TERRY MOSHER
TOP OF THE TOWN – We (I) have raised a sports monster in Michael, our youngest son. I didn’t think it was possible for somebody to know more sports than me. I have been around sports or been involved in sports almost since I began walking. It wasn’t something planned, it just happened. I even know something about golf, even though I am the worse golfer (or was when I played) in the world and while I dislike soccer (I’ll watch World Cup) I know enough about it to be dangerous. This reminds me when I was in middle school we would occasional be required to play soccer in PE. I didn’t hate it, but it was close. At that age, I was better in the three major sports — baseball, basketball and football – than kids three and four years older than me. When we played soccer in PE kids who could not walk and chew gum at the same time ran circles around me. I just wanted to throttle them, but I couldn’t catch them. Now I have a son – Michael – who loves soccer. He kind of wishes he played soccer while in high school. The only reason he didn’t was because the season ran the same time as baseball, which he did play. But, oh yeah, he loves baseball, including college (Washington Huskies) and softball (Washington Huskies). He’s all in to the college baseball playoffs right now. He tells me Stanford is the best team in the Pac-12 and is seeded No. 2 in the postseason to Tennessee. Tennessee must be awful good because Michael says in the playoffs “It’s Tennessee, and then everybody else. They have the best pitching and they have hit 141 home runs.”The Vols are 53-7, have a team ERA of 2.35 and a WHIP of .96 (anything close to 1.0 is phenomenal). By the way, did you see where UCLA beat Oregon State 25-22 in 10 innings on a walk-off three-run home run by a guy who was hitting his first career home run? Yeah, UCLA scored nine times in the bottom of the ninth to force extras. After Oregon State scored a run in the top of the 10th, the Bruins came back with four in the bottom half of the inning to win it and force another game in the Pac-12 baseball tournament. The Beavers won that game and then lost to Stanford in the conference title game. A total of 16 pitchers were used in the UCLA-Oregon State game. There were 53 total hits and the two clubs batted a collective .495, Stanford, which won the regular Pac-12 season, beat Oregon State 9-5 to win the conference championship, the first of its kind for the Pac-12. The NCAA D-1 tournament gets underway June 3 with 16 regionals of four teams each. Stanford (41-14) is the host for its regional and meets Binghamton (22-28) in a first-round game. Texas State (45-12) plays UC Santa Barbara (43-12) in the second game of the regional. The Washington Huskies, by the way, finished 30-26 (14-16 and tied for 6th in the Pac-12). They beat Stanford two of three games and ended the season on a 12-game winning streak. The Huskies lost their first two games in the conference tournament 13-8 to Oregon State and 14-8 to UCLA … So the Boston Celtics outlasted the Miami Heat and Jimmy Butler and will take on Golden State for the NBA championship in the best of seven that starts Thursday at Golden State. Butler was sensational for the Heat, scoring 47 in Game 6, but his 35 points in Game 7 couldn’t stop the Celtic from winning 100-96. Who do you have in the finals? I like the Warriors, but, hey, I’’m no expert on the NBA. All I really know is Steph Curry is an incredible shooter. He makes 30-footers look so easy. Hey, that is it for today. Stay safe.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.
