Month: February 2018

BC winter sports weekend

Last week, I joined five classmates for a Boston College winter sports weekend. One or two times a year, there is a weekend when the men’s and women’s basketball teams and men’s and women’s hockey teams all play at home. I had been a regular attendee on these weekends when I lived in New England, but this was the first such weekend for me since moving to California in 2012.

I flew in the night of Wednesday, February 7. On the way, I saw this interesting sight (at right), somewhere over New Mexico, I believe. I came into Boston late enough to miss the snow, but not the cold rain. The next day was bitterly cold, and it helped me realize that it had been six years since I had last experienced below-freezing temperatures.

I stayed at the home of Larry Kenah and Marcy (McPhee) Kenah in Acton. Tom Sugrue drove up from Virginia, arriving in Acton late Thursday afternoon.

Marcy’s car, encased in ice

Earlier on Thursday, I drove up to New Hampshire to see the Andersons — Meredith, Winter, Adeline, and Alice. First, however, I had to clear the snow and ice off Marcy’s car. While I was doing so, I had a recurrent thought: “Why do people live like this. Don’t they know there is a better place?” It brought to mind, too, a quote of Ronald Reagan’s (which may be apocryphal) — “If the Pilgrims had landed in California, New England would still be wilderness.”

While visiting, and after lunch, we picked Adeline up at school, Rye Elementary, and took her to a well-visit at the doctor’s. Here she is, passing her hearing test. When Winter explained to the girls that Grandpa had to leave, to get back to Acton, two-year-old Alice marched up to me and demanded, “Stay with us! Stay with us!”

A couple of scenes from chilly New Hampshire

Thursday night, Larry brought Tom and me to a brewpub located in one of the old mill buildings in Maynard that had served as home for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC), where both Larry and Marcy had worked a number of years ago. Taking advantage of its proximate location, it’s called “Battle Road Brewing Company” and featured various beers with Revolutionary War-themed names.

Friday, we joined the rest of the crew: Ken Hamberg and Ed Hattauer, who live in the Boston area, and Dan Downey, who drove up from New Jersey. Before the women’s hockey game that afternoon, we had another appointment in Conte Forum. Tom had read that relatively new Athletic Director Martin Jarmond liked meeting BC alumni from different eras. He sent Jarmond an email, asking if he was interested in getting together with a bunch of Golden Eagles-to-be, and the response was “Yeah!” We met briefly with Jarmond prior to the game, sharing some of our hopes for and concerns about BC athletics.

I was wearing a vintage BC jacket. After we had had a group photo taken at the end of our meeting, Jarmond noticed the back of the jacket and had a picture taken of it. Within less than an hour, he tweeted about our meeting, including the group photo and the photo of the jacket. (I wish I could say the jacket was mine from the sixties, but I had found it in the early 2000s on a rack at a vintage clothing store in Cambridge. $30.)

Here’s a bigger version of the group photo.

L-R: Me, Tom Sugrue, Ken Hamberg, Martin Jarmond, Larry Kenah, Ed Hattauer, and Dan Downey.

Going into the weekend, we figured the most likely win was women’s hockey. The Eagles were ranked 3rd in the country at the time and had beaten their opponent that day, UNH, by an aggregate score of 11-1 in two previous meetings this year. It seemed almost a sure win, while the other teams faced significant challenges. UNH beat BC, 2-1. Of course.

The other teams, though, ran counter to form as well . . . but they won. Men’s hockey scored late in regulation to send the game to overtime, and then scored the game-winner with less than 7 seconds remaining in the overtime period to beat UMass Lowell, 3-2. Men’s basketball held #25 Miami scoreless over the last 6-plus minutes of the game and won, 72-70. Women’s basketball secured only their second ACC win of the season, winning handily over Pitt, 72-61. Pitt and BC were both 2-10 in the conference after that game.

Here’s a brief (5:30) video of scenes from the basketball games and men’s hockey game. (Women’s hockey, despite its exalted status nationally, does not attract fans. It seemed almost disrespectful to show the nearly empty stands and absence of cheering. Building fan support for one of the best examples of athletic excellence at BC is one of the issues we brought before Martin Jarmond, who recognized its importance.)

