For Joyce

The Schloss-Blog doesn't usually go off the rails like this, not in this direction, especially, but today's post is about one thing, one person and is my honor to do so.

She just might scold me for this, she's so selfless, but that's in good part why I'm doing this.

On Saturday, May 2, Buffalo Grove's Joyce Gallagher becomes a member of the Illinois Basketball Coaches Association (IBCA) Hall of Fame, player wing.

The only reason I know is because she took the time to let me know when she got notified of the honor back in November. The banquet honoring this year's inductees is at the home of the Hall in Normal, Illinois. She told me she was nominated by Carol Plodzien, who coached rival William Fremd at the time of Joyce's career and took them to a third-place finish in the state tournament.

Joyce (I know, journalists are supposed to use last name as reference after full name is mentioned, but Joyce is special) is flying in from Philadelphia, where she lives now with her very special partner and has carved out a nice career for herself.

When she informed me of the honor being bestowed upon her, she mentioned that I was in good part why she got nominated in the first place.

She couldn't be more wrong, but I was just as honored to write about her and her teammates' exploits 40-plus years ago as I am happy for and proud of her now for this honor. She thought the countless mentions of her and her team in the weekly Countryside Reminder-News, where I worked at the time, was in good part a reason for her current renown.

She has no idea.

It was my first full-time job in journalism and I was excited to go to every game I could fit into a week's schedule. I covered three schools - Buffalo Grove, where Joyce played, Wheeling, a northwest-suburban, Mid-Suburban League rival out of which Buffalo Grove HS was carved in good part, and Stevenson, now the state's biggest school but just a hole in the wall back then you could fit in its entirety into nearby BG's fieldhouse.

Joyce always played with heart, with passion and with, as I've told her many times since she and I reconnected via social media these past few years, the sweetest jumper.

Ever.

I loved covering girls basketball. Title IX was in its infancy and girls athletics was growing, slowly but surely, from settling for Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons for home games to today's Friday-night doubleheaders, sharing double billing with the boys varsity teams and equal time in the main gym for practice instead of being relegated to the rock-hard fieldhouse floors.

Never heard Joyce complain. She just showed up and played. She had many great teammates, too many to mention here, and some great competitors in the day, including one I will mention, Sandy Rainey of Wheeling, who would go on to play pro ball briefly. Joyce probably relished the opportunity to go against the likes of Rainey.

Joyce remained as soft-spoken then though as she is now. She hasn't boasted about the honor she is getting on May 2 and she was probably halfway reluctant to share it with me. That's just who she is.

So why am I dedicating all this space to someone who had the sweetest jumper?

Ever.

Maybe because she hasn't gone out of her way to brag about this honor, although she has every privilege to.

Maybe because she took the time to tell me, almost six months ago, not only about it but that I was in good part one of the drivers for it, in her opinion.

Maybe because I can hardly ever remember being at a BG game in which she played that her parents, from whom she clearly got her selflessness, went out of their way to give me a polite greeting (all high school-athletes' parents always find the beat writers, regardless of the sport - not all of them are as selfless). 

Or maybe it's because when we finally reconnected after all these years, she went out of her way to tell me that she and her teammates couldn't wait every Thursday when the Reminder-News was published, to see, as I recall her words when we spoke by phone - "...what (I) had written about them."

I had no idea. Really.

She has made as indelible an impression on me now as she did then, now with her kind words, then with her focused play.

And that sweetest jumper.

Ever.

I can still see her launching it now. 

And I am as proud now to have covered her then as I am proud now of the honor being bestowed upon her.

One she so dearly deserves.

Does. She. Ever.

***

Good night, Carol Plodzien. Here's to you, Joyce Gallagher.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

Answers In Search of Questions

The Schloss-Blog has a lot of answers today. Now, if we only had a question for each...

***

For instance, did you know that "...France would not put up a fight if Russia invaded, as it did in Ukraine. 

