Grown men have buddies for life, it’s what they do

Hey buddy buddy - Grown men have buddies for life, and it’s pretty funny when you hear stories prefaced with “a buddy of mine.” I remember saying to my wife’s 45-year-old cousin, who every spring went on a southern state golfing tour with “his buddies,” that “It’s time to grow out of childhood and his best buddies stories.” Hailing from row-house Philly, we just had pals. Or in the words of the Lone Ranger referring to Tonto’s horse Scout, “That Palomino is no Palomine-O.” Fourteen buddies from Long Island came down to Rehoboth Beach March 19 to run the Shamrock Shuffle in memory of Pat Peterson, a former American record holder in the marathon who ran 2:12. Peterson died in June 2015 at the age of 55, just weeks after being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. The Shamrock Shuffle was his last race. I waded into the buddy culture, surrounded by Pat’s friends hanging off the back of a minivan with red cups. One asked me, “Hey, you want a meatball sandwich?” These buddies of Pat Peterson had 100 marathons among them, but they were not the types to eat bananas after a race.    

Intelligence jumps out at you - I can sense generalized intelligence 20 seconds into a post-game interview, just in the way an athlete expresses himself. The choice of words and critical self-analysis are the first tip-off, along with the graciousness and self-confidence that go with “high-character kids.” I have always been a Wisconsin fan, beginning with the fight song and the emphasis on academics. And yet, I badly wanted Villanova to beat them, but when Nigel Hayes did that baseline “look away coming back your way” up-and-under left-handed over-the-shoulder bank shot, I simply spouted into thin air, “That was nasty.” What struck me in the post-game interview with Hayes was his explanation of the move, likening it to a move made famous by Michael “the ceiling is the roof” Jordan. Hayes is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. On the team athletic website, it reads: “One of the most endearing figures of the 2015 NCAA Tournament after displaying his playful wit and vocabulary during postseason press conferences.” I’d like to teach a class for high school athletes on how to handle themselves in post-game interviews and other random acts of intelligence. Three times 600 on the new SAT gets you through the door at Wisconsin.   

Big German Guy - One of my many aliases I use to describe my travels is Big German Guy, although once Tommy Coveleski joked, “Is Big Fat German Guy going to the championship lacrosse game Saturday?” “It’s Big German Guy, Tommy. By the way, does the TC stand for Top Cat, which was a great cartoon, and why I gotta be Big Fat German Guy?” Speaking of Big German Guys, Moritz Wagner, a 6-foot-11, 240-pound sophomore at Michigan out of Alba Berlin High School in Germany, scored 26 against Louisville. His nickname is Moe, so you know somewhere on the roster are Larry and Curly.

Snippets - Go to www.websites4sports for high school scores and schedules - some schools even publish rosters and numbers. I’ve concluded filling out a bracket is a bad idea if you simply want to kick back and enjoy the NCAA basketball tournament. I’ll all about rooting for the “dogs,” although I didn’t pick many of them. In psychology, it’s called “retroactive inhibition” when knowledge of the past gets in the way of performance in the presence. Ask the Villanova and Duke players; perhaps they can explain the concept. Did you see the look on the face of Doug Collins when Northwestern, coached by his son Chris, was playing? I can relate. I get like that watching grandkids play or even in a play. High school teams start to play for real this week. Thank goodness play days are over. Have fun out there, but there’s always the chance you won’t. Go on now, git!