Past and present merge at a Cape Cod cemetery.

The Shaw family in 1955; from left, Elaine, Lillie, Huck and Bob.

North Falmouth has always been a special place for me. It was a vacation spot, a getaway destination and even a personal sanctuary for almost half of my life.

In fact, it was where I was awakened to the sound of fighter jets going to afterburners early on a Tuesday morning in September almost a quarter-century ago, their destination being the airspace around Manhattan to protect a nation under attack.

I was in North Falmouth again Thursday morning, the 24th anniversary of the terrorist attacks upon the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and the purpose was to mourn a beloved relative. Thursday morning was eerily similar to Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 -- almost unseasonably warm temperatures under a cloudless blue sky. It's as if the fates conspired to replicate the conditions of that near-perfect day when the jets took off from what's now called Joint Base Cape Cod (then Otis Air Force Base), only a few miles from the vacation home of my closest friend, for which I had the privilege of being an occasional caretaker when my friend was unable to be in residence there.

Robert Francis Shaw (1936-2025)

Thusday, the purpose was to say goodbye to my 89-year-old first cousin, Robert Francis Shaw, the son of my aunt, Lillie Farinella Shaw. If that name sounds familiar to residents of my hometown, it should. For many years, she and her son were owners of Shaw's Sporting Goods on North Main Street, a retail store that also served as a supplier of athletic equipment to many local high schools and colleges. That store still exists, in another location on Mansfield's main street and under different ownership as Grogan-Marciano Sporting Goods.

Bob Shaw was a good man, a kind and unfailingly honest man, as his eldest son Robert remarked during the funeral service at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Church in the Old Silver Beach area of North Falmouth. And he was a great friend and almost a surrogate son to my own father during an important time in both of their lives.

My aunt, Bob's mother, was the eldest of the five children of Carmelo and Gandolfa Farinella, who came to America from Palermo, Sicily, at the turn of the 20th century to seek a better life. Carmelo ran a bakery in the North End of Mansfield for many years, and his eldest sons (Santino, Frank, Tony) would hop on bicycles and deliver fresh bread to customers throughout the area. But in 1936, my uncle Sannie decided that the bakery life was not for him, and he opened a small clothing store on North Main Street named after him. In the years that followed, all four of the Farinella brothers (including the much-younger Charlie) would be involved in an enterprise that would become one of the town's most successful retail stores until its closing after more than 55 years in business.

Around the same time, Lillie's husband, a fellow named Huck Shaw, opened a small sporting goods store in close proximity to Sannie's on North Main Street. As I mentioned, that store became the go-to supplier of athletic equipment to schools throughout a wide swath of southeastern Massachusetts and neighboring Rhode Island.

Tragedy struck the Shaw family when Huck was killed in an automobile accident on U.S. 1 in Plainville in the late 1940s, when Bob was just reaching his teen years. Lillie took over the operation of the sporting goods store -- somewhat of a pioneer for women in business in that era -- and Bob came into the fold after his graduation from Mansfield High in 1955.

The business continued to thrive out of the tiny storefront on North Main across from Sannie's (now occupied in expanded form by Jodice Builders), and it was truly a family operation -- Lillie handling the books, Bob growing into a leadership role as the years passed, and his sister Elaine (a pioneering athlete at Mansfield High long before anyone even thought of the necessity of Title IX) behind the cash register.

Elaine would also die far too young and under tragic circumstances, leaving behind a daughter (Edon, who is now a pilot for Southwest Airlines). And as the 1970s approached, Bob found himself seeking change in his life.

He was married with two boys, but I believe he missed the influence of a father in his life. He may have found that in my father, who was just 17 years older than Bob, but with a wealth of life experience to share with someone willing to tap into it.

At this point, you may ask why my father needed a surrogate son with one of his own. It's a good question. I think the answer is that at an early age, my father and I started to have different life goals and interests.

I had broken away from the Catholic Church early in my teens, freed from the daily trauma of the repressive approach to education and maturation I experienced at Dominican Academy in Plainville. But my father was intensely devout -- and while he grew more aware of and disgusted by the abuses of faith that festered in the church, especially when nearby cases of sexual assault were exposed to the public, he still felt an obligation to worship in accordance to his personal belief in God, and my rejection of the dogma disappointed him.

I also never displayed any inclination to follow in his footsteps and join the Sannie's family as a potential second-generation owner. I had wanted to be a writer from an early age, and that was set in stone the moment I walked into the offices of the Mansfield News in August 1969 and told Howard Fowler, the editor, that I was the answer to his difficulties in finding a reliable high school sports reporter.

It's not that my father was disappointed at that; in fact, I clearly remember the pride in his eyes when he read the first article I had published in the town's weekly newspaper. But very few of the Farinella offspring showed any interest in continuing the store's operation and legacy into the future, and indeed, that may have been a huge factor in the store's closing upon the retirements of my father and my uncle Charlie.

So, with me doing my thing and raising my flag of independence, Bob Shaw and my father struck up a relationship that was mutually beneficial to both.

Having been diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes (which claimed my grandfather's life), my father found a kindred spirit in the quest for physical fitness in my cousin. He and Bob started a regimen of jogging; they would schedule long cross-country runs through the ancient trails up and down Taylor's Hill -- a picturesque trek through the virtually unspoiled Great Woods before Interstate 495 plowed through them years later. 

I actually ran those trails with my dad once, when I was still fit enough to do it, but it was a disaster. Tony and I became competitive and we turned it into a race for personal supremacy, and we were both so exhausted at the end, it became clear that I would not be a suitable running partner going forward. My father and Bob were never competitors during their runs.

About the same time, my father saw the need for additional income if he was going to put me through college, and thus save me the agony of having to pay college loans for decades. He and Bob came up with a life-changing solution; they took courses at the Lee Institute and got their licenses to sell real estate, and their successes at this "side job" have a lasting legacy in the Northwestern University degree that hangs in the middle of the awards wall in my home.

Bob Shaw, however, embraced it as more than simply a side job.

By 1973, he sold the sporting goods store to Peter Marciano, the brother of Rocky, the late heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Marciano would move the store to the site of the former Fuller's hardware store across from the North Common, and then take on former Patriots' quarterback Steve Grogan as a partner sometime later. Of course, I covered Steve's exploits for much of his career, and many years later, I got the opportunity to explain to Steve my family's background in his store while we sat at a US Airways gate at Philadelphia International Airport, waiting to board a connecting flight to Buffalo. 

