“Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things.” – Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein
By TERRY LYONS, Editor of Digital Sports Desk
BOSTON – There’s no clear reason, but quite often the great song, “My Favorite Things,” (by Rodgers and Hammerstein, 1959) is tagged as a Christmas song. No argument, here, but I look at “My Favorite Things” as a year ’round song of joy and optimism. The tune was made famous by Julie Andrews’ phenomenal performance in “The Sound of Music” and it was springtime in the Alps.
After years and years on the shelf, I picked up the tune once again when Derek Trucks played it on his Gibson SG in concert with The Derek Trucks Band at Boston’s House of Blues (see performance archived above, which was on the same tour).
With that in mind, this column marks the second consecutive year the TL Sunday Sports Notes/While We’re Young (Ideas) column will bring in the New Year with a hodgepodge of favorite things.
In the immortal words of Scottish poet Robert Burns, “Should old acquaintance be forgot and never brought to mind? In other words, “Time is ticking, Let’s Get to It.”
“These are a few of TL’s Favorite Things”
Perfectly former snowflakes falling gently to the earth on Christmas Eve … Eric Clapton picking on his guitar while singing “Change the World,” … Vivid memories of the New York Metropolitans and WOR-TV 9‘s postgame show, Kiner’s Korner … Perfectly chopped, dry kindling wood to start a holiday season blaze in our fireplace … The guitar playing by Chicago’s Terry Kath … Add the fact his daughter, Michelle Kath Sinclair, directed The Terry Kath Experience, a wonderful tribute documentary … Portland, Maine and Portland Oregon … Portsmouth, New Hampshire … Chatham, Massachusetts … Montauk, Long Island, New York … Orient Point, Long Island, New York … and, on the other end of the LIRR line, Madison Square Garden for the BIG EAST basketball tournament.
Mowing thick green grass of my imagination in our weed-eaten front and back lawn … the smell of that cut grass as the mower is turned off and its operator earned an ice cold glass of 50/50 Lemonade/Iced Tea – known as an Arnold Palmer for those in the business … central air conditioning … finding a great juke box in a dive bar in Anywhere, USA … playing the very first song of the night on that juke box. (Be sure to read: HERE).
A brand new 59Fifty baseball cap … Peter Frampton strumming the first chords of “All I Want to Be (Is By Your Side) … A Nathan’s Hot Dog … The sound of the Sunday papers hitting the front walk, delivered from a speeding Toyota Camry … The memories of delivering Sunday Newsday and heading to my brother Tim’s softball doubleheader at Dutch Lane fields … chasing down the Ice Cream Man … Printers Boxes, filled with sentimental knick-knacks … chipping in for par and putting for birdie on the 18th.
Christmas dinnerware by Spode and setting the table for a holiday meal … the corner wine bar in Rye, NY … the Corner Bistro in the West Village … the Four Tops … great black & white photography … the best of the best from the Associate Press Year in Pictures, always published at this time of year … Primetime PGA Tour golf in January … a weekly victory in Fantasy Golf … an “Inside the Ropes” pass to walk 18 with the final group on Sunday … the roar of the crowd from another hole … Grandfather clocks … “Old Days” by Chicago … the NHL Winter Classic at Wrigley Field.
Perfectly cooked, semi-well done, crispy, homemade waffles with Vermont maple syrup on a winter weekend morning … Tropicana Orange Juice … Special Saturday and Sunday morning playlists, created/assembled on (commercial free) Spotify … Scallion pancakes from CK Shanghai in Wellesley … Thin New York style pizza at Patsy’s (West 74th Street, NYC) … Nick’s on Second Avenue … Big Nick’s (70 West 71st, NYC, closes at 4:30am).
A bicycle ride on newly paved, smooth city streets … the hidden pleasure of seeing the car that whizzed by doing 95 mph pulled over by a police cruiser a mile or so down the highway … George Harrison recordings … Fenway Park … the laughter of kids playing in the schoolyard … the sound of Charlie Watts hitting a single note on the cymbal in “Angie” … Rock Bands taking the stage … Trains running on time.
Baseball cards … a great horn section in a tight band … San Diego, California … an upgrade to First Class … drinking straws with the accordion bend … Monday Night Football … a well-written, informative Facebook post … Robert Plant’s voice … Hourglasses … Old globes, trimmed in wood with an old world layout and textured mountains …. the Day after adjusting clocks for “Spring ahead” Daylight Savings Time … turntables … our dog, (Mighty) Max, shaking his toys for his very own entertainment, tail wagging … my dog, Penny (Lane), sleeping soundly next to me with all the trust in the world and knowing its safe.
