I have saved this story for several years, but I believe that the statute of limitations has expired. In the summer of 2022, we took a family trip to Niagara Falls, Toronto, Rochester, and Ithaca. Niagara Falls is absolutely stunning, and there’s so much to do in Toronto. We went to a Cirque du Soleil show, Blue Jays game, visited the Hockey Hall of Fame and Toronto zoo, and checked out a few museums. In Rochester, we saw some friends and went to The Strong National Museum of Play which is worth it particularly if you have younger kids. We went to Taughannock Falls outside Ithaca and toured my alma mater, Ithaca College.
Let me double check with my lawyers if I’m allowed to continue. Please hold.
I got the okay. We visited Ithaca on a summer weekend when the campus was completely empty. This was the first time my kids had been to Ithaca, so I was excited to show them around the campus. The bookstore was closed and many buildings were locked. I saw the Athletics and Events Center for the first time which made me a little jealous since that facility wasn’t there when I was a student. Maybe I would have actually gone to the gym to try to counterbalance late night Rogan’s pizza and D.P. Dough calzones. There were one or two staff members there, and we got kicked out since the building was closing.
Finally, we wandered into the Whalen Center of Music. And we heard music. In one of the main concert halls, there were maybe 25 adults on stage. We didn’t know who they were, but we felt like we were intruding, so we listened from the outside for a few minutes before moving on. Except that I noticed a table with bags and coffee mugs. I figured this was nice memorabilia for people visiting the building, so I took one of each.
I later learned that there was some sort of IC Band reunion with a performance later that night. So were the mug and bag for me? Probably not. Does the mug get used in our kitchen four years later? Yes it does!
I’ve included several pictures from the trip that have been saved for nearly 4 years. For example, you can enjoy this Canada Dry can on the ground close to Niagara Falls where it definitely is not dry!
* I was the assistant coach for Pedro Tulo’s soccer team in fall 2021. I recently worked as a referee where one of his teammates from that team played. I believe that this was the first time that I was a referee for a kid that I coached. The kid definitely didn’t recognize me, but he played an extremely solid game, so I feel like I deserve some credit for this!
* I think I found my calling: being a soccer coach for 5 year-old kids. I really enjoy coaching Luigi's soccer team. It's a half hour of various "practice" activities followed by 30 minutes of either 2v2 or 3v3 games against another team. There are no other practices during the week, and an hour total (followed by snacks) is the perfect amount of time for them. They don't have the attention or focus for more than this. I try to make all the activities fun. For example, there's a game called "Ouch" where they try to kick the soccer ball at me and if they're successful in hitting me, I say ouch. Red Light, Green Light is also a big hit, especially since we're not using Squid Game rules. That probably wouldn't go over well!
* I donated blood on Sunday and feel like a superhero!
* Later on Sunday, I opened a porta potty during Pedro Tulo’s track practice, and there was a bird inside. I held the door open, and the bird flew out after several seconds. While I have no idea how the bird got in there, and I was definitely startled when I first saw the bird flying around, I felt like a superhero again!
* I entered one of my blog posts into a writing contest for Washington DC area journalists. The information states that finalists would be notified by the second week of May. Today is May 23rd, so it seems like I didn’t make the cut..
* Ithaca College publishes the ICView Magazine several times per year geared towards alumni, students, staff and faculty and basically anyone already involved in the community. My goal is to get into ICVIew someday though I don't think there's anything interesting about me that would make for an interesting article. Being a soccer coach for 5 year olds probably doesn't qualify.
* Finally, in less than 24 hours, I heard Never Let You Go by Third Eye Blind on a commercial and while grocery shopping. While I could view this as an "I'm so old" moment, I'll be positive and share that I'm happy that the band is still making money off of a 23 year-old song. Still a great song too!
As a student at
Ithaca College, I attended most of the home football games and
several men’s basketball games. During my senior year, a family friend was
on the gymnastics team (and ended up being the Division 3 champion), so I went
to a few of their meets. Otherwise, I didn’t go to any other games and matches.
Between other activities and academics, I just never attended a soccer game,
swim meet, lacrosse game, etc. I mention this because I really should have
taken advantage of this when I was in college. I guess I was too busy winning intramural co-ed soccer championships!
Several months ago, I
learned that the Ithaca College women’s volleyball team was playing a match in Arlington,
Virginia against Marymount University. I had no recollection of an IC team
playing in the DC area since I’ve lived here over the last two decades, so
I wanted to go and support my alma mater. So on Thursday evening, I went to my
first volleyball match since high school (and possibly ever) and took The
Moose with me and met up with my friend T. We sat next to a few other people
wearing Ithaca College gear who turned out to be parents of some of the team
members. I really appreciated them answering some of our probably ridiculous
questions. (While it was mostly me asking what happened or what was the call on
the previous play, I also learned that a ball that hits any portion of the
ceiling, including one that went through a raised basketball hoop, is still in
play.)