“A lot of other places around the world, they just fold the minute there’s any type of adversity.” 

The question is, why did Florida Governor Ron DeSantis say that last month about France in the first place.

This man wants to be president.

He can't even keep buildings upright in his state and in the ones he can, he can't keep COVID out of.

***

Did you know that in a world of media "plusses" (Paramount+, Disney +, ESPN+, Discovery+...), there is also CNN+?

Media-obsessed retired journalism professor that I am, I checked it out. They want $6 a month for it.

It's full of "after hours-type" reporting from Wolf Blitzer, Jake Tapper, Dr.  Sanjay Gupta and nattily, off the set-attired network anchors Anderson Cooper and Don Lemon.

Plus reruns of the well-done historical documentaries they've produced over the years.

And they want $6 a month for them.

Really? I formerly got them all for free on demand, before there was a CNN+. There's even Kate Bolduan waking you up at some ungodly hour to tell you the "5 Things You Need to Know" to start your day.

First of all, there are not 5 things I need to know from CNN or CNN+ to start my day. I need to know my blood pressure. I need to know the weather and how to dress for my 3-mile hike every morning and my afternoon round of golf. I already get the five things in my email every morning, with relevant links in each item (about Ukraine, about Ketanji Brown Jackson, about #COVIDiot Republicans and about a mass shooting in my native Brooklyn).

And if Kate Bolduan is going to start my day with "5 Things I need..." at some ungodly hour, it better be because she nudged me. 

***

Postscript: CNN+ is off to a slow start, with just 10,000 subscriptions since inception at the end of March. Maybe it'll pick up, maybe it won't. But I'm thinking that America is thinking the same thing I'm thinking: Why pay CNN for something you already pretty much get on CNN and/or cnn.com - for free.

Some of these "plus" channels are worthwhile, but I get all the reruns of my favorites already, courtesy of "ion TV," USA Network, Peacock and HBOMAX, which comes with my HBO subscription, or just plain old on-demand.

CNN is already talking about cutting back promotion, pricing and budgeting.

Me, I prefer a nice evening watching the FBI shows on CBS, the Chicago "Med, Fire and P.D." shows on NBC and/or whatever sporting event catches my eye. There's always Guy Fieri and "Triple D."

And doing the NY Times seven-letter word puzzle, snuggled on the couch with my sweetheart.

Don't tell Kate Bolduan.

***

Guys, do you cook breakfast in your trunk underwear?

Y'know like in the Jimmy Dean Sausage commercial, where Jimmy's voice is magically (technologically) retrofitted to ask, "Yknow those mornings when it takes just a little bit extra to get ya' out of bed?"

I don't make breakfast that way. My dad never made breakfast that way. I think my Uncle Moe might have, but that's another story.

Anyway, if you know someone who makes - or made - breakfast attired that way, please let me know. 

Well, actually, I used to do that.

But only for Kate Bolduan. (OK, OK, enough with the Kate Bolduan references.)

***

More seriously, did you know CBS is reporting that Everytown for Gun Safety, whose mission is their name, says that road-rage incidents resulted in 131 deaths last year and 728 incidents involving a gun, or phrased a little more realistically, 62 percent of all road-rage injuries or deaths.

In other words, next time you consider flipping the bird to that guy who cut you off or moved in front of you without signaling, think again.

He just might flip back. With a .22 caliber.

***

The Dodgers pulled Clayton Kershaw after 80 pitches and 7 innings of a PERFECT GAME. Only 23 in baseball history. Pulled him. World Series concerns, says Manager Dave Roberts. 

Pull him in a no-hitter, maybe. But a perfecto! Kershaw has an injury history, "soreness." He's been on Injured Reserve four times: twice with lower back strains and twice with left bicep tendinitis.  

In other words, he was sore. Hall-of-Famer Greg Maddux always said get accustomed to soreness if you're a starting pitcher in Major League Baseball. But today's starters get babied. 

To just short of perfect.