Bob seized the moment to begin his own real estate business, and he moved his family to North Falmouth and became quite successful at it.

Still, one of my happiest memories of Bob came from his time in charge of the little store across the street from Sannie's. 

I had just made the varsity baseball team in the spring of 1970, and I needed to get some equipment. The staples such as jock straps and sanitary socks were easy to find in the retail store, but as I tried to find a bat to my liking, Bob noticed that I wasn't finding what I wanted among those on display.

"Come with me," he said, and he led me down the narrow stairway to a dungeon-like basement beneath the storefront. This was where he stored all the supplies usually earmarked for the schools that the company supplied.

Among the glistening new Louisville Sluggers in multiple boxes, I found the bat of my dreams. It was a 34-ounce Dick McAuliffe model, the bat designed for the former Detroit Tigers shortstop who eventually played for the Red Sox. It was long, probably too heavy by modern standards, and had a sanded-down knob at the bottom, which made it easier to find a place to choke up on the bat while swinging without having the protruding knob rub against your forearm. I asked Bob how much it cost; he said, "Forget it. It's yours." 

The A2000 -- still perfect after 55 years.

Grateful as I was, my attention was suddenly captured by a sight of beauty. Sitting on a shelf near the bat boxes was a glorious baseball glove -- the Wilson A2000, the flagship product of that famed American company. The A2000 was the most-used glove in the majors at the time, it cost the huge sum of $75 (the equivalent of $662 today) and it came in many iterations -- shorter webbing area for infielders, longer for outfielders -- and the one on the shelf had the largest webbing area of them all. Knowing that my fielding skills were suspect at best, I knew I would need all the help I could get from a glove. I pulled it from the shelf and slipped it over my left hand, and I knew I had to own it.

I turned to Bob, and said, "Bob, I know you can't give me this glove for free. I wouldn't ask for that. I don't have $75 right now, but I swear to you I will pay it if I can have it. I absolutely have to have this glove." I reached into my wallet and pulled out three $10 bills, the product of a just-cashed check from the Mansfield News, to show my intentions.

Bob smiled and said, "Half-price." 

That glove is still mine. I used it (but didn't overuse it) in my struggles through two varsity baseball seasons and three in American Legion ball in Foxboro. It was later used for intramurals at Northwestern, beer-league softball in Attleboro, and later, for tossing the ball around with my friend's son in their North Falmouth yard. Now, it sits next to me at my desk as I type this. Its leather is still as soft and supple as the day it emerged from the Shaw's Sporting Goods basement in my hands. Wilson still makes the A2000 and they sell for around $300, but I've tried the newer ones on -- and aside from a little more padding in a few places, my glove is still superior to those.

I also thought I still had the bat, too. But after I told that story to Bob's younger son, Tommy, following Thursday's graveside ceremony, I recalled that I broke the Dick McAuliffe Louisville Slugger during a Legion game -- bad swing, barely put the ball into play, and I was entirely heartbroken upon its loss. I went home and sawed off the little knob at the bottom to save as a souvenir, but I don't know what happened to that.

Over the years, I would occasionally run into Bob during my vacations in North Falmouth -- usually at the small diner called "Talk of the Town" on Route 28A where I frequently breakfasted during vacation weeks or quick winter getaways. And on one of my trips to south Florida to cover a Patriots-Dolphins game, I dropped in on him at his winter home in Boca Raton. His wife, Joan, died in 2008, and was buried in their joint plot in a tiny cemetery in North Falmouth. Despite his loss, and several battles with medical issues of his own, Bob never lost the optimism that characterized him throughout his life.

One of my true regrets, however, is that we weren't as close as we could have been. I'll take ownership of that. There were many times over the years of his retirement when Bob would try to contact me by phone -- but, and this is unintentionally funny in a way, he would always unknowingly pick times when I absolutely could not answer. Those were usually when I was in a press box somewhere, covering a game. Whether it was in Seattle, or Dallas or Foxboro or practically all points in-between, or in the stands in the Albertini Gym at Mansfield High, the phone would ring and I'd be in a position where I could not answer. Sometimes we might be able to make contact afterward, but not as often as I could have or should have.

That came to mind as the tolling church bells at the parish of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton underscored the solemnity of the moment on Thursday. No matter what we do in life, sometimes it just seems like it's never enough. It's not necessarily that we run out of time, it's often a case of not using the time we have as well as we could have.

North Falmouth house under construction.

My connection to North Falmouth has also waned in recent years. The house that my friend built in 1979 and was a frequent destination thanks to his abundant benevolence (and his trust that I would not wreck the place) was sold a few years ago. New owners demolished the little three-bedroom structure and built something much larger. 

All that remains are photos and memories -- not only for me, but for another extremely close friend that would frequently visit while I was there. It became her sanctuary and a peaceful respite for her soul during the most severe of her two bouts with ovarian cancer. Thankfully, and through the wonderful work of the Dana-Farber Cancer Center, she has survived both.

And, of course, it was where I experienced a watershed moment for our nation. It was where I went for a few days off after the Patriots opened their 2001 season with a loss to the Bengals at what was then Paul Brown Stadium. I flew from Cincinnati to Chicago and then to Boston on Sept. 10, 2001, blissfully unaware of the plans that terrorists had for the next morning. I went directly to North Falmouth and woke up the next morning to the sound of the roaring jets in the sky above, thinking at first it was just another training exercise. Unable to fall asleep again, I got out of bed and turned on the TV in the living room -- and saw, to my horror, that the world had changed.

It all happened on a beautiful late-summer day, just like Thursday -- a date that will forever be etched in my memory as representative of loss.

MARK FARINELLA wrote sports for more than four decades for The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass. Contact him at theownersbox2020@gmail.com.

Finding treasure in old comic books is a labor of love.

Old comic books have been the pot of gold at the end of my rainbow.

I spent the whole day trying to finish this summer’s project.

Since June, I’ve been diving into two huge plastic bins filled with literally hundreds of comic books from the 1960s through the 1980s, with the intent of finding ones that may be valuable on the comic book trading market and cashing in in them.