Replacement for the ‘Plex”
New Athletics Field House

If you have not been to campus lately, there is significant construction going on. (I wonder if there is any class since the fifties that has not seen “significant construction” going on at BC.) The new Connell Family Recreation Center is taking shape, where Edmond’s Hall once stood. On what was Shea Field, the new Athletics Field House, which will provide an indoor practice facility for football and other teams, is also showing its external form.

Besides sports — and camaraderie, of course — another focus was food and drink. Among the places: Jack’s Abby, Framingham; City Table in the Lenox Hotel; the Comedor, Newton Centre.

Here’s a brief video (9 secs) showing lunchtime (about noon) on a Saturday at Jack’s Abby in Framingham. Place was hoppin’ (and I don’t mean just in the beer)!

Tiger loose

Following his second shot, Tiger Woods moves toward the green on 9S in the final round.

Once again, I spent five days in late January at Torrey Pines Golf Course working as a “hole captain” during the Farmers Insurance Open. It was my 6th year as a volunteer marshal, 3rd year as a hole captain, and 1st year on the 9th hole on the South Course (9S).

As a hole captain in 2016 and 2017, I had been assigned to a 214-yard par-3 hole on the north course and oversaw a crew of 4 marshals. At 614 yards, 9S is 400 yards longer and “my crew” consisted of 19 marshals, swelling to 27 on the weekend, as we were joined by marshals who had worked North #9. (Both courses are used in the pro-am and before the cut, with the final two rounds taking place only on the South Course.)

This year, as you might infer, was harder. It was more difficult physically and more complicated logistically. The job of a hole captain is to help make the experience of each marshal as pleasant and satisfying as possible. You make sure they get lunch, that they have bathroom breaks, that they get to do different jobs on the hole, etc. You also train them, give advice, answer questions. Seven of my 19 marshals were rookies, their first time as a marshal.

Google satellite view of 9S

The physical aspect of 9S that is challenging for a hole captain, as well as for any golfer on the hole, is its length. As a golf challenge, it is not difficult for any reason other than distance. As hole captain, I walked around to each marshal’s post all day. The app on my iPhone reported that on Wednesday, the first day and the pro-am, I took 16,091 steps, covering 6.4 miles, and climbed the equivalent of 15 floors. Numbers were lower in subsequent days, but, in total for the 5 days, I took 56,072 steps, covered 21.8 miles, and climbed 42 floors.

When I wasn’t walking, I was standing. I would estimate that, over the course of the 5 days at the hole, 8-10 hours each day, I sat for a total of less than 30 minutes. This, I guess, is my annual workout.

As with other events at which one works, the focus is more on the immediate, “little” things than the overall event. Marshals seek to manage the fans, providing golfers with quiet and space to do their job well. We also aim to make the experience enjoyable for fans as well, usually by trying to manage those fans who are loud and obnoxious.

The big difference this year was, surprise, Tiger. For marshals, it was not due to his golf, but because his return to golf and to this tournament attracted people. Crowds were not large overall on Thursday and Friday, though his crowd was much larger than anyone else’s. Even though he was not in contention on the weekend (he barely made the cut), the number of people following him was larger than that following Phil Michelson and the leaders’ threesomes combined.

A true fan

But it’s not just the number of people. There are many people who follow Tiger because they want to see him play golf. There are many other people who follow him because of his celebrity. Those people do not seem to care about the etiquette of golf, or much about etiquette at all.

I was not present at the time, but at #9 North on Friday, Tiger’s errant tee shot resulted in a situation that made the local news. His drive went into a section “outside the ropes” and amongst the crowd. Fans surrounded the ball and, despite the efforts of 7 marshals and 4 San Diego police officers, no one would move to permit Tiger to play his next shot. They only moved when Tiger’s caddy shouted out that Tiger would not continue play until everyone moved to the other side of a cart path.