***

The 3-point after-touchdown conversion. The first down-measuring chip in the football.  Convert 4th-and-12 at the 33-yard line instead kicking onside. 

These are just some of the innovations of the Fox-owned USFL which debuted this weekend. On both Fox and NBC, at the same time (first time since the first Super Bowl a game was on two major networks simultaneously - Curt Gowdy just rolled over). 

Did you watch? Will you watch? It's the best of college players who never got drafted and the worst of NFL players who never got to play, with some Arena Leaguers thrown in.

Plus, it'll conflict with SNL time in Pacific time zones. 

***

COVID isn't done with us. Philadelphia is reinstating its indoor mask policy, as have Georgetown and Johns Hopkins universities with the positivity rates ticking up. The U,.S. Government is also extending mask mandates on public transportation.

***

Real quick:

• Schools aren't teaching cursive anymore. If you had to ask, "What's cursive?" that proves the point.
• That's OK though; Brooklyn Tech grads, like me, only print in block caps, eighth-inch high. It also takes us 3 weeks to print a 1-page memo, but is it the most-legible, hand-written, 1-page memo ever.
• Bagdad (Arizona) High's Connor Watson pitched four consecutive no-hitters this spring. This is not a belated April Fool's prank. The streak was broken by a scholarship-to-be shortstop from Benjamin Franklin High in Queen Creek, who is headed to Arizona State.
• Too bizarre to be true: the Arizona Diamondbacks Seth Beer hit a walk-off home run to win the team's season-opener on - believe it - National Beer Day. Can't make this up.
• Of the top 50 most-watched TV shows this calendar year through March, 48 were sporting events. FORTY-EIGHT. Live sports ain't going away anytime soon, no matter how much of it migrates to streaming.
• And finally, 20-year-old Roki Sasaki struck out 19 and threw a perfect game in Japan's Nippon Baseball League (he didn't get pulled). Sasaki hurls for the Chiba Lotte Marines, but will likely be an Angel soon, I'm thinking.

***

Happy Easter, Mrs. Calabash. Happy Passover, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show, and Sunday morning, when I sit in for Joe Catanzaro.

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 A lot of other places around the world, they just fold the minute there’s any type of adversity” 

Blogging 101: Guns, Tigers, Oscars, Basketball, Title IX and Be Real

The Schloss-Blog is going to Be Real today, all too real...

As in BeReal, the app.

This is where the kids today are running, to BeReal. Why?

Once a day, at a time unbeknownst to them, they get an alert to post on the app. They have 2 minutes to do it - one selfie and one of their immediate surroundings, whether it be at school, commuting, showering (yikes!), dining or even making breakfast for your evening's paramour.

Seriously.

No "likes" to click on, but you can comment on your friends' posts.

Then, your 2 minutes come and gone, on to tomorrow.

Gonna' try it? I doubt it. This is where your kids and grandkids are running to now that we old-timers have invaded Facebook, Twitter and all-too-friendly Instagram. This is the next place they are going where we aren't yet so we can't spy on them or make believe to be cool like them.

What am I gonna' do? Me, I'm gonna' BeReal. Well, where are you reading this? Let's be real, not on BeReal.

***

Speaking of being real, the Schloss-Blog can't help but think that all the Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee, after heaping praise on the credentials of Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, all voted against her nomination.

Why would they do that?

Maybe because she's not Amy Coney Barrett or Neil Gorsuch or Brett Kavanaugh, all three of whom are going to vote the United States back into the Stone Age.

Or maybe because they are predominantly aging, gray-haired white guys who don't like a qualified Black woman moving into the neighborhood.

***

Who thinks that the economic sanctions levied on Russia and rich Russians are going to stop Russia's bombing of and slaughtering of ordinary Ukrainian citizens?

Me neither.

***

There was a mass shooting in Sacramento last week. One dead, at least six wounded.

