By Kim J. Harmon

H

ey, if you’re heading out sometime in the next fee weeks – to the grocery story or, maybe, to a doctor’s office – you may come across a small can. You have seen these cans before. But these will be for CANS FOR THE CURE, a program sponsored by the American Leukemia Society and facilitated by a small group of Newtown people looking to form a chapter of the ALS here. Locally, the program is in memory of Newtown High School student Greg Chion, who passed away recently from leukemia . . . the Newtown Blue & Gold Booster Club has been busy these past few months – securing a new batting cage for the Newtown High School baseball and softball teams, purchasing new fitness equipment for the NHS weight room and now securing the funds for four scholarships ($1,000 each) to be doled out to deserving NHS seniors. Those guys are always working hard . . . had a chance to go down to Sacred Heart University in Fairfield this past Saturday to get a gander at the 2001 Newtown Indoor Soccer Tournament and although I’ve taken pictures of indoor soccer before, I forgot how HARD it is. The small fields, the close quarters, the darn kids moving so fast and what not. Jeez. It was fun to watch, though . . . you wanna get a first-hand feel of some March Madness then why not head over to Newtown High School on Saturday for four (yes, FOUR) championship games in the Parks and Recreation Department’s in-town youth basketball program. First it’s the junior boys at 9 am and then the intermediate boys at 10:30 am, followed by the junior girls at 12 noon and the intermediate girls at 1:30 pm. That oughta be madness enough for some people . . . speaking of March Madness (and here we’re talking about the NCAA, the unofficial minor league system to the National Basketball Association) then what kind of madness is this Winthrop-Northwestern State play-in game in the Midwest region? I know the NCAA was looking to expand the 64-team field a little, but what’s the point of doing it this way? Why not figure out a way to give the top four seeds a bye in the first round, thus giving them SOMETHING for being one of the four best teams in the nation. And besides, all that Winthrop and Northwestern State are playing for it’s the right (call it a PENALTY, if your will) of getting blown out by Illinois in the first round anyway . . . just for posterity sake, my Final Four selections (sorry, this is too late to help you in your office pools) as of this writing (see, I may STILL find a way of getting Gonzaga or Southern Utah in there) will be Duke out of the East, Maryland out of the West, Kansas out of the Midwest, and Michigan State out of the South. To me, it looks like Duke and Michigan State in the final . . . while we’re talking HOOPS here, Connecticut Public Television (CPTV) has signed a new four-year deal with the University of Connecticut to broadcast some 68 games (not to mention 12 football games and other athletic events) and the tag is about $4 million. If you are a fan of women’s basketball and you watched the games on CPTV, then get ready for a whole lotta pledge drives over the next four years . . . did you know there is a company that manufactures bags of air? I know they are used for filling the empty spaces in shipped boxes and cartons (no more of those clingy white styrofoam chips, eh?), but talking about filling a need . . . my eight-year-old son, Benjamin, knows quite a few players in the NBA (unfortunately, he is more of a Lakers and Pacers fan than he is a Knicks fan, but I figure I got time to fix that) but his favorite player is Allen Iverson and I’m okay with that because Ben knows nothing about what the guy is like off the court. When he does, maybe then I’ll worry – but right now, it’s okay, because Iverson is the BEST in the NBA (with NO apologies to Kobe Bryant, Shaquille O’Neal or Vince Carter) . . . man, reading the USA Today’s Baseball Weekly has got my juices all flowin’ for baseball. A couple of nuggets in this week’s issue: Toronto closer Bill Koch, who throws close to 100 miles an hour, is adding a breaking ball to his repertoire (anyone old enough will remember what a curve ball did for Goose Gossage of the New York Yankees, right?); and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays have this guy, Jesus Colome, who has been clocked at 101 miles an hour on the JUGGS gun. Zowie . . . and don’t you just love it how a guy who has signed or is signing a $15 million-a-year contract (i.e, Mark McGwire and Jason Giambi) can sound so MAGNANIMOUS about not demanding $20 million a year and settling for less money? . . . With all these guys signing for big time moola – like Alex Rodriquez signing for $250 million over 10 years – I still have to look at one guy, Lou Gehrig, and the numbers he put up back in 1927. He hit .373 with 51 doubles, 18 triples, 47 home runs and 175 runs batted in. What do you suppose numbers LIKE THAT would be worth on the open market?