WOLFPACK

What I remember most vividly from that tournament, however, was the Wolfpack's first game. Jim Valvano's team had just scraped into the NCAA tourney by winning the ACC conference tournament (they were just 17-10 before the ACC tourney) and now they were playing Pepperdine in the last game of the night out west.

I doubt anyone saw this game on the east coast. I was a junior in high school in Mesa, Arizona, and I remember watching the game at least until 10:30 p.m. all alone. My parents were already asleep and my brother and sister were out doing what college kids do on a Friday evening (which is odd, since they were in 4th grade...but that's another story).

Anyway, Pepperdine seemed to have the game wrapped up with 3 or 4 minutes to play. But Valvano just had his players continue fouling them in hopes that the Waves would not connect on their one-and-ones. The strategy worked. The Wolfpack climbed back into the game despite at least one or two of their starters fouling out. At the end they won, quite improbably, 69-67.

I remembered thinking that I'd just watched an amazing comeback--and, to an extent, choke by Pepperdine-- but that surely N.C. State would be knocked out in the following round. Valvano's team would win three of their pre-Final Four contests by a grand total of four points, including KO'ing Ralph Sampson and Virginia in the West regional final, 63-62.

By then you could sense the momentum about this team and its irrepressible, charismatic coach. You knew better than to bet against them. And you have to realized just how daunting Houston appeared to everyone entering that Monday night final. Phi Slamma Jamma was revolutionizing college hoops, not just beating teams with their speed and full-court dash to dunking, but demoralizing them.

The Cougars were a first-round knockout punch team, but somehow N.C. State slowed the game down. Then I believe it was Alvin Roberston who missed the front end of a one-and-one, which set the stage for Derek Whittenburg's airball/alley oop that was rescued by Lorenzo Charles. No sports movie has ever had a better-scripted finish.

So, Happy 25th Anniversary, Wolfpack. It was an incredible run. I'm glad I was enough of a loser in high school to be home on a Friday night to witness it.

 "Moooon Ri--I mean, Greeeen River"

The other night Manhattan's coolest married couple, Tom and Moe Cavanagh, had a few of us over to watch the Lifetime Movie Network's "The Capture of the Green River Killer." We don't normally all assemble to watch Lifetime TV (oh, who am I kidding? Of course we do), but when one of your hosts is starring in it, we do. Good times. The actor Ben Shenkman ("Angels in America", "Breakfast With Scot") was there, and apparently he is quite a good actor: he's married (I mean, did you see either of those two movies?).

Anyway, the next morning we awoke to realize we'd all been part of history. Turns out it was the most-watched movie in the history of the Lifetime Movie Network (2.2 million people). All of which goes to prove an old adage of mine: Chicks dig serial killers.

Too Many Jokes

Faithful Johntourager Boyko sends the following link concerning new prison uniform colors for inmates located near Knoxville.

http://elkvalleytimes.com/news/index.asp

This is too easy. Make your own jokes.

The House That Greed Built

I was lucky enough to be invited to the Yankee Stadium opener on Tuesday night (courtesy of the Cavanaghs...and you thought I just randomly dubbed them Manhattan's coolest couple). Our seats were one row from the very top of the stadium, out in left-field fair territory. While those may not be the best seats in the house to judge balls and strikes (not that it prevented us and everyone in our section for ripping the ump on certain pitches), they were great seats from which to assess the Stadium.

And so I had the same thought I've had since the first day I entered Yankee Stadium when I was five years old: the aura of this place is unmatched in the MLB.

From where we sat out in leftfield, the new Yankee Stadium was not far behind us. And I'm sure it'll have plenty of "improvements". But any real fan of the Yankees will tell you that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the Stadium. And that its history--Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle, they all played on this field--undeniably plays to the Yanks' advantage.

In short, the Yankees are making a colossal, no, Ruthian mistake here. The suits will tell you that the Yankees need to add luxury boxes. They've already got the greatest luxury box there is: your television. Yankee games air on the YES Network, which allows the Yanks to collect all that ad revenue from a tri-state base of 15 million potential viewers.

Alex Rodriguez will earn more money this season than the entire Florida Marlin roster. And I'm not saying he should not earn that. But that being true, it's clear that the Yankees do not "need" a new stadium. And by the way, their rivals, the Boston Red Sox, are not abandoning their even older and more decrepit park any time soon. Because the Sox realize the park is part of the experience.

Sitting there, we decided that at worst the Yankees should keep the old park standing and rent it out for bachelor parties and corporate functions. Charge $10,000 an hour for people to play there from 10 a.m. until 10 p.m. Just with the bar mitzvahs in the tri-state area alone their dance card would be filled.

C'mon, Hank. Use a little ingenuity. I'm sure Costanza would have thought of this.

Love Monk

The former is our friend Tom's gone-too-soon program. Then there's "Monk", which stars Tony Shaloub. Have you ever watched it? I only see it because it's on USA about 26 times daily, but you know what? It's always enjoyable. And smart. Monk is really a show of another era, as you realize if you grew up in the Seventies.

It would have fit perfectly in the NBC Mystery Movie rotation that included "McCloud", "McMillan and Wife" and, most famously, "Columbo". Those shows made murder almost a parlor game. It was all about solving the crime, and your detectives were quirky, likeable characters. Today's "CSI" and "Law & Order" world is every bit as good, just different. More realism, less fun. Why can't murder be fun any more?

Moral Dilemma

Yesterday I had a moral dilemma straight out of "Seinfeld". You see, every three weeks or so I run with this blind runner in Central Park. I'm his guide. Last night was my turn to run with him, but I was sick as the proverbial canine all day. So I'm thinking here, If I bail, well, how can I bail? How do you tell someone that's blind that your sniffle are keeping you from running? (Don't worry...he's not reading this). Anyway, I went. Less because I'm good than because I didn't want him to think I was just looking for an excuse. I don't think that's the way morality is supposed to work, is it?