I am the Sports Director at RCN. RCN has only one Sports Director. I am their guru of sports, right?
The RCN Fun Committee (notice the word “Fun”) runs an NCAA pool every year. There is no money involved. Anyone can enter and the prizes are donated by the company and are minimal. In other words, it’s “for entertainment purposes only.”
One would think the Sports Director would have the inside track to victory or, at the very least, a top three spot or a top ten spot. Or a place with the word “top” in it. One would think that, right?
There are 63 games played in the tournament. I already know that I will only get 35 right or 56% correct (I rounded up). You see, I only have North Carolina in the Final Four and I have them losing that game. My pool is over – Kaput! Who would have guessed that Gonzaga, South Carolina, and Oregon would be in the semifinals? Gonzaga and South Carolina have never been there and Oregon only once before even I was born.
Before Sunday’s games, I was trailing sixteen other fellow workers. That’s not so bad, I guess. Okay, Mr. Sports Director, it’s VERY bad!
To make matters worse, I have an arch–enemy in the pool. Let’s call her Laura because that’s her name. She takes great pleasure in challenging me and is not shy about rubbing it in when she is ahead. She beat me last year and was quite obnoxious about predicting that she would do it again this year. I considered last year a fluke. She did not. And she took any opportunity to announce to everyone that she had embarrassed the Sports Director. I was determined not to let that happen again.
I guess I was not determined enough. Not only is she beating me, Laura is currently beating everyone. She is in FIRST PLACE! Out of 38 players, she has the lead! Now, she may not win (she has Kansas to win the Championship), but she will certainly beat me and beat me badly. I cannot earn another point with the three games that are yet to be played. I have Duke and Kansas winning the semifinals. Since their uniforms are washed and stored away for another year, that will not happen. In fact, I can only go down; I cannot go up.
So Laura will beat me again! Do you know how hard that is to type?
So for those of you who think that Sports Director is, obviously, a misnomer for me, then I can guarantee you that so is “Fun Committee” and “for entertainment purposes only”. You see, again this year, I have had neither fun, nor entertainment. Now if the company would just form an Embarrassment Committee, I would be the first to sign up.
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
- The Bethlehem Catholic AAAA girls’ basketball team won the PIAA State Championship! It was their first state championship in girls’ basketball. They thumped Villa Marie -Erie 46-27 and finished the season with a 30-2 record. They won all five of their state games with double-digit wins. They were dominating. Congratulations to Coach Medina and the girls.
- In the ESPN MLB power rankings, they have the Phillies as #24 out of thirty teams. They also picked them last in the NL East. This doesn’t offer up much hope for the season.
- Speaking of Philadelphia desperation, the Flyers are six points behind for a wild card berth in the NHL and there are three other teams ahead of them. The Sixers, well, are the Sixers – no playoffs again this year.
- It appears that the Oakland Raiders will relocate to Las Vegas. 24 votes were needed as I write this and the league office said the result will be “positive”. I bet (no pun intended) legal gambling across the country on NFL games will soon follow.
- The Giant Center held all 12 boys’ and girls’ PIAA championship games this past week. The highlight was the Reading-Pine Richland AAAAAA game. 9, 531 fans filled the Center, as Reading won their first state title in school history 64-60. Reading has played basketball for 118 years; has won over 2000 games, but they had never won a state title. Until now.
