Cleaning out the Inbox-Non Sports Version

   Time for some cleaning of the inbox, this time with an all non-sports version.

The Washington Post Magazine's Patricia McCormick tracked down the whereabouts of Mary Ann Vecchio known by almost everyone as the "Kent State girl" from what I would rate as one of the most famous photos of the last 100 years.

McCormick does a deft, but thorough job of talking to Vecchio about her life since that day, how it was affected by the incident, and some of the backstory behind that day with some surprising pieces of info that Vecchio discusses concerning the immediate aftermath after she was returned to Florida.

Read the article to find out what I mean.

The Atlantic asks the question of what if a single vaccine could cure all of Covid-19 and all its variants for 100 years?

The first step would be a universal vaccine to eliminate Covid and the variants with the second phase developing a vaccine that would check future coronaviruses of all types.

The Atlantic argues that such an achievement would be a generational achievement, yet one that could be closer than you may think.

The key is finding a common protein in the SARS virus and find a way to recognize a common portion (most likely the stem of the virus) that all forms of the virus carries and would inhibit the developments of common variants, therefore stemming the tide of the wave of variant viruses.

It makes sense to take things seriously and put the time in to develop attacks before they arise, but I am more likely to believe that these types of developmental processes will be given enough to work on a problem, but not enough to truly make a dent.

Humankind celebrates immediate triumph and moves on to the next battle rather than being proactive and avoiding a future one.

The Bulletin takes a reasonable and scientific look at the origin of Covid and the question of did it escape from the infamous Wuhan China lab or was there a deliberate release by the Chinese?

The article discusses both theories and then offers which is the more likely scenario.

It's a pretty deep read, but a very interesting one.

Hakai Magazine writes of the unlikely success of fish sticks, those rectangle-shaped pieces of fish that most of us thrived on as kids as quick dining in school lunches, tv dinners, and as fast food in various packaging.

The article writes of the process of making fish sticks, which hasn't really changed since they began to show up in your grocer's freezer with their surprising start as "fish bricks".

Fish bricks were sold in the shape and style of a gallon of ice cream with the idea that you would cut off what you served that evening and then put the remaining brick into the freezer.

If that doesn't make you wonder, read the article and see what you think about how they are formed today!!

Through the years in the inbox, I've found notes on different oddball colors of lobsters, but I've never seen one such as this- the calico.

This calico lobster almost found its way to a plate, as workers at a Virginia Red Lobster found this guy

(?) during an April seafood delivery to the restaurant in Manassas Virginia.

The speckled orange and black lobster is the third rarest lobster in the world behind the split-colored and albino versions and the chances of catching one in one in thirty million.

The calico's color would make it an easier target for predators in the wild due to its brighter coloring.

"Freckles" will be living its life at the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News Virginia 

50 years of Kent State

I realize that the times in this country seem to be crazy, but fifty years ago we also had a divided country and although the division was based around a war rather than the suitability of the President to hold office along with a pandemic, it still was very similar to what we are currently going through as a country.

The Kent State incident is now fifty years old and the students that were there that day are around seventy or older today, but I'm willing to venture a guess that they see many parallels to the current division in the nation to what the competing sides during the Vietnam War.
What is different between the two eras is this- many of the folks that protested the government for its participation are now protesting in favor of the person that has caused such division today.

My grandfather told me something that I never forgot about one's political stance through the years-
"Most people start life on the left and gradually drive right as they age".
My experience has been that he has been generally correct and although how far one drifts will vary, I would say that more people than not move to the right at least somewhat and some move far right.
It would be interesting to see how many people in the "Kent State" demographic that support the President fervently also were involved to a certain degree against the Vietnam War.
My guess is that a large chunk would be in that group and the amount might be as high as a slight majority of the people in the overall number of anti-war protesters.