Over the last few
years, I've followed the University of Pittsburgh women's volleyball team as
they have been nationally ranked. I watched their Final Four match, which
didn't start until after 10:00PM even though they played in Columbus, Ohio, on
ESPNU last spring. Still, attending a volleyball match live is an incredible
experience. The Ithaca-Marymount match is probably the most exciting live
sporting event I have attended since the Max Scherzer no-hitter (also known as
the Jose Tabata game). There's constant action. No one takes a point off.
Players dive all over the court and sprint all over the gym. There's so much
energy among the teams. It also helped that after being down two sets, Ithaca
rallied to win 3-2. Go Bombers!
(This would have been an unreal picture if not for the guy walking in front of me!)
A few notes from the
match: * Some of the IC
parents yelled Go Bombs during the match. I've never heard an IC team referred
to as the Bombs, so it definitely threw me off. I liked it! * All of the
substitutes stood on the sidelines during the entire match. While I guess
most football players stand as well (though they probably sit in the locker
room at halftime), I don't remember seeing this in any other sport. You would
think a player coming off would want to sit and rest for a few points. Or maybe
I'm just old and need a break in the middle of my pickleball matches!
* I was impressed with
how calm Ithaca coach Johan Dulfer was during the match. It was super exciting
and stressful (especially for the parents behind me), yet he just seemed calm
and even-keeled. * The Moose was really
impressed by Ithaca's #14 (Maddie Cox). We think she played every single point. He regretted not going up to her and saying hi after the match. * I still don't
understand why one (and only one) player on each team wears a different jersey
from everyone else.
* I've never noticed this before, but the entire team switches sides after each set. Not just the players. The entire team/bench/coaches switch sides. This was match point.
More information about
the game including stats are available from Ithaca and Marymount. I definitely
need someone to explain the stats here. Is there analytics I should know or
learn?
This is basically a Random Ramblings post, but I wanted to call it something different.
Wednesday was the 25th anniversary of my college graduation. Even though there have been notices about a 25-year college reunion and I know that 2022 is 25 years after 1997, this still came as a bit of a shock and surprise to me.
I might be a little addicted to online games. My 65-day streak on Wordle ended earlier this week when I couldn't solve DELVE. My favorite game might be Quordle where you have 9 guesses to solve 4 puzzles. I just reached a top streak of 24. Worldle, where you try to identify a country, is really difficult. My winning percentage is just over 50%. Finally, Heardle, in which you have 6 guesses to name a song in about 15 seconds, was made just for me. I'm at 83%, though I think that it counts as incorrect if I don't play on a given day.
If the Penguins held on to win against the Rangers on Sunday night and went on to make a deep run in the playoffs, this Jake Guentzel goal would be remembered as one of the best in team history. Oh well.
I'm friends on Facebook with someone I was friends with in junior high and high school. While he has always been a Republican to my knowledge, he seems to have turned into a big Qanon and conspiracy theory guy. After the recent hateful and racist mass shooting at a Tops grocery store in Buffalo, he wrote a post with pictures of over 250 people accused of conducting mass shootings in 2021. Many of the people pictured are not white. His point seemed to be that the media doesn't cover all mass shootings equally and that money and political power drives the narrative. At least that's what I think his point was. I replied that maybe he should be more concerned with the unreal number of mass shootings instead of the media coverage and asked if he thought guns could be a problem. He has not replied.
My life is all about kids baseball these days. The Moose and Pedro Tulo have games or practices three days a week often at the same time and in different places. It's a lot of running around.
I recently found several papers that I wrote in college including one from an Introduction to Theatre class. I'd like to think that my writing is gooder now than it was then but maybe not. For this paper, which I included below, my assignment was essentially to write a performance review of the play A Shayna Maidel. This was essentially great practice for writing my blog. While I planned on simply sharing the paper itself (since I got an A!), I decided to see where the three actors I mentioned in the paper are today.
Michelle Federer - She was the star of the play and still acts today. According to her IMDB page, Federer has had a recurring role on the television show New Amsterdam and also appeared in Smash, Marvel's The Defenders, Blue Bloods, Rachel Getting Married, and Law and Order: Criminal Intent among other roles. She spent several years in Wicked as the original Nessarose on Broadway too. Looks like she's going to be in the upcoming Better Nate Than Ever on Disney+ with Lisa Kudrow and her husband, Norbert Leo Butz. Side note: Federer's brother lived next door to me for two years. I don't believe that my relationship with him had any impact on my review, but this certainly seems like a conflict of interest.
Stacie Lewis - It appears that her professional stage name is Stacie Morgan Lewis. Like Federer, Lewis also spent significant time on Broadway most notably in Wicked. She co-wrote the children's album Harmonize and is involved in the Westport County Playhouse in Westport, Connecticut
Jonathan Ave - I was critical of his stage performance, so perhaps that's why I can't find anything about him online. There's a very, very brief IMDB page for him, but otherwise, all I can find are various streets named Jonathan Ave.
