Sunday, October 21, 2007

At Least the Weather Wasn't Bad

As Sean Kilkelly, Nick Angotto, and I prepared to leave Jack Casagrande Field in Norwalk yesterday, Brien McMahon High School Athletic Director Joe Maddafari thanked us for covering the game between his Senators and the Cardinals from Greenwich. I appreciated those sentiments, especially since it's becoming quite common to feel like we're just an intrusion.

Yesterday was one of those days.

The Cardinals whacked the Senators, 44-14. As the "voices" of the Cardinals, Nick, Sean and I have big targets painted on us. There are those who think that we're there rooting for the Cardinals and as I have said countless times, that's just not the case. We don't work for Greenwich High School, and two of us never went to GHS. OK, I want them to win because more wins means more games means more cash in the pocket. And yes, I have come to know these people - coaches, players, and families, yet the reality is that Sean and I are reporters. We have no rooting interest, at least not on the air (off the air is different). If anything Sean and I root for a good game, and we don't get many of those with the old Cardinal machine grinding out blowout victories.

Yesterday's game was supposed to be played on Friday but most of the local schools erred on the side of caution and moved the games to Saturday due to the threat of nasty thunderstorms passing through the area. That set us up to call the game in Norwalk yesterday afternoon. We shared the pressbox with our friends from WSTC/WNLK, Matt Levine and Zach Eastright and the level of friendship and camaraderie between the two "rival" outlets is great. Our old colleague and Norwalk resident Ricky Fritsch stopped by and joined us on air for the third quarter. So there was fun in the air!

At this point, I will admit that I had written the story of a brief showdown in the McMahon booth. I'm ready to pass it off as a misunderstanding and I erased the whole thing. Unfortunately I had neglected to consult my copy of the "Book of FCIAC Scoreboard Quirks."

Telling the story is just not worth the aggravation.

Moving on!

I guess I should throw my Top Five in here for Tim's Big Three (confusing, innit?)

1) Greenwich (6-0, Last Week - 1) - Any questions at this point? A healthy Jim Dunster adds another element to their dominance.
2) Staples (5-0, 2) - Playing at a very high level now. It doesn't seem that their bye week hurt them one bit.
3) Central (5-1, 3) - Somehow I'd still like to see a Greenwich-Central FCIAC Title Game rematch. Doesn't look like it will happen at this point, thanks to the current playoff ranking system.
4) New Canaan (5-1, 4) - Played a wild and wacky game with Danbury yesterday. I've got them a notch below the big three.
5) Wilton (5-1, 5) - I could put St. Joe's here. I could pop Ridgefield in. I didn't - not at least until I see the Warriors in person next Friday at Greenwich.

No comments: