Today is Thanksgiving, and I, make that we, have much for which to be thankful.
Despite bizarre behavior from the White House, craziness in Congress, income inequality, racism, failing schools, crowded and crumbling roads and bridges, we live in the best nation on Earth. People are swimming the Rio Grand to get into the United States, not to leave it.
I am grateful to live in New England, home of the Patriots, who have played in nine Super Bowls since the turn of the century and won six. The Red Sox, who have won four World Series, starting with the historic comebacks of 2004. The Celtics, who raised NBA banner No. 17 in 2008. And the Bruins, who hoisted the Stanley Cup in 2011.
And I give thanks to live in Rhode Island, home of the first national championships in golf at the Newport Country Club, and in tennis at the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Museum. Today you can play tennis at the Newport Casino on the same court on which Richard Sears won the title in 1881. You can play golf at Newport CC, if you are a member or know a member.
I am thankful that Red Sox and Yankees fans can sit together in the same stadium and not assault each other and that the most intense rivalries in college sports do not turn violent. Soccer fans in Europe should take a lesson from us.
I am grateful that Fenway Park, that “lyric little bandbox of a ballpark,” as John Updike wrote in “Hub Fans Bid Kid Adieu” in the New Yorker in 1960, is only 50 miles from Providence.
And I am grateful that we have one more season with the Pawtucket Red Sox before they turn out the lights at McCoy Stadium and move to Worcester, thanks to the short-sightedness of our political leaders.
I am thankful for the rich history of Brown football, although lean of late. Did you know that Brown and Washington State launched the annual tradition of the Rose Bowl football game in 1916? Washington State won, 14-0.
I’m thankful for Providence College basketball, as close as we get to big-time college sports here in Rhode Island, and the Friars ability to fill the Dunkin’ Donuts Center every winter.
I’m thankful for University of Rhode Island basketball and its rivalry with PC. If only they played twice a season as in the good old days.
I’m thankful that Bill Reynolds of The Providence Journal still writes his Saturday column of one-liners and that the Projo bosses turn Kevin McNamara loose on the college basketball beat and Eric Rueb on local high schools..
I am grateful for the mountain men who make snow to cover ski trails and the fishermen who labor to put little necks and calamari and Block Island swordfish and striped bass on our tables while lobbying to keep our precious Narragansett Bay and Block Island Sound clean.
I am grateful to the state DOT for fixing the East Bay Bike Path and hope they continue to pave the way around Rhode Island for cyclists, walkers and runners.
I am thankful for the serious sailors who keep Newport on the map. Travel the world where sailboats race, and folks may not know Providence or Rhode Island. But they know Newport.
I am grateful for the men and women who volunteer their time to introduce sports to kids, especially those who do it for free just to see a kid have fun.
I am grateful that my snap, crackle and pop right knee still gets me around the tennis court, and my repaired right shoulder still delivers most serves in with a little pace.
Finally, I am thankful for the folks at The Public’s Radio who let me fill this space and for you readers who take the time to read what I write.
Happy Thanksgiving!