And now, here's the paper. You really don't have to read it except for the A at the end!
This might be the shortest paper I wrote in college. I had multiple papers that were 10+ pages...especially when I adjusted margins and font size!
When I wrote about the most famous Ithaca College graduates, I didn't include many athletes. There are many notable IC alumni that are broadcasters and in sports media, but there aren't many successful athletes from Ithaca College or other Division III schools. The number of Ithaca College and/or D3 graduates that play on a national baseball team might just be one: Jake Rosenberg, IC class of 2018. Jake moved to Israel after graduation and played on Israeli's national baseball team, helping the team qualify for the recent Tokyo Olympics. Jake answered questions about his journey, his teammates, and much more.
I'll start with the obvious question. How does someone from the Philadelphia area who played baseball at Ithaca College (with apologies to Tim Locastro, not exactly known as a place for future professional baseball players) wind up on the Israeli baseball team?
It was the ultimate case of being in the right spot at the right time. I knew I wasn’t ready to start your typical 9-5 job upon graduating from Ithaca in 2018, and wanted to go on an adventure before starting my work career. I never had a chance to go abroad during college, so I knew that it was something I always wanted to try. I picked Israel for many reasons. Being Jewish and coming from a Jewish background, I thought it would make the most sense to go there. I got in touch with the President of Israel baseball before going, to see if it would be worth my while. I knew I was going there to help grow baseball in Israel. I was going to coach the youth national teams and play in a men’s league out there. I had no idea there was a senior national team when I first got there. After a few months of being there (that’s all I thought I would last) I was approached and told about a team they are putting together to try and qualify for the Olympics. I knew I would be an idiot to turn down that opportunity, So I ended up getting my Israeli citizenship and started the journey that would eventually get us into the Olympics.
Israel was one of the six baseball teams to qualify for the Olympics. I believe that I saw that the other 5 teams (Japan, USA, Dominican Republic, Mexico, and South Korea) were ranked in the top 7 of the world while Israel was somewhere in 20s. That's incredible! I'm not sure that I have a question here other than how did you do it?
Israel baseball has to be one of the greatest underdog stories in team sports history. It took a lot of mental toughness and believing in one another. Before our first game in Bulgaria in July of 2019, no one really knew anyone. We had all met here and there leading up to the start of the tournament, but Bulgaria was the first time we were all together, practicing and playing as a team. We had to trust that the next guy up could get the job done, and that is just what we did….believed in one another’s abilities.
What was it like playing and practicing with former major leaguers like Ian Kinsler, Danny Valencia, Ryan Lavarnway, and more?
A dream come true. I have played with some great players throughout my years, but none can compare to the pros that were on Team Israel. Growing up, everyone always knew of Kinsler as really being the only Jewish player in the MLB at the time, and the fact that I got to share the same field as him is truly awesome. The pros really showed us what it was like to carry yourself as a professional and how to represent Israel in the best way possible. They also had a couple cool stories to tell along the way.
Was it at all disappointing that you were selected as an alternate but not able to travel to Japan for the Olympics?
Yeah of course. It was a little bit of a bittersweet ending. You had a bunch of guys that were on the original team that qualified as alternates, and they add guys to the team who had nothing to do with us qualifying. They just benefited on our behalf. It is what it is though, still the best baseball experience I have ever had.
Although you're an outfielder, I saw that you pitched in the 2019 European Championship against Spain. Can you share your experience pitching for likely the first time in years? In addition, did you know that the final batter you retired (Fernando Martinez) in that scoreless inning played 99 games in the majors with the Mets and Astros?
That was the first time I had pitched since senior year of high school. I was joking with the coaches all week about how they should let me pitch if the situation arose. We were down big and the game didn’t mean anything, so instead of wasting one of our pitchers arms they threw me in there. It was a lot of fun and brought back some good memories from when I would pitch growing up. I actually did not know that, but when we played Netherlands, I got Roger Bernadina to line out into a double play. He was a big prospect with the Phillies and Nationals.
(Sean's note: I remember Roger Bernadina and even took a picture of a guy wearing his jersey at my kids' 2019 elementary school fall festival event. Bernandina last played in Washington in 2013, so I was impressed by random jersey appearance.)
I'm from Pittsburgh and am a lifelong Pirates fan. Do you have any stories about your teammate Jeremy Bleich who is a staff assistant for the Pirates and does research and documentation for games for the team? Could he get you free tickets if you see a game at PNC Park?
My dad's side of the family is actually from Squirrel Hill, so Pittsburgh has a special place in my heart. Bleich is a great guy and easily the funniest one on the team. He was a great teammate and is now an even better friend.
So what's next for you both personally and professionally whether it's about the Israeli baseball team or something else?