I've always been interested in the Kent State story, at first because I lived in Northeast/central Ohio at the time, although I don't remember the tragedy as I was two months shy of my second birthday, but I was always intrigued on our visits to Ohio that saw us drive by the Kent State exit and as I learned more and more about what happened, I evolved on the issue.
At first, I was interested in who gave the order for the National Guard to fire on the Kent State students and that moved onto what were the guardsmen thinking when they fired on American citizens and how many of them had regrets and why they would have them.
Now I wonder this- If I were in my early 50s in 1970, where would I have stood on the protests?
It's easy to say that we support the right to protest, it's hard to watch people protesting when you vehemently disagree with their stance.
It is easy to say that people should speak their peace when you are in line with their ideas, it's hard to
to approve of people doing the same when you don't agree with their protests at all.

I think about this all the time when I see people protesting the President with others similarly backing him and usually, I think something like this- How many of these people actually consider how the other side thinks?
How many people think that because you protest a government action means that you don't love your country?
How many people are considered to be sheep and of limited intelligence because you support a particular officeholder or candidate?
Why is it so difficult to realize that because you disagree on politics that one doesn't have to fit into a generality?
I have friends that support the President and I'm fine with that.
I'm generally not a person that feels the need to "turn everyone in my direction", just hear me out, I'll return the favor, and hopefully, we can make each other think a bit.
I'm not trying to win people over, but we can have a civil conversation and move on.
And if the friend in question isn't someone that can accept that, then we don't have to talk about it!
Problem solved.

I wonder if in our times that we aren't sitting in wait for a tragedy.
When you consider the tension of this point in history and with so many on edge, it only takes one loss of temper or one mistake by someone in charge for this to happen again and it might not even come from a military order or National Guard either.
It could be a civilian believing that they are acting on non-existent orders or a mentally disturbed individual to act and think they are doing something good.
I know we all think that we have division among us right now, imagine if a loss of life occurs and it turns out to be started from someone for any of those reasons.
Remember that two of the four people that died at Kent State were not protestors or involved at all, Sandra Scheuer and William Schroeder were walking to class before being hit by rifle shots from a football field away.
Just think of the turmoil, if innocent people would get caught up in something similar today.

I've been to the Kent State site twice and I'd like to return one more time to visit the visitors center that was in the building stages on Cherie and I's last visit.
I recently watched a documentary on the rock musician David Crosby and as Crosby visited various places in his life that affected him, one of those places was Kent State's center dedicated to May 4th, 1970 with Crosby's association with the University from the CSNY song based on the tragedy.
Just looking at it as Crosby walked through, it looked quite interesting.

I'm not sure what we've really learned from Kent State in the last fifty years.
We haven't learned to understand what it means to be tolerant of others' beliefs and we certainly haven't learned to be able to disagree politically and still not take it personally.
I suppose some things are just too sad to explain.
I don't have an explanation and with luck, I won't have to find a way to explain it again.

Grouchy Observations

Time for a few grouchy observations,although they might not all be grouchy,I'd bet most will be!

Let's start with today's House of Representatives new health care bill that would make changes to the ACA.
I've never been a fan of the ACA,not because it was federal health care (we do have a thing called Medicare after all),but because it didn't go far enough (I prefer some sort of single payer system that either pays for or mostly pays for services) and I hated the individual mandate that forced you to buy health insurance.
However,other than those two caveats,I'm not thrilled with yesterday's revamp-not because it wasn't needed (it had lots of things that needed tweaked),but because it seemed to fix very few (the mandate was eliminated along with the fine that was levied for not having insurance) of the things wrong with the ACA and the ridiculous high five session on the White House lawn for a bill only halfway passed looked very much like a bunch of guys patting themselves on the back for leading a game at halftime.
All of that said,the Democrats were far from heroic looking with their singing the 1969 Steam hit "Na Na Na Hey,Goodbye" to the Republicans in the Congressional chamber.
Considering the situation for so many losing (or reducing) their health care,that struck me as very immature and not thinking of the big picture at that moment.
No one walked away from that situation looking clean and to me everyone lost...

