Sports Interconnect

01 Apr 2026

Hear it here!

Sports interconnect.

They run into each other. It wasn’t always that way. Baseball ended, football began, followed by hockey and basketball. When hockey and basketball finished up, it was time for baseball.

Now all sports run longer on the calendar so lots of things are going on at the same time.

I originally intended to welcome baseball with thoughts on opening day, but Duke and UConn played a March Madness game to decide who would join Michigan, Arizona, and Illinois in this year’s Final Four.

We’ll still embrace the start of the baseball season but first things first.

Just when you think you’ve seen everything, a moment appears that jogs your memory to when it might have happened before.

Then you realize it’s something you never have quite seen.

Duke was favored to beat UConn in the East Regional final to advance to this week’s Final Four.

Both have powerful hoop histories. Duke has won five previous national championships; Connecticut has captured six. I was surprised when I saw UConn had won more than Duke.

Duke dominated the first half and led by as many as 19. The Blue Devils, who have battled injuries (who hasn’t?) displayed remarkable defense, making everything the Huskies tried difficult. For example, UConn was able to connect on only one three-point basket on 18 attempts at one point in the contest. Offensively and off the boards, the brothers Boozer, Cameron and Cayden were brilliant. Duke was in control.

Then UConn started to chip away in the second half. No surprise there. You can’t keep a team as good as UConn down forever.

Yet, despite a rally by Dan Hurley’s team, Duke managed to keep the Huskies at arm’s length. Then things got close. Real close.

With 51 seconds left, Duke’s lead was shaved to one. But the Blue Devils responded, led by three, and when UConn could convert only one of two free throws it seemed like the Huskies, now down by two, had made a valiant run but would fall short.

Here is where the sheer unpredictability of sports comes into play. It was Duke who became rattled, lost the ball when all they needed to do was hold it, wait for a foul, or even throw it high into the rafters. Only five seconds remained. Not enough time to be in danger. They lost it and then came the heroic play. Freshman Braylon Mullins struggling with his shot all game fired up a desperation 31-foot shot way beyond the 3-point line. It went in. It was Connecticut who would win by one point. A stunning a turn of events as you could imagine.

How do you unravel a shocker like that? Count the ways. It’s so easy to watch from afar and pass judgment.

But the first reaction would be that Duke choked. But that’s a word I never use, because it is totally unfair to those who are in the heat of action where sometimes the human beings who are out there may not respond ideally. It is not solitaire as the great coach Red Auerbach once said, the opposition is trying to do their best as well. I think trying too hard, thus making a critical mistake, is the best term to use. You can’t tell me a team that has players who lost only two games will freeze up at critical moments. In the 1993 NCAA Championship game, Michigan’s Chris Webber, one of the best ever to play the game, called a timeout with 11 seconds left and his team trailing North Carolina by two points. But Michigan had no timeouts remaining and the blunder resulted in a technical foul which allowed the Tar Heels to nail down the title.

Duke’s faux pas is similar. But these things happen. Any coach will tell you that the mental error by his team or a bad officials call never is the reason for a loss. There are many instances leading up to the ‘critical’ miscue, that puts a team in the position to lose when the unfortunate moment comes. Coaches know this.

The stunning victory by UConn over Duke was precisely why sports is so great. Things happen. Sometimes they are unthinkable.

Now, let’s jump to the pleasant and hopeful moment called Opening Day, which baseball celebrated last week.

Those two words have always been magic to me. From the time I was as young as nine Opening Day was the beginning of a new life, a baseball life, which is what each new season of baseball meant to me.

For one thing it meant the weather was getting better. But it was always a time for joy, hope, and a renewal of the sport I loved the most, and the long, beautiful six months about to unfold.

The ballpark was decorated with the bunting that appeared on the railings, both lower and upper deck.

The only other time you’d see the red, white, and blue material was at the World Series.

I adored every single one, but I recall two opening days, one when I was a young fan rooting for my Giants at the Polo Grounds, the other when I was a reporter 20 years later.

In 1954, the Giants opened the season against their big rivals, the Brooklyn Dodgers. Little did I know it would become a championship season for my team, but a win over the hated Dodgers would be a thrill in itself.

My father’s seats were not far from the visiting dugout, and I remember looking into the Dodgers’ dugout and getting a glimpse of their new manager Walter Alston. I knew hardly anything about the man, but I eventually did as Alston managed the Brooklyn, later Los Angeles Dodgers for 23 years (all one-year contracts). He became one of the greatest skippers of all-time, leading the Dodgers to four World Series championships.

The Giants won that opening game 4-3, and I was gleeful heading for a family trip to Florida the very next day.

What I recall the most of our automobile drive South, was that my Dad was insistent that we bypass the city of Baltimore on our route. Why? The Orioles were going to play their very first game in Baltimore after moving from St. Louis, where they were known as the Browns for 52 years, and the traffic would be heavy.

Twenty years later, I was in Louisville for an ABA basketball playoff broadcast between the Kentucky Colonels and the Carolina Cougars. But the game was called off because of a tornado that struck the area.

It opened a hole in the roof of Freedom Hall where the game was to be played. No game, and great concern for everyone in the area. I had a problem.

The next day I was scheduled to drive from Louisville to Cincinnati for the 1974 season opener between the Reds and the Atlanta Braves. I was to do a report on that game for a CBS Sports weekend news show.

Henry Aaron needed one home run to tie Babe Ruth at 714 for the all-time MLB record. I didn’t know if I could get out of Louisville and obviously didn’t know how Aaron would do Opening Day.

The tornado had passed and done its damage. I drove the 100-mile distance and saw houses that were leveled adjacent to houses that weren’t touched by the cone of the tornado. A matter of sheer luck, one way or another for those residents in Kentucky.

I arrived at Riverfront Stadium just across from the Kentucky border, among the sellout crowd. How thin a line separated the people who lost their homes, from the joyous throng celebrating Opening Day.

I didn’t have to wait long for the real drama. Aaron slugged a three-run homer in the very first inning for #714 to tie the Babe, and I did my report. Four days later Henry Aaron broke the record with a home run in Atlanta against the Dodgers.

A couple of Opening Day memories. Twenty years apart.

Along with a salute to a great March Madness moment.

College basketball approaching its conclusion.

Baseball just getting underway.