 I’ve already sent three boxes filled with about 80 old superhero books to a comic book emporium in Texas that has been giving me good prices for the books in my possession that they are seeking to buy. Today, I put the finishing touches on the last box I intend to send for a while — 63 DC and Marvel books that will bring the summer’s total to around $1,000.

Most of the books cost me only 12 to 25 cents when I bought them at Stearns News Store or Cuneo’s in Mansfield, and even adjusted for inflation, I’m doing quite well in return. But sadly, many of the later books have no value because that’s when the whole phenomenon of comic book collecting began, and speculators cleared the newsstands of books they thought would increase in value. As it turned out, they didn’t.

One thing I’ve noticed is that the books I’ve turned in, from both Marvel and DC, have formed the foundation of today’s cinematic universes.

The characters and plots are those of the stories from the 1960s and 1970s, and not those of more recent vintage. The Avengers you see on the screen were mostly the characters as they were first introduced to the public by Stan Lee and his talented cohorts at Marvel, even if necessarily updated a little due to the passage of time. 

Indeed, to get his new DC movie universe kick-started, “Superman” writer/director James Gunn drew heavily from what’s called the Silver Age to forge the characters in his most recent movie -- and likely the ones he’s already formulating as his future projects.

For instance, the Green Lantern comic from the late 1960s in which bowl-cut anti-hero Guy Gardner was introduced to the DC Universe netted me almost $100 even though it had sat in a musty garage for almost 50 years — and even though the character didn’t adopt his current cinematic persona for almost 10 years after his debut.

Had that comic book been pristine, and not subjected to the seasonal extremes of temperature that characterize New England, my return for that book could have been four figures.

It’s been a demanding and allergic, but nostalgic, walk down memory lane. But hundreds remain, and so all that I can’t sell have been wrapped up, returned to the cleaned-out bin, and they will henceforth be stored in the basement, where the temperature is more constant and a dehumidifier will help preserve them for the day when I might revisit this treasure hunt.

Still, I owe thanks to my folks, Tony and Jeanne, for not just throwing those comic books out when I went to college — as they did all the old Playboy magazines I rescued from the big trailer when I helped my pals in the Boy Scouts on their Troop 17 paper drives.

And I thought they’d never find those.

So what's new this fall?

The Mansfield High field hockey team began practice on Monday.

The area's high school football teams started their practices last week and the rest of the school sports kicked in today, so I guess that it's fair to say that the 2025 fall sports season is underway.

It will be exactly 15 days from now when Del Malloy and I will kick off the North TV telecast schedule with a field hockey game between the Mansfield Hornets and the King Philip Warriors at KP's Arnold Macktaz Field (Sept. 3, 3:45 p.m., live on the North TV Community Channel), so I thought it would be a good time to take a quick look at some of what will be new when the fall season takes the next step into game competition.

League crossover games:

The Hockomock League is trying something new this year when it comes to scheduling for field hockey, boys' soccer and girls' soccer.

All of the schools in the league have left two game dates open in late October for the purpose of conducting a series of crossover games that will not count in the league standings.

If I have understood the explanations correctly, the first round of games will be conducted entirely within divisions. The Kelley-Rex first-place team at the time will play the second-place team, the third-place and fourth-place teams will play and the Nos. 5 and 6 teams will play. The same schedule will be in place for the Davenport.

Then on the second day, the winners of the 1 vs. 2 games in both divisions will play each other, and so on. The teams that didn't win in their first-round games will take on their opposite numbers from the other division to complete the slate of six games.

The big difference is that the teams are playing each league opponent only once in games that count toward the league standings, making for an 11-game "regular season" as opposed to the usual 16-game schedule that included two games against a divisional opponent and one apiece from the other division. In addition to creating some late-season drama with this crossover series, it also gave the individual schools more opportunities to add intriguing non-league games to their schedules.

Girls' volleyball will continue with the traditional league schedule format. The other sports are trying it as a one-year test, and whether it continues is up to how much the schools liked (or disliked) it.

All of the games will count toward the MIAA power rankings that determine the divisional tournament pairings. 

Football alignments:

Since the end of last season, fans of the MIAA football tournament were eagerly awaiting the results of a major realignment. The MIAA released one version several months ago that raised a few eyebrows -- including the news that Catholic Memorial (the best team money can buy in Division 2) would be dropping to Division 3 because of its total enrollment, instead of going up to Division 1, which would be more in line with the level of competition for the Knights and all of their talent appropriated from several far-flung territories.

No more CM vs. KP Super Bowls, finally.

Well, that was before the appeal process -- and when that was finished, CM stayed put in Division 2, where it won three of the last four divisional Super Bowls, all three of those against very good King Philip teams.

But KP finally got some relief. The Warriors, with a listed enrollment of 1,096 students, were dropped to Division 3 -- which, team for team, may be the toughest and most competitive division in all of Massachusetts high school football.

Seven Hockomock League schools -- Sharon, KP, Milford, Oliver Ames, North Attleboro, Mansfield and Stoughton -- are part of the Division 3 mix this year, although Sharon will not be playing a league schedule this year because of low football turnout and the lingering effect of having a player suffer a paralyzing injury in last year's Thanksgiving Day game against OA. 

And if that wasn't tough enough, the MIAA also decided to drop Marshfield and Barnstable to D3 as well. Both schools have played KP in the playoffs in each of the last two Division 2 tournaments (it's been three in a row for Marshfield against KP), and the Warriors hammered Marshfield in the 2023 Super Bowl at Gillette Stadium.

CM, the school with the allegedly smallest enrollment in D2, can now become a thorn in the side of the second-smallest school, Bishop Feehan, which also happens to be a North TV school.

Feehan is the only remaining local school in D2. Attleboro, Taunton and Franklin all remain in D1, Canton stands alone in D4 from the Hockomock, as does Foxboro in D5. One blessing to realignment is that the MIAA wised up and dropped Diman Vocational to D4 from D2, where it suffered a cringeworthy opening-round defeat in the 2023 playoffs at King Philip. But there is no silver lining to that, as strong programs like Walpole and Norwood also fell to D4 this year.

Tri-County, another North TV school, remains in Division 6.

Field hockey rule changes:

The MIAA almost automatically adopts rule changes established by the National Federation of High Schools, so in each of the sports, there has been some minor tweaking this year.

Field hockey still unmasked.