I can happily say that I am officially retired from baseball. My golf career has now started. I would like to get into real estate. I am currently leasing apartments in the Philly area
Finally, my 10 year-old son is playing baseball for the first time this season. (I'm not counting the coach-pitch league he was in a few years ago.) Do you have any general baseball advice for him?
Have fun. Regardless of how hard baseball is, it's still just a game. Enjoy every second of it because in a blink of an eye it’ll all be over……..
Thanks to Jake for taking the time to answer my questions. Please follow him on Twitter at @j_rosenberg34 and on Instagram at @jakerosenberg_1
Gavin MacLeod, best known for playing Captain Stubing on The Love Boat as well as being a regular cast member on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and McHale's Navypassed away in May. If you're over 45 or 50, he's probably the best-known Ithaca College graduate. This got me thinking about a blog post I wrote a decade ago listing the most famous Ithaca College alumni. I think now is a perfect time to update the list.
Please note that this is in no particular order. It's very possible that I missed several notable graduates, so please contact me if there's someone that should be here. I also only included graduates. Therefore, even though actress/TV host Ricki Lake, singer Gavin DeGraw, and Emmy-award winning actor Jharrel Jerome all attended Ithaca College, they didn't make the list.
David Muir - Anchor of ABC World News Tonight.
David Boreanaz - Actor on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Angel, Bones, and Seal Team.
CCH Pounder - Actress on The Shield, ER, and NCIS: New Orleans.
Bob Iger - Former CEO of The Walt Disney Company
Jessica Savitch - One of the first national female anchors (and her story helped inspire Anchorman).
Mark Romanek - Film director of One Hour Photo and Never Let Me Go and Grammy and MTV Video Award winning video director. I highly recommend going down the rabbit hole of seeing how he works as a director and then watching some of the videos he directed. He's responsible for some of the most iconic videos of all time.
Karl Ravech - ESPN journalist.
Kevin Connors - ESPN journalist (and fellow member of the class of '97).
Aaron Tveit - Tony-nominated actor for Moulin Rouge who is likely going to be a Tony-winning actor for Moulin Rouge though it's still not a guarantee.
Barbara Gaines - Former executive producer of The Late Show with David Letterman.
Time to take a look at Ithaca College graduates in the Pittsburgh sports community:
Lanny Frattare - Former Pittsburgh Pirates broadcaster.
Jenna Harner - Sports anchor on WPXI.
Josh Getzoff - Pittsburgh Penguins broadcaster.
John Ross Bowie - Actor best known as Kripke on The Big Bang Theory and Jimmy DiMeo on the gone-to-soon show Speechless.
Ben Feldman - Mad Men and Superstore actor.
Jeremy Jordan - Tony-nominated actor also known for his TV work on Smash and Supergirl.
Robert (Bob) Marella - National Wrestling Hall of Famer better known as Gorilla Monsoon.
Eileen Filler-Corn - Speaker of the Virginia House of Delegates and first woman to serve in this position.
Meghan Musnicki - Gold medal winning rower at the 2012 and 2016 Olympics.
Tim Locastro - Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder.
The Birthday Boys - 6 of the 7 members of this sketch comedy group are IC graduates, and they had a show on IFC with some guy named Bob Odenkirk.
Liz Tigelaar - Executive Producer for Little Fires Everywhere, The Morning Show, and Nashville.
Ithaca has also produced these sports broadcasters:
Brandon Burke - Television play-by-play announcer for the New York Islanders.
Ed Cohen - Radio voice of the New York Knicks.
Drew Goodman - Television play-by-play broadcaster for the Colorado Rockies.
Nick Nickson - Los Angeles Kings' broadcaster.
Andrew (Andy) Daly - Seemingly the busiest actors in Hollywood. You might not know his name, but as soon as you see his picture, you know him (from Review, Modern Family, and even CarMax commercials).
Larry Teng - Television director and producer of Nancy Drew, Ed, and Medium.
Q Smith - Broadway actress in Mary Poppins and in the original cast of the incredible musical Come From Away.
Jan Singer - Former CEO of J. Crew and Victoria's Secret.
Bill D'Elia - Executive producer of Ally McBeal, Boston Legal, and How To Get Away with Murder.
Ed Glazer - Co-owner and co-chairman of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
Playoffs and tournaments can be difficult for players and fans. At the end, there is only one winner. Take this past weekend. The University of Pittsburgh's men's soccer team advanced to the final four for the first time in school history. They had a tremendous season, but lost 1-0 to Indiana University on Friday night despite having more quality chances and possession than the Hoosiers.
