TL's Sunday Sports Notes | May 25
While We're Young (Ideas) | An Important Tribute & The Memorial
By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk
BOSTON - Not this weekend, but next, the PGA Tour will make its way to Muirfield Village in Dublin, Ohio to stage “The Memorial,” in honor of the greatest golfer of his time, Jack Nicklaus. The current World No. 1, Scottie Scheffler, will look to defend his title at the highly competitive event where Nicklaus, himself, presents the honors to the winner and is standing on the 18th green to shake hands and congratulate the PGA Tour pro who finishes atop the leaderboard.
While you might think Nicklaus’ tournament is a tribute to the military, it is actually a tribute to the great golfers who’ve contributed to the game. The official tournament site puts it bluntly, “to honor the memory of individuals living and deceased who have distinguished themselves in the game of golf.”
That’s pretty good, as you don’t have to be dead to be honored. A novel idea.
But “The Memorial” golf tournament nicely marks the start of summer while the federal holiday is to honor and mourn the military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Recognizing the holiday began in 1868 and was known as “Decoration Day,” suggested by Commander John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic to honor the Union soldiers who had died in the American Civil War.
Memorial Day is not to be confused with Veterans Day (originally known as Armistice Day) which is a federal holiday in the United States, observed annually on November 11th. Both days honor military veterans of the United States Armed Forces. Veteran’s Day coincides with holidays in several countries, including Armistice Day and Remembrance Day, which also occur on the anniversary of the end of World War I.
While Memorial Day most years brings somber thoughts of the brave soldiers who fought and made the ultimate sacrifice in conflicts and wars all over the world, this year, and in my mind, this Memorial Day 2025 will be dedicated to a selfless servant of his community who lost his life after a lengthy battle vs. illness.
But now, my customary zig-zag.
Carl Richard “Dick” Gumina passed away peacefully at his home, surrounded by his loving family, on April 5, 2025, at the age of 91. Mr. Gumina was predeceased by his wife of 61 years, Rosemary and his son, Carl “Rick” Gumina Jr.. His funeral Mass was celebrated at Holy Trinity Church in Upstate, New York on May 20th.
He is survived by a small army of sons, brothers, nephews, nieces and in-laws, and was the cherished “Poppi” to 12 grandchildren - Jamie (m Rob), Josh (m Jen), Ricky, Joey, Justin (m Emily), Tyler, Jack, Grace, Adriana, Christopher, James, and Katherine - and a proud “Great Poppi” to four great-grandchildren.
Christopher, James and Katherine are my nephews and niece, as I’m related to Mr. Gumina’s son, William (Buddy), through marriage.
Mr. Gumina grew up in Buffalo Bills territory - near Rochester, NY, and received degree from SUNY-Brockport and a master’s degree from Syracuse University. Professionally, Dick was a beloved guidance counselor at Pittsford Sutherland High School, (11 miles from his residence in Webster) where he spent nearly 40 years inspiring students.
The Rochester-area obituary notifying a legion of co-workers, students, neighbors and friends of his passing told a little more about a man who embodied the “Greatest Generation.”
“Dick was a masterful teacher in every sense of the word,” it read. “He shared his passions, including fishing, gardening, woodworking, and card-playing, with family and friends, though no one ever managed to beat him at euchre, his favorite card game. He listened with patience, loved unconditionally, and offered wisdom without judgment.
“Dick had a deep appreciation for the simple joys of life: classic movies and television (especially MeTV), loud laughter, and moments shared with those he loved. Though his presence will be profoundly missed, his legacy of love, laughter, and generosity will live on in the hearts of all who were lucky enough to know him.
And, a key item included that tells all of everything they’d want to remember:
“Showing the same selflessness in death as in life, Dick donated his body to the University of Rochester Medical School and, as a result, interment will be held at a later date.”
Yes, Mr. Gumina, the greatest of the Greatest Generation with 91 years living a life well done, as he served his important vocation , caring for his students and his family. And, in death, he is still teaching. And, while he can no longer enjoy everything life has to offer, he is doing what he can do and it’s saving lives.
HERE NOW, THE NOTES: Boston Red Sox reliever Liam Hendriks allowed three runs on three hits in a Red Sox loss to the New York Mets on Wednesday. By Friday, he’d had enough. Social media accounts via Twitter (x), Instagram, TikTok and others were filled with hateful messages and even some death threats to Hendriks and his wife and family. “This is almost a daily occurrence for almost everyone in this clubhouse,” said Hendriks Friday morning, prior to a (rained out) doubleheader against the Orioles. “That’s the upsetting part, and it’s not being controlled in the right way.”