ESPN "laid off" several of their on-air and writing employees and it seems like they are shrinking coverage (on air) of baseball especially,but a little on college sports and football,while increasing their programming on the NBA.
I'm not sure how that plan is going to work out,but there are a few of the employees that got the axe that I'll miss especially.
Jayson Stark has always been one of my favorite baseball writers,Dana O'Neill and Andy Katz did a great job covering college basketball,I liked Jaymee Sire when she was doing Giants pregame before ESPN,maybe she'll be able to return there,Dr.Jerry Punch,Ed Werder and Len Elmore seemed like they had been with ESPN since they installed the first satellite in their respective roles.Dottie Pepper was a great golf analyst and I'll miss Danny Kanell too as the major anti-SEC voice on the network.
My issue is losing Sire (and Sara Walsh some as well) and yet keeping Jonathan Coachman and Neil Everett (personal preference not a fan of either of those two) around.
There were a few names cut that I won't miss-particularly Ohio State troll Mark May,PBC host MarySol Castro,Britt McHenry (she of the "Don't you know who I am" rant in a garage a year or two ago and failed multiple time MLB general manager Jim Bowden,but for the most part I wonder about paying people not to produce content when you could pay them to actually work...

One final observation on Star Wars/Kent State on May 4th.
I find it hard to believe that far more people spent time on social media talking about Star Wars than an anniversary of an incident such as Kent State in 1970.
This is especially questionable considering the times that we live in,the President that we have and the amount of protests that are occurring all around the country about so many various issues.
I'm certainly not making a claim against fun,look at the vast majority of things that we write about here,but I did find a little of the Star Wars hype tiresome and I would think that some time could have been spent looking back at a pivotal event that showed just how important the right to protest is and how easily one can lose that right..

Back later tonight with the boxing challenge and if I have time perhaps the promised new entry for the Forgotten Superstars series...

More from the road

After a night with a less than strong signal from the road office, I decided to give this another shot tonight with some thoughts on my trip away that for a rare change in the summer included zero baseball!

For a three day, two-night trip, this might have been the most intensive trip that I planned, yet at the same time, I kept things loose enough to do different things.
This was originally scheduled to be the 25th anniversary trip for the lovely Cherie and me in May and was moved back to August.
Early on, it figured to be some baseball stops included mixed with some other things tossed in as well.
The trip moved from a trip to Cooperstown to a return (for me) to Tennessee and ended with Cherie saying that she would just rather go to Ohio.

We started early in the day and I had looked into the possibility of taking Cherie to the Flight 93 National Memorial.
Cherie had often commented on wanting to see the memorial when we pass by, but I had demurred due to cold weather.
That decision proved to be a smart one as the memorial was definitely a warm-weather stop with lots of walking and weather exposure.
I surprised Cherie with this stop and I was glad that I was able to do this for her as well as me.
The memorial is about 20 miles off the Pennsylvania Turnpike and the signs to find it are plentiful and well-marked, so it is not too tough to find.
It is on a two-lane road, so it can take a while to get there, but it is very poignant and well worth the trip to honor those American heroes that gave their lives to save even more on the most tragic day in the history of our country...

After a stop at the Pittsburgh icon Primanti Brothers for lunch, we continued on to the home base and eventual dinner with my cousin Missy and her family at Lyn-Way in Ashland.
Lyn-Way is one of those places that every town used to have, but few still do.
Strong comfort food and an assortment of pies that rank among the best that I have ever eaten make Lyn-Way a stop that I try to make as often as I can when in town.
I usually order the liver there as I don't get the chance to order that often in other establishments and rarely do I have the room for dessert and the terrific pies.

We finished day one with a quiet evening in the hotel to rest up for day two in the Ohio capital of Columbus.
I had given thought to catching the AAA Columbus Clippers but decided against it for two reasons.
The first was that the visitors were the Durham Bulls, which as a Tampa affiliate meant that I had little for them and had even less reason to see them play.
The other? Well, I had left the ever-present briefcase at home, so that meant I would have to buy supplies and just do a Clippers team set.
In the end, I decided it just was not worth it...