Mass shooting, with defining variations depending on the source, is set as an event in which 4 or more people are shot - be it killed and/or wounded. Or as many as three or four dead, and that many or more wounded.

So far this calendar year, Wikipedia says there have been 142 mass shootings. News Nation says 119 (like I said, varying definitions).

In Washington, Congress still refuses to take legislation action to curtail mass shootings, like stricter I.D. laws and gun show-purchase loopholes. Too many states have open-carry laws - no license - and it could be a deadly weapon, like a semiautomatic AR-15.

We're on pace for more than 500 mass shootings this year, but primarily Republican legislators refuse to take action and the gun lobby says Democrats are coming for your guns.

No, they're coming for your unregistered AR-15s, not the licensed, registered weapons of collectors and responsible hunters.

Before the next Kyle Rittenhouse shows up, let's do something.

***

Did you watch the NCAA basketball tournament? There were some compelling storylines, especially Coach K's last ride and the ultimate underdog in tiny Saint Peter's.

But can you name three great players you tuned in to watch, the next great NBA prospects?

Me neither.

There was no compelling player I wanted to see. No, next one-and-done who will be the first pick in the NBA draft.

They're all still in the transfer portal. Guess what, New Jerseyans - Saint Peters' three best players are already in the transfer portal for next year. Speaking of one-and-done, Saint Peters is one that's done.

Champion Kansas had maybe one NBA legit prospect, runner-up North Carolina maybe two. Maybe.

The championship was a good game, but I didn't see the No. 1 pick in the NBA draft on the floor, like I did in the women's NCAA Finals (Aliyah Boston of South Carolina).

Plus, there was a great Black coach in that game - Dawn Staley - who has turned down offers to head up men's programs.

And the women - guess what - they play defense, box out on the boards and set picks. They make the extra pass and look for the open shot, not for the ESPN Sports Center Top 10 shot.

One thing for sure - the men's NCAA tournament has changed. Because of the lost COVID year, injuries and transfers, there were players out there in their sixth year of eligibility.

In what would've been his sixth year of eligibility, LeBron was already the best player in the NBA.

This year's No. 1 pick, meanwhile, is probably going to be a one-and-done from Duke or Kentucky.

Do you know his name, their names? Or do you know that Coach K has had his last ride?

As has Saint Peter's.

***

It is the 50th anniversary of Title IX, the enactment that mandates equal opportunity and facilities for men and women at schools that receive federal funding, be it for academics or athletics.

When it was enacted, 50 years ago, 30,000 high school girls played varsity sports. Now some 33 million do.

Yet, states are out there passing and proposing laws that girls play girls sports and boys play boys sports.

How about we just have sports, huh?

***

Finally, speaking of the Oscars, Timothee Chalamet showed up in a tuxedo - without a shirt.

I'm going to do that to the next black-tie party to which I get invited.

And we'll see if I get asked to leave. Timothee Chalamet was not asked to leave the Oscars.

Will Smith should've left when asked.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

Well, Slap Me Silly

The Schloss-Blog is declaring this week ... slap me silly!

I was going to offer a salute to all the women out there sporting a G.I. Jane look but didn't want to risk Will Smith showing up at my door, slapping me and telling me to "Keep [his] wife's name out of [my] fucking blog." 

The person who showed real restraint there last week, the person who showed he was really a man, was Chris Rock, who could have dumped on Smith right then and there, but didn't and hasn't since.

Smith got a standing ovation when he accepted his Academy Award later in the evening.

So it is true - we live in the age of salute-to-assholes. As evidence, "more likely than not" criminal Donald Trump got 74 million votes in defeat (isn't about time we did away with the electoral college before Wyoming decides who the next president is?).

A once-and-former friend of mine accused me of being demeaning to women and marriage in general for saying in a Facebook thread about this matter that Jada Pinkett Smith was a strong-willed woman who can fight her own battles. He also said, without citing a source, that Will Smith was "belly" laughing and Jada wasn't laughing at all, and suddenly - surprise - Smith was up and slapping away and then cursing from his seat.