Meanwhile, Ithaca College's women's lacrosse team defeated the #2 seeded Washington & Lee in the round of 16 on Saturday evening 16-11. I believe the announcers said that Washington & Lee had won 40 straight matches at its home stadium. The win was so convincing that Washington & Lee is now considering changing its name.* Ithaca then advanced to the quarterfinals, but lost 16-5 to the Salisbury University Steaks. Fine, it's the Sea Gulls, though I think the steaks would be a better nickname. Anyway, Ithaca had a terrific season and advanced to the quarterfinals of the Division III NCAA Tournament for only the second time in the school's history.
Both Pitt's soccer team and Ithaca's lacrosse team had amazing seasons. However, there's a bit of disappointment now. You hoped that there would be national titles, but like I mentioned above, there can be only one winner. That's the beauty of sports, right? You celebrate the successes and wins and you mourn the losses, but there's always hope for the next game or year.
On a completely different topic, ESPNU aired the soccer semifinals on Friday night. Immediately after the first match between Marshall and North Carolina, ESPNU went right to a short film about the Vanderbilt women's bowling team. There were no postgame highlights or interviews with coaches. There was not a preview of the Indiana-Pitt match. Apparently, we needed to see this film at that very moment. There weren't 2 or 3 people at ESPN or college soccer experts out there who could have filled 30 minutes of coverage?
* The school really is considering changing its name, but the reason is because of Robert E. Lee. You know, the military leader of the confederate army who fought against the United States of America. Most places would consider him to be a traitor. Actually, I like my line above about the school being so embarrassed by its loss to Ithaca that they could no longer live with its name, so let's just go with that!
In honor of my 45th birthday, I created blog posts where I answer 45 questions asked by friends. The first part is available here, and this is part two. Will there be a part three? We'll see.
11. Who is your all time favorite non-Pittsburgh athlete?
Even my all-time favorite non-Pittsburgh athletes who you wouldn’t associate with Pittsburgh have Pittsburgh ties. The two that stand out for me are Jason Taylor and Larry Fitzgerald. Taylor is from Pittsburgh and played football and basketball for my high school, but most people associate him with the Miami Dolphins. Fitzgerald is Mr. Arizona as a member of the Cardinals, but he attended the University of Pittsburgh and is one of the greatest wide receivers in college history. So that rules them out.
Therefore, my favorite non-Pittsburgh athlete who doesn’t have any association with Pittsburgh is Tony Gwynn. What a player and what a person. I wrote a blog post about Gwynn (of course I did), but I’m happy to write about him again. As a kid, I always knew of Gwynn as a great hitter as he regularly appeared at the top of the batting average standings when I looked through the Sunday newspaper. However, I rarely saw him play since it’s not like the Padres were on TV much and their games started after 10:00 PM. When I moved to San Diego in 1997 near the end of his career, I saw how revered he was out there, and how much he was respected by everyone in baseball. During the 1999 All-Star game, baseball and the Boston Red Sox honored Ted Williams only one of the greatest baseball players of all time. What’s amazing about the video below is how all of the players gather around Williams, and how happy Williams was to see Tony Gwynn (around the 3:50 mark). Williams lived in San Diego and he and Gwynn got together and talked about hitting (and presumably other stuff). How cool would it have been to listen to those conversations?
Gwynn also did so much in the community and received the 1999 Roberto Clemente Man of the Year award. After his playing career ended, he went back to become the head baseball coach at San Diego State, his alma mater. How many Hall of Famers to that?
The two biggest travesties of the 1994 baseball strike was that it cost the Montreal Expos a legitimate chance to win the World Series (which presumably would have kept the team in Montreal) and Gwynn was hitting .394 and had a chance to hit .400.
Gwynn died way too young at the age of 54 in 2014.
12. What do you love about living in Northern Virginia?
Opportunities for fun, free events and diversity. There are so many free concerts and events, particularly for kids and especially during the summer. Plus, we’re right next to DC, so we can visit any of Smithsonian museums for free or attend free events for kids at places like The Kennedy Center and The National Theatre. We don’t take advantage of this stuff nearly as much as we should, but I know people in other parts of the country and world don’t have these opportunities. Still, we attend at least one free show or concert a week each summer. We’re also in a very diverse area with people from so many different countries and cultures. My kids’ elementary school had a family heritage night last fall with student and family-led displays, performances, food tastings, and more. It was such a cool event with so many different nations and nationalities represented.
13. What do you hate about living in Northern Virginia?
Traffic and the cost of living. What should be a 20-minute drive can easily take 45 minutes (or more during rush hour). Even when you think there wouldn’t be traffic like on a random Wednesday morning at 11:00, there could be due to an accident or construction. The cost of living is also frustrating. A friend in the Nashville area recently posted on Facebook a real estate listing for the house next door to her. It’s amazing! So much space with 5 bedrooms and a big yard. The cost is around the same as the value of my home, but we definitely don’t have 5 bedrooms and a yard. We have also spent SO MUCH MONEY on daycare, preschool, and before and after-school care for the kids. It’s a good thing there are free community concerts and museums nearby!
