Sports in RI: Clearing the desk after NCAA time – John Cardullo

by John Cardullo, sportswriter

Starting with the NCAA tournament live from the Providence Civic Center. Yes, the arena has sold its naming rights several time over and it is now known as the Amica Mutual Pavilion – or, the AMP. But for every Rhode Islander over 40 years old, it will always be known as the Providence Civic Center! This is the house that Providence College legends Marvin Barnes, Ernie DiGregorio and the creator of all things basketball in Rhode Island, Dave Gavitt, built. If it weren’t for Gavitt there would be no Big East. This is the end of all arguments on this subject. Gavitt’s foresight had a huge impact on all things college basketball that holds true even today.

Bringing Providence College basketball into the heart of Downtown Providence brought to life our fading, small metropolitan city. It exposed new businesses to the masses of fans that would come into the “city” to catch a game. Places like Murphy’s Deli, Trinity Rep and the original downtown sports bar, The Players Corner Pub, with their two owners, Jodi DiRaimo and Sonny Russo became as well known as some of the players on the great Providence College teams. Friartown was more than the campus of Providence College – it WAS Providence.

Over the past several years the City of Providence has become an also ran. But hosting the first two rounds of the NCAA has brought the magic back to the City. On each of the “cut-in” images we showed off our Rhode Island State House, all lit up, and panoramic camera shots in front of the Providence Place Mall looking down at the Omni Hotel at night. Then we were traveling on the Providence River under the bridge leading to Waterfire’s cove, and action shots both outside and inside of the Providence Civic Center made me say, “Hey, that’s a nice-looking City! I wish that I can go and visit there!” 

The truth of the matter is that Providence needs to capitalize on these Chamber of Commerce tourism images and up their game on their poor public relations campaign. Federal Hill was kindly reflected upon by both Arkansas Coach John Calapari and St. John’s Coach “Jumpin” Rick Pitino. We are move than ocean waves and plates of spaghetti, though we indeed hold court on these “draws” too. Even if Pitino thinks our treasured pinecone IS a pineapple – oops!

Both coaches started their young careers in the area, Calapari at UMass, Pitino at Providence. Both coached at the University of Kentucky, and both have been known to move to different programs to revitalize the team and fan base. But both have been on the coaching carousel for a longtime.

As far as the NCAA, both coaches interjected some intriguing subplots to the Providence version of rounds one and two. As the number two seeded St. John’s Red Storm came to Providence led by Providence’s former hero, headlining the latest version of Brother Rick’s traveling salvation show. Winners of both the Big East regular season and tournament, it was plain to see that Pitino was still a favorite with the Providence faithful, and especially with gently-aging sports reporters. Calapari and his Razorbacks were seeded number 10, and were who the crowd started to rally behind as they began to play spoiler.

It didn’t hurt that in his press conference, Calapari mentioned that he could finally eat some good Italian food up in Federal Hill. In fact, the team did dine on “The Hill” the night before their first game. Winner, winner Veal Parm Dinner for Arkansas. When the two teams met in round two, Calapari’s Razorbacks upset the Red Storm, eliminating them and ending their season.

Another observation was it was nice to see a Coach dressed the part as the leader of his team. Rick Pitino always looked as if he were a model on the cover of GQ at game night. It was his thing. He didn’t fail to make a fashion statement on the sidelines again. Dressed in a suit and tie, along with his entire coaching staff. It was a refreshing change to the way pretty much every coach of every team dresses for a game nowadays. While most teams’ coaching staff wear the latest sideline wear from Adidas or Nike of whatever flavor of the month is, it was nice to see the coaches dress in a business suit on a business day. Sweat suits are for practice, it’s time that coaches get back to being professional, and yes, clothes “do make the man!”. Imagine the Dallas Cowboys Tom Landry or Green Bay Packers Vince Lombardi wearing sweat suits? You can’t! They were true professionals.

The NFL, NHL and the NBA need to get back to taking game day seriously and become the role model they should be. The same goes for the college level sport coaches as well. This leads me to baseball; nothing is more ridiculous than a baseball coach on any level to dress in a baseball uniform! It’s not as if they will be entering the game to play! With about a dozen coaches on each team, most managers would do anything other than watch their team warm up. If those clothing companies want to brand their product, perhaps they should start by making baseball managers and their coaching staff look good in the dugouts.

Let’s move onto the joke that is the Transfer Portal! An athlete gets recruited by a college, commits to that college and because the team isn’t as good as he thought that they would be, they can opt out and enter the transfer portal. This means that they can go to a more successful program and walk away from their commitment to the former team. Sounds like what LaBron James made a career doing. Cleveland isn’t going to be any good, well I will take my talents to South Beach! Miami will stink, well I want to go back to Cleveland, oh they will be awful now, let’s go to LA. On the professional level it is common to build championships by gathering the best talent that you can. The players will take care of that for the most part. If a player feels that he’s not getting his, he can always go to another team and build his own little team.

On the college level, all the player was given was a commitment by the school to give him a college education on a full ride scholarship, the rest was up to him. Now players say that because of them their teams are making millions, and because of them their teams are getting national exposure, and they now want a piece of the pie. If they don’t get what they want, they will enter the transfer portal. Imagine telling John Wooden, Bobby Knight or Bobby Hurley that? The AAU mentality has taken over the athletes’ mind and street agents have gotten into many of these players’ heads.