The national association still hasn't gone far enough in preventing field hockey facial injuries, in my opinion, by leaving the use of face masks optional. Players can choose to wear wire-caged masks during penalty corner plays, but they must take those masks off before resuming play outside the 25-yard area. If the game moves too fast to allow them to shed the masks, they can continue to wear them within that penalty area, but wearing them outside 25 yards will result in a player misconduct penalty.

Given all the debate about player safety -- a debate that was hijacked by the anti-transgender zealots that claim an army of boys is lining up to have their penises removed so they can play girls' sports -- you'd think it would make sense to require masks. And it's not because of transgender athletes. It's because the vast majority of games these days are played on artificial turf, which naturally speeds up the game and results in harder and more powerful shots off a pristine surface. But MAGA never complicates a good rant with facts.

The only other rule change that people will notice is that home teams will now wear their dark colors to show off the school colors, and road teams will wear what used to be the home whites.

Volleyball rule changes:

Six rule changes were approved, but this is likely to be the only one anyone will notice. I quote directly from the NFHS website:

"Rule 9-4-8c was added to the section on multiple contacts, adding second contact to the list of permitted instances, joining a team’s first contact and after a player touches the ball on a block. In addition to eliminating an official’s judgment call, the change allows for play to continue and does not create an advantage for the offending team.

"'In addition to the impact this judgment call has had on the flow of the game, the multiple contact fault has consistently been a point of contention between coaches and officials,' said Lindsey Atkinson, NFHS Director of Sports and liaison to the Volleyball Rules Committee. 'It is the committee’s belief that the elimination of this fault will contribute to less disputes between coaches and officials and ultimately benefit the overall environment of the match.'"

All of that is gobbledygook to me, of course. That's why I have my friend Alex Salachi, the former volleyball coach at Xaverian Brothers High School, in the expert analyst's seat at our North TV volleyball telecasts. I'll let him explain it to me at some point, and I'm sure he will point it out when it happens during any of the four games we do this year.

Soccer rule changes:

Not much of consequence to report here, although the NFHS did adopt six rule changes for high school soccer. Perhaps the most significant one is to make head coaches more responsible for the behavior of any team personnel on their sidelines.

Gibby Reynolds, chair of the Soccer Rules Committee and an administrator with the Oregon School Activities Association, explained the change as such: "Head coaches have a high degree of responsibility for their team areas and bench behavior and are to be held accountable now that officials are allowed to warn, caution or eject head coaches for misconduct committed by bench personnel. This change promotes a culture of respect and positive behavior on the sidelines."

The NFHS has also sanctioned substitutions during hot-weather water breaks, and clarified that the player number required on the front of all uniforms can appear either on the jersey or the shorts, or both.

Nothing like good kits talk.

Football rule changes:

Once again, there were several football rule changes -- but maybe only one that will show up on the field.

Fumbling out of bounds won't be a help.

The NFHS outlawed yardage gains by fumbling a football forward and out of bounds without it being recovered by the opponent. Previously, if you fumbled the ball and it managed to roll forward and over the sideline, your next down would start at the point where the ball went out of bounds. Now, in that same situation, the ball will return to the spot where the ball was first fumbled.

One other significant change reinforced the prohibition of in-helmet electronic communications. You still can't get the play calls from the coaches through speakers in your helmet. But for teams that use large placards held up by players to signal play calls from the sideline (as King Philip does), you can now substitute a fixed-position electronic sign board for that purpose.

I'm not sure anyone in the Hockomock League will be willing the shell out the loot for that gimmick quite yet. 

One other change was in regard to the exact dimensions for the uniform sleeves, but that doesn't go into effect until 2027 and I couldn't explain it to you before then anyway. Expect your favorite team to be shelling out more money for replacement uniforms before then.

And with that, let's all get our stadium seat-cushions and snacks ready. It's almost time for high school sports -- still the best value for your entertainment dollar in my book.

MARK FARINELLA covered his first high school sporting event on Saturday, Sept. 27, 1969 -- a 22-6 loss by the Mansfield High football team to North Attleboro -- almost 56 years ago. Fortunately, it's been uphill ever since. Contact him at theownersbox2020@gmail.com.

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering ...

Seriously, wouldn't you like to see Caitlin Clark in a green uniform?

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while putting the finishing touches (at least for the time being) on all my in-game notes for the upcoming schedule of North TV telecasts this fall ...

** I put a somewhat whimsical post up on social media last week in which, in a tone thoroughly mocking of the 47th President of the United States -- complete with "Thank you for your attention to this matter!" -- I suggested that because the Indiana Fever have figured out how to win without Caitlin Clark, she should be traded to the Connecticut Sun to help facilitate that franchise's hoped-for move to Boston and to bring a great talent to a major-market city that's just dying to see her play on a regular basis.

Like the Fever would do that. Yeah, I know.

That actually might be cause for armed insurrection in David Letterman's hometown, which has so thoroughly embraced its WNBA team in a manner that hasn't been seen there since Peyton Manning brought legitimacy to the Colts many moons ago. Clark put women's basketball on the map in Indianapolis and started a nationwide revolution there, so it's highly unlikely that team would consider dealing its meal ticket after just two years (or one and change, given Clark's extended injury absences this year).

To be honest, I don't think there's much the current Sun franchise could offer in return. After a full housecleaning last year, including head coach Stephanie White, the Sun has the worst record in the WNBA at this writing, a thoroughly dismal 5-26, and the Mohegan tribe would probably have to throw in millions of dollars in free chips for play in the casino to make any deal worth even remote consideration.

But here's the rub. Overlooking the WNBA's tepid response to the franchise shift proposed by former Celtics co-owner Steve Pagliuca, it would take a lot more than the mere presence of a WNBA team at the TD Garden to make it successful if the Connecticut Sun of present configuration is the team that is playing there.

I worry that a bad team -- a really bad team -- would not survive for long in Boston. That would also be the case for an expansion team (which the WNBA would consider for Boston in 2033, when most of the league's best stars of the present would be on the downslope of their careers).

I don't think it all rests in the hands in attracting the usual Boston professional sports fan to their games. No, there are a lot of knuckle-dragging morons that post their sexist and misogynistic opinions on local social media that could not be dragged to the Garden for a WNBA game, even on Free Beer Night. I do believe from my long-time association with women's athletics that there is a potential market for the team, and to some extent, that's already been proven by the enthusiastic sellout crowds that greeted the two WNBA games that have been played at the Garden in the last two seasons.

