More random thoughts on a June weekend with rain in the forecast and breezy conditions:
Overlooked in last week’s column was Golden Tempo’s last-to-first victory in the Belmont Stakes, the third leg of horse racing’s Triple Crown. The Kentucky Derby winner passed on participating in the Preakness as the horse’s owners and trainer prioritized the horse’s health, deciding that the grueling two-week turnaround from the Derby was too demanding. Unless racing authorities change the order of events or space them out differently, you’ll see more of the same, as recent Derby winners Sovereignty (2025), Rich Strike (2022), and Country House (2019) also had trainers who followed the same philosophy. Makes it tough to claim a Triple Crown if you only race in two events!
The New York Knicks won the NBA title Saturday night, once again rallying from a significant second-half deficit to take down San Antonio. In claiming their first title in 53 years, the Knicks made their fan base, as well as national television advertisers, delirious with joy! The question that arises is did the Knicks win or did the Spurs choke their way to a series loss?
Congratulations to Tri-Village senior-to-be Dom Black on committing to the University of Kentucky to continue his football career. Dom will be the guest on this coming week’s “Talk of the Town” episode on MyCountyLink as Mike Stegall and I interview him concerning his recruiting experiences at college football’s highest level. Speaking of Big Blue Nation, do you recall the last time the ‘Cats men’s basketball team won a national title?
Saw an interesting use of a robot when stopping in Columbia City, IN this weekend at a Kroger’s. A six-foot high, four-by-four looking robot was cruising up and down the aisles, taking a running inventory of shelved products. The robot was appropriately named Tally!
Restaurant of the Week honors go to Hoosier Proper, located in downtown Warsaw, IN, across from the courthouse. It’s an American bistro and chophouse that offers an eclectic variety of items that are new takes on basic Midwestern foods grown locally. The duck fat fries and beef yaka mein are musts, with the overall menu having something for everyone from meat and potatoes folks to food connoisseurs.
My wife and I stopped by Hoosier Proper after attending our eight-year-old granddaughter’s dance recital in the Kosciusko County seat. The two-hour show was well worth the five-hour round-trip drive on Saturday, which followed a four-hour sojourn to Granville, OH, the day before to catch our grandson’s three high school basketball scrimmages held at Denison University. It’s what grandparents do, but the price of gas does get your attention; we did fill up in Indiana, where regular gas was $3.19/gallon!!
Delphos St. John’s followed a D-VII boys basketball title in March with a state title trophy in D-VII baseball this weekend. This brings to mind the imbalance that still exists in some prep sports even after the OHSAA instituted “competitive balance” rules a few years ago to even the field between public and private schools.
Of the 28 teams that participated in the seven divisions in baseball this weekend in the Akron-Canton area, 13 were from private or parochial schools, including all four in D-III. With the ability to attract athletes from a wide geographic area these programs have a built-in advantage over public schools. One possible solution that has been discussed for years is separate state tournaments for the publics and privates, say four divisions in public play and two in the private sector. What are your thoughts?
Kentucky’s Wildcats last won a men’s basketball trophy in 2012 under the guidance of John Calipari by beating Kansas 67-59. In looking up that information, I came across the last time THE played in a national hoops title game, losing to Florida in 2007. What made that loss particularly galling was that only a few months earlier, the Gators had dethroned the defending national football champion Buckeyes with a 41-14 shellacking in the championship game!
Finally, just when you thought you had enough to be concerned about in everyday life comes word that the New World Screwworm Fly is threatening the US cattle industry! Larvae from the fly eat live flesh from open wounds in cattle, mainly from branding and dehorning practices. To combat the disease, the USDA is spending $750 million to build a fly factory in southern Texas that can produce up to 300 million sterile male flies a week. In a time-tested method, these sterile flies will mate with female flies, eventually causing the overall population to decline and then die out. But fear not, agricultural officials are quick to note that the fly does not infest food and is unlikely to damage beef production here in the States! Thankfully, that’s one less thing to lose sleep over!!
Have a great week! Enjoy those summer cookouts!!
