Sports outlook

Here are a few random anecdotes as we anxiously await the eventual warmth that follows the lengthening days.

You've undoubtedly heard the saying, What goes around, comes around."

Well, back in 1958, Walter O'Malley and the Brooklyn Dodgers broke the heart of a borough and changed baseball forever by moving their beloved Dodgers to Los Angeles, all because a man named Robert Moses refused to launch condemnation proceedings so the Dodgers could obtain the land at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic for a new stadium to replace the crumbling Ebbets Field.

Brooklyn has remained rudderless ever since, one of the largest cities in the nation and the only one of its size without a major league sports team or an airport.

Suddenly, on Jan. 15, the New Jersey Nets announced they were moving their NBA franchise to Brooklyn. The city was back in the big leagues, but needed just one thing to accommodate the Nets, a new arena. And so it will be built, at the corner of Flatbush and Atlantic. What goes around, comes around.

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While watching the Kansas City Chiefs fritter away their last chance to beat Indianapolis, a sense of deja vu gripped me. When Dick Vermeil elected to punt rather than try the onside kick, my mind harkened back to Sept. 20, 2002 and Logan Field where the Nevada Tigers coaching staff made the very same decision with the same exact result against the East Newton Patriots. On neither occasion did the punting team get the ball back.

I ask the same question today as I asked then. What makes coaches think they can suddenly come up with a defense that can stop an offense it has been unable to stop throughout the game. It's time some of these coaches wake up and face reality.

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I got a kick out of one incident in that insane St. Louis Rams loss to Carolina. It was fourth-and-three and the announcers were going on about how the coach was a Mississippi gambler and he simply had to go for the first down, which it appeared they were about to do.

St. Louis lined up, then called time out and decided to punt. Not missing a beat, the same announcer kept running his mouth, saying this had to be the obvious decision and it was the right thing to do. Huh?

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There are no bigger Boston Red Sox fans in Nevada than Jim Novak and Wilson Liter. Liter is more mild-mannered than Novak, who hates anything related to the New York Yankees. Since his National League team has always been the Chicago Cubs, Novak also hates the St. Louis Cardinals.

When the Yankees lost Andy Pettitte to the Houston Astros, Novak was ecstatic that this has to help the Red Sox, even though it won't do the Cubs much good. Then, one cold day, Roger Clemens decided he enjoyed his victory tour so much, he'd retire again, this time from the National League, and promptly became a Houston Astro.

While these two pitching acquisitions will undoubtedly help the Astros best the Cubs, the joy Novak is getting from what has happened to the Yankees overpowers all other emotions. Well, Wilson, what's your take?

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For the first time in the XXXVIII-year history of the Super Bowl, the two combatants were from nowhere. First, you have New England and I have no clue as to where Gillette Stadium is actually located. Is it in Massachusetts, Rhode Island or Connecticut.? To the best of my knowledge, I'd say Massachusetts, but wouldn't be willing to bet much on it.

And then you have Carolina. Even the announcer was confused on this one as he made a reference to the "Carolina fans," just prior to the game. Just what Carolina is that? There are two of them -- North and South. Somehow, I do know the stadium is located in Charlotte. I wonder how the fans from Charlotte who buy the season tickets think of the owners who disavow them.

You know, I was pretty satisfied and didn't think about the fact that the winners of the first XXXV Super Bowls were all real cities: Baltimore, St. Louis, Denver, Green Bay, Dallas, Washington, New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles, Oakland, Pittsburgh, Miami and Kansas City. All of a sudden we get New England in XXXVI and Tampa Bay in XXXVII. When will we get our next real city on the list? At least fans celebrated their victory in Boston. Reminded me of a real team, the Boston Patriots.

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Do you pay attention to background noise?

Here is evidence that kids pick up more information from the radio than one might think. When Jim McCann and I were very young, we were really close friends, probably because so many of our interests were the same with baseball being at the top of the list. And why I recall these times, I don't know.

I was at his home on West Cherry Street one Wednesday afternoon in February of 1956. The radio was on when we heard the news that Connie Mack was dead. We talked about Connie Mack the rest of the day.

In October of 1958, we were at this second-hand store, I think run by Shipp, behind the county jail. The radio was on and McCann and I were thumbing through some old comic books when we heard that the Brooklyn Dodgers were leaving for Los Angeles.

And this column has run full circle.