But with a team based here in town, the novelty would wear off quickly if the players representing Boston couldn't get out of their own way.

That calls for drastic measures. Again, discounting the WNBA's reluctance to sanction the sale and shift, Pagliuca would have to spend a lot more than just the $325 million sale price and the $100 million practice facility to make it work. He'd have to spend ungodly sums of money to attract free agents, and then come up with more creative ways to get established stars into Boston uniforms. 

Obviously, there's not much Pags could do to get Clark to Boston via trade. But her contract will be up after the 2027 season, and if he has the team, there would be no better time than to put on the full-court press in the effort to get her here. Her current contract is ridiculously low-balled in relation to her value to the league, so while there may be a salary structure in place, there's no doubt in my mind that a major-market pro town would afford her almost unlimited endorsement opportunities that Indianapolis couldn't hope to match.

So was I joking? Well, yes ... and no. Stranger things have happened in the world of sports. Usually by someone else sticking it to us, in fact.

Thank you for your attention to this matter!

** Speaking of the WNBA, have I mentioned how really badly the officiating sucks in that league? 

Someone needs to tell them that it's not a great idea to turn the W into another hackfest like the NBA has become. Glorifying contact over fundamental basketball is the wrong approach. I'm not against increased physicality, mind you, but some of the calls I see during WNBA games -- or the ones I don't see -- are just embarrassing.

** And, speaking of another troubled league, does anyone else find it a little funny that Boston mayoral candidate Josh Kraft (son of Patriots owner Robert Kraft) is attacking incumbent Mayor Michelle Wu for supporting the White Stadium soccer stadium plan, calling it a sweetheart deal for entitled millionaires -- funny, in that Kraft's dad is an entitled billionaire that's also battling Wu over his plans to build a soccer stadium in Everett for the beleaguered Revolution franchise.

Candidate Josh Kraft.

The elder Kraft wants to build a more appropriately-sized home for the Revs on property adjacent to the Encore casino complex, but Wu -- who should really have no jurisdiction over what happens in another municipality -- has been relentless in seeking her piece of the pie in mitigation assessments to allow the Everett plan to proceed. She claims, and maybe not entirely without merit, that building a 35,000-seat stadium on an inaccessible plot in Everett will challenge existing roads and means of access that snake through Boston. 

By the way, I've noticed that Josh speaks more and more like his dad as the years have passed. So I guess my Robert Kraft impression (known as one of the better ones in the Commonwealth) would be valid for a Mayor of Boston as well if the younger Kraft is elected. 

I live to serve.

** As for the Revolution itself, well, they are in 13th place in MLS and basically have become irrelevant. I used to scoff at soccer fans that blasted the Krafts for ignoring their team and not being serious owners, but I can't say I disagree any more. 

Between the miserable on-field product and the unrelenting effort to move the team out of Gillette Stadium and away from its loyal suburban (and money-spending) fan base, it's pretty clear that they have long since ceased giving a shit about building a winning franchise.

Why they don't just sell is beyond me. 

** And while we're on the topic of Kraft holdings, I have to admit it was a guilty pleasure of sorts to see the Patriots beat the Washington Commanders by 30 points in the preseason opener. But I've long since learned not to take preseason results too seriously.

What impressed me the most was not all the points or the impressive performances of the running backs. It was that the sideline operation seemed to be smooth, organized and purposeful. It certainly did appear that Mike Vrabel and his assistants were well in control of the situation throughout -- in direct contrast to the shitshow when Jerod Mayo's staff hit the field for the first time a year ago.

So much more to be done and not a lot of time in which to do it, but I'd say at least one aspect of the Vrabel Era has received a first-semester passing grade.

** Yes, I did start the templates for all of my game-day notes for the upcoming sports season. I'm not kidding. I'm very organized, and now I can just update each game's sheet as the season progresses. It's like an assembly line, and I'm Henry F***ing Ford (without the racism). 

And with that, I bid you adieu until the next time I get inspired to set the fingers to the keyboard. Stay cool, everyone.

MARK FARINELLA is brushing up on field hockey rules before returning to the microphone on Sept. 3 when Mansfield plays King Philip. Contact him at theownersbox2020@gmail.com

We're back on your TV set!

The KP football team will be coming at you on your TV or computer screen.

(Post updated Aug. 12 with a second schedule correction)

I got a pleasant surprise in my email box yesterday when Peter Gay, my boss at North Attleborough Community Television (North TV), sent me the 2025 fall season sports schedule that we will be proudly bringing to you viewers in North Attleboro and Plainville, and world-wide through the magic of live or on-demand streaming on the Interwebz.

It's a good schedule, filled with plenty of exciting games in all of the fall team sports. So rather than just tout its merits, here is my share of the overall schedule for your perusal. Remember, these telecasts are free to North TV subscribers in Plainville and North Attleboro, and for a nominal fee, you can become a "North TV Insider" wherever you live and have access not only to live games, but also everything we have in our digital library whenever you want to view it. Just go to the North TV website (northtv.net) and click on the "North TV Insider" tab for all the details.

From what I understand, we're still working on a few things about the channel lineup for the rare occasions when we have multiple live games on the same night, normally football Fridays. And of course, this schedule could be tweaked a little as we go along. But here are the games (listed by sport) in which I will have an involvement as an announcer -- and I've added one KP football game and two KP girls' soccer games that will be done by the North Attleboro crew just so you don't think we've left them out:

FOOTBALL

Friday, Sept. 5, Walpole at King Philip, 7 p.m., channel TBA. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy, Marcus Vaughn.

Friday, Sept. 12, King Philip at North Attleboro, 6 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Jared Ware, Ethan Hamilton, Anthony Pirri.

Friday, Sept. 19, Norwood at King Philip, 7 p.m., channel TBA. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy, Marcus Vaughn.

Friday, Sept. 26, King Philip at Foxboro, 7 p.m., channel TBA. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy, Marcus Vaughn.

Friday, Oct. 3, King Philip at Natick, 6 p.m., channel TBA. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy, Marcus Vaughn.

