Sports(?) Report **Special Edition**

I used to write one of these every week. That was back when I was paid to sit at a desk for four hours a day and do only about an hour’s worth of actual work. These days, as a singing cupcake decorator, I am kept much busier. Also, my favorite sports teams suck. So there’s that.

Anyway, here’s your report for June 27, 2006:

I guess it’s best to begin with the one sport that’s still being played. Baseball season is not looking too good for my Cubbies. In fact, just last night I said (to no one in particular) “I won’t watch another Cubs game until they win four in a row.” Seems reasonable enough, until you realize that the Cubs haven’t won four games in a row yet this season! Even as I write this, they’re losing 1-0 to Milwaukee. But there is a light at the end of the day…Emily Suzanne Marrero was born! That’s right. I’m an Uncle…again!

In other sports I care about this year:

The Indianapolis Colts, favorites to go all the way and win the Super Bowl, lost in week two of the playoffs way back in January after earning a first week bye. They earned a bye in the second week too, I guess. A “bye-bye”. (The Pittsburgh Steelers went on to win the Super Bowl.)

Baby Emily weighed in at 8 lbs. 9 oz. Still, no Marrero has beating King Dan at 9 lbs 14 oz., but she’s a good and healthy baby girl and we love her anyway.

The Indiana Pacers, in the first year of the post-Reggie Miller era, stumbled blindly into the post-season. They were a 6 or 7 seed. I forget now and really don’t care. They lost in the first round, too. They did trade away the best defenseman in the league, Ron Artest. I still don’t know if that’s a good thing, but hey, at least we’re not the Knicks. (The Miami Heat became the NBA champs for the first time in their franchise history.)

Baby Emily was measured at 20 inches. Once again, she falls just short of King Dan who boasts the measurement of 22.5 inches. Unfortunately, birth was the last time anyone was impressed with (or fooled by) his inches.

College sports were pretty wretched this year. Purdue’s football team didn’t qualify for a bowl game. No Indiana school was represented in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament. Professional hockey made a return after missing a season due to a player’s strike. What broke the strike, I’m told, was the thought that the Tampa Bay Lightning might go down as being the last Stanley Cup winners, and puckheads worldwide just couldn’t allow that to happen!

Baby Emily is the first daughter of Steve and Tracey. She is the little sister of Nicholas, the 5th grandchild of John and Linda Marrero, the first niece of John Peter and Amy Marrero, but the third niece for Aunt Vicki and Uncle Dan. She is the cousin of Jacob, Jessica, and Jenna and the Great-granddaughter of Bridget “Bea” Empey.

Sam Hornish, Jr. won the 2006 Indianapolis 500. Barbaro won the Kentucky Derby and then broke his leg in the Preakness Stakes. Tiger Woods hasn’t won a Major in what seems like forever. And as I write this, the Cubs are down 2-0 in the 4th. Manager Dusty Baker is on a very, very hot seat. So how about some non-sports news?

This day in history June 27…

Pope Agatho begins his reign, 678. The first woman’s magazine, “The Ladies’ Mercury” published in London, 1693. New York and Boston linked by telegraph wires, 1847. Helen Keller was born, 1880. State record 100 degrees Fahrenheit temperature recorded at Ft. Yukon, Alaska, 1915. Hank Gowdy becomes the first baseball to enter the WWI draft, 1917. Bob Keeshan, TV’s “Captain Kangaroo”, was born, 1927. First color TV demo, 1929. H. Ross Perot was born, 1930. The Brooklyn Dodgers tie the Boston Braves, 2-2, in 23 innings, 1939. Vera Wang was born, 1949. President Harry S Truman ordered the Air Force and Navy into the Korean War, 1950. Bill J. Kramer and the Dakotas record the Lennon/McCartney tune, “I Call Your Name”, 1963. John W. Dean tells Watergate Committee of President Nixon’s “enemies list”, 1973. Tobey McGuire, Hollywood’s “Spider-Man”, was born, 1975. Mike Tyson knocks out Michael Spinx in 91 second, 1988. After that, June 27 was essentially just skipped over until 2006, when Emily Suzanne Marrero was born with ten fingers, ten toes, two eyes, a nose, and all the rest of her parts, happy and healthy in the red state of Florida.

Welcome to the world, Emily!

(Oh, and right now the Cubs are tied with Milwaukee, 3-3 in the top of the 7th. I won’t be watching it but Go Cubs!)