UMassHoops.com

Sign Man Says
"JUMP UP!"

"JUMP DOWN!"

Play Ball:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/poor-ma ... 00760.html

Three months ago, tomorrow...
February 3, to wit...
SM "celebrated" anniversary 25 as Sign Man.
1st sign vs. FSU
http://umasshoops.com/games/1993-94/19940203.htm

Today matches numbers...
SM's birthday with Mrs. SM's UM class year.

always chasing Old Cage, but never seem to get any closer.

Most recent SM sign, from my non-athletics sign making...
https://www.facebook.com/RonnieEarlBlue ... =3&theater

Ronnie is one of the world's greatest blues guitarist players...
lives in my general area.

We went to his gig the night before his birthday, at the Bull Run, and he did an amazing 3 hour show.
Also, this past Saturday night, @ Tupelo, in Derry; about 2:15 long show, with a guest appearance from a friend of his from nearby in NH...

FREE CONCERT!!!

ATTENTION Southern CT Posters/Readers...
Great opp to see and hear my amazing, dynamic friend, Dana Fuchs, perform live/outdoors/FREE...

This coming Tuesday evening, as part of the CHIRP series of free concerts in Ridgefield, CT.
https://chirpct.org/events/2019-concerts/
scroll down a little to her gig info.

We first saw her 8+ years ago, at the Bull Run in Shirley MA. She totally mesmerized us with that performance, as did the opening act, another (blonde) dynamic female singer, local to our area and a UMie.

Mr. & Mrs SM see Dana typically 2-4 times/year @ various venues throughout New England and upstate NY...
never a disappointment.

She will Rock your Heart with her amazing talent.

Dana also starred in the movie Across the Universe, as Sadie.

If you are a music lover, this is a can't miss one for you.

One of my fave Sign Man (signed) signs is my Dana sign...
DANA TOTALLY ROCKS, with a great pic of her tinted in shades of Blue.

ROCK ON, fellow UMies, this lady can Rock her Blues!

Happy Birthday yesterday to Red Sox prospect Brainer Bonaci, playing now in the Dominican Summer League...

Young (17) and smart!

a continuation of SM post on Football Recruiting 2019 re: meeting Connor Lemieux...

the following day, this past Saturday, a two-day prior to the present...
I stopped at the Market basket in Littleton...

Outside, three young 20s dudes were killing time around the shopping carts with the kids extensions...
thinking about riding one of them in one, disappointed a tad they were not battery powered.

I, naturally, engaged them in conversation re: never growing up, telling them Mrs SM often asks when I am going to grow up and replying to her: "NEVER!"

Fast Forward conversation with them...
They are from Greenfield and all UM students...
three of them: Identical twins, appearance about 6'2" 200 lb in good shape...
other...maybe 5'11' 170, perhaps in runner's shape.

The latter, Sam, is a chem major...
I commented that chem has been considered a great dept since back when I was there and prior...
asked him if he'd heard of retired chem prof Dave Adams... (no)

Twins major in something tech/puters...
I commented re: that's a $good career path, mentioning my tech girls and our younger daughter, Software Developer and mentioning her field...to which they immediately asked if she works for XYZ Company (yes); that UM students in their field of study try to get interviews with (XYZ) company.

I left them with Sun Micro founder Scott McNealey's "Work Hard/Play Hard."

My advice to all of our posters and non-poster readers...
engage people in conversation.
Much to learn and friends to make...

...for the record, the initial training program at that company, after hire, is considered highly desirable and a gateway to potential career success.

For our forlorn posters who only hold out a dash of hope re: hoops and grid...

I am considering establishing a new Fratority for you...

Stygma Alpha Pi.

Preferential Rush Week for Signentists

Pretty cool...

We were flying home from MN (no, you don't want to go to MN in January...nasty brrr)...
Wednesday early night...delayed some because our connection @ ORD, it, not us, coming in from TPA, had a maintenance issue and was grounded while we waited for another plane; not too long...
but, it did mean that around hoops game time we were in the air heading across upstate NY into Berkman's Berks, over the Pit and the Berks, with me in a window seat with a view to the south.