On Saturday, he was to finish his round on our hole, having started on #10. As it would happen later in the day, it would mean maximum crowd. Adjacent to the area where most drives land on 9S, the space for people on the right side of the fairway was narrow, because of fencing around a corporate tent. If Tiger hit one outside the ropes there, we foresaw calamity. As his arrival at the hole approached, more than 20 marshals from holes that had finished regular duties, arrived at 9S to help. I basically just asked them to be a “command presence” alongside the ropes in the landing area. They would also add to the number of marshals and other personnel who could help control the crowd, if we had to move them.

Standing in the fairway awaiting Tiger’s drive, I watched the marshal whose job was to indicate the direction of the drive. His paddle was straight up, Tiger hit, and the paddle then moved up and down repeatedly, indicating straight. Drive landed in the fairway. Problem avoided.

View of Tiger’s second shot on Saturday from blimp. My only appearance on TV. 🙁 I’m in circle at left, in hat with black band.

Sunday was the start of a heat wave, and it also featured Santa Ana winds, the hot, dry, strong winds from the interior. Because a couple of marshals were taken from my hole for other duties, I spent the day on the right side, at the landing area for drives (just about the same spot as in the photo above). Over the course of the day, 7 or 8 golfers’ drives were pushed by winds over the fence around the corporate tent. As marshals, we were to report the fact to the golfer as he arrived and secure a place where he could get a free drop and make his next shot. A PGA rules official would arrive and ask us to confirm the drive had gone over the fence and to indicate about where it had done so. Then we stopped people walking from either direction toward the spot and cleared an area for the shot.

The tournament ended in a tie between Jason Day and Alex Noren. They played five playoff holes Sunday, remaining tied, before darkness forced postponement. Focused on “my job” and really looking forward to getting home, I had left and was unaware of the situation until the next morning when I picked up the paper in my driveway. (Is that old-fashioned or what?) I watched the playoff on TV a little while later and saw Day win by two strokes on the first hole.

This year’s experience was distinctive. More difficult, more intense. In some respects, more interesting. I won’t be a rookie on this hole next year, so I look forward to it all again. Here’s a gallery of images, a mix of screenshots from television and my photos.

 

 

 

Blizzard of 1978

425 Partridge St., Franklin, the day after the blizzard

Forty years ago, light snow started falling on the morning of February 6, 1978, a Monday. I was at a print shop in Boston that day checking a Boston College publication before it was to be printed, with one of our designers. We were inside and not paying attention to the weather. Iconic Don Kent on WBZ radio that morning had predicted “a dusting.”

Me, Franklin, 1978, actually before the blizzard

I asked the designer to call the office mid-day (forget why) and she came back saying there was no answer. Tried again a little later. Same thing. I asked her to call the “switchboard” and try to get through that way. (All this seem really ancient yet?) She said the operator told her BC was closed. Closed?! Because of the snow. Snow?! We looked outside and headed home.

I was driving soon-to-be-wife Rebecca’s VW bug and took the designer home to Wellesley. It was not at all easy to drive, but I got her home. And then I made a fateful decision. Should I get on Route 128, the highway, or follow the back country roads, Rte. 16, etc., to Franklin, where we then lived? (Franklin is about a marathon-distance southwest of Boston.) I decided to take the country roads. If I had gone on 128, I might have been stuck there for days, as you’ll see in the video below.

It was now late afternoon and almost dark. I had no way to contact Rebecca to tell her I was coming home, where I was, etc. There were times I remember seeing only white particles streaming horizontally left to right in front of me. The snow and wind made it very difficult to discern the road from what were at times surrounding fields. The VW was very light, but good in snow, because the rear engine was over the drive wheels and gave the car better traction.

At one point, I came around a corner and had to veer off the road to avoid a vehicle stuck in the snow. Bunch of young guys. As I said, the VW was light and they were able to push me back onto the road. Finally getting back to Franklin, there was a lot of snow on the roadways and in the driveway. I just tried to gun the engine and get into the driveway as far as I could off the road. And then we spent the next few days there, occasionally trekking to the small and remote neighborhood store. It was called “Art’s,” or, as locals said, Otz.

This is a video (25:10) of Boston Channel 7’s special on the storm five days later.