Saturday, Oct. 4, BC High at Bishop Feehan, 1 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Ethan Hamilton, Anthony Pirri.

Friday, Oct. 17, King Philip at Taunton, 7 p.m., channel TBA. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy, Marcus Vaughn.

Friday, Oct. 24, Milford at King Philip, 6 p.m., channel TBA. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy, Marcus Vaughn.

Friday, Oct. 31, Attleboro at King Philip, 6 p.m., channel TBA. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy, Marcus Vaughn.

Nov. 7, 14 and 21: MIAA playoffs, details and channel TBA.

Thursday, Nov. 27, King Philip at Franklin, 10 a.m., channel TBA. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy, Marcus Vaughn.

FIELD HOCKEY

Wednesday, Sept. 3, Mansfield at King Philip, 3:45 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy.

Tuesday, Oct. 7, Wachusett at King Philip, 3:45 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy.

Saturday, Oct. 18, Uxbridge at King Philip, 2 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Del Malloy.

BOYS' SOCCER

Wednesday, Sept. 10, Oliver Ames at King Philip, 3:45 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Martin Grealish.

Tuesday, Sept. 16, Sharon at King Philip, 3:45 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Martin Grealish.

Wednesday, Oct. 8, Oliver Ames at North Attleboro, 3:45 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Martin Grealish.

Monday, Oct. 13, Bishop Feehan at King Philip, 10 a.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Martin Grealish.

GIRLS' SOCCER

Tuesday, Sept. 30, King Philip at North Attleboro, 3:45 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Jared Ware, Martin Grealish.

Friday, Oct. 3, Attleboro at King Philip, 3:45 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Jared Ware, Martin Grealish.

Monday, Oct. 13, Bishop Feehan at King Philip, noon, Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Martin Grealish.

GIRLS' VOLLEYBALL

Monday, Sept. 15, Foxboro at King Philip, 5 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Alex Salachi.

Monday, Sept. 29, Stoughton at King Philip, 5 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Alex Salachi.

Friday, Oct. 10, Tri-County at Blue Hills, 5 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Alex Salachi.

Wednesday, Oct. 22, King Philip at Attleboro, 5 p.m., Community Channel. Announcers: Mark Farinella, Alex Salachi.

And there will be plenty more televised games involving North Attleboro, Bishop Feehan and Tri-County, so there will be plenty of good local sports viewing available to you this fall. It's my eighth season of calling games on North TV, and I'm tanned, rested and ready to go.

MARK FARINELLA knows he's too old to become the next Al Michaels, but he can dream, can't he? Do you believe in miracles? Contact him at theownersbox2020@gmail.com.

The Owner's Box After Dark, Ep. 61.

Highlights galore began from those two windows on the right of the KPHS press box.

As promised, I finally took the time to record what became the longest episode of The Owner's Box After Dark ... although you can breathe easily, Episode 61 is not just all me sitting in the studio and yammering at the camera.

I took the time to record snippets of video from some of the games I announced during the 2024-25 school season for North TV, Mansfield Cable Access and Foxboro Cable Access, as a way of paying tribute to the athletes I had the pleasure to cover -- and to remind me that as of today, there's just one more month left before I'll be doing my first football game of the new season.

That will be the King Philip Warriors' home opener on Friday, Sept. 5, against the Timberwolves of Walpole High. That game is scheduled for a 7 p.m. start at Macktaz Field, and I'll have more details about North TV's broadcast plans as soon as the schedule is firmed up in a few weeks.

You'll see and hear some of my best calls of the year, most of them from the fall and winter seasons. The voice was a little weak in the spring season and the highlights are a little on the pedestrian side because of a bronchial infection that hit me right at the end of the winter season. But I'm tanned, rested and ready to go for what will be my eighth season behind the local microphones.

When I started, I had no idea this episode would run as long as it did. It was well over an hour and a half at completion, and I didn't even get to add anything other than football, basketball, baseball and softball highlights. My first three attempts to upload it to YouTube resulted in some glitching toward the end, a few screen freezes, although the audio runs well throughout. 

I even revisited the finished product and trimmed more than five minutes out of it, hoping that would eliminate the glitching, but there's still a little of it at the end of the finished product. I think that's a good reminder to keep the episodes under an hour, as I believe I tested the capacities of my software to its limits.

Lesson learned -- although this episode still features great moments like Drew Laplante's 60-yard TD run for King Philip on the fourth offensive play of last year's Super Bowl against Catholic Memorial, and Maddy Steel's game winning three-point shot within the last second of Bishop Feehan's victory over Worcester South. There is also my usual array of vintage commercials and those supremely entertaining Japanese ads, and the introduction of "Lightning Round" topics at the end of the episode -- although this inaugural round moves more like a slow summer rain than a fast-moving thundershower. We'll work on that.

Anyway, it's free to watch, so who's complaining?

MIAA rules still keep dedicated coaches at a distance.

Foxboro starts a fast break against Bishop Feehan in the Franklin summer league.

As I've come to expect from practically all of the local coaches I've known over the years, Heather McPherson and Lisa Downs care deeply about their athletes.

Not only do they play an integral and all-encompassing role in their basketball players' lives for the four-plus months of their seasons every winter, the head coaches of the Mansfield High and Foxboro High girls' basketball teams respectively track their athletes' progress in their other sports as well as in many aspects of their academic and personal lives throughout the year -- or at least as much as the rules allow.

It should come as no surprise, then, that these two coaches (among many others) have spent a lot of time at Franklin High School this summer, watching their teams compete in the annual Nick Strong Foundation summer league that has one more evening to run before the basketballs go back on the shelves until November.

They're not on the sidelines, however. They can't be.

The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association has two rules in its handbook that address whether coaches can coach their own teams out of season -- Rules 40 and 41. In a nutshell, it's prohibited. There are several paragraphs to each rule that explain this prohibition, and as is usually the case, they say in a lot of words what could be said in a lot fewer. Fortunately, there is a paragraph within the explanation of what is allowed and what isn't that succinctly sums it up.

"Coaches may not have direct or indirect influence over out-of-season teams, competition, activities and decisions made by student-athletes and their families," the corollary to Rule 40 states. There are a few exceptions; for instance, high school coaches can coach AAU teams as long as no more than 50 percent of the athletes on those rosters would be prospects to play for their own high school teams in the winter. But otherwise, the rules are very specific about coaching by head coaches or their assistants.