Most of the day was spent with great company (the lovely Cherie), good shopping ( a few cool buys), some unique stops (a whole foods store), and great food (TRS favorite Quaker Steak and Lube).
We would return to the hotel later and would stumble upon a flyer in the travel brochure stall that would become a must-do.

The Shawshank Redemption has become one of my favorite films, despite not being a huge fan of Stephen King's writing, since Ryan recommended it to me and it was an excellent recommendation.
Much of the film was filmed around Mansfield Ohio and I found a flyer that was a tour of the spots in the film that you can drive to yourself.
Cherie and I spent the morning taking the tour that included seeing the famous oak tree from the film that is now half the size due to a 2011 wind storm, the spots included the various spots that "Red" traveled to and the Ohio State Reformatory where much of the film was made.
It killed much of the morning before another trip to Belgrade Gardens for chicken.
Rachel got a dinner for the road placed inside a cooler and I was able to talk to the owner of Belgrade Gardens a bit.
Milos Papich is the grandson of the original owners and he told me about the European origins of the recipe after I told him that Belgrade Gardens completely ruined fried chicken for the remainder of the year.
Mr.Papich added that Belgrade has begun to overnight ship chicken around the country for a rather large fee as well......

Another stop that we wanted to make was a return to Kent State when the weather was warm.
The added bonus was that with the students out of school, parking was plentiful and we were able to enjoy the site without the wind that aided the freeze of our last visit.
We learned more about the area before our visit this time, so we were able to find more markers than in our first visit and enjoyed the trip even further.
The visitors center there has come along and looks almost finished so I am sure that we will return there in the future to explore the center upon its completion.

We decided to make one more side trip and this was another one that had been a talked-about stop for years.
I have always liked the tradition of powerhouse Mount Union and have always wanted to visit it in the town of Alliance.
Alliance was unusual as it seems that most of the trip was through woods and then the town almost smacks you in the face with its arrival out of nowhere.
We made the jaunt to the Mount Union campus and bought a Purple Raiders mini-helmet and each of us a t-shirt.
Another place that I have wanted to see for years checked off the list.

Cherie and I covered many back roads of Ohio that we had never seen and I like to think that we both enjoyed it.
A great trip, many things accomplished and believe it or not-no baseball :)

Photo Credits: Cherie Heimberger

Visiting Kent State-a National Tragedy

As promised,the final stop of our day trip finally has the right time to be written about.

Cherie and I have wanted to stop by and see the memorial and site of the Kent State shootings of 1970 for years.
I cannot remember how many times that we had planned on trying to find the memorial on the way home from trips and put in on the back burner because we just wanted to get home after a long trip.
Perhaps the shorter excursion helped this year as after a trip to the terrific Hartville Market (Same exit,but 10 miles in the opposite direction,Cherie decided that she was up to finding Swensons and Kent State after I told her that I was fine doing it,but we would do both or neither as we would be going out of our way to find them.

After we ate at Swensons (detailed here),Cherie said that we did not have to stop as we were not sure on how to find the campus.
I had asked a Kent State student that worked at Swensons about how best to find the memorial and she gave a long, detailed and what seemed to be a hassle filled trek to us.
Considering a cold and windy day,I think that more than anything deterred the lovely Cherie.


Rachel was more interested in her milkshake to care either way.
I had attended KSU football games in the past,but Dix Stadium is not part of the campus or if it is,it is on a remote part of it,so I was not familiar with the surroundings.
As we attempted to retrace our route back to 1-76,fate stepped in as I either turned one road too soon or too late and before we knew it,we were alongside the campus and seeing signs for the memorial.
That clinched it for me,we were not going to be that close and skip it yet again.