14. What is your favorite place on the Ithaca College campus?
What’s funny is my favorite spot on campus is a place where I spent very little time. The Dillingham Fountains. If you’re at the right place on campus, you can see the fountains and Cayuga Lake. The problem is that the fountains were turned off for most of the school year to make sure that the pipes wouldn’t freeze. In Ithaca, New York, that could be October through April or nearly the entire school year. There were also cool lights to go along with the fountains, but I feel like those only came out during special occasions.
15. For your 45 questions: 1975's top three films were: Jaws; The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest. Which one would you pick to define 2020?
I really hope that I’m wrong, but I think the answer is going to be "Jaws." In Jaws, the Amity Island mayor decided to keep the beaches open even though there was already a shark attack and seemingly no action taken to ensure that there wouldn’t be future attacks. The beach needed to be open for July 4th! And what happened? More people got attached by sharks. The White House and the Centers for Disease Control created Guidelines for Opening Up America Again. One of these guidelines is that “states should have a “downward trajectory” of cases over a 14-day period before reopening.” What happened? Most, if not all of the states, failed this test before reopening. I also worry that officials will stop counting or under-report COVID-19 cases or deaths in order to make it seem like things are better in their area that it is. This already happened in Nebraska. Or you get Georgia who made it look like cases were going down by putting dates out of order. For example, May 5th was followed by April 25th.
Again, I hope that I’m wrong, but I think there are going to be a lot more shark attacks in 2020.
16. If you could go back in time, would you change anything in your life?
This is a variation of the “what is your greatest regret” question from part one of 45 questions. The only thing I can really think of is that I would have bought stock in Apple, Amazon, or Google or some other company or made big and correct wagers on sporting events. I don’t think I’d be comfortable having Bill Gates or Warren Buffet money, but it would be nice to have been successful in these endeavors so that we’d be comfortable financially. Like really, really comfortable financially. And yes, this answer is basically plot points from the movies Frequency and Back to the Future 2.
17. & 18. If you could time travel, would you go back or forward and what would you be most interested in seeing?
I’m counting this as two questions. It would be cool to go back to game 7 of the 1960 World Series to see Bill Mazeroski of the Pirates hit a 9th inning series winning home run against the Yankees.
Traveling forward, I don’t know if I’d want to go to January 2021 to know the result of the November 2020 election. I mean, if Donald Trump loses, do we think he’s going to handle it well? Will there be a peaceful transition of power? I guess it would be nice to know when there will be a successful COVID-19 vaccine and to see when everything is going to be back to normal.
19. What is your favorite memory of being 23?
In December 1998, I helped organize and create a Kosher Pickle Taste Test at San Diego State University. It was a lot of fun and a huge success and also inadvertently started the tradition of having pickles at Hanukkah. I’m still waiting for this to catch on across the country and the world, and I think this is the year it’s going to happen.
20. What’s the thing you are looking forward to most about being 45?
Since I think I’m going to spend much of being 45 at home, the answer is spending a lot of time with my kids. (This might also be on the list of what I’m not looking forward to being 45.) It will be interesting to see how they grow. I dread doing potty training with Luigi, but it will be so nice not to change diapers anymore. I expect that Pedro Tulo will be reading much more. Maybe The Moose will learn to ride his bike? They’re all going to grow and learn, which should be fun to see.
21. In honor of Michael Jordan and the last dance would you rather be 23 or 45?
I liked being 23. I lived in San Diego, and while I didn’t have much money, I didn’t have many expenses or worries. In normal times, though, I’d still probably go with 45. While my kids can definitely be frustrating and I worry about them, it’s really cool being a dad. However, seeing that I’m probably not going to travel anywhere, eat out at restaurants, or even go the grocery store without wearing a mask for a good part of my 45th year, I’ll go with 23.
22 & 23 What's the age that you liked being the most and the least?
I think 45 is going to be the one I like the least. Again, while it will be exciting seeing my kids grow, I don’t know when I’ll be able to see my mom. Or go out to a concert or sporting event. Or coach my kids’ soccer teams. See a theme here?
The age I liked the most? Probably 25 which is odd to say since I had some tough times then. I couldn’t stand my supervisor at my primary job and often struggled to keep motivated during graduate school. I just wanted to be done. I mentioned “primary” job since I also had at least 2 other jobs at that time. However, as a 25 year old, I went to Israel for 10 days followed immediately (with a 4-hour stop at Newark Airport) by spending the summer in Lancaster, England. I made side trips to Dublin, Edinburgh, Paris, London, and more. Then, after returning to the US, I met friends in Vegas and attended a wedding in Montreal. I also started dating my girlfriend who is now my wife. Just before I turned 26, three friends and I drove from Columbus, Ohio to Buffalo to see the Penguins win game 7 of the Eastern Conference semi-finals (the Darius Kasparaitis overtime goal game) and then immediately back to Columbus. Such a cool experience!