Am I the only one who thinks that "belly-laughing" Smith was prompted into the slap by his strong-willed wife, who allegedly (key word: allegedly) had taken Rock as one of her paramours in the Smith-Pinkett self-declared "open" marriage?

Why else do you prompt your otherwise "belly-laughing" husband into slapping someone over a G.I. Jane joke when the jokester may or may not have known about you having alopecia? Although if he slept with her, as alleged, well, you'd think the bald-headed thing might have come up in pillow talk.

Did I just demean women and marriage? Does anyone who agrees also find themselves people who demean women and marriage?

I'll let you tell me. Meanwhile, the person who accused me is doing a slow bern.

Also, Smith is out as a member of the Academy and should never have been allowed on stage to get his award in the first place.

***

Meanwhile, Italy's men's national soccer team lost in a stunning upset to North Macedonia, thus Azzuring that they will not qualify for the World Cup final 32 in Qatar later this year.

Thus 'azzuring,' get it?

 No? OK, that one bombed.

***

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, in an act of sexual righteousness, signed legislation that he says makes sure "...girls are going to play girls sports and boys are going to play boys sports."

What he was really saying is that Florida disrespects and doesn't want anything to do with members of the trans and LGBTQ communities.

And that will be a key plank in his platform for his 2024 presidential run.

***

With the war in Ukraine still raging despite the supposed peace talks, Russia is working hard to make sure accuracy about its inept yet disgraceful military effort does not reach its ordinary citizens (is there such a thing as an ordinary Russian citizen and how is it different from an ordinary American?).

Anyway, Russia has shut off most social media platforms from its general public, but not WhatsApp, which is supposedly too immensely popular with Russians, and YouTube, which is the same.

But like Donald Trump's "Truth Social," an abysmal failure, Russia's prospective replacements for WhatsApp and YouTube - ICG and RuTube, respectively - are flopping miserably.

So, Donald Trump and Putin continue to have so much common - flopping in new business ventures online and begging for help from foreign governments. Trump has openly asked Russia for dirt on the Bidens as we continue to supply Ukraine with resources to fight Russia. Meanwhile, Russia has supposedly reached out to China for military and economic aid.

Shameless has no boundaries.

***

Trump's Truth Social, btw, supposedly has 513,000 users since launching in December. However, enrollment has dropped to 8,000 a day from an initial high of 157,000 when launched, mostly due to extreme technical glitches and outreach limitations (not available yet to Android users, for example).

Truth is, it's not very social at all. Sorta' like Trump..

***

When I walk early mornings along the Biltmore Links Golf Course, I like to listen to Dan Patrick's show on Fox Sports Radio. Insightful, thoughtful, funny.

If I walk early enough, "Two Pros and a Joe" is on ahead of Patrick, starring Brady Quinn, LaVar Arrington and Jonas Knox.

They are a disgrace to humanity. Almost every conversation I hear from them sinks to innuendo and toilet humor. It's like they can't help themselves.

Then they lower themselves even more by having Petros Papadakis on one morning a week with them, who loves to indulge in innuendo and make small of kids who come out of fabled Mater Dei High in LA. You know, like Matt Leinart, Matt Barkley, Colt Brennan and Todd Marinovich. Hall-of-Famers, right?

Oddly enough, when Knox does his own show on the weekend, he's focused, on target and biting about issues in sports, results in sporting events and prospective fallout from recent controversial happenings.

I expect more out of Arrington, who played productive years for the Giants and Redskins after a stellar career at Penn State. Quinn was a washout though as a pro, going 4-16 in games he started over 4 years, completing just 53 percent of his passes, with 12 touchdowns and 17 interceptions.

On air, he broadcasts like he played.

