New honor for Dartmouth

Earlier this month the Orozco Murals at Dartmouth College were recently designated a National Historic Landmark by the National Park Service (you can read more about it here). Officially titled "The Epic of American Civilization," the mural was completed after two years of effort by Mexican artist Jose Clemente Orozco. Located in the Reserve Reading Corridor in Baker-Berry Library, the mural has impressed and inspired (and thoroughly creeped out) students since its completion in 1934. It is a must-see for any first-time visitors to campus!

Dartmouth has commissioned a number of peculiar pieces of artwork in recent years (the large rectangles adorning the side of the Hopkins Center spring to mind). Nevertheless, it is gratifying to see a culturally and artistically significant piece of art be recognized by the National Park Service. What's more, the mural was recently renovated, so it is in impeccable condition to receive what will hopefully be even greater public and student interest.

Staying in Hanover, the Dartmouth baseball team has gotten off to a torrid start this spring. Their record is currently 11-1, which is the best twelve-game start they've ever had. Not only that but they began the season 8-0 before losing to Slippery Rock on March 20. That made them the final unbeaten team in Division I this year. Go Big Green!

Hall of Fame brouhaha

The baseball Hall of Fame made headlines last month when the selection committee declined to elect any new members (the veterans committee did choose a few inductees, but no one the general public has ever heard of). This was widely seen as a referendum on the so-called "Steroids Era" of the past two decades. Many people were quick to praise the committee's actions while others were predictably quick to criticize. One of the more interesting reactions came from The New York Times's Bill Pennington, who wrote an article on January 8 about the unsavory personal lives of many of the past inductees.

Pennington's point seemed to be that there are so many hooligans in the Hall of Fame--alcoholics, gamblers, racists, and the like--that what's the harm in adding to their number drug users whose on-field performance has been equally impressive? The fundamental difference, though, lies precisely in the arena in which the transgressions occurred. Misconduct off the field, however deplorable, has much less bearing on an individual's suitability for enshrinement than does malfeasance that directly impacts the game.

Steroid use undercuts the integrity of baseball. Players who use(d) illegitimate performance-enhancing substances are cheaters. And whether it's fair or not, their accomplishments will be tainted by their steroid use. It should come as no surprise, then, that the Hall of Fame takes a dim view on admitting them to their company.

YankeeVox comes to Twitter

For those of you who have jumped on the Twitter bandwagon (or are thinking about doing so), I invite you to follow me on Twitter at twitter.com/YankeeVox. I'll be happy to give you a follow as well.

I was pleasantly surprised to see Buffalo and chess making headlines together the other day. Ken Regan, an International Master and computer science professor at the University of Buffalo, was recently lauded in The New York Times for his work in developing a program aimed at sniffing out instances of computer cheating among top chessplayers. I highly recommend the article, which is extremely accessible to both chess and computer science laypeople. Of particular interest to me was the way in which the program can be applied to not only root out cheating but also to clear players who have fallen under suspicion. Give it a look.

In other news, today was the home opener for Dartmouth baseball. I was pleased to catch the first two innings; they looked good!

Off-season

I doubt I am alone in dividing the calendar year into not four seasons but two: Baseball season and the off-season. As of this morning, we are officially into the latter (in my eyes, the unofficial end of baseball season is whenever the Yankees play their last game). The St. Louis Cardinals were crowned Major League Baseball champions last night, and deservingly so. As late as mid-August, they were almost as far back in the playoff race as the Boston Red Sox were ahead (sorry, I couldn't resist). But they came storming back, and it wasn't until extra innings on the final game of the regular season that their playoff berth was secured.

Postseason highlights included their Game 5 contest against the Philadelphia Phillies, in which aces Chris Carpenter (St. Louis) and Roy Halladay (Philadelphia) turned in a pitchers' duel for the ages, and Thursday night's dramatic come-from-behind-twice victory in which they were down to their final strike on two separate occasions. Although I had little interest in either the Cardinals or their foe, the Texas Rangers, I will freely admit that it was a terrific series.