The redone left eye Rx lens now in my glasses made the clarity looking out and down much better, as we passed over two Berks ski areas and headed towards Amherst, a few+ miles to my right. Visibility was very clear and there it was, quite distinct, UMass, lit up with the evening lights of the buildings. Quite easy to see my Orchard Hill ...
nice experience.

Just another SM Fly by Night experience...

How did the bubble look from cruising altitude?

Seeing UMass along that flight path is amazing. Had a wonderful view of it coming back from Chicago one time.

Got back home from Antigua 2 a.m. Monday then got sick Tuesday afternoon; mostly bad cough, so have been limiting self to mostly inside resting/sleeping/resting/falling asleep watching TV...
Had planned on going to hoops Tuesday nite but that was not possible...
kudos to OC & Dr G for hauling out there...I sometimes see them at the Orange MA Shell pit stop...few others there unlike the great years.

I have had some sports related encounters in the Carib, both on Bequia in December and this months in Antigua.

Two other couples were staying where we were on Bequia. One of them from Canada. They both have professional sports backgrounds.
He has a sports production company (technical) and has been doing Olympics for a long time...won several Grammies, too...

I was planning to learn more about the confusing sport of cricket on Antigua, where their West Indies teams in the 80s and 90s were possibly the best in the world. Plan was to meet with one of the legendary cricket plays this trip, but he had to leave for Pakistan right after we left and returned right after we returned. He was the ref for a Bangladesh @ Pakistan match.
We'll get together early next year in Antigua.

He and his wife purchased the "villa" we stay at along with the one next door. Two couples were staying next door, from Canada; sisters and their husbands. The night before we left for home, Mrs SM and THE SM (me) had dinner at a nearby restaurant, then headed to the local beach bar near our place where a great band, Itchy Feet, was playing. Got there @ 9:30 pm and a few people were dancing to the music; then in a while maybe a dozen. The drinks were flowing, all were having fun and then there were about 60 in front of the band dancing up a Caribbean storm.

We shared our time with some new friends from the U.K. and the two Canadian couples. One of the husbands and I got going on sports and after a few more drinks, I brought up Sign Man, to which he was laughing quite a bit...especially re: a few stories and pics of some signs.

He is 66 and told me he played football in his day, for the Edmonton Eskimos, OL including the five consecutive Grey Cup wins with Warren Moon... I was impressed.

Before we left on Sunday, we spoke and found out we had checked each other out online.

He had found the 2007 Collegian SM article, articulating re: Moses, telling me that I was even more famous than I apparently told him the night before, all the while LOL.

I told him I checked him out and found he was a serious pro football player for 10 yrs.

I even found a pic of his football card with the Eskimos. Mrs SM chimed in that she told me I was not going to buy one off ebay...her orders...

Dude told me it was priceless; that they once tried auctioning one off at a fundraiser and could not $1 for it...lots of laughs...
We'll likely continue the fun next Feb.

I also found a really good piece online I want to share here...

https://www.thestar.com/sports/football ... hieve.html

Fund raising...
I got +++ emails this week from UFlorida re: giving...
from the Pres., my MBA Business School, Spurrier, Wuerffel, et al...
seemed they had one of those one day all out fund raisers...

I forget how much UM raised last time they did it...

UF results:
$23.6 million from 16,993 gifts in just 24 hours!

Please do not comment that we are not them...

I have always promoted high goals...
my time w the AA BOD
my attempts to help w Athletics...

The common theme I was hit back on was re: not to set too high goals we may not meet...
too many admins, generally not UMies, who felt they would look bad...& too many UMies with self interests & same for their friends
UGH!

Not surprising when I was dissed out of the GIC ... I resigned ...
after they totally blew it re: GIC memberships/$$$
rejecting the plan I proved successful during a four month test...
and forever thanks to many of you who helped out then...

Kind of leaves me scratching my head re: the AD's email re: what? 4 points of success recently including the GIC raising $250K for 2018 I think it was...

IMHO, that's chicken feed considering the base we have to work with.
I had been thinking about at least $250K by 2016 and $1M/annum by last year or earlier...

I moved on long ago...
can't work with people more interested in themselves than the common cause...

doing other things elsewhere (not public U's) without the headaches is much better.

I just asked Mrs SM if I should post here she approves...
Her response...
"Keep me out of this sh**!"

Mrs.SM sounds like a very wise woman.