Idle chatter while waiting for the other shoe to drop Tuesday at the Garden …
I suppose it’s the nature of the beast for Boston fans of a certain age. We can’t stand prosperity and we’re fearful of what evil lurks around the corner.
Sunday the Celtics clobbered the Cleveland Cavaliers, with LeBron James looking more than mortal. Instead of thinking, “gee, these guys might actually be onto something,” though, all I can think of is 1982, when the Celtics pounded the 76ers in Game 1 only to lose Game 7; 1985 when the Celtics made Kareem Abdul-Jabbar look like Methuselah only to lose that series to the Lakers in seven; and last month, when the Bruins toyed with Tampa Bay in Game 1 only drop the next four games and lose the series.
So there was no celebrating Sunday night. No gloating over how bad LeBron is, mainly because he’s still the best player in the NBA.
Let’s just say I’m cautiously optimistic, but certainly not convinced.
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Lynn has never been seen as much of a hotbed for track and field. Now and then we’ll get someone who stands out, but our legacy is in other sports. Lately, though, we’ve seen some of our boys and girls start to gravitate toward track, and excel in it.
Last week, English’s Juan Avelino committed to UMass-Lowell to perform in its Division I program. And over the weekend, Former Lynn Tech standout Justin Lewis won the New England high jump championships at Dartmouth College with a jump of 6-11.50 feet.
And while we’re on the subject of track and field, both Avelino and Lynnfield’s Kate Mitchell finished second over the weeked in the state coaches’ invitational, Avelino in the 100, and Mitchell in the mile.
It might also interest you to know that the winner in the girls’ mile in that meet, Grace Connolly of Natick, ran a 4:54.90, besting by more than three seconds the mark Marblehead’s Shalane Flanagan held since 1999. Mitchell was a little over two seconds behind Connolly.
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There’s nothing like seeing athletes rise to the occasion.
There’s always talk about how some athletes, and teams, play down to the level of their competition, and that’s frustrating. The Patriots do it a lot.
But when someone rises to the level of his or her competition, that’s almost inspirational. Tori Adams did that Friday for Classical against Austin Prep’s Logan MacDonald.
MacDonald is probably the No. 1 pitcher in the area. She pours the ball in there, has an effective riser that kids go to the place vowing not to swing at — but they swing at it anyway. And she has a change that’s almost as hard to hit as a fly with a fly-swatter.
Adams is no slouch. But she had her game on Friday and matched MacDonald pitch for pitch. In the end, the 2-1 Austin Prep victory came down to mistakes that didn’t involve the pitching. But Adams showed her stuff in a game where she knew she’d need it. And she even took a pitch in the helmet and stayed in to score the Rams’ only run.
So here’s a shoutout to Tori Adams.
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For the better part of two decades (at least), if you wanted a comment on anything that went on in Swampscott, you called former school committeeman Richie Feinberg.
Richie was constitutionally incapable of saying “no comment.” He was a journalist’s dream, because he always told you what he thought, he didn’t obfuscate in language that was meant to leave you scratching your head, and he didn’t care about the torpedoes. It was always full speed ahead.
But even if you weren’t on official business with Richie, he was a good person to seek out and talk to if you happened to be at the same game.
I hadn’t seen him since last summer, when I ran into Feinberg and a friend of his at Andy’s on Boston Street. We talked, had a few laughs, and went on our way.
Feinberg was always interested and involved in Swampscott sports, and was never afraid to give you his perspective on it.
He died overnight Sunday. Hearing about his death leaves one with a profound sense of sadness. He was certainly unique!