The World Series may be over, but the 2011 season is not completely in the books just yet. Over the coming weeks, the regular-season awards will be announced (although the announcements don't come until after the World Series, the selection takes place before the playoffs begin to prevent players' postseason performances from influencing the voters). I have a feeling Justin Verlander will get the Cy Young Award, although I would selfishly prefer to see him named Most Valuable Player so that C.C. Sabathia can receive the Cy Young. And after all the awards have been handed out, it will only be a few more months until pitchers and catchers report to spring training and we do it all again!

Playoffs!

The Major League Baseball season drew to a close yesterday, with the Tampa Bay Rays and St. Louis Cardinals securing the American League and National League wild card playoff spots, respectively. While the division races were decided days (or even weeks) before the end of the season, not even nine innings were sufficient to determine the final standings. Both the Yankees-Rays game and the Phillies-Braves game went deep into extra innings before things were decided. And while it's tempting to rub in the demise of the Yankees' nemesis, I think the Red Sox's September record is punishment enough. Actually, I take that back. Watching the Yankees' ticker-tape parade next month will be punishment enough.

The U.S. Chess League is at the halfway point of the season, with the Philadelphia Inventors and the New York Knights tied atop the Eastern Division with a record of 3.5-1.5 (though Philadelphia currently holds the edge on tiebreaks). In the West, the Chicago Blaze are the class of the league, with an unbeaten 5-0 record. The San Francisco Mechanics are in second place with a 3-2 record. Next week sees interleague action, with New York taking on the Seattle Sluggers and Chicago facing off against the Baltimore Kingfishers.

Despite living in Buffalo for more than a year, I never acquired a rooting interest in the Bills. Nevertheless, I am pleased that the Bills' 3-0 start in the NFL season has given them something to cheer about. Whether or not it will last remains to be seen, but for the time being life is good in Orchard Park.

In other news, Ellen is running in her first marathon on Saturday. Everybody wish her luck!!

Ellen and I went to see "Beatlemania Now" at the Claremont Opera House two weeks ago. The show, which was the penultimate offering in the Opera House's 2010-2011 season, billed itself as a "Multimedia tribute to the Beatles." I'm a big Beatles fan and I always enjoy hearing their songs performed live. Unfortunately, the impersonators just weren't very good. They didn't look much like the actual band members (which is hard to blame them for, but still, the realism wasn't there) and they didn't sound much like them, either. "John" actually came pretty close, at least with the songs from the early period, but the rest of the band was underwhelming. Still, it was an energetic show and I enjoyed getting to go out with Ellen and see it.

On Saturday I played in the White River Open, a one-day, four-round tournament held in White River Junction, VT. The tournament was small but surprisingly strong; the Open section featured a Grandmaster, a Senior Master, an International Master, a National Master and two Experts. In fact, of the nine players in the section, five were rated above 2180! I took a first-round bye so I could sleep after getting off work in the morning, and I defeated southern New Hampshire Expert Clay Bradley in my second-round game. Unfortunately I faltered at a key moment against IM Danny Kopec in Round 3 before getting blown off the board by SM Denys Shmelov (rated 2529!) in the final round. My final tournament score was +1 -2 =0, which was good for a sixth-place tie. It's hard to be disappointed by my result, but I can't help wishing I'd been able to keep up the pressure in my game against Kopec. Regardless, it was a lot of fun to play, and I'm looking forward to my next rated event (which at this point is looking like a match in June against top-rated Vermonter Dave Carter).

Living in New Hampshire, I've come to accept the fact that many of my neighbors are (for some reason) Red Sox fans. My sports affiliations have, consequently, caused some good-natured friction at work. And after the Yankees were swept by the Red Sox over the weekend, I knew I was going to be in for it on Monday. And sure enough, when I returned to the station following an early-morning emergency call, I was met at the ambulance door by a coworker brandishing a broom.