As we entered campus,we noticed a dearth of parking and as we pulled into the Prentice Hall parking lot (More on what I found out about that later) I asked a campus parking officer,if he knew where we could park as we just wanted to see the memorial,would just be a few minutes,were from out of state (Our rental van had South Carolina plates) etc.
He responded that since I had asked him first,we could park right up front in the restricted area without any issues.
I was very glad that I asked,as when we were leaving,he was taking plate numbers and giving tickets!

As we walked from the parking lot towards the memorial I wondered what a handful of appeared to be mini light poles in four different spots in the parking lot.
What I found out later that these were the places that each of the four students that were killed had actually fallen.
Had I known this,I certainly would have gotten pictures and paid my respects.
I certainly want to see these closer in a future visit.

As we battled the wind in an uphill walk,the first thing that we saw was the marker from the Ohio Historical Society.
The OHS signs are always distinctive and easy to read with this sign covering the events on both sides of the sign.

The memorial was to the right of the turn and simply stated May 4 1970 Memorial.I was mildly surprised that the students were not named,but as we moved further (On the right hand side,the trees near the pictured student) there is a plaque with the names of the casualties and injured.
That is pictured at the top of the post.
I would have thought that the plaque would have been more prominently displayed,but the location is actually a peaceful and tranquil one and a fitting one,I think.

We stood for a bit and then moved along a few of the markers on a walking trail created for visitors,but between the cold and the promise to stay just a short while,we wanted to keep moving,but we did see the marker from the National Register of Historic Places that was added in 2010 on the side of Taylor Hall,which will be the future home of the May 4th visitors center,which I am sure will be a wonderful addition to such a poignant scene.

Cherie and I both agreed that we would like a return again,albeit on a warmer day to take more advantage of the surroundings and hopefully,that will happen soon.

No matter your opinions on the incident (mine may be noted in a future piece,but this is about the memorial),Kent State was a turning point for our country.
I am not sure that things were ever the same again in how we looked at ourselves as a country and it certainly was part of the last issue that truly divided this country from within.
Certainly the Tea Party and Occupy movements pale in comparison to the anti-Vietnam protesters in both voice and importance.

The one thing that I took away was the importance of dialogue.
That seemed to be in short supply in those times.
From President Richard Nixon and his staff,to the Governor of Ohio (James Rhodes),the Ohio National Guard and yes,the protesters,it seemed like no one wanted to sincerely listen and talk with respect to others opinions.
Talking and listening are important in these times as well as then and I wish that we could do more of that both nationally and internationally.
There certainly is a time to fight,but there is always time to talk,reason and discuss.
Last I heard,no person ever was killed by talking.

If you have the opportunity to be near Kent State,stop by and take a look.
I am sure that you will be affected by the scene and at the very least,make you ,as the memorial simply is inscribed,Inquire..Learn.. Reflect.

Photos by Cherie Heimberger

Cleaning out the Inbox

Time for some cleaning of the inbox as we prepare for an attempt to get further caught up over the next two days.

The biggest news was the retirement of perennial All-Pro tackle Walter Jones from the Seahawks.
Jones had basically been retired for the last two seasons with injuries but had made several attempts to return to the field.
Jones now knows that he made every effort to conclude his career the way that he wanted to and the body was simply unable to hold up under the strain.
Jones was the best offensive tackle of his era and was powerful enough to block for the run and yet nimble enough with his feet to remove the leagues best pass rushers from the game.
A first-ballot Hall of Famer, in our opinion, Walter Jones was the type of player that not only isn't easy to replace, but it could also take decades to replace with a player of his skill.
Thanks for the memories, Big Walt.



The Browns made two minor moves in claiming corner DeAngelo Smith off waivers from the Lions and signing free-agent tight end Alex Smith.
DeAngelo Smith spent some time last season with the Browns before being waived and signed by the Lions.
Smith was probably helped by his familiarity with the Browns defense from his stint last season.
Alex Smith was a third-round pick by Tampa and started there for four seasons before spending time as a backup with New England and Philadelphia last season.
Smith is more of a pass-catching type than a blocker and will battle Robert Royal as the backup at tight end behind Ben Watson...