Both aforementioned local coaches adhere to the rules. They must, because any action that might be taken against them by the MIAA carries a one-year suspension as a penalty.

It's not easy. Invested as these coaches are in their athletes, it takes great resolve and restraint not to do what comes so naturally to them during their Hockomock League seasons. I often sit with or near the coaches that I know, and it's sometimes worth a chuckle to see them squirm, gesture or nervously vocalize their reactions in hushed tones to what is transpiring on the courts. It's all very measured and restrained.

There was a time, not very long ago, when the coaches couldn't even attend summer league games without risking sanctions. That was amended out of common sense, but in my conversations with male and female basketball coaches alike, the general consensus is that Massachusetts' hard-and-fast restriction against out-of-season coaching is unfair, archaic and detrimental to the sport and its participants.

And from what little research I was able to do prior to writing this missive, it's not the norm for high school sports in America.

The National Federation of High Schools has a page on its website that offers links to all of the state associations that govern school sports. But finding a direct answer to a specific question -- Does your state prohibit high school coaches from coaching their players on out-of-season teams? -- proved problematic.

That search query, or similar wording in condensed form, usually directed me to that state's handbook of rules and regulations. Most were available for public viewing. Most were also extensive to excess, making a search for specific situations almost impossible to complete in a short amount of time. I once thought the MIAA Handbook was difficult to navigate, but Pennsylvania's handbook reminded me of my days of trying to find relevant information within the thousands of volumes of state and federal law books within the Northwestern University law library. 

From my hasty research (which definitely would not have gotten me a passing grade in one of my journalism law classes at NU back in the '70s), I think I determined that Massachusetts is the only New England state with a firm restriction against out-of-season coaching. New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont do not appear to keep their coaches from running summer programs; Maine has a specific period of time (two weeks before the fall season begins) in which coaches can't contact their players, and Connecticut recently loosened restrictions that were very close in severity to the Bay State's.

Outside New England, I immediately found three states (Alaska, Georgia and Wisconsin) whose rules mirrored ours. Several other states, including New York, California, Ohio, Illinois, Michigan and Arizona, either had no restrictions or established specific periods in the summer (usually July) in which coaches could have out-of-season contact.

This was driven home to me recently. More than 130 boys' and girls' teams from the six New England states participated two weekends ago in the 14th annual Wally Seaver Invitational tournament conducted at Mass. Premier Courts in Foxboro and the Dana Barros Center in Stoughton. The tournament benefits fundraising efforts in the quest to find a cure for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), better known as Lou Gehrig's Disease, and it's dedicated to the memory of Paul "Wally" Seaver, who coached varsity basketball for many years at Milford High and Franklin High and devoted his life to the sport before his passing from ALS in 2013.

Foxboro's Adrianna Porazzo
starts a possession at Franklin.

I followed the progress of the Foxboro girls (whose games I occasionally announce on Foxboro Cable Access), who compiled a 4-1 record at Dana Barros over the two days of play. The competition was very high for what I've come to expect from summer ball, and the Warriors did quite well before, in their third 32-minute game a week ago Sunday, they ran into a buzzsaw in the form of the girls' team from Bedford (N.H.) High School.

Bedford is a very talented team, don't get me wrong. They had skills, they had size and they had a sense of purpose, and at least the latter may have been attributable to the fact that head coach Kevin Gibbs was on the sidelines, as it was his right to be. New Hampshire does not prevent its high school coaches from coaching in the summer, while Foxboro coach Lisa Downs had to be content with her perch in the stands.

Throughout the tournament, the Foxboro girls didn't run any plays from their in-season playbook. Their substitution patterns and game management had no resemblance at all to what could be expected this coming winter. More than anything else, their muscle memory and program pedigree carried them through the two-day gauntlet. But when it came time to face a team that was operating with the same organizational sense as it does in December, the result was predictable -- Bedford broke open the game midway through the first half and won 54-28.

That loss will probably serve as a character-building event for the Warriors, who will have to replace 3,057 graduated career points (Kailey Sullivan, Ava Hill, Addie Ruter) before entering the 2025-26 season. And they'll get another chance to gauge their progress when Bedford visits Foxboro for a preseason scrimmage in early December.

The MIAA offers several rationales for its restrictions against out-of-season coaching. The association claims that it can lead to too much specialization for the athletes, and possibly lead to heightened participation expectations and burnout. The MIAA encourages young athletes to partake in more than just one sport; while a noble goal, it does come into conflict with a growing trend in which parents put athletes on what they think is a fast track toward college scholarships. The kids may forgo playing a second high school sport to play their chosen preference in the AAU ranks nine months of the year, and then add another two by participating in AAU ball and summer leagues. 

But at the same time, it can also be suggested that the bond between coaches and athletes can be strengthened without the restrictions upon when they can interact. It would also afford coaches to keep closer tabs on their athletes and enhance their status as role models and mentors. Coaches that earn the trust of their athletes can be vital in the effort to keep them out of trouble as they advance through their often-tumultuous high school years.

I also see it as an opportunity for younger coaches to work their way up the ladder. Let's just say that a veteran head coach that already devotes a lot of time to his or her team would like a break in the summertime, but doesn't want to surrender the supervisory opportunity over his or her program. What a great chance this would be to allow a trusted young assistant to take the reins for a summer league program, to guide it along the head coach's established guidelines but also get great experience managing a team in the top position. 

Right now, the rule prohibits anyone associated with the coaching staff from performing those duties out-of-season. As silly as it is to restrict head coaches, this almost seems excessively punitive to take coaching opportunities and learning experiences away from younger assistants. 

I believe that would work -- as long as everyone involved adhered to the letter and spirit of the law. Unfortunately, not everyone always does. There are always a few outliers that would find ways around the wording to create some sort of advantage for themselves in later competition -- just as they do now when it comes to sanctioned practices and recruiting. I'm not pointing any fingers here, but we all know it happens, and that's probably why the MIAA is so reluctant to make changes in its out-of-season restrictions.

So the coaches continue to sit and watch, lending support but restrained from contributing in a more significant fashion to the supervisory welfare of their athletes because of an archaic rule against out-of-season contact.

