Larry the K's Lineup

Sunday night (March 27), my wife and I met a friend for a leisurely dinner at a nearby Chinese restaurant, and for the first time, we felt a small sense of “normal.” We entered the restaurant without masks and spent 90 minutes there enjoying the food and catching up. But, three years into the pandemic, that return to a true “normal” remains elusive at best. Every time we’re told that cases are dropping sharply, it seems that the medical “experts” can’t wait to warn us about yet another variant with which they’re trying to keep people frightened, emotionally scarred and feeling uncomfortable. (I understand that they're just doing their jobs, but could they possibly tone down their enthusiasm for announcing the new variants?) After two doses of the vaccine and one booster --- and the likelihood looming of needing a second booster, followed by a regular annual shot similar to the flu --- it seems as if we’re never going to be done with COVID-19. Yet, we can’t go on like this as a...

  https://youtu.be/um- L5D02eZo NOTE: This story was published on March 31 in The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, MA. The link to that story is: Link to Slam Cancer 2022 first advance in SC on March 31 https://www.thesunchronicle.com/news/local_news/attleboro-library-relay-for-life-team-up-for-poetry-essay-fundraiser-to-fight-cancer/article_25a14dc5-88e8-5b46-b776-743a7095ee96.html   The Attleboro Public Library and the 24 th annual Relay For Life of Greater Attleboro, a team fundraiser for the American Cancer Society, are again collaborating on a poetry-essay event to raise awareness about the disease. Slam Cancer 2022 will build on the success of last year’s inaugural event. Once again, organizers are urging people to share submissions of   up to 500 words on the topic of “Slam Cancer: How I’ve been touched by the disease” by emailing them to slamcancer21@gmail.com from Friday, April 1 through Friday, Aril 29. That period again will coincide with the observance of Natio...

Only Tom Brady can upstage a big day in sports by "unretiring," although many observers maintain the the former Patriots and now current (again) Tampa Bay Buccaneer quarterback never was actually serious about retiring, despite his announcement on Feb. 1. Brady did just that on Sunday (March 13), as on the day that the brackets for the NCAA's men's and women's March Madness basketball tournament were announced --- and while the Boston Celtics were holding an elaborate ceremony to retire Kevin Garnett's No. 5 -- Brady said "never mind" about his earlier "retirement" announcement. Brady, only 40 days after his Feb. 1 announcement on his Instagram account that he wouldn't be back for another football season, said on Twitter that he's decided that now isn't the time to retire and he belongs on the football field. That means that when Brady plays in the Bucs' opener in September at the age of 45, he'll be the oldest quarterba...

 It took long enough, but there will be a baseball season after the owners and players on Thursday (March 10) reached an agreement on a new five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The accord paves the way for players to report to spring training as soon as Friday (March 11), it jump-starts the free-agent signing period almost immediately and puts Opening Day on Thursday, April 7, only a week later than the original date of March 31. (MLB is still intending to play an entire 162-game season, with the first six games that were previously canceled being made up later in the season.) As far as the Red Sox are concerned, the later start to the season means the Sox will open up the 2022 season at Yankee Stadium against the Yanks on April 7. (For fans of the 1967 Impossible Dream team, that will put the Sox at Yankee Stadium almost 55 years to the date (April 14) when "the kid pitcher from Toronto," southpaw Billy Rohr, took a no-hitter into the 9th-inning before Yankee cat...

(This artwork by Cassie Chee was on display at the recent exhibit held at the Attleboro Arts Museum. Artwork courtesy of The Sun Chronicle and the Attleboro Arts Museum.) There’s no more heart-wrenching situation for a parent to have to cope with than the death of a child, and when that death is due to a suicide, it’s extremely crushing and unthinkable to cope with. But the Chee family of North Attleboro has turned their grief into a foundation named after their daughter, who took her own life on Jan. 21, 2020. Cassie’s Cause ( www.cassiescause.com ), is a non-profit foundation that was created to raise awareness about mental health, the need to increase access to treatment and make it easier to get treated for mental illness --- and the increase in suicide among teens and young adults. The foundation was started last June, and recently, the Attleboro Arts Museum in downtown Attleboro, MA, held an art exhibit to honor Cassie Chee. I wrote this column about the program held Feb. 26 to m...

After reading the column published right after this story, please take a few   minutes to check this story out to learn more about Cassie’s Cause, the foundation started by the Chee family of North Attleboro to honor their youngest daughter Cassie, who took her own life in January of 2020. ***** This story, which was published in the Saturday-Sunday, Aug. 14-15, 2021, Weekend edition of The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, MA, speaks for itself. It tells the courageous story of a North Attleboro family’s reaction to the loss of their younger daughter and sister to suicide. The family in June of 2021 began a non-profit foundation, Cassie’s Cause, in loving memory of their daughter with the aim of raising awareness about mental health issues and to end the stigma that surrounds mental health. My thoughts and prayers are with the Chee family. Link to Cassie's Cause main story, which includes Roseanne Chee's sidebar in her own words and helpline information. https://www.thesunchro...

It's clear that baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred doesn't care about the diehard fans, let alone the casual ones, as the owners this week failed to make any bold moves designed to give the players an incentive to end the lockout. Not that the players are blameless in this latest labor discord that has already canceled the first three weeks of spring training, Opening Day and the first two series of the 2022 season. They flat out rejected federal mediation and the offer of assistance from former Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, now the labor secretary, to help reach some common ground with the owners, and they rejected a minimum salary of $700,000. But let there be no mistake about it: The owners bear 90 percent of the responsibility for this debacle. From the moment they locked out the players Dec. 2 after the previous CBA (collective-bargaining agreement) expired, they've made their utter contempt for the players --- and the fans --- clear. They also waited forever to start engag...