The Miami Redhawks men’s basketball team takes on Tennessee in the NCAA tourney this afternoon. A #11 seed vs. a #6 seed. Miami has already won – literally and figuratively. They won their “play-in” game Wednesday night in Dayton against SMU. I was there. It felt like a Miami home game with most of the crowd cheering for the school that’s a mere 46 miles from Dayton.
But they’ve also already won because they are, as my friend Joe says, “the best story in college basketball.” Undefeated in the regular season. 31-0. With a homegrown roster of mostly midwestern kids. And a coach (Travis Steele) seeking redemption after being fired by a school (Xavier) just down the road in Cincinnati.
Critics — and they are legion — sneered. “They haven’t played anybody.” “The MAC is a weak conference.”
But they beat everyone who was on their schedule.
Yes, they pay their players – all D1 schools do in the NIL era. But their “salary cap” (it feels weird typing that for college sports) is much smaller than the Floridas, the Dukes, the Tennessees. They’re not getting the blue chippers, they’re getting the blue collars. But they are a great team – offensively, defensively, shooting, passing — because their starters all played together at Miami last year. In the transfer portal era, that’s unheard of. And frankly, refreshing.
A lot of their regular season games were nail-biters. They won because they’d been there, done that. Muscle memory and belief in their teammates.
“Oh, we more than belong,” Steele said, with his entire team behind him. “We can advance deep into this tournament. Our group’s fully confident in that.”
Miami’s Cinderella season will end. Maybe this afternoon (although I think they can beat Tennessee – especially if it’s close in crunch time). But teams like the Redhawks are what make March Madness so much fun. The High Points are the high points. Yes, a “power conference” team will wind up hoisting the trophy. And then most of their roster will immediately seek a bigger payday. Good for them. But I miss the days when the players were less mercenary.
Miami University’s motto is “Love and Honor.”
Their basketball team embodies that. And we need more Miami U. in college sports.
This past Friday, I spent about an hour visiting the box offices at three different concert venues in the Cincinnati area, buying tickets for seven different shows for my friends and for myself.
It saved us $180 in ridiculous Live Nation/Ticketmaster fees. Actually make that $180.14.
I despise all the made-up fees that Live Nation/Ticketmaster charges.
The lawsuit, filed by the Justice Department alongside numerous states, argues the company has used its position across concert promotion, venue ownership and ticketing to stifle competition and increase costs for fans.
Attorney General Merrick Garland previously said Live Nation and Ticketmaster’s control of the industry means concertgoers face “a seemingly endless list of fees,” according to reporting cited by Newsweek.
The lawsuit is spot-on. The Live Nation/Ticketmaster monopoly is costing fans money. And their strong-arming tactics would make a Mafioso running a protection racket blush. “If you want to play our venues, you need to use Ticketmaster. And you need to pay us a higher percentage…”
I had texted several music-loving friends in advance, and told them I was going on a ticket run, and to let me know what tickets they needed. I was like a cast member on Alice, taking orders, but instead of eggs and coffee it was Spoon and Sugar.
My first stop was the box office at the indoor/outdoor venue in Newport, KY. (It’s called MegaCorp Pavilion – a local logistics company bought the naming rights, when they should’ve spent that money on coming up with a name for their company that doesn’t sound like a fictional company from Office Space.) Their box office is only open Tues-Fri. from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m. (extremely unfriendly toward in-person purchase for working stiffs). I bought:
3 tickets to Spoon with The Beths (great double bill!)
4 tickets to Death Cab for Cutie with Jay Som (another great double bill)
3 tickets to Courtney Barnett
2 tickets to Sugar
Then it was off to Bogart’s, the long-in-the-tooth club venue near the University of Cincinnati. I got a ticket to the 40th anniversary show of a band that started in Cincinnati, the Afghan Whigs. Mercury Rev is the opener. The Afghan Whigs played dozens of shows at Bogart’s back in the day, so this should be a nice homecoming set.
My final stop was the Ludlow Garage. I got a ticket to the Patterson Hood/John Moreland show. And I bought four for the Built to Spill show, with Wussy as the opener.
Lucky for me that the bands I like aren’t typically going to sell out a venue. Pity the poor folks who want prized tickets to high-demand tours. They have to pay through both nostrils.
And having used websites and ticketing apps for both Ticketmaster and much smaller ticketing sites, I can assure you that Live Nation is NOT using all those fees to create a better user experience. Their website and their app are awful.
Whenever I can, I’m gonna stick it to the Live Nation man. A Reddit user quoted in the article above said it best:
It’s my buddy Matt, his wife Danielle, and their kids Hannah and Donald.
Matt’s a great dude. We worked together for 14 years. Fellow Xavier alums. You won’t meet a more gregarious guy than Matt. He knows everyone, and is always quick to help folks connect. A true “glue guy” in the best sense.
He’s a giver too. When his wife Danielle was diagnosed with breast cancer a few years ago, he took it upon himself to spearhead our company’s involvement in the Ride Cincinnati event that raises funds for local cancer research, education, and care. Heck, he even rode a bike into one of our all-company meetings to drum up more riders and support.
A couple of years ago, he had nice things to say about our Ride ride (no, I didn’t stutter) and about me.
Right back at you, Matt!
