Closing In On It

Click photo to enlarge.

Thanks to yeoman work by the crew charged with removing snow, the Dartmouth baseball team opened its home season yesterday on sun-splashed Red Rolfe Field at Biondi Park.

With Rolfe finally playable, snow removal has intensified next door in anticipation of the start of spring football on Tuesday. There were three pieces of heavy machinery out there at one time yesterday sending rooster tails of snow skyward.

A little rain a few days ago followed by warmer temperatures and sunshine has helped move the work along. The forecast calls for highs in the upper 40s through Saturday and the low 50s Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, which should add up to a clear field for the start of spring drills. Hardly seemed possible a few days ago (or looking out my window up here on the mountain).

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Brown football kicks off spring practice tomorrow. It should be an interesting few weeks in Providence. A story headlined, Brown Football Looks To Re-Tool At Launch Of Spring Practice includes this:

Estes' squad will look to re-tool with a fresh approach after losing 11 starters on offense and seven more on the defensive side of the ball.

If Brown coach Phil Estes isn't the best in the Ivy League at retooling a team that has been decimated by graduation he's breathing down the neck of the person who is. It would seem that his mettle will be severely tested this time around. LINK

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Ivy League Co-Champion Princeton started spring ball last week and the official team website has a story headlined, 12 Questions For 12 Practices: Ivy Champions Open 2014 Spring Session.

The first question is perhaps the most important: How hungry is the hunted? LINK

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A website called The Richest has a list of Top 10 Recent NFL Brainiacs. The list: 1) Ryan Fitzpatrick, Harvard; 2) Mike Catapano, Princeton; 3) Kevin Boothe, Cornell; 4) Zak DeOssie, Brown; 5) Desmond Bryant, Harvard; 6) Bryan Walters, Cornell; 7) Dennis Norman, Princeton; 8) Myron Rolle, Florida State; 9) Matt Birk Harvard; 10) Nate Lawrie, Yale

This is not to throw stones where we live, but really? Just because you went to an Ivy League school doesn't mean you are a "brainiac." And rest assured there are "brainiacs" in the NFL who didn't go to Ivy League schools. LINK

For what it's worth, the writer weakens her case with this bit from the story:

He’s described himself as a fish out of water in the Ivy League, someone who didn’t spend much time with students outside of his teammates and focused more on his playing than his studying. He eventually made it through and got his degree in Psychology.