A stereo pulsing deep bass and striking high treble from a manual equalizer … The Electric Light Orchestra (Live, in concert) … Emerson, Lake and Palmer (Recorded to allow for takes the Moog Synthesizer) … Smokey Robinson and the Miracles … “Carry On” by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young … Jeff Kazee on the keyboard … Rich Pagano on the drums, and Richie’s incredible voice doing John Lennon as best can be done in “I Am the Walrus” … Goose covering The Who’s “Eminence Front” … Blind Faith doing, “Can’t Find My Way Home” … Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down) from Hamilton The Musical … the presence of Chris Jackson on stage, portraying the USA’s first President George Washington … the imaginative thought of picturing Jackson’s face as George Washington, rather than the guy on the dollar bill … great companies/ensembles on Broadway … the thrill and anticipation as the curtain goes up … the lump in your throat joyous appreciation as the actors take their bows.
Tailgating … the sight of the Street Cleaner and no random neighbor’s car parked in front of the house … a glass of cold water … not shaving … Lighthouses … freshly pressed pants … a newly laundered white shirt, lightly starched … the billowing of that clean shirt as you shake it and place it over the shoulder, cool to the touch … Aristophanes … Ridiculous.
Block Island, Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket … Paris … sitting on the Champs Elysées and sipping a cup of jet fuel strength, European coffee on a vacation morning, not a care in the world … the look and smell of a brand new USA Passport … my iPhone … Sting’s impeccable voice … Annie Lennox of the Eurythmics singing so clearly and perfectly on a stage on the West Side piers of NYC that you could hear her in New Jersey … Standing in a doorway, Just Waiting on a Friend … Bell Bottom Blues.
Turning on the Christmas lights … a brand new Nokona baseball glove made and mailed from Nocona, Texas …. a Padron Anniversary ‘64 cigar … my dog’s gorgeous, fluffy, curly coat … Adirondack Chairs … Shea Stadium …. Thomas Hagen in The Godfather … the eery sounds of an Irish Tin Whistle … Fire fighters washing the Engine, Hook & Ladder trucks on the front drive of the fire house … the harmonica … the use of said harmonica in “Thunder Road” … A Stairway to Heaven or Kashmir and a Black Dog or a Misty Mountain Hop … Blue Sky and Dreams, Jessica and Melissa, all In Memory of Elizabeth Reed.
Bruce Hornsby on the piano … Will Lee on bass guitar … the marvels of modern medicine … the trust placed in medical doctors by the survivors of a heart transplant … the CVS Minute Clinic … Our Vet … the happiness of our dogs upon departing The Vet … the shiny side Reynolds Wrap … Crab Cakes … Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami Beach … The Grill (201 E 49th St, New York City, NY 10017) … The 10022 zip code … our 02468 zip code … Robert Moon, the father of the zip code … Upon the announcement of their retirement, the comfortable realization that there’s not an R.E.O. Speedwagon album in the collection, nor was a quarter ever dropped in a juke box to play a song by the band, nor for Chris de Burgh … Sorry Chris … the Tovala oven … Sabrina Ionescu’s “J” … News reels from the ‘70s and ‘80s depicting the late, great coach Lou Carnesecca bouncing around at courtside … Caitlin and Ohtani … The annual IIHF World Junior Championship, always on at Christmas time … Live racing of the trotters and pacers from Monticello, NY on December 30, and 31st.
The sound and smell of freshly ground coffee, brewing in the morning … Christmas coasters … Heavy, bottom-weighted, slightly chilled cocktail glasses with a giant sphere ice cube as the base for two ounces of Oban … Any and all Derek Trucks solos (like the one paying tribute to the Grateful Dead at the Kennedy Center honors) … recordings of Gregg Allman and Jackson Browne performing “These Days” … Mondays with the Daily Show … Cometeer Coffee … “Sweet Dreams” and “Money Can’t Buy It” by the Eurythmics, the group made up by the previously mentioned Annie Lennox and the talented Dave Stewart … a September in Santa Cruz … walking the streets in London, Paris, Rome, Prague, Istanbul, Barcelona, Milan, Leverkusen, Monte Carlo, Athens, Madrid, and … Boston.
A game of hoops at the Stan Sheriff Center or the Lahaina Civic Center … the Fine Young Cannibals covering Suspicious Minds, second only to Elvis singing that wonderful hit … the Felt Forum and The Rotunda (forerunners to the Theatre and Expo Center) … Golden Gloves Boxing … Pat LaFontaine and J.J. … Cosmo The City Dog … Chloe … Penny (Lane) … and Mighty Max.