***

A few closing thoughts:

• Are we afraid to piss off Putin? Do we really think he'd launch a nuclear war?
• Why did DeShaun Watson get $230 million guaranteed? Well, he might have 22 payoffs to make.
• Alex (InfoWars) Jones was held in contempt of court for blowing off depositions relating to damages in the case he already lost disparaging the reality of the Sandy Hook massacre. Problem is, he loves it and wears it like a badge of honor.
• Finally, who thinks Brady came back because Bruce Arians retired and went into the front office? Most people, that's who.

Good night, Ms. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.

It's Impossible To Get All This Into One Blog Post

The Schloss-Blog is looking at the news, scanning social media and gossiping with favorite 'unnamed' sources to gather the best unsourced information you can possibly find anywhere online. Eat your heart out Alex Jones.

***

There was a shooting (shocker, right?) at a car show in - brace yourself - Arkansas, where anyone 18 and over can carry a weapon - unlicensed.

Motivation for the shooting is unknown but two people opened fire on each other at the show. One person died, 26 were wounded in the what is described as the largest mass shooting in state history, preceding the Emancipation Proclamation, that is.

There's nothing like taking the fam to the annual car show and knowing that the guy behind you and your loved ones in line to see and sit in the prototype IndyCar brought in especially for exclusive display is carrying and will do anything to get to the head of the line if it's taking too long and he's running out of patience.

Reassuring, isn't it?

***

Been watching all the college hoops? It is indeed March Madness.

The last 2 minutes of the game takes 25 minutes.

Foul. Free throws. Clock stops. 

Out of bounds. Off whom? Review.

And review. And review. 

You watched it live and you've watched the replays and you've watched four commercials for Capitol One with Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee dancing on a riverboat or getting to meet Sue Bird and the refs are still reviewing.

Well, review this: if I know, if you know, if anyone watching knows who the ball went out of bounds of off, then the refs must be watching a live stream of Halo.

Actually, it looks pretty cool.

***

If you watched any of the confirmation hearings for Kentaji Brown Jackson to become a Supreme Court justice, then you know just how disconnected from reality the Republican party is.

Ted Cruz and his charts and his question about whether babies are racist topped the pile of, quite frankly, racist-based questions and lectures delivered by Lindsey Graham, Josh Hawley and Cruz.

Are babies racist?

Holy shit! People vote for these guys!

I guess there are a plethora of racist babies in Texas.

Just ask Ted Cruz. When he's not in Cancun.

Seriously, if Republicans are asking about 'racist babies,' they truly are out of touch with reality.

If you vote for a Republican, so are you.

And maybe your 'racist' baby.

***

How about those sanctions against Russia!

Really making an impact on the war in Ukraine, aren't they?

Just like Crimea. And Georgia. And Chechnya.

They don't work. Putin will go after whatever he wants, at any cost.

To anyone.

But himself.

***

You have to wonder if the pillow talk in the Clarence and Ginni Thomas household had any influence on the fact that Clarence was the only Supreme Court justice to vote that the National Archives withhold Donald Trump's presidential files from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection.

Thomas has disgraced the court and should step down before he casts his vote to ban abortions and reverse the 2020 election.

***

The 'Trucker Convoy,' or Frucking Tuckers as I like to call them, have lost all relevance since they're protesting COVID restrictions that have already been relaxed or eliminated in so many states.

I used to work at a trucking company, my uncle's, during spring breaks, between semesters and before I shoved off for the summer.

I always thought truckers were really cool guys.

But they're really just a bunch of Mother Fruckers.

***

If I would've told you when the NCAA Tournament started that a small Jesuit university would be in the Elite Eight, you'd have said Gonzaga.

Maybe Coldplay had it wrong when they sang:

For some reason I can't explain
I know Saint Peter won't call my name
Never rule this world
But that was when I ruled the world

Kentucky, Murray State and Purdue are not ruling the world and are definitely calling Saint Peter's name.

In vain.

***

Good night, Mrs. Calabash. Here's to you, Mrs. Robinson.

More Sunday night on my Radio Free Phoenix rock 'n' roll show.