Hagerstown Suns fan lost one of the better guys as former first-round pick Colton Willems has announced his retirement.
We were in the stands with Bill Cover for Colton's final appearance and despite this articles argument to the contrary, it didn't appear that all was well with Willems delivery.
To us, it looked like one of two things, either
A: he was pitching in pain or B.he had changed his mechanics to either protect another injury or the organization had encouraged him to change them.
Willems's arm almost looked like it was going to fly off into the stands and brought back memories of the downfall of former Blue Jays ace Juan Guzman, as the deliveries were very similar.
In any event, good luck to Colton in his post-baseball endeavors, he deserves lots of success...

Hall of Fame announcer Ernie Harwell has passed at the age of 92.
Harwell spent the bulk of his career calling the games of the Detroit Tigers and his work has made an institution in Motown.
In a field that is filled with nasty comments, no one had a bad thing to say about Harwell.
He and his work will be missed.

Finally, I am a day late in mentioning the 40th anniversary of the incident at Kent State.
I had completely forgotten until glancing at a trash can in Frederick last night and seeing a USA Today with a featured article on the top of the can.
KSU has created a walking tour on the campus for those that want to see and learn more.
Cherie and I have often talked about wanting to see the site, which was recently named to the National Register of Historic Places and the tour will make it much easier for visitors to find their way around.
Kent State is an incident that should never be repeated in our country and should never be forgotten, and such as I did yesterday is inexcusable.


Back later with more as I hope to get plenty of things up today and early tomorrow!

Devils send Avalanche down the river 4-2

In perhaps their most effective game of the season, the New Jersey Devils wore down the Colorado Avalanche and walked away with a key two points and a 4-2 win.
The Devils were effective on defense and scored goals in each period and generally seemed in total control of the game.
Dainius Zubrus scored the only goal (11) of the first period, continuing his improved play since being
moved to the line with Mike Rupp and David Clarkson.
Rupp and Clarkson's physical play has been opening up space by the net for Zubrus and lately, he has been taking advantage of just that.
In the second period, the Devils followed a Colorado goal that tied the game with a Jay Pandolfo goal (12) less than two minutes after the Avalanche goal that gave the Devils a lead that they never relinquish.
Jamie Langenbrunner slipped the W into the win column for good when his slap shot flew over the shoulder of Jose Theodore for Langenbrunner's 12th goal of the season and a 3-1 lead.
John Madden's 19th goal finished the Devils scoring, although Colorado would get a final goal that seemed a bit dubious to me as I thought the goal was clearly batted/deflected by Marty Brodeur.
Marty was sensational in the win, which was his 40th of the year, with one of his greatest saves ever as he stopped a certain goal with a stick save behind his back while prone on the ice!
Tremendous game by Marty in finishing the Western road swing on a high note.
Patrik Elias missed the game with a bruised knee and is expected to return Wednesday.
The Devils now need to take care of business in the division as 9 of their final 10 games are against division foes, the first of those comes Wednesday night in MSG vs the Rangers.

Devils Pitchforks
Gold: Marty Brodeur-Can add nothing else
Silver: Brian Gionta-2 assists and all over the ice yesterday
Bronze: Jay Pandolfo-goal and assist

In honor of Marty's great save, which is not on youtube yet, here is a video that someone did of their opinion of Marty's top ten saves.


Bullpen Notes

Manny Pacquiao lifted the WBC Jr. Lightweight belt from Juan Manuel Marquez by a close and disputed split decision win.
Pacquiao scored the bouts only knockdown in the third round.
I will have my scoring and opinion on the battle next week after the fight is replayed on HBO.





Congrats to Kent State for giving me another team to root for in the NCAA's next week with a dominant 74-55 victory in the MAC Championship game over rival Akron.
I pull for most of the Ohio MAC teams in non-conference games, but Bowling Green and Kent State are my MAC favorites.