Seeing a werewolf with a Chinese menu in his hand … Huh? … I’d like to meet his tailor … the Army v. Navy game (in Philly) … a bic pen … Houses of the Holy … “Oh, let the sun beat down upon my face, And stars fill my dream, I’m a traveler of both time and space, To be where I have been,” stated by Matt Damon so perfectly in Ocean’s 12
“Take two and hit to right” … “Batter, Batter, Batter” … “He’s No Batter” … “Can of Corn” … “Ducks on a Pond” … “Swing and a Miss” … “Touch ‘em All” … “Keep Your Eye on the Ball” … “Pitchers & Catchers Report” (Feb. 12, 2025 or 44 more days).
No static at all with “The Royal Scam and Aja” … “Angular banjos” and “Deacon Blues” … “They call Alabama the Crimson Tide” … “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” … “Who’s Next” … “Hotel California” … “Dark Side of the Moon” … “Bat Out of Hell and Phil Rizzuto’s call.”
Casablanca … The Sting … The Last Waltz … Almost Famous … The Maltese Falcon … Spotlight … Goldfinger … The Purple Rose of Cairo … Cinema Paradiso … The Original Star Wars Trilogy (Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi) … Rocky and Rocky II … Seabiscuit … Patton.
Hamilton the Musical … Stereophonic … Pippin … A Chorus Line.
Missing “Little Louie,” already, and Clark Gillies … Mike Bossy … Al Arbour … David Stern … and, this year, we lost Bill Walton … Al Attles … and “The Logo,” Jerry West” … Ed Kranepool, Buddy Harrelson and Jerry Grote of the Mets … hockey’s Johnny Gaudreau and his brother … OJ … Joe “Jellybean” Bryant … Earl Cureton and Robert Reid … Pete Rose and Fernando Valenzuela … Dejan Milojevic … the great Dikembe Mutombo and the greatest baseball player of our lives, Willie Mays.
Blue denim jeans … Terry cloth … L.L. Bean slippers … Flannel shirts … log cabins … a new furnace … and, that wraps it up … “The Song is Over.”
DIGITAL SPORTS DESK’s PLAYER of the YEAR: Is … Caitlin Clark of the WNBA’s Indiana Fever. The TEAM of the YEAR: Is … USA Basketball’s gold medal senior men’s Olympic Team, featuring Steph Curry.
HERE NOW, THE NOTES: As promised last weekend, here’s your look-back at the Year in Sports 2024 – Part II. This is what WWYI wrote about during the second half of 2024:
Part Two (July to December, 2024)
July 2024
July 7th: Breakfast at Wimbledon; USA Basketball convenes for Olympics; James Wood
July 14th: Baseball’s Home Run Derby; American Association of Professional Baseball; Cape Cod Baseball
July 21st: Hoops without Borders; Deaths of Bill Walton, Jerry West and Pat Williams
July 27th: We declare OPEN the Games of the XXXIII Olympics; Paris Shines
August 2024
August 4th: Golf at Paris Olympics; Hoops du Jour; Andy Jasner RIP
August 11th: Steph Curry to the Rescue; France’s Victor Wembanyama Break-out Party
August 18th: LA’s Got Next; What USA Basketball will Look Like in 2028
August 25th: Champions League vs College Football Playoffs ‘24-25; Good-bye Linus Ullmark
September 2024
September 1st: Pro Golf in Greater Boston; the death of the NHL’s Johnny Gaudreau and his brother, Matthew
September 8th: The ‘24 Paralympics and Ali Truwit; US Open Tennis
September 15th: A Day in the History of 9/15; Ronnie Nunn NYC Hoop Hall
September 22nd: A Day for the Good Old Days in Chicago; the WNBA in 2024
September 29th: Motivation for the defending NBA Champion Celtics
October 2024
October 6th: RIP Dikembe; The Tedeschi Trucks Band – I Am the Moon
October 8th: KC Special
October 13th Adam Silver at Columbia U; Plug for “A Complete Unknown”
October 20th: Rock-Tober; UVa coach Tony Bennett Quits; Same ‘ole J-E-T-S
October 27th: Hornsby: The Old Playground; 2024 World Series; Chicken Partner
November 2024:
November 3rd: Breeders’ Cup; Mookie Betts and the Dodgers; Costas Retires
November 10th: Sports as a Distraction in Life; Kirk Herbstreit’s “Ben”
November 17th: NBA Cup ‘24; TGL Golf; Boston Common Golf
November 24th: Thanksgiving Appreciation; SNL Memories
December 2024
December 1st: How Many Pro Leagues Can We Support?
December 8th: Tribute to St. John’s Coach Lou Carnesecca
December 15th: Bill Belichick to Coach at North Carolina; ARMY vs. NAVY
December 24th: A Look Back at 2024; Part One
December 29th: Favorite Things ‘24; A Look Back at 2024; Part Two
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