Hendriks decided that no one else in Major League Baseball, nor the various social media companies was acting, so he took it upon himself to call attention to the issue, gathering the assembled media around his clubhouse locker and inviting local radio station WEEI to broadcast the entire discussion and Q & A session. The Red Sox owned TV station, NESN, later televised news clips.
“With the rise of sports gambling, it’s gotten a lot worse,” said Hendriks. “Unfortunately, that tends to be what it ends up being - whether it be Venmo requests (for money, presumably to reimburse gamblers for their debts), whether it be people telling you in their comments that I was like, ‘Hey, you blew my parlay. Go [expletive] yourself.’ … And then it’s, ‘Go hang yourself. You should kill yourself. I wish you died from cancer.’ That one kind of hit a little too close to home for me with everything I’ve gone through,” said the reliever who was diagnosed with stage 4 non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in January 2023.
“This is something that is deplorable,” said Hendriks. “There needs to be some sort of punishment so that people can think twice before they start doing this stuff,” he said. “At some point, everyone just sucking it up and dealing with it isn’t accomplishing anything. We pass it along to MLB security. We pass it along to whoever we need to. But nothing ends up happening and it happens again the next night.”
TIDBITS & NUGGETS: Anyone want to buy former Celtics great Kevin Garnett’s Boston area (Concord, Mass) home? A pretty $5.9m will get the job done. Here’s the listing. Gotta love the plunge pool. … Washington Caps’ team captain and goal scoring machine Alex Ovechkin is the 2024-25 recipient of the Mark Messier NHL Leadership Award, presented “to the player who exemplifies great leadership qualities to his team, on and off the ice, during the regular season and who plays a leading role in his community growing the game of hockey.” Messier solicits suggestions from team and League personnel to compile a list of potential candidates for the award. However, the selection of the winner is Messier’s alone.
New York Yankees slugger Aaron Judge hit the longest home run of his career, a 496-foot shot at Yankee Stadium in 2017. This week, interestingly enough, Judge just hit his shortest homer at The Stadium (326 feet).
ALL-NBA: There was little doubt as to the five members of the All-NBA first team as four of the five received the maximum (unanimous selection) 500 voting points in the media balloting and the other was an overwhelming favorite.
The unanimous choices were:
Giannis Antetokounmpo, Milwaukee
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City
Nikola Jokić, Denver
Jayson Tatum, Boston
Tatum’s selection makes him the fifth Celtics player to earn at least four First Team honors, joining Bob Cousy (10), Larry Bird (nine), John Havlicek (four), and Bill Sharman (four). Tatum is the first Celtic since Bird (1980-88) to earn at least four straight selections to the First Team.
Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell joined the four unanimous selectees by garnering 61 first team votes. The next in line was second team All-NBA member LeBron James with 17 first team votes. Alperen Sengun of Houston fell 10 points shy of making the third team All-NBA.
Gilgeous-Alexander was named Most Valuable Player in the NBA earlier in the week.
THE WALK: From time-to-time, the walk from the Fenway T stop to Gate D of Fenway Park provides a report on who is wearing what in terms of MLB uniforms. Saturday, prior to Game 1 of a two-entry ($) twin bill, the following uniforms were spotted:
David Ortiz No. 34 - (5 uniforms, including an old-school St. Pat’s version)
Rafael Devers’ No. 11 - (5), including one of the new Green Monster versions
Trevor Story’s No. 10 - just one
Jarren Duran’s No. 16 - (2), both in the new Green Monster version
Baltimore’s Colton Cowser’s No. 17 - (1)
NLL: The Buffalo Bandits captured their third consecutive National Lacrosse League championship, joining the Rochester Knighthawks (2012-14) as the only teams in league history to accomplish the feat. The win also clinched a seventh title for the Bandits, the most in NLL history.
NORTHWESTERN: The Athletic Department of Northwestern University had a pretty good week. The women’s golf team won the NCAA tournament with an improbable win over Stanford in Carlsbad, California. The No. 11 ranked Wildcats defeated the No. 1 ranked and undefeated Cardinal of Stanford in the final match. Then, a couple days later, in a elimination game vs. No. 3 Boston College, the women’s lacrosse team (19-2) stormed back with six unanswered goals in the fourth quarter to top BC, 12-11. The NCAA semifinal victory punched the Wildcats' third-consecutive trip to the national championship. They’ll play North Carolina at 11am (today) Sunday morning for the national title at Gillette Stadium.