In other news, Pirates of the Caribbean 4 opens on Friday. Apparently they are starting a new trilogy featuring some but not all of the old characters (Johnny Depp and Geoffrey Rusch are back; Orlando Bloom and Keira Knightley are not). I'm looking forward to seeing it soon.

Change is in the wind

Dartmouth College announced on Tuesday that beginning in the 2012-2013 academic year, the fall term would be moved up so that classes start earlier in September and end by Thanksgiving. Currently, the first day of class is often as late as the fourth week of September and students return to campus following the Thanksgiving holiday for another week of classes followed by reading period and exams. I enthusiastically support this change, although neither Ellen nor I will be affected by it. Sending students home for five days only to recall them for a week and a half and then send them home again for three more weeks just doesn't make sense, and all the more so when you have as geographically diverse a population as Dartmouth does. The only potential downside is the overlap between Sophomore Summer final exams and the early sections of First-Year Trips, but that has always been an issue anyway and I doubt it'll be difficult to procure sufficient numbers of non-sophomore trip leaders.

As far as weird sporting happenings go, this one is right up there. The Rockies-Mets baseball game on Tuesday featured a rain delay, which is in and of itself relatively unremarkable, but the at-bat that was underway when the rain delay was called was a bit less pedestrian. Due to injury and fatigue (once pitchers cool down--as during a rain delay--they almost never go back out to pitch when play resumes), there were two pitchers and two hitters in a single at-bat! I'm with the sportswriter on this one; I doubt this was a precedented occurrence!

In other news, Gata Kamsky defeated Veselin Topalov in their quarterfinal Candidates match. His next opponent is Boris Gelfand of Israel; their first game today was a draw. Good luck Gata!

Opening day

Opening Day is one of my favorite days of the year. At long last, baseball is back. And even though it was cold and snowy across the Northeast this year, nothing can diminish my enthusiasm for the return of the national pastime. One week into the season, I'm generally pleased with the way things are going. Other than Monday night's irregularity, the Yankees' bullpen has performed as advertised, and their lineup seems to be largely avoiding the prolonged start-of-season thaw they've endured the past few years. It comes as a pleasant surprise, too, that perennial foes Tampa Bay and Boston have started the season a combined 0-11. 162 games is a long time, and anything is possible, but I'll take what I can get. (I am less pleased by Texas's red-hot start ... they don't seem to be missing a beat despite losing Cliff Lee to free agency.)

I was reading the story of the pilot who made an emergency landing on a beach in Queens earlier this week. Fortunately, no one was injured and it doesn't seem like there was any significant property damage. Still, it was a bizarre episode. One of the many questions running through my mind after reading the account of the pilot's conversation with the air traffic controller: How does enrolling in medical school make you a paramedic?

As best I can tell, the looming government shutdown (with the deluge of media coverage this possibility has received recently, I'm beginning to think it should be all one word) is not going to directly affect ambulance operations in New Hampshire. Medicare will continue making payments, at least for a time, drawn on money set aside previously. Should a prolonged shutdown occur, who knows how that might affect ambulance services? Not I.

In other news, the University of Connecticut and Texas A&M won the NCAA men's and women's basketball championship, respectively, this past week. Congratulations to them both.

Sports shake-ups

I was pleased to see that the Knicks acquired Carmelo Anthony from the Denver Nuggets on Monday. I was convinced that the maelstrom of trade rumors would fizzle out and the question of Anthony's long-term plans would be resolved in the off-season via free agency. Pleasantly, I was mistaken. In a massive trade--one of the largest in NBA history--Anthony and veteran point guard Chauncey Billups were sent to the Knicks in exchange for Danilo Gallinari, Timofey Mozgov, Wilson Chandler and Raymond Felton, not to mention a large handful of supporting players on all sides.

Initially, I had been concerned about the long-term cost of parting with so many of the Knicks' "core," their young, improving players. But a series of articles on the New York Times sports page pointed out that while supporting players come and go, stars are much harder to replace. Better to acquire a second legitimate star to complement Amar'e Stoudemire and then replenish the role players than to try to win a championship based on the power of Stoudemire and the role players alone. I think he might be on to something there--LeBron James's stint in Cleveland proved that no one superstar can win a championship by himself--and I hope the Knicks achieve everything they'd hoped with this trade.