At one time players who wanted to transfer out of their school would have to sit out a certain part of the next season’s games for their new team. This made the athlete think hard about transferring. Were they willing to risk any of their playing time? Players can virtually go wherever they want without any risk; the reality is that a small percentage of these players will ever go onto the next level. They are most likely never going to receive their degree. Commitment is a 2-way street and the transfer portal is not the answer, it is quickly becoming a program killer and of no help to the athlete!

It may be time to shorten the season, and I mean ALL the seasons! Basketball and hockey seem to go on forever, then the endless rounds of playoffs. Everyone knows its about the money, everything about sports is about the money, and if they tell you that it is not, well, they are lying to you. There is no reason that all four of the professional sports leagues to be playing at the same time and in the Fall we have that crossover. The baseball season ending in November is wrong!

Football pretty much is a year-round business, but for the athletes the wear and tear maybe is starting to get to them, try checking out the injury list every week. Baseball? How could teams go into spring training in the warmth of Florida or Arizona and start the season at the end of March and not expect early season injuries? Now the World Series ends at the beginning of November. Most baseball fans have checked out of the season in September, because their teams are out of playoff contention and its football season! Baseball’s answer? Let’s expand the playoff format so we are assured to play as close to Thanksgiving as we can! Oh, both the NBA and NHL had already started their seasons, but nobody either notices or cares because you can pick them up in March and not miss a beat on their seasons.

Sometimes more isn’t more! Sometimes less is more! Sports is a great distraction for the American people, the casual fan gets way too much, the engaged fan gets enough and the fan who “puts a little on the game” wants more. The bottom line is that sports in America is a multi-billion dollar industry and that will not ever change, but it can be changed and more manageable, which would make it more enjoyable. But the Benjamins will have a lot to say about that, so don’t expect any changes coming down the road anytime soon!

So enjoy the NCAA road to the final four, the Masters, the opening of major league baseball, the WNBA, the ending of the NHL and the NBA, the NFL draft, mini-camps, training camp and that is what is ahead into the summer.

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Final thoughts are on the passing of George Foreman. When I first heard about George Foreman was that he was an Olympic gold mentalist in the heavyweight class in 1968. As he made his way up the ladder of professional ranks, we had Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier as the big names in the professional heavy weight class. By the time Foreman came onto the scene, he was known as “Big George”, a menacing 6 foot 3 inch hulk of a man at 225 lbs. His first title opportunity came when he fought the heavy weight champion, Frazier, who at the time was undefeated. Frazier took the title from Ali and when he and Foreman fought, Foreman knocked out Frazier in a stunning fashion in the second round of their fight. Foreman lost both his title and first fight when he took on Ali in what was called “the rumble in the jungle” in 1974 in Zaire, now the Congo.

Eventually Foreman would regain the title and retire in 1977 with a 76-5 won/loss record. At 46 years old he attempted a come back in 1996. Won his title fight becoming the oldest Boxing World champion of all time.

But wait, that’s not the end of the Foreman story. Officially retiring in 1997 from boxing at the age of 48, Foreman went on to become an ordained minister. But it was what he told everyone about why he had made a comeback after so many retired years – “I was able to make a comeback based on me switching to a healthier diet.” 

It was at this time a company known as Salton had developed a fat-reducing grille and needed a spokesman. The George Foreman Grille (c’mon, we all had one!) became the biggest selling home cooking grille of all time. Foreman became the face of the product and it made Foreman $200 million dollars, substantially more than he ever made as a professional boxer. It also changed his image from being a surly, unapproachable former fighter to a happy go lucky personality.

One of his quirks is that he had 12 children from three different wives. Each marriage lasted only about two years each, but the children kept coming. And – he named all five of his sons George! Jr., III, IV, V and VI. He gave them nicknames to individualize them. Foreman said that he did that “so they would always have something in common.” His daughters were spared a similar fate.

Foreman went on to become a beloved former champion and made guest appearances on the Masked Singer, appeared on the Six Million Dollar Man in 1976, Home Improvement in 1992, and even had his own comedy series in 1993.

George Foreman passed away on March 22^nd at the age of 76. He went from being an Olympic Gold medal winner, to a professional Boxing heavyweight champion, to a successful business entrepreneur, to one of the country’s most beloved sports heroes. Rest in Peace, George!

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John Cardullo, sportswriter. John is a lifelong Rhode Islander. His sports experience is extensive, as a player, coach and sponsor of youth and high school sports. He has been the Public Address Announcer for the CCRI Men’s and Women’s Soccer teams. Both the Cranston East and Cranston West football, Cranston East Boys and Girls basketball for 12 years before moving onto the Central, Juanita Sanchez and Mt. Pleasant football teams. Also, Central HS Boys and Girls Basketball, Scituate High School Boys and Girls Basketball, Johnston High School Girls Basketball, Boys Volleyball, Girls Softball, Boys and Girls Soccer teams, and CLCF football.

John has been involved in Men’s softball for 61 years, starting as a batboy for his father’s team in 1964. He moved to the teams scorekeeper then became a player in 1975, and created the men’s team, Players Corner Pub, that went on to win 20 State Championships in their 35 year history. In the 1990’s he published the statewide softball magazine “The Fielders Choice” which was dedicated to all topics related to adult softball. As a feature writer, John and the publication won several media awards. In 2019 he was elected and inducted into the Rhode Island Slow Pitch Softball Hall of Fame which he also helped create. John is a softball umpire in Warwick, Rhode Island.

In his spare time John golfs with his life long friends in season. After retiring from the printing Industry after a 45-year career, he now writes specialty sports columns for RINewsToday.com, is still actively engaged in the high school sports scene, and will soon launch a radio show/podcast on high school sports.