MONDAY, MONDAY: The NCAA men’s lacrosse championship will be decided at Gillette Stadium on Monday. No. 1 Cornell clinched its place in the final with an 11-9 win over Penn State. Meanwhile, No. 2 Maryland advanced to the final with a convincing 14-8 victory over No. 6 Syracuse. The championship game, pitting No. 1 Cornell vs No. 2 Maryland tips Monday, May 26 at 1:00pm ET out in Foxboro.
THIS JEST IN: Earlier this week, the Trump administration singled out Harvard University and issued a declaration to bar Harvard from admitting international students. No other school in the country had such an un-Constitutional edict laid down. Little did they know, such an unfair move would devastate nearly all of Harvard's 42 varsity sports teams, the most in the nation. Our friends at Sportico reported last month that 21% of the players on the University's rosters for the 2024-25 season - 196 out of 919 athletes - hailed from international hometowns. The site noted that some of those could be citizens of the United States or green card holders who wouldn't need one of the international visas at issue in an escalating fight premised by the administration's assertions that the school failed to protect Jewish students from antisemitism. That threat became reality when the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday revoked Harvard's ability to enroll international students, saying the school has created an unsafe campus environment by allowing "anti-American, pro-terrorist agitators" to assault Jewish students on campus. "Harvard can no longer enroll foreign students and existing foreign students must transfer or lose their legal status," the US Department of Homeland Security said in a statement. Harvard quickly responded to the decision by the Department of Homeland Security by calling the move "unlawful," and filing a lawsuit. University president Alan M. Garber released a statement vowing to fight the decision in court. "For those international students and scholars affected by yesterday's action, know that you are vital members of our community," Garber wrote. "We will support you as we do our utmost to ensure that Harvard remains open to the world."
With some of the existing students and newly recruited Jewish student-athletes hailing from Israel and other parts of the world, isn’t the current administration contradicting their very order? With their ridiculous and unlawful edict, they are the ones assaulting the rights of Harvard’s Jewish students and student-athletes.
On Friday, a federal judge temporarily halted the Trump administration’s ban on Harvard University’s ability to enroll international students. US District Court Judge Allison Burroughs ruled in favor of the Crimson.
YOU CAN’T MAKE IT UP: As a lead-up to the Indianapolis 500 car race this weekend, let us all witness the Oscar Mayer Weiner 500. The Wienie 500 was run on Friday, May 23 and was the first “meat-up” of all six Oscar Mayer “Wienermobiles” in over a decade. It was the very first competitive race for the fleet. The pre-race festivities included the “PR written quote of the year with: “The Indy 500 marks the unofficial kickoff of summer and the start of hot dog season,” said Kelsey Rice, brand communications director at Oscar Mayer. “As a brand known for sparking smiles in disarmingly delightful ways, it’s only fitting that we bring a race of epic proportions to the Speedway and celebrate a timeless tradition: delicious meats and a little friendly competition to kick off a summer of wieners.” … The 14:11 mark wins.
PARTING WORDS & MUSIC: Lead guitarists Derek Trucks and Warren Haynes, together with bass guitarist Otiel Burbridge led a group of blood brothers through rock and roll to perform two April concerts at Madison Square Garden (photo above) that was “off the charts” great in terms of musical excellence. Percussionist John Lee Johnson a.k.a. Jai Johanny Johanson a.k.a Jaimoe - the last man standing for the original Allman Brothers Band - played his usual and incredible role leading a three-man percussion section - including longtime ABB percussionist Marc Quiñones - for a backline threesome second to none in the business.
In this clip, keyboardist Chuck Leavell takes “Jessica” to new heights while the clip below that is a lofty rendition of the brilliant Dickey Betts’ instrumental of “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed,” which was highlighted in this space a few weeks back, but what the hell, it’s posted again in case anyone missed it.
Jessica:
In Memory of Elizabeth Reed:
While We’re Young (Ideas) is a weekly (every weekend) collection of Sports Notes and News written by Terry Lyons. The posting of each notebook harkens back to the days when you’d walk over to the city newsstand on Saturday night around 10pm to pick-up a copy of the Sunday papers. Inside, just waiting, was a compilation of interesting sports notes, quotes and quips in a column that always sold a few newspapers.
TL’s Sunday Sports Notes - Brought to you by Digital Sports Desk.
-TL-