Memorial Day Weekend Musings

BEVERLY HILLS (MI) – Nobody asked me, but…

– Roger Angell, America’s preeminent baseball essayist and longtime writer and editor for New Yorker magazine died recently at the age of 101. While best known for works like The Summer Game, this retrospective on his life and the looming prospect of death entitled This Old Man is perhaps his most compelling piece:

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/02/17/old-man-3

– Over the years, I have played early morning pickup hoops with a lot of good athletes on our yearly summer sojourns to Stone Harbor, NJ. 6’10” (and a self-reported 410 lb.) Charlie Naddaff who played against Ralph Sampson while at LaSalle was certainly memorable. Elena Delle Donne, the consensus First Team HS All-American who ditched UConn to play for her home state Delaware Blue Hens was another. But the fastest player I encountered in all the years of hooping there was Charles Lee, who was then attending Bucknell. And now he’s interviewing for the Lakers HC job:

https://www.hoopsrumors.com/2022/05/...arles-lee.html

Note: Charles didn’t get the Lakers job; Darvin Ham did.

– In Googling Charlie Naddaff’s name to get the correct spelling I came across this article from The Philadelphia Enquirer on the pickup games at 96th Street:

https://www.inquirer.com/philly/news...e=app-web-view

It appears Naddaff has dropped over 100 pounds and is now a “svelte” 275. His son Chip and daughter Kathleen were regular fixtures every summer and both played college ball.

I’ll be there Labor Day weekend.

– The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi that just dropped on Disney+ are among those rare cinematographic productions that are actually better than their hype.

– Where were all these golf balls when I really needed them? As a youngster I never had enuf and lost ones were nearly impossible to find. Now, when I have more spheroids than I could ever possibly use, I keep encountering them in the woods, near water hazards, heck sometimes right out in the open. Go figure.

– One of the adjustments that comes with retirement is the role that an automobile plays in your everyday life. While working in advertising sales it was not unusual for me to rack up 18,000-20,000 miles in a year. Now it’s more like 3,000 per. I use my 2004 retro Thunderbird to run errands, drive to and from the golf course and to visit our favorite ice cream stand. It’s insured with a collector car company, so my premium is less than half of what it used to be.

– Another advantage to being an old duffer: a free Y membership. My wife and I had canceled ours when Covid hit and hadn’t been back. Blue Cross and Blue Shield thru Silver Sneakers offers to pick up the tab for a health club for seniors. I’m not quite ready to go back to playing lunchtime pickup ball just yet, so I am hitting the gym at 7:00 am a coupla times a week to help restore my wind and shooting touch.

– A recent drive thru the UD campus made me realize that this is not the same university that my wife and I attended. I lived at University Hall on West Campus and took a five mile ride on a blue school bus to get to classes. Freshmen guys had to take ROTC. The basketball team played their games in the Fieldhouse and students had to wait outside all night for tickets. I played hoops in the Women's Gym, if you can believe that. NCR was thriving across Brown Street in a space now being built up by the U. The Montgomery County Fair was held around Labor Day every year at the Fairgrounds, also in space that now belongs to the university and which it hopes to develop.

What can I say…we’re a coupla Golden Flyers. A lot has changed in 50 years.

– On my initial visit to Dayton back in 1967, I had my very first Arby’s roast beef sandwich down on Brown Street. It cost 69 cents (which was a lot considering a burger at Mickey D’s was 22 cents) and it was a revelation. We didn’t have Arby’s in my dinky little town back in Massachusetts.

– I grew up in exurban Boston around a bunch of guys of Italian descent. One of their favorite all-purpose cuss words was “minchia” and I never learned exactly what it meant or how it was correctly spelled.

Now I know.

— If the Transfer Portal has taught us anything it is that the majority of recruitable HS hoopsters initially “outkicked their coverage” to use football terminology. Most players are moving down in conference and some even in division. While guys now have total freedom of movement, that ain’t necessarily always a good thing.

– I don’t understand crypto currency at all and I am perfectly blissful in my ignorance, especially in light of the recent apocalyptic crypto crash.

– Is finding a bay leaf in your dish a sign of good luck in your family? I Googled it and most people said yes, but there were a few nopes as well. I recently uncovered two bay leaves in my bowl at, of all places, Chipotle. Guess that means I’ve got some double secret good luck coming my way or something.

