ATLANTA, GA – Last night the Louisville Cardinals were crowned Men’s college basketball champions, much to the chagrin The Public Professor, our very own proud Michigan alum.
Last night’s game kicked off an incredible week of sports, quite possibly be the best week in sports for the entire year. With baseball opening last week, we now have 3 of the 4 major sports seasons in session. I couldn’t care less about the NBA but the abbreviated NHL season has been great. Tonight the NCAA Women’s champ is crowned and at the end of this week the frozen four do battle to see who will become the 2013 NCAA Hockey champs. This year there is a decidedly New England flavor to the finals with Quinnipiac facing St. Cloud St. in one semifinal and Yale facing U-Mass Lowell in the other. I’m rooting for Lowell’s River Hawks to win it all for the Hockey East conference. Finally, on Thursday The Masters begins down in Augusta with Tiger going after his 15th major. This really should be a great week.
Yesterday, a funny thing happened on the way to the ballpark… Indian’s manager Terry Francona got lost. He is in his first season in Cleveland and admitted he got lost as he tried to walk the two blocks from his apartment to the stadium. Here is a list of some other athletes who had problems getting to the game on time:
Seve Ballesteros won The Masters in 1980 but was disqualified from the U.S. Open two months later because he was stuck in traffic trying to get to his first tee time at Baltusrol Country Club. Seve took his Chevy to the levy but the levy was dry.
The legend of Pascual Perez began back in 1982 while he played for the Braves. Playing at home in Atlanta, Pascual got lost on I-285 while trying to find Fulton County Stadium. He circled the city three times before running out of gas. Luckily for him his jheri curl activator was rated 93 octane and provided an alternative fuel source enabling him to drive back home after missing his start.
Former Mets’ catcher Ramon Castro was almost exiled after he showed up late to a 2008 game in San Diego because the Mets’ pocket schedule he owned showed a 4:05 p.m. start time. Naturally, the Mets schedule was printed with times of games in the Eastern time zone. The Mets were overjoyed that someone was actually using their pocket schedule.
At the 1972 Olympics in Munich, American sprinters Eddie Hart, Rey Robinson and Robert Taylor thought they were watching a tape delay of the 100-meter qualifiers when they realized it was the semi-finals instead that they were supposed to be racing in. Taylor was the only one of the three to make it for his race and eventually won bronze. Sounds like one of my dreams where I realize it is Tuesday morning and I haven’t written my MTM column yet.
Ethiopian distance runner Miruts Yifter was the favorite for gold in the 5,000 meters at the 1972 Munich Olympics after winning bronze in the 10,000 meters. Unfortunately for Miruts, he got lost on his way back from the bathroom and missed the race. You can look at this two ways, either he pissed away a medal or he was just sh!t out of luck.
Stay tuned tomorrow for a man who enjoys a good bathroom break, Angry Ward.