Here’s the All-American family today:
Danielle fought the good fight. She was beating breast cancer. But then, a few months ago, the cancer had not only returned but had spread rapidly. She passed away last month. She was 49. So young. So unfair.
“Heartbreaking” doesn’t do it justice. To have been side by side with your life partner through the cancer battle (double mastectomy, chemo, radiation, dozens of doctors visits and tests…) and to hope and pray that maybe you were one of the lucky ones… only to have the cancer come back with a vengeance, and have your whole life upended in the blink of an eye.
And now Matt’s a single parent, raising two young kids. The math doesn’t work nearly as well – not just financially, but also from a practical standpoint. Soccer, baseball, theater, whatever… one person can’t be in two places at the same time. We take “watching the kids” for granted when we have a spouse. When that partner passes away, it creates an enormous void, across the board. Emotionally. Mentally. Physically. Practically. And yes, financially. Friends of Matt have set up a GoFundMe for the puzzle that will always have a piece missing.
“If you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares back at you”
My dad faced that same void. Four kids under age 7, and a wife passing away from leukemia at the age of 33. So young. So unfair.
I don’t think my dad ever really recovered. How can you? But I’ll do my best to make sure that Matt, the gregarious guy I know and love, has my support. Not just this month, but ongoing. It’ll take a lot of love and support. Which can be as simple as giving one of his kids a ride to practice.
We can’t fill the void, but I hope we can make it slightly less scary.
This past Friday, several of my college friends and I shared a toast.
Not this kind:
And not this kind either:
Although I wish it were – it’d be a lot less sad.
This was a coast-to-coast toast to our dearly departed friend LJ. Friday would’ve been his 62nd birthday. Instead it was his first heavenly birthday.
My old college roommate Art and his wife Sheila picked up LJ’s wife Patty and went to a church fish fry (’tis the season) where Patty’s college suitemate Joyce and I met up with them. Then we walked to a nearby brewery taproom to raise a glass to LJ.
Because I care about connection (or maybe I’m just a sentimental sap), I asked the rest of the XU crew to send along a photo of them toasting LJ, so I could share the pix with Patty. Raising some spirits to raise spirits.
Unlike when we were in college, this time our XU crew completed their homework assignment with flying colors.
Phil and Suzanne (Patty’s volleyball teammate at XU) were in Sonoma County in California, visiting Katy (another XU alum).
Vinnie checked in from his snowbird perch in Naples, FL.
Closer to home, Mike & Missy posted a toast from their regular Friday hangout in Indianapolis…
And their daughter-in-law Donna and daughter Colleen (who met LJ and Patty in Florida last September) also joined in.
Billy raised a glass in Akron.
Kevin in D.C. got artistic with his shot.
Rick and his wife Chris checked in from Delray Beach, FL.
Walter and his wife Blakey paid tribute in Louisville, KY.
Tom got kids and grandkids in on the action. A sippy cup salute!
Brian was on vacation somewhere, but he still sent his love.
Mike B. – looking much more dapper than usual – also checked in from Indy.
And Mrs. Dubbatrubba – who couldn’t join us at the brewery due to her work schedule – raised a Muskie glass for our Muskie friend.
We weren’t together, yet we were together.
The same holds true for our bond with LJ. Even though we’re no longer together, we’re always together. Forever and ever. Cheers to that!
Operation Epstein Distraction II is underway. The “very stable genius” and the man who ended seven… no, make that eight, wars, has now destabilized the entire Middle East. Because allegedly Iran was a week away from nukes. Even though the aforementioned very stable genius claimed that he “totally obliterated” their nuclear program about eight months ago. Those Iranian scientists are quite industrious — maybe we should get them to work on lowering the price of groceries, or the cost of U.S. healthcare, or on releasing all of the Epstein files.
Here are some great questions:
There’s not a plan. There’s never a plan. Only greed, revenge, ego trips. Elect a person with the impulse control of a toddler and this is what you get. This is what we get. This is what soldiers are dying for…
Here are some more points to ponder:
#5 is the most salient. Wars are easy to start and hard to stop.
Have we learned nothing from Afghanistan? Iraq? Vietnam?
Kudos to the folks who spun up the DraftBarronTrump.com website after the very stable genius started dropping bombs (other than the ones in his diaper).
The very stable genius creates a mess, and we have to clean it up. (Now we know how the White House staff feels after he hurls another ketchup bottle.) This mess will go on for years, if not decades. Why? And now what?
(The tweets above and the link to the DraftBarronTrump website are courtesy of Jeff Tiedrich’s daily Substack posts, which are “The Emperor has no clothes” on steroids. Equal parts profane and profound.)
Kevin Sullivan on They greed. You bleed.: “love the smash mouth football D, keep it going !” Mar 31, 10:17
Kevin Sullivan on War… why? And now what?: “I read your post Damian and I like it very much. As we move from a Saturday morning headline of…” Mar 3, 09:22
Damian on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “Thanks for (not) reading the post, Kevin. And thanks for mentioning several other formats (article, essay, poem) that can train…” Feb 23, 19:55
Kevin on Smartphones are making us dumb.: “You know I didn’t read your post because I don’t need to. The lack of reading of all generations reveals…” Feb 23, 10:32
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