What’s Up, Doc?
Going off the Ponderosa again with this one.
The legendary Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz says the “Fighting Irish” nickname came from a time when Irish students at Notre Dame banded together to disrupt a KKK gathering in Indiana. 500 students stormed the meeting and roughed up the Klan members and drove the hoods outta town. Ain’t no way they give up that nickname after fighting racism back then. They were freedom fighters.
Speaking of Notre Dame, we just lost Regis Philbin, one of their greatest alumni and fans. He came a long way from being a stickball-playing kid from the Bronx. Regis was a big fan of the Elmwood Jets, the Holyoke Youth Baseball team we’ve sponsored for decades.
I was an Elmwood Jet and, like Regis, I was also a stickball player. I'd saw off my mother's broom handle for a bat. Mary Lou didn't like that one bit.
Years ago, we teamed up with Jack Sergi, a Brooklyn gym teacher and stickball player who famously got Spalding to bring back the classic Spaldeen pinky ball, to develop a custom stickball bat we called the “Curbside Crusher.” We’ve still got a few in the office. Gimme a holler if you want one.
Another stickball player from Brooklyn, Dr. Tony Fauci, threw out the first pitch at the Yankees/Nationals game. Wild pitch, but what the hell, the guy’s 79. Topps came out with a Dr Fauci baseball card and in hours they sold more than 50,000 at $9.99 a piece. That’s baseball, Charlie. Keep your dukes up.