Tomorrow, I will talk about the matchups for our teams in the NCAA's here.
It looks like Xavier and Kent State are in, Ohio State is a maybe, Maryland has a slim shot and Wake Forest is certainly NIT bound.

If anyone wants to join our NCAA pool on Yahoo, the league ID is 31696 and the password is devils.

Photo Credits
Brodeur-David Zalubowski-AP Photo
Boxing-Chris Cozzone-AFP/Getty images
MAC Hoops-Ed Suba Jr.-Akron Beacon Journal

Buckeyes swat Flashes,Indians and Devils rally for wins.

Brian Hartline was the star of the game as the Buckeyes cruised to a 48-3 win over Kent State at Ohio Stadium.
Hartline's 90-yard punt return set an all-time record at Ohio State and his touchdown catch on the Buckeyes first possession set the stage for a long day for the Golden Flashes.
Donald Washington grabbed a Julian Edelman screen pass and ran 70 yards for the touchdown in the game's biggest defensive play.
A very dull second half saw only one touchdown, a two-yard run by backup QB Rob Schoenhoft, although the Bucks did kick two field goals.
Overall the game was pretty much what was expected-a big lead and lots of reserves in the second half.
Generally, pretty tedious, but the win seems to have been achieved without any major injuries and that is always a plus.
The Buckeyes tackle the visiting Michigan State Spartans next Saturday and should go into the game as the top-ranked team in the country after losses by the two teams ranked ahead of them in LSU and California.

The Cleveland Indians broke open an extra-inning contest with a seven-run 11th inning to earn a split of the first two road games with a 13-6 win in Boston in the ALCS.
Trot Nixon's pinch-hit single opened the floodgates as the Indians smacked around three Boston pitchers in the 11th.
Good thing that the Indian offense showed up as Fausto Carmona was routed in just 4 innings of work and the normally reliable Rafael Perez was torched in his relief outing.
The Indians hit 3 homers off Boston hurlers as Grady Sizemore, Jhonny Peralta, and Franklin Gutierrez all connected.
Tom Mastny picked up the win from the bullpen.
Game 3 is Monday night in Cleveland.
Perhaps more on this game tomorrow.

The New Jersey Devils came out ready to play, but then played horrendous defense in falling two goals behind the winless Atlanta Thrashers.
However, the difference between this game and the loss to Florida was easy to tell-this time the towel was not thrown in.
The Devils scored three unanswered goals to take a lead, allowed Atlanta to tie, but then as Patrick Elias struck his second power-play goal of the game with 28 seconds remaining gave the Devils badly needed 6-5 victory.
The Devil power play was working early as John Madden's early 1st-period power-play goal (3rd) gave the Devils the early lead.
The other Devil tallies went to Travis Zajac (1st), Sergei Brylin (1st) and Jay Pandolfo (1st).
The Devil defense was awful and the usual suspects stood out.
Johnny Oduya can be sat at any time, why not give new Devil Sheldon Brookbank a look and scratch Oduya?
He is consistently killing this team as he allows snipers to shoot freely from the outside and if he tries to stop that, they skate around him for point-blank shots.
But the effort tonight was better and the offense did seem to have a bit more flow, but that could be that Atlanta is pretty bad.
The tougher test comes Wednesday night in Pittsburgh vs the Penguins.
Even though it is another road game, it will be nice to play in real hockey towns.
All these Southern arenas are making me ill.........

Bullpen Notes

Anyone else that is watching the ALDS notice that Fox seems to either have microphones all over the place or has turned them up dramatically?
Either way, it sounds almost like video game baseball.
But at least they aren't cluttering the screen with the lead-off graphic like TBS is........

Dusty Baker has agreed to a three year to skipper the Reds.
I like Dusty, but I am not sure that this is a good fit for him.
Dusty seems to get more out of veteran, contending teams and the Reds are not really either of those...