24. Who are your celebrity crushes, then…?
Alyssa Milano and Debbie Gibson. And yes I wrote about both of them here and here.
25. …and now?
This one is much tougher since I don’t know all of the latest stars. I probably would have said Katy Perry a few years ago, but not so much now and it has nothing to do with her dressing up in a Dumbo costume during the recent Disney singalong.
I’ll go with Anna Kendrick who is very talented and also seems to have a great sense of humor. I enjoyed reading her book too. I'm also a fan of fellow Pittsburgh Steelers fan Sofia Vergara.
26. & 27. What do you like/dislike the most about being part of Gen X?
This might be the hardest question on here. I don’t have a good answer. I think it’s nice that us Gen X folks connected to a time with “old” technology (like rotary phones or televisions without remotes) but also know how to use computers. We’re not getting told that we and need to die like Baby Boomers to help the economy, but we’re also not Millennials who are told that we spend too much money on avocado toast. We’re just here doing the best we can trying to help our parents and our kids.
28. What is your favorite blog post?
How can I pick just one out of over 3,000? It’s like picking my favorite child. I mean that answer changes on a minute-to-minute basis. Some of my TMI Thursday posts were fun. I feel like I had some great posts about my kids and being a dad. Interviewing Chris Wright, the former Pittsburgh Spirit and Minnesota Timberwolves General Manager, was a neat experience. Actually, just because of who asked this question, this is my favorite blog post!
29. So what’s been your favorite hockey trip so far?
For over a decade now, a friend and I have taken an annual-ish road trip to see NHL hockey games across the United States and Canada. At this point, we’ve seen nearly 2/3rds of the NHL teams/cities. It’s been a lot of fun, and I’ve tried to chronicle some of our experiences over the years. While it’s hard to pick a favorite trip since they’ve all been fun, I think I’m going with our 2009 trip to Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto. The negative was that it was freezing in Montreal (temperatures were in the negative teens) and the crowd at the Maple Leafs game was the quietest at any that we’ve attended. Why am I bringing up the negative? I don’t know. The crowds at Montreal and Ottawa were outstanding. We got to see the Hockey Hall of Fame with the Stanley Cup in Toronto, toured Canada’s capital, and ate some really good steak in Montreal. We did so much driving, got stuck re-entering the United States from Toronto, surreally watched the news seeing that Sully landed a plane in the Hudson River, and then I stumbled into people attending Obama inauguration parties when I returned to DC. What a trip!
30. If you could attend any major sporting event regardless of who is in it, what would it be? Super Bowl, World Series, World Cup Final, Masters, Indy 500, Kentucky Derby, Championship fight, etc.?
The “who is in it” is the key here. The Steelers in a Super Bowl or the Penguins or Pirates in a game seven would be at the top of the list. Ithaca College somehow making it to the Division I NCAA Final Four despite being a Division III team would be the dream scenario. Since I don’t have a significant rooting interest in this scenario, I’d pick the World Cup final. Unlike the other examples in the question, this only happens every four years. It has the biggest worldwide television audience of any sporting event, and you’ll have people from all over the world in attendance making it a really unique experience.
31. If you could get tickets to any one Summer Olympic event, what would you go see?
The men’s 100 meter dash but with an asterisk. This might be the most exciting athletic event in all of sports, but I’m also not spending a lot of money on a 10-second race. There needs to be a several hours of qualifying races and/or other track and field events, concluding with this race.
32. If you could get tickets to any one Winter Olympic event, what would you go see?
The women’s hockey gold medal game gets a slight edge over the men’s hockey gold medal game. While I can see many of the men’s players in the NHL, the women’s game is truly the biggest event in the sport. Plus, there’s an excellent chance that the game would feature the American and Canadian teams, and they’ve had quite the rivalry over the years.
33. Your wife tells you that she’s taking the kids out all day and you have the entire day to yourself. What would you do?
To dream, the impossible dream!
Obviously, the answer is before the coronavirus. For most of the day, the answer would be nothing. I would sleep in. Maybe I’d read the newspaper. I’d sit on the couch and watch whatever is on my DVR. At some point, definitely after lunch, I’d probably go out to see a movie since I rarely go to the theater. For the evening, it would go to a trivia night or a sporting event with friends. This sounds like a fantastic day!
So as you can see, I've only answered 33 of 45 questions. I’m still 12 questions short. Will there be a part III? Please ask some questions, so the answer will be yes!
When it was first announced nearly a year ago that the 61st annual Cortaca game between Ithaca College and SUNY Cortland was to be played at MetLife Stadium just outside New York City, I was a little skeptical. Sure, it seemed like a unique opportunity to have this game take place somewhere new in the hopes of setting a Division 3 attendance record, but how many students, faculty, and staff would travel from central New York to East Rutherford, New Jersey? Were there enough alumni in the NYC area to justify moving this game 200+ miles?