Staying on the hardwood, the Cal Tech men's basketball team defeated Occidental 46-45 last night. This victory is significant because it snaps Cal Tech's 310-game conference losing streak. According to The New York Times, the last time they defeated a fellow Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference foe was during the 1984-1985 season ... which means the losing streak is older than any of the current players. Congratulations to Cal Tech, and I hope their baseball team will be the next to find redemption (412 consecutive losses in conference games).

And in baseball, spring training is underway and games start up this weekend. Opening Day is March 31!

New York on the brink

With thirteen days remaining until Election Day, two New York races are coming down to the wire ... the American League Championship Series and the stretch run of the U.S. Chess League. (This is not to say that the current political campaigns are unimportant, merely that they will be resolved later in time than the above contests.) The Yankees find themselves in a 3-1 hole against the Texas Rangers while the New York Knights have lost three of their last four matches, dropping them into a tie for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Division. With their backs against the wall, here's hoping they step it up!

Speaking of stepping it up, Dartmouth football defeated Holy Cross 27-19 on Saturday to move to 3-2 on the season (0-2 Ivy League). Their two losses, to Penn and Yale, were both by the slimmest of margins, including a 35-28 overtime defeat at Penn. Not a bad start to a rebuilding year (the memory of 2008's 0-10 campaign is still a fresh memory). This weekend sees the Big Green travel to Columbia to seek their first Ivy win of 2010 against the Lions (3-2, 1-1 Ivy).

The chess Olympiad may have concluded, but the World Youth Championship has just gotten underway in Halkidiki, Greece. The United States sent a forty-player delegation and is represented in every age group on both the boys' and girls' side, save boys U16. Good luck to all the participants! And staying in the sporting world, The New York Times recently reported on a new trend in international sport: women's sumo. Who knew?

Ellen's final Buffalo visit

Ellen came out to visit this weekend for the last time before I move back to New Hampshire. We had a terrific time, combining a belated birthday celebration with sightseeing and low-key time together too. On Saturday, we went to watch the Buffalo Bisons take on the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs in AAA minor league baseball (the Bisons won, 4-1). Watching a minor league game is a much different experience from attending a major league stadium; for starters, the minor league stadia usually have about one quarter the seating capacity of their big-league brethren. This means you can get much closer to the action without spending a fortune. In fact, it costs the same amount of money to watch two Yankees games from field level ($250 per seat) as it does to buy season tickets to the Bisons ($505 per seat for seventy one home games). Then again, you get what you pay for. Unless A.J. Burnett is pitching, anyway.

On Sunday we crossed the border and went to the Canadian side of Niagara Falls. What an experience. We'd been to see the American Falls in February, but the Horseshoe Falls are considerably bigger. The weather was perfect for waterfall-watching: Sunny and clear but not too hot. We bought tickets for the Maid of the Mist boat, which was incredible. It first took us past the base of the American Falls before turning and heading right up to the bottom of the Horseshoe Falls. The wind and spray from the waterfall were pretty ferocious, but we had a terrific vantage point from which to appreciate the Falls. I'll post pictures soon.

Ellen is on her way home now, sadly, but it's only three weeks until I head back east for good. And I won't be hurting for things to do between now and then, so hopefully the time will pass quickly!

Turning 23

I turned twenty three last Saturday. To celebrate the occasion, I went down to Westchester to visit my family and attend Old Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium. It was a short trip, on account of the looming community college final exam for my paramedic program, but it was chock-full of activities. On Friday, my brother and I saw the just-released "Inception," starring Leonardo DiCaprio. Talk about a complex movie, but it was quite an experience, especially seeing it on the big screen.