– A 2017 Ferrari LaFerrari Aperta with only 161 miles on it sold for $5,360,000 on Bring a Trailer recently:

https://bringatrailer.com/listing/20...errari-aperta/

That’s almost twice the sticker price when new. This raises a few questions: Why would you own a hypercar like that and only put 32 miles per year on it? More importantly, who has $5.3 mil in cash just lying around to buy it?

And while the normal admonition on most websites is “don’t read the comments!” I highly recommend that you do so in this case. The running commentary during the live auctions is what makes BaT so cool.

– “FTS” used to run an infrequent mailbag column featuring reader feedback, but I haven’t done one in quite a while. In searching thru my saved mail, I came across a few worth sharing. This one is from former Flyer hoopster Don Hughes:

Swampy. Love your positiveness. Great to hear about the future opportunity.

Fun to watch the Flyers last weekend in DC.

Fellow Flyer

Don Hughes
‘87 #34

Thanks for writing, Don!

Frank Carchedi asked:

I may have missed it but do we have insight as to why the Flyers are not on TV outside of the more prominent nationally televised games?

Thanks for any insights

Frank

I told Frank that it mostly has to do with the level of competition the Flyers face in their buy games.

This one is from fellow UH resident Frank Floriani:

Hi Swampy,

I hope all is well with you and your family. As I have mentioned before, I really look forward to your articles.

The reason for this email is that tomorrow is the 50 year anniversary of Duane Allman’s death. I remember that day and going up to the radio station where I spoke with Steve Downes (who I am sure does not remember me) and we spoke about what a tragedy it was. (Many don’t realize that although he had played guitar for a while he was only into his third year playing the slide guitar. I was and still am a big fan.) If I recall correctly, Steve was your roommate. If you happen to be in touch with him please tell him that my conversation with him that day was one of those moments that I will always remember and appreciate.

Thanks.

Best regards,

Frank

p.s. I could swear that in the year or 2 after UH I saw Steve front a band in the basement of someone’s house in the ghetto. I could be wrong on that (and my memory tells me it was a Creedence song they were playing).
Any way please stay well and no matter what- GO FLYERS!

I forwarded Frank’s email to Downes and I’m sure he got a kick out of it. And yes, Steve did front a band (whose name escapes me) while at UD. They played in the KU Cafeteria for the first time and the infamous MC5 tune “Kick Out The Jams” was on their set list. It began with the admonition “Kick out the jams, motherf*ckers!” Downes and company wisely edited that to “brothers and sisters,” (which is what the radio play version used), it being a Catholic university and all.

That’s it “From the Swamp.”
You can email me at: swampy@udpride.com

	Massachusetts MASSACHUSETTS UMass Amherst, the flagship campus of the University of Massachusetts system, sits on nearly 1,450-acres in the scenic Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts, 90 miles from Boston and 175 miles from New York City. The campus provides a rich cultural environment in a rural setting close to major urban centers. UMass enrolls over 20,000 undergraduates and 5,000 post-grad students. Fellow members of the A10 Conference. Nickname is the Minutemen. Women's teams known as the Minutewomen. Sports achievements include NCAA Final Four appearances in men's basketball and women's soccer.

	LaSalle LA SALLE In 1863, La Salle University was established through the legacy of St. John Baptist de La Salle and the Christian Brothers teaching order, which De La Salle founded 300 years ago. Located in Philadelphia, La Salle is an educational community shaped by traditional Catholic and Lasallian values. La Salle's main campus is an ideal place for students to pursue an education. The 130-acre park-like setting includes 54 buildings and is located approximately six miles from Center City Philadelphia. The University can accommodate 2,114 resident students in its 12 residence halls, two apartment complexes, and 75 townhouses. Fellow members of the A10 Conference. Nickname is the Explorers. Notable athletes include Tom Gola and Lionel Simmons.

	Ghetto UD GHETTO Student neighborhood surrounding the campus of the University of Dayton. Unique to UD, the Ghetto gets its name from the nickname students gave the depression and war-period row houses the university owns and rents to Dayton students during their course of study. The landlord arrangement and compact nature of the neighborhood homes create a camaraderie among students outside of class that provides personal space away from classrooms and on-campus dorms. Parties and celebrations on Ghetto streets are legendary and have made David Letterman's Top-10 List. A significant effort has been made in recent years to curb hooliganism and renovate older homes.