It was this uniqueness that got me and my friends on board. Living in Northern Virginia, a drive to New York City/New Jersey is much easier than driving to Ithaca or Cortland. So for the first time since 1996, I planned to see an Ithaca College football game. And as the date approached, I got more and more excited about the trip. I took 8 year old The Moose with me and was joined friends that I first met over 25 years ago.
The Moose got to witness his first ever football tailgate as we walked from the parking lot to the stadium entrance. This included seeing a woman vomiting into a bag being held by I assume a really good friend. The best explanation I could come up with when he asked why she was throwing up is that this woman had too many adult beverages and wasn’t being responsible. Fortunately, there were no follow up questions.
MetLife Stadium set up an area where kids (and adults) could pass, kick, catch, and more. Here are a few pictures of The Moose in action.
The Moose needed to be about 9' 10" to catch this pass!
Very cool ceremony to start the game.
The Bombers about to score a touchdown.
The half-time show should have been Ithaca College graduate Tony DeSare or Ithaca College student (but not graduate) Gavin DeGraw, but instead we got several Ithaca College and Cortland groups. While they were good and I enjoyed their performances, a headliner would have been nice. Even David Muir (who it turns out may have been in a class with me) and David Boreanaz doing cartwheels at midfield would have been fine!
Credit to my friend T for taking this picture below. Why no Heinz ketchup? I have a friend who believes that there is an NFL conspiracy between the Mara (owner of the Giants) and Rooney (owner of the Steelers) families since they are related somehow. If they were truly linked, MetLife Stadium would serve Heinz. (By the way, I'm pro-French's mustard, so I didn't get as upset about this as I would have if they offered Hunt's.)
With about five minutes to go in the game, and Cortland cutting the deficit from 26-6 to 26-20, I mentioned to my friends that I was much more invested in the game’s result than I thought I would be. The point of the trip was to hang out with friends and take The Moose to a game I knew he would enjoy. At that point in the fourth quarter, I realized that I wanted (needed?) an Ithaca College victory too!
Ithaca got the ball back, and I'll let Ithaca Athletics explain:
Cortland would answer after the missed field goal and found the end zone just 1:32 later to pull the Red Dragons to within a score at 26-20 with 6:53 to go. On the 7-play, 80-yard drive, Ithaca was flagged for three separate 15-yard penalties, which allowed the Red Dragons to move down to the Ithaca 27-yard line. Segala then hit Burgess for a 24-yard gain and Tripodi capped off the drive with a 3-yard run.
Sean's note: I don't want to get into the penalty calls.
Now in a fight with 6:49 left in the game after the kickoff, Ithaca needed another sustained drive, which is exactly what the Bombers did. Garcia began the drive with a 2-yard run and then Germinerio notched five straight carries for 27 yards. After two more runs by Garcia and Germinerio, Cortland burned two timeouts with 3:14 to go and Ithaca faced a third-and-six at the Red Dragon 46-yard line.
Out of the timeout, Ithaca pulled out a play for the ages with a pair of fake handoffs to stretch the Cortland defense and Germinerio threw a perfect pass to a wide open Vito for a 46-yard touchdown with 3:06 left to give the Bombers a 32-20 lead after an unsuccessful two-point conversion.
The Red Dragons scored on another Tripodi run with 6:53 left in the game to make it 26-20.
But Germinerio, who had picked up a bunch of yards running the ball, found Andrew Vito streaking behind the defense on a bit of razzle-dazzle, and Vito ran the rest of the 46 yards to the end zone to seal the game with 3:06 left.
And here's the play:
Nice TD #5 Andrew Vito helping seal a victory for the Ithaca Bombers! Great effort by all. pic.twitter.com/MxgQJLJqG1
The ball was in the air for what seemed to be about 8 minutes! Ithaca's wide receiver was so open, you just hoped he wouldn't drop it. Great way to basically end the game.
And there was great celebration throughout the land!
Several people in my section started a “State School” chant a few times during the game. This is apparently a chant to try to denigrate the education students receive at Cortland compared to at Ithaca. I’ve always hated this chant. First, Cortland students are continuing their education after high school to become more educated and to increase their employment prospects. This is a good thing. As a country, I think we can agree that we want people to continue in education whether this is at a “traditional” school or in vocational programs. A better educated society is a better society. We also generally want more government funding to go to education. That’s (at least historically) one of the hallmarks of public education. Basically, what I’m writing is that the state school chant is garbage and needs to go. Rant over.
In case you're wondering, the Cortaca game did set the Division 3 attendance record.
Cody Holyoke, news anchor at KMBC in Kansas City, also highlighted the game on his newscast.
Welcome to Sean's Ramblings! If you're looking for thoughts on pop culture, music, fun and informative links, random DC and Pittsburgh info, sports (particularly Pittsburgh sports), and just what's going on in my life, then you're come to the right place.
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