Saturday was the big day itself. New York City was experiencing a heat wave, which meant staying shielded and hydrated was extremely important. My usual modus operandi for baseball games is to forego sunblock, suffer a severe sunburn and then wish I hadn't. Older and wiser now, I instead opted for the preventative application of some SPF 50. That in conjunction with some well-placed shade made for an altogether sunburn-free day.

The Old Timers' Day festivities were a lot of fun. Many of the surviving figures in Yankees lore were in attendance, luminaries like Whitey Ford, Don Larsen and Ron Guidry. Yogi Berra had planned on coming but he had suffered a fall the night before and was recuperating at home. After the introductions were complete, there was a two-inning scrimmage between the two sides, although many of the old Old Timers were replaced by more recent veterans such as Pat Kelly and David Cone.

The Yankees-Rays game was less dramatic than the exhibition game preceding it, in large part because A.J. Burnett gave an early preview of the final result by allowing five runs in 2.1 innings. Still, we had great seats and it was fun to see my favorite players up close. Watching games on TV just isn't the same experience, for watching the players or the game. And of course the new Yankee Stadium has to be seen to be believed. It was quite a birthday!

A New Hampshire Fourth

I traveled to New Hampshire last weekend to spend the Independence Day holiday with Ellen. It was a terrific trip in so many ways. We continued to set up and furnish our apartment, and apart from those brief errands, there was nothing to do but spend three days enjoying the beautiful weather together. On Sunday, we stopped by the Dartmouth Green after church for Hanover's Fourth of July celebration and then watched Lebanon's fireworks show in the evening. The Hanover event was shockingly small, much more so than in years past. We had a great vantage point for the fireworks, though, and enjoyed the show quite a bit.

I had hoped to continue on to Westchester after my visit to New Hampshire, but unfortunately my clinical schedule did not allow it. I was assigned a new preceptor at the end of last week, and the way his schedule was set up, I just couldn't spare the time away. My father and I had planned to see Ringo Starr at Radio City Music Hall on Wednesday, but I guess it'll have to wait until another year. Happy birthday anyway, Ringo!

Big week for sports coming up. The World Cup final is tomorrow, the Home Run Derby and All-Star game are Monday and Tuesday, and the U.S. Women's and U.S. Junior Closed Chess Championships began today and will last through the week. It's going to be exciting!

Loose ends

Now that Clinicals IV and V are underway, life often feels like a dizzying blur of clinicals, ride time and paid ambulance work. It has been an exciting week, but the start of Phase II of my field internship wasn't the only exciting thing going on. The chess, sports and publishing worlds all check in with notable occurrences too.

The U.S. Chess Championship concluded on Tuesday with the coronation of Gata Kamsky as the new national champion. Kamsky last won that title in 1991. Hikaru Nakamura, last year's champion, finished in a tie for third place overall. Interestingly, there has not been a repeat champion since Lev Alburt won back-to-back titles in 1984 and 1985.

Speaking of repeat championships, the Dartmouth baseball team defeated Columbia to clinch its second consecutive Ivy League championship. Last year's victim was Cornell, and I was fortunate enough to attend the clinching game. I wasn't so lucky this year, but a hearty congratulations to the Dartmouth baseball team all the same!

The Daily Dartmouth reported last week that Smith and Kraus Publishing has released its In An Hour series. This is a twenty-seven volume collection that provides a brief overview of major theatrical plays, including plot summary, author biography and historical context. The idea is for a theatergoer to pick up a copy of the corresponding In An Hour volume beforehand, thereby maximizing their understanding and enjoyment of the performance.

It's a neat concept in its own right, but I am primarily interested because I worked on this series while an editorial intern for Smith and Kraus in early 2008. My responsibility was primarily marketing, with a little conventional editing thrown in as well. As with Annette Gordon-Reed's National Book Award- and Pulitzer Prize-winning The Hemingses of Monticello, it is always exciting to see a book I worked on come out in print.

