexpected two-point lead courtesy of a bizarre violation of the rules by Dayton. The Huskies were awarded a pair of technical free throws after a member of the Flyers’ starting five checked into the game wearing the wrong jersey number.
Dayton guard Destiny Bohanon, who was registered by the team as wearing the jersey No. 33, checked into the game for the opening tip off donning the No. 53 jersey. Because the No. 53 jersey was not on the official lineup sheet, the Huskies were awarded two technical free throws due to the NCAA’s rules, before the start of the game. UConn’s Azzi Fudd nailed the two shots from the line, giving the Huskies a 2-0 lead heading into the opening tip.
If you’re looking for one of the strangest stories of the young college basketball season, look no further than Nevada. In a very, very strange incident, the Wolf Pack saw a stoppage in play in its home opener against Sacramento State because a colony of bats descended from the Lawlor Events Center rafters onto the court. The game had to stop momentarily because a bunch of bats started flying around the stadium like it was Bruce Wayne’s Batcave.
Outside of causing a delay in play, the bat fiasco led to one of the funniest rants in a postgame press conference you’re ever going to hear from Nevada men’s coach Steve Alford. “You know things are going to be good when someone starts a response by saying, “The bat thing is getting pretty embarrassing.” “We are a big-time basketball program, and we shouldn’t be dealing with bats.”
In 2017, several bats took over the arena and the Nevada Department of Wildlife confirmed at the time there could be up to 30 bats living inside the arena. Arena officials and trying to figure out an ethical way to clear the bats out of the stadium.
Virginia high school football powerhouse Phoebus Hampton opened the VHSL Class 4 state playoffs with a 104-0 victory over Jamestown. Not many details have emerged from the blowout yet other than Phoebus led 83-0 at the half. The Phantoms (11-0) have won back-to-back state titles and 31 straight games dating back to the 2021 season. The program won seven state crowns between 2001 and 2011. Jamestown (1-10) was participating in the postseason despite winning only one game all season, including an 84-0 loss in the regular season finale against Warhill. Virginia was also home to an astonishing score a year ago as Freedom (Woodbridge) blasted Charles J. Colgan 112-16.
Shohei Ohtani is donating New Balance baseball gloves to every single elementary school in Japan. Over 60,000 gloves will be provided to 20,000 schools.
In 1963, pitcher Gaylord Perry remarked, “They’ll put a man on the moon before I hit a home run.” On July 20, 1969, a few hours after Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon, Perry hit his first – and only - home run.
Ubly High School senior Brett Mueller made state history in a recent high school football game. In the Bearcats’ 35-14 district championship victory, Mueller attempted the 219th extra point kick attempt in his career. As the ball sailed through the uprights for the 208th time, he broke the previous record of 207, previously held by DeWitt’s Brandon Soltis. Soltis set the record from 2019-22, needing 47 games; Mueller did it in 10 less games. Making the accomplishment even more remarkable is the fact that Mueller didn’t begin kicking until his sophomore season. He was 58-of-61 as a sophomore and 86-of-90 as a junior.
Before 1956, penalties in the National Hockey League lasted the duration; a 2-minute penalty went the full 2 minutes even if the other team on the powerplay scored multiple goals. In 1955, Jean Beliveau scored a hat trick in 44 seconds during a power play. The next year the rule was changed.
In late August 1994, Major League Baseball was over two weeks into a strike that interrupted the season. Just before the waiver trade deadline expired, the Minnesota Twins traded aging outfielder/designated hitter Dave Winfield to the Cleveland Indians for a player to be named later. Two weeks after the trade, on September 14, the rest of the 1994 season was canceled, so Winfield never played for the Indians that season, and no player was ever named in exchange. Later on, executives from both the Indians and Twins got together for a dinner, with Indians’ execs picking up the dinner tab, making Winfield the only player in MLB history ever traded for a five-star meal.
University of Texas freshman quarterback Arch Manning is donating all $102,500 from the sale of his first 1-of-1 Prizm Black autographed Panini America trading card to the Ronald McDonald House of Charities of Central Texas. I understand the Manning family isn’t hurting for money, but it’s still cool for an 18-year-old college kid to donate money to a charity.
In October of 1924, Harold McKenzie died while playing junior varsity football for Saginaw High School. He died one day after suffering an injury he received in a Friday afternoon game against Vassar High School. Saginaw High Principal W. Langdon dismissed school at the end of sixth hour (2:15 p.m.) to let the student body attend gravesite services at Forest Lawn Cemetery. McKenzie, a reserve center, ruptured a kidney in the 32-7 victory at Vassar. Six teammates served as pallbearers. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jason M. McKenzie.
Saginaw Spirit General Manager Dave Driscoll has been quite busy as of late by making several trades to bolster the Spirit team. As host team, Saginaw automatically qualifies for the 2024 Memorial Cup, but Driscoll is putting all of his cards on the table for a tournament run.