Juan Diaz added the IBF Lightweight title to his WBA belt with a stoppage at the end of the 8th round as Julio Diaz did not answer the bell for Round 9.
We had Juan ahead 80-72 at the end of the bout.
Hopefully, a final unification can be arranged for Diaz against WBC champ Joel Casamayor in 2008.

The Cleveland Browns (2-3) battle the winless Miami Dolphins (0-5) in Cleveland today at 1:00.
A winless opponent with an inexperienced backup Quarterback adds up to this ......
Our pick-Browns 28-14

The Seattle Seahawks (3-2) face another winless team in the New Orleans Saints (0-4) tonight at 8:30 in Seattle.
This is a far more dangerous game than the Browns have as the Saints are sitting on a big game and the Seahawks are injury-plagued at wideout, but........
Our pick-Seahawks 21-17

Photo Credits
Hartline-Neal Lauron-Columbus Dispatch
Indians-Stephen Savoia-AP Photo
Elias-John Amis-AP Photo
Diaz-Nam Huh-AP Photo
Helmets-Helmet Project

Random Ramblings......

To start today's version of Random Ramblings, I would like to point out that I will likely be adding to the post on the Hagerstown Suns sometime over the next week and will be re-posting it in the May posts as well.
It will be the same title and the previous post will be there, but I have some other ideas to add and wanted them to be all in one format.
Just a heads up that there will be new material added.

Finally, there is an audiotape that proves(supposedly) that there was a verbal order for the National Guardsmen to fire on unarmed students at Kent State in May 1970.
Alan Canfora, a wounded student during the massacre, claims an audiotape was found at Yale that proves the verbal order was given, although no proof of the identity of the officer was given.
Hopefully, this can be the first step to finding the truth out about this tragedy.

The Washington Nationals traded Chris Snelling to the Oakland Athletics last night for
Ryan Langerhans.
The A's just acquired Langerhans from Atlanta last week.
I am pleased with this deal for Oakland, as I have always been a proponent of Chris Snelling.
To me, the big question with Snelling is not his ability, it is his ability to stay healthy.

Speaking of the Nationals, Ken Rosenthal at FoxSports has an excellent series on the chaos going on in the Washington front office.
Cannot say this shocks me, as I have never thought much of the abilities of Jim Bowden and thought he was in the same class of cluelessness as Captain Dave Littlefield.

More Nationals related news.
I ordered a new scorebook to allow me to keep even more detailed stats and I decided to give Bob Carpenter's scorebook a try.
I was shocked to wind up talking to Mr.Carpenter for a few minutes on his cell, as he prepared to do the Nationals game in San Diego.
I really enjoyed the talk and look forward to getting the scorebook.
I have also added a link to Bob's page for the book and this link is another article on how Carpenter created the book and the makings of marketing it.
It is a bit pricey, but it looks to have everything one could want in a scorebook.

I know I have complained about this before, but the Pirates red jersey is just horrible.
An absolute embarrassment.
Shoot this turkey-Please!

Is it just me or is the American League East becoming a division to despise?
I have always hated the Yankees and Orioles and never liked Tampa for various reasons.
But now with my stance on the Blue Jays for screwing Pulaski VA and the Red Sox seemingly becoming Yankee's lite, I have a hard time even watching this division.

Still hot about the Blue Jays for needlessly taking baseball away from a small town.
I will root against Toronto until Pulaski gets its Appalachian league team back.
Here is a link announcing no baseball in Pulaski.
The photo is of Calfee Park in Pulaski, the park which will not have pro baseball this summer thanks to J.P Riccardi and the Toronto Blue Jays.

If you enjoy looking at different minor league parks, the Calfee Park pic is from Ballparkreviews.com.
Great site, if this is your cup of java.

Back later tonight with the Hagerstown Suns vs West Virginia Power wrap-up.

Photo Credits
Bob Carpenter-unknown
Calfee Park-Brian Merzbach
Kent State Memorial-Associated Press