Megacode Practice

We headed into the lab yesterday to begin practicing for our final "Assessment-Based Managment" scenarios, aka Exit Megacodes. This is the point in the program where they've taught us everything we need to know to function as entry-level paramedics. Now we have to prove we learned it by effectively managing two patients, one medical and one trauma, through everything the lab instructors throw at us. As it was put yesterday, "When you pass, that means you're ready to go out and take care of my mother."

From the world of baseball, the Philadelphia Phillies recently announced that fans running on the field would henceforth be corraled by stadium security instead of Philadelphia police officers, though police would remain available in case additional force were required. This change came about as a result of Monday night's episode in which a seventeen-year old boy came out onto the field and led police and stadium security on a chase through the outfield until one of the police officers Tased him.

The Phillies are of course free to do whatever they deem in the best interest of the players, coaches, umpires and fans. With that said, this move seems unnecessary. True, there was a public outcry against the use of a Taser on the young man, but I don't see the big deal. A man commited a crime, resisted arrest and then got Tased. Nothing unusual about that.

In other news, Iron Man 2 came out last night at midnight. Ellen and I have already made plans to go see it when I visit New Hampshire later this month. I cannot wait to see the movie and I especially cannot wait to see my beautiful fiancee.

May is underway

Ellen came out to visit this weekend, and it was wonderful to see her. The weather certainly cooperated; thunderstorms were predicted for most of the weekend but consistently held off, which meant we got to enjoy warm temperatures and delightful zephyrs. The weekend ended much too quickly, as it always does when Ellen is here, but it's less than a month until our next visit and we will both be plenty busy until then.

My paramedic instructor mentioned as we were leaving on Thursday that we will spend part of tomorrow filling out graduation paperwork. It was startling to hear the "G" word at first, but I realized that my surprise stemmed from how early it popped up, relatively speaking. The didactic component may be winding down, but there is a lot of program left. During our sixty one day clinical break, on average six out of every twenty four hours will be spent at a clinical.

On the health front, Johnson & Johnson subsidiary McNeil Consumer Healthcare issued a recall Saturday for specified lots of Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl. Evidently there was a manufacturing mistake that led to the inclusion of excessive levels of the active ingredients. For more information, visit the recall's official recall website.

In other news, the Yankees' starting rotation is 12-1 this year, with the exception of Javier Vazquez, who is 1-3 on the season. Can't they just start Sabathia twice and send Vazquez back to Atlanta?

11,000 miles

My car hit the 11,000 mile mark over the weekend. I bought it in August with more than 122,000 miles on it, and thirty weeks later it has consistently proven itself sturdy and reliable. With all the negative press Toyota has been receiving lately, I'm relieved that my car is as dependable as ever. Despite the fact that I haven't made the drive to or from New Hampshire in nearly three months, I nevertheless average fifty miles of driving per day. And with spring break trips to NH and MA looming, I bet that number will be climbing.

Not long ago, I received a letter from the community college inviting me to join Phi Theta Kappa, which is the two-year college version of Phi Beta Kappa. Evidently I qualified based on my high marks in my paramedic classes. It was flattering to be recognized in that way, but I am declining induction into the society. This feather seems unlikely to outweigh the Ivy League degree already in my cap. There is no point in paying a fee for an honor that I cannot utilize.

Lastly, my external checklist for verifying the arrival of spring is almost complete. The vernal equinox is past, Daylight Savings Time has begun and Opening Day is nearly here. All that remains is for leaves to reappear on the trees. I don't care how warm it gets; bare branches and springtime cannot coexist.

Spring is around the corner

Forget Punxsutawney Phil. The surest sign of spring's impending arrival is the start of spring training. Now, after a long winter, the first spring training baseball games are less than five days away! Needless to say, I am beyond excited. Since the Yankees' dominating World Series victory, I've had to sustain myself on a diet of professional basketball and the Olympics. The fare has been lean. When I find myself hoping the Nets will continue losing their losing ways and set the record for the worst season in NBA history--they might as well, lest they be awful and unmemorable--then it's time for baseball to resume.