High School Football Predictions:
Division 1: Belleville 35, Southfield Arts & Technology 8
Division 2: Warren De La Salles Collegiate 28, Muskegon 27
Division 3: Grand Rapids Forest Hills Central 50, Mason 7
Division 4: Grand Rapids South Christian 18, Harper Woods 8
Division 5: Grand Rapids Catholic Central 17, Corunna 14
Division 6: Almont 8, Kingsley 6
Division 7: Jackson Lumen Christi 38, Menominee 12
Division 8: Ubly 21, Ottawa Lake Whiteford 17
The fifth annual Harry Hawkins Award presentation will be held Thursday, December 7th, at the Saginaw Club. The Heisman Trophy-like award, which debuted in 2019, recognizes the top senior football player in Saginaw County. The Saginaw Club is the presenting sponsor of the award in conjunction with the MLive Media Group.
Finalists include Braylon Isom of Heritage High School, Preston Otter of Nouvel Catholic Central High School, and Samual Talaga of Freeland High School. A scholarship of $3,000 will be presented to the winner, with the runners up receiving $1,500 each. The award is based on athletic achievement on the gridiron (50 percent), Community Service (25 percent) and Grade-Point-Average (25 percent).
The Hawkins award is named in honor of former Arthur Hill High School and University of Michigan gridiron standout Harry Hawkins, the first All-America football player from Saginaw County. Hawkins was also a track standout at Michigan where he captured both the Big Ten and National Championships in the hammer throw.
Hawkins, an engineer and executive in the automotive industry, is a former Saginaw Club member. Previous Hawkins award winners include Brady Devereaux of Hemlock High School (2019), Christopher Parker of Heritage High School (2020) and Cole Lindow of Frankenmuth High School (2021), and Gabe Blanchard of Freeland High School (2022).
The ceremony will be held at the Saginaw Club’s third-floor ballroom. A social hour begins at 6 p.m. and the award presentation starting promptly at 7 p.m. The cost to attend is $20; hors d’oeuvres will be served and a cash bar will be available. To RSVP, please call the Saginaw Club at (989) 754-8404.
LSU’s Angel Reese, last season’s NCAA women’s basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player, was recently benched by head coach Kim Mulkey for an “attitude adjustment.” That benching kicked off some very public in-fighting for the LSU program. Reese’s mother, Angel Webb Reese, posted an Instagram message calling out Kia Brooks, mother of LSU sophomore Flau’jae Johnson. Johnson claimed Reese has a 2.0 or less GPA. This is going to get uglier before it gets better.
The 2023 Louis O’Neal Boys High School Basketball Classic will be held on Saturday, December 2nd at Saginaw Valley State University. Doors open at 10:30 a.m. and all tickets must be purchased online; no cash sales are available the day of the event. SVSU Athletics are transitioning to a clear bag policy for fan entrance. This added safety measure will also likely allow for easier gate entry due to less time spent doing patron bag checks. The game schedule includes:
11:30 a.m. – Bay City All Saints Central vs. Charlton Heston Academy
1 p.m. – Bridgeport vs. Flint Kearsley
2:30 p.m. – Bay City John Glenn vs. Mount Pleasant
4 p.m. – Flint Hamady vs. Warren De La Salle Collegiate
5:30 p.m. – Flint Power Catholic vs. Schoolcraft
7 p.m. – Chesaning vs. Carrollton
8:30 p.m. – Nouvel Catholic Central vs. Cass City
Whatever happened to Ben Poquette?
QUICK QUIZ ANSWER
D) 60,000. The game remains one of the most bizarre in Major League history. Per nationalpastime.com, Cleveland sold an estimated 60,000 cups of beer to the 25,134 in attendance. The 10-cent beer promotion was meant to improve attendance at the game by offering cups of alcohol beer for just 10 cents each, a substantial discount on the regular price of 65 cents, with a limit of six beers per purchase but with no limit on the number of purchases made during the game.
Six days earlier, the Indians and the Rangers had been involved in a widely-publicized bench-clearing brawl; the game therefore drew a rowdy and belligerent crowd. As the game proceeded, on-field incidents and massive alcohol consumption further agitated the audience, many of whom threw lit firecrackers, streaked across the playing field, and openly smoked marijuana.
Most sober fans departed early, leaving an increasingly drunk and unruly mob behind. Continued degradation of the game culminated in a riot in the ninth inning when fans rushed the field. Players were forced to protect themselves with bats while retreating from the field. Chief umpire Nestor Chylak declared the game to be forfeited in Texas's favor due to the mob's uncontrollable actions.
The next Beer Night promotion on July 18 attracted 41,848 fans with beer again selling for 10 cents per cup but with a limit of two cups per person at the reduced price.
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Nov 20, 2023
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