I have much for which to be thankful this Thanksgiving.
I am thankful to have spent my life in New England, where the Red Sox provide rollercoaster thrills most summers, the Patriots provide fodder for radio talk jocks and a dwindling number of newspaper sports writers, and the Celtics and Bruins allow us a long winter’s nap until the games really mean something in the spring.
New England, where we can swim in the ocean during the summer and ski in the mountains in winter without worrying about wildfires, tornadoes, or drought; where we can cast for stripers in the surf and for trout in our inland streams; where we can count on a southwesterly to rise ever afternoon, making Narragansett Bay one of the best sailing grounds in the U.S.
I am grateful that URI (7-4) is winning football games again and fans have returned to Meade Stadium; that Bryant (7-4) has established itself as a contender in the Northeast Conference; that Salve Regina (8-2) and UMass Dartmouth (9-2) played winning football this season.
I am happy for the Brown University women’s soccer team (12-4), which won the Ivy League championship with its first 7-0 league finish, but sorry they lost to St. John’s in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. I am also happy for the Providence College men’s soccer team (12-4-4), which will play No. 3 Georgetown Sunday in the third round of the NCAA Tournament.
I am grateful that EJ Perry transferred from Boston College to play quarterback at Brown for two years. The two-time first-team All-Ivy QB was the main reason to watch the Bears the last two seasons.
I am thankful for the chance to have seen the East Side Sports Panthers, a team of innocent 5- and 6-year-olds, play three-on-three soccer on Sunday afternoons this fall at the Wheeler Farm in Seekonk. My granddaughter Wetherly, the most aggressive Panther, asking her parents at breakfast one Sunday, “Who are we going to beat today?” Her teammates Hudson, always in the thick of things; Lexi, the determined defender with a knack for clearing the ball; Ethan, the tallest Panther who was into his new Fitbit Ace for kids as much as he was the game, and easy-going Leo, who always appeared to study the ball before nudging it with his foot as if it were a clump of seaweed.
I am thankful for the men and women who coached the boys and girls in that league; the high-school kids who set up the PVC goals, and the parents and grandparents who encouraged their own kids but applauded the spirited play of all kids, even the spunky Eagle who thought it was okay to pick up the ball and run with it. I pray that the stressful world of travel teams will spare these kids for a few years.
I am thankful that I am old enough to remember the Original Six NHL franchises — Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Chicago, New York and Boston; when Major League Baseball consisted of eight teams in each league; when pitchers had to bat, and bats at every level were wood; when games seldom lasted three hours and never four; when double-headers were scheduled; when the World Series was played in the afternoon and never at night.
I am grateful for the memories of the Patriots playing home games at Boston University’s Nickerson Field, Harvard Stadium, Boston College’s Alumni Stadium, and Fenway Park; Heisman Trophy winner Jim Plunkett starting at quarterback, and Gino Cappelletti as a wide receiver and placekicker before becoming Gil Santos’s partner in the broadcast booth.
I am thankful that at 71 I can still run around a tennis court in singles and serve an occasional ace. Thank you, Dr. Andrew Green, for salvaging what you could from the large tears in my right rotator cuff in 2016 and giving me a few years before I answer the call of pickle ball.
I am thankful I can swing a golf club, although every swing is an adventure.
And on this Thanksgiving 2021, I am thankful to all of you who take the time to read these musings On Sports.