Both publications with which I'm currently involved, The Dartmouth Apologia and Buffalo's THRiVE! are preparing to publish their newest issues. I wrote one article for the Apologia and another one for THRiVE!, as well as serving as the managing editor for the latter magazine. I enjoy working in the publishing world, especially Christian publishing, and I've been fortunate to be able to continue that work here. If you're interested in following my writing in particular or the journals in general, subscription information can be found on their respective websites (see above).

In other news, I'm looking forward to the March 12 release of the Matt Damon movie "The Green Zone." The finer points of the plot escape me, but the trailers promise gunfights, chases and explosions. I don't get to the movie theater much, but I'm going to try to see this one when it comes out. It sounds like my kind of movie.

McGwire comes clean

In the latest chapter of baseball's ongoing steroids saga, Mark McGwire, the former baseball player who shattered Roger Maris's single-season home run record by hitting seventy home runs in 1998, admitted yesterday that he used steroids for a decade leading up to and including his record-breaking year. He had previously acknowledged using androstenedione, but that was not a banned substance at the time. This news is disillusioning, if not entirely surprising. After all, have you seen the size of the man's arms?

As far as the impact on the single-season home run record, things are unclear. Barry Bonds, who broke McGwire's record with seventy three home runs in 2001, is also beleaguered with allegations of steroid use. According to Yahoo! Sports, the Maris family feels that Roger's total of sixty one home runs in 1961 should be restored as the official single-season record. Although Sammy Sosa has also surpassed Maris's single-season total--he hit sixty six home runs in 1998, the same year that McGwire hit seventy--he too tested positive for steroids, according to the 2003 anonymous survey conducted by Major League Baseball that came to light last year.

Will Major League Baseball make any official adjustment to the record? It's unlikely. For starters, it has not been proven that Bonds actually used steroids (though I suspect that's just a matter of time) or that Sosa was using steroids in 1998. More than that, though, the league is extremely reticent when it comes to revising records, most likely due to "slippery slope" concerns. If they change one record, they'll soon be flooded with requests to change them all. Then again, video replay on home run calls has begun to undermine the traditional inviolability of an umpire's ruling, so perhaps more change is in the wind.

In other news, Dartmouth men's basketball head coach Terry Dunn resigned last Friday. He had amassed a 47-103 record over six years with the team. The search for his replacement is ongoing. Go Big Green!

Fire and ice in Buffalo

It has been a slow week in Western NY. This is largely due to the arrival of the first "Lake Effect" storm of the season last Thursday, which deposited upwards of a foot and a half of snow. (Somebody once tried to explain the Lake Effect to me in meteorological terms, but I have a sneaking feeling that it just boils down to the locals blaming nearby, defenseless Lake Erie for the awful winter weather around these parts.) The storm was so bad that some stretches of I-90 were closed between Buffalo and the Pennsylvania border. Some motorists spent as long as twelve hours stranded in their cars before the roadway reopened Friday morning. I guess that gives new meaning to the phrase, "Cold shoulder!"

On the plus side, the storm meant that I got to enjoy my first snowday since sophomore year of college. I actually came pretty close to going to school anyway until I walked outside to warm up the car, looked around and realized that there was no way classes were going to be in session, a theory that was quickly confirmed by a call to the emergency closing hotline. I had just gotten my snow tires two days earlier, too, but I'm sure I'll get another opportunity to test them out soon.

Unfortunately I came down with a high fever over the weekend, which has only recently begun to abate. Although attending paramedic school full-time and working three jobs keeps me running around at an often frenetic pace, I'd much rather be out and about than laid up sick. Suffice it to say I'm looking forward to getting back on my feet!

In other news, several big-name pitchers are on the move. Blue Jays ace Roy Halladay is bound for Philadelphia, who is in turn sending Cliff Lee to the Seattle Mariners. John Lackey, formerly of the Angels, signed with the Boston Red Sox as a free agent. These are all big developments, but the best rotation in baseball still belongs to the New York Yankees. Can't wait for Opening Day!