{"id":79387,"date":"2017-03-27T16:33:28","date_gmt":"2017-03-27T16:33:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sandbox.web.rcn.net\/rcntv\/?p=79387"},"modified":"2023-02-17T21:38:06","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T21:38:06","slug":"behind-mic-dead-pool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.astound.com\/atvn\/behind-mic-dead-pool\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the Mic: Dead Pool"},"content":{"rendered":"

I am the Sports Director at RCN.\u00a0 RCN has only one Sports Director.\u00a0 I am their guru of sports, right?<\/p>\n

The RCN Fun Committee (notice the word \u201cFun\u201d) runs an NCAA <\/a>pool every year.\u00a0 There is no money involved.\u00a0 Anyone can enter and the prizes are donated by the company and are minimal.\u00a0 In other words, it\u2019s \u201cfor entertainment purposes only.\u201d<\/p>\n

One would think the Sports Director would have the inside track to victory or, at the very least, a top three spot or a top ten spot.\u00a0 Or a place with the word \u201ctop\u201d in it.\u00a0 One would think that, right?<\/p>\n

There are 63 games played in the tournament.\u00a0 I already know that I will only get 35 right or 56% correct (I rounded up).\u00a0 You see, I only have North Carolina<\/a> in the Final Four and I have them losing that game.\u00a0 My pool is over \u2013 Kaput!\u00a0 Who would have guessed that Gonzaga<\/a>, South Carolina<\/a>, and Oregon <\/a>would be in the semifinals?\u00a0 Gonzaga and South Carolina have never been there and Oregon only once before even I was born.<\/p>\n

Before Sunday\u2019s games, I was trailing sixteen other fellow workers.\u00a0 That\u2019s not so bad, I guess.\u00a0 Okay, Mr. Sports Director, it\u2019s VERY bad!<\/p>\n

To make matters worse, I have an arch\u2013enemy in the pool.\u00a0 Let\u2019s call her Laura because that\u2019s her name.\u00a0 She takes great pleasure in challenging me and is not shy about rubbing it in when she is ahead.\u00a0 She beat me last year and was quite obnoxious about predicting that she would do it again this year.\u00a0 I considered last year a fluke.\u00a0 She did not. And she took any opportunity to announce to everyone that she had embarrassed the Sports Director.\u00a0 I was determined not to let that happen again.<\/p>\n

I guess I was not determined enough.\u00a0 Not only is she beating me, Laura is currently beating everyone.\u00a0 She is in FIRST PLACE!\u00a0 Out of 38 players, she has the lead!\u00a0 Now, she may not win (she has Kansas <\/a>to win the Championship), but she will certainly beat me and beat me badly.\u00a0 I cannot earn another point with the three games that are yet to be played.\u00a0 I have Duke <\/a>and Kansas winning the semifinals.\u00a0 Since their uniforms are washed and stored away for another year, that will not happen.\u00a0 In fact, I can only go down; I cannot go up.<\/p>\n

So Laura will beat me again!\u00a0 Do you know how hard that is to type?<\/p>\n

So for those of you who think that Sports Director is, obviously, a misnomer for me, then I can guarantee you that so is \u201cFun Committee\u201d and \u201cfor entertainment purposes only\u201d.\u00a0 You see, again this year, I have had neither fun, nor entertainment.\u00a0 Now if the company would just form an Embarrassment Committee, I would be the first to sign up.<\/p>\n

ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The Bethlehem Catholic<\/a> AAAA girls\u2019 basketball team won the PIAA State Championship<\/a>! It was their first state championship in girls\u2019 basketball.\u00a0 They thumped Villa Marie -Erie 46-27 and finished the season with a 30-2 record.\u00a0 They won all five of their state games with double-digit wins.\u00a0 They were dominating.\u00a0 Congratulations to Coach Medina and the girls.<\/li>\n
  2. In the ESPN MLB power rankings<\/a>, they have the Phillies <\/a>as #24 out of thirty teams. They also picked them last in the NL East.\u00a0 This doesn\u2019t offer up much hope for the season.<\/li>\n
  3. Speaking of Philadelphia desperation, the Flyers <\/a>are six points behind for a wild card berth in the NHL and there are three other teams ahead of them. The Sixers<\/a>, well, are the Sixers \u2013 no playoffs again this year.<\/li>\n
  4. It appears that the Oakland Raiders<\/a> will relocate to Las Vegas. 24 votes were needed as I write this and the league office said the result will be \u201cpositive\u201d.\u00a0 I bet (no pun intended) legal gambling across the country on NFL games will soon follow.<\/li>\n
  5. The Giant Center<\/a> held all 12 boys\u2019 and girls\u2019 PIAA championship games this past week. The highlight was the Reading-Pine Richland AAAAAA game. 9, 531 fans filled the Center, as Reading won their first state title in school history 64-60.\u00a0 Reading has played basketball for 118 years; has won over 2000 games, but they had never won a state title.\u00a0 Until now.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    I am the Sports Director at RCN.\u00a0 RCN has only one Sports Director.\u00a0 I am their guru of sports, right? The RCN Fun Committee (notice the word \u201cFun\u201d) runs an NCAA pool every year.\u00a0 There is no money involved.\u00a0 Anyone can enter and the prizes are donated by the company and are minimal.\u00a0 In other…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"Yoast SEO Relevanssi index exclude","inline_featured_image":false,"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,4],"tags":[771,175,207,282,326,364,630,787,786],"class_list":["post-79387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-behind-the-mic","category-featured","category-sports","tag-bethlehem-catholic-girls-basketball","tag-duke","tag-gonzaga","tag-kansas","tag-march-madness","tag-ncaa","tag-north-carolina","tag-oregon","tag-south-carolina"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBehind the Mic: Dead Pool - ATVN<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Behind the Mic: Dead Pool - ATVN\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I am the Sports Director at RCN.\u00a0 RCN has only one Sports Director.\u00a0 I am their guru of sports, right? 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