It doesn't seem fair. It doesn't seem right that in an age in which it's a lot tougher to find good coaches that have the best interests of their athletes at heart, the ones that are willing to give their time and effort selflessly are told to keep their distance or risk punitive measures.

It's time for a change.

MARK FARINELLA, former sportswriter and forever an advocate for women's rights in athletics, can be reached at theownersbox2020@gmail.com. 

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering ...

That's me on the left, charting a football game from the old Memorial Park press box.

Ponderous thoughts I was pondering while awaiting the promised downpours that may transform my yard from the consistency of your Shredded Wheat breakfast to something that's once again green and full of life ...

**As I drove past Memorial Park in Mansfield earlier today, I noticed something was missing.

Even from the distance between Park Street and the field where the Mansfield High football team had played from the 1930s until the opening of Alumni Field behind the high school in 2001, I could see that our old press box was gone.

I'm not sure when it was demolished, but it had to be fairly recently. Indeed, just a few weeks ago I drove past the old ballyard where I once played varsity baseball and noticed how badly the press box had fallen into disrepair.

That's not the first time that had happened, however.

When Memorial Park was first built as a Work Projects Administration development at the height of the Great Depression, several stone-and-mortar structures were constructed ringing the baseball diamond and football field to serve as locker rooms and restrooms. The largest structure was a giant bandstand behind the south end zone of the football gridiron -- and all of these structures remain in place today, nearly 90 years after the park's opening.

Permanent bleachers were not part of the original plan because the field was to be used for both football and baseball. The east sideline, which served as the home side, featured assembled (and frequently replaced) grandstands built of steel and wood, while during football season, temporary stands were erected in the midst of the baseball infield to serve visiting fans, and then disassembled at the close of the football season.

In the 1950s, the park added a large manually-operated scoreboard behind the north end zone, and a small wooden press box that was elevated behind the home stands. But by the time I reached high school in the fall of 1968, the manual scoreboard had long since been abandoned, and the old press box was torn down for being both unsafe and an eyesore.

The town's recreation department, which operated the field independently of the school department, sank some money into the field at about the same time. A new electronic scoreboard replaced the rotting structure in the north end zone, and a free-standing press box was built with a cinder-block foundation and three separate rooms to house the clock operator and public-address announcer, media members and home-team coaches. And it was all painted in spiffy Hornet green.

I remember feeling great pride that, as a fledgling sports reporter for the weekly Mansfield News, I would have a chance to view the field from a brand new perch once the 1969 football season began. I was actually hoping to be the public-address announcer as well -- yes, I had the voice for it even then -- but the athletic director gave that job to his son instead. That was my first introduction to nepotism.

But it didn't take long for my euphoria over having a new base of operations to be dashed.

A few weeks into the season, a group of burnout punks -- and we had a lot of those in Mansfield back in those days -- decided to take out their insecurities on the brand new press box. They absolutely trashed it -- kicking holes in all of the particle board and plywood walls, ripping out electrical connections, stomping holes in the floorboards, pouring out the contents of several beer cans everywhere, and the pièce de résistance -- several of these sub-human slugs went as far as to defecate repeatedly in all three of the rooms.

The only thing these louts couldn't damage was the cinder-block foundation.

It was feared at first that the new structure would have to be declared a total loss and then razed, but the town bit the bullet and rebuilt it. They even used sturdier building materials the second time around to serve as a deterrent to future vandalism by the punks that roamed the town under the cover of darkness. Increased police patrols in the vicinity of the park also helped.

Eventually, I got to use the new press box before completing my high school career and heading to college. It was later named for the former athletic director that gave his son the announcing job -- and in retrospect, I wouldn't have had the ability to handle it and to chart the game for my newspaper coverage anyway -- and it served the Hornet football team and the town's youth leagues for many years. Even after the high school team departed after the 2001 season to an artificial-turf facility behind the school itself, the press box continued to serve its purpose.

Decades ago, a holiday game at Memorial Park.

There have been times over the years when I wish the Hornets could still play at Memorial Park. Like Community Field in North Attleboro, it was a relic of a bygone era, but a majestic one. All those stone structures gave it the look of something out of antiquity, although none of them were very energy-efficient and not well-insulated against temperature extremes. I always thought that it could have been re-envisioned with artificial turf and new lighting and permanent stands.

But because it was under the auspices of the recreation department and not the school department, I suppose there always would have been conflicts over its use. Alumni Field is fully controlled by the school department, and while it has its flaws -- notably, an east-west alignment that creates harsh sun angles in early evening, and its piecemeal design dictated by surrounding wetlands -- it's not subject to inter-departmental conflict. Recently, the town underwrote the final pieces of a gradual expansion of grandstands that took more than 20 years to complete, and added a modern digital scoreboard, and the resulting stadium is as good as any in the area.

But I'll miss that old green press box at Memorial Park. It was my first "home" as a journalist. More proof, indeed, that you can never go home again.

** Sad news to report, amid the nostalgia that has characterized this column so far. I have just learned of the passing of William S. Bruno, 91, who was a well-known figure around Mansfield since his high school days, and the uncle of my close friend ("brother from another mother," as I call him), former classmate and current broadcast partner for Mansfield and King Philip basketball, Alex Salachi.

Willie Bruno, MHS Class of '52.

"Willie," as he was most popularly known, was a 1952 graduate of Mansfield High, where he played baseball and football at a high level and captained and quarterbacked the Hornet football team in 1951. He worked for a while at the clothing store in town that was owned by my father and his three brothers, but he also had the "writing bug," so he started to work as a part-time sportswriter for the Mansfield News in 1952.

He only did that gig for about a year before he was inducted into the U.S. Army in April 1953, but he made it a memorable one. Willie had a natural and engaging writing style and the experience of having been a legitimate athlete. His boss at the News, Dick Yager, said young Willie didn't have much of an idea what newspaper operations were like when he first started, but that he was a quick study and became ultra-productive in the role.

One of Willie's crowning achievements at the paper before he left was a multi-part series highlighting the accomplishments of some of Mansfield's greatest football teams of the more distant past. That underscored his respect for the town's history and the past accomplishments of talented athletes whose feats of glory might have been forgotten under the shifting sands of time.

"Now, wait," you may say. "How do you know all this? You weren't even born yet!" That is true, I entered this existence on Jan. 7, 1954, a year and a half after Willie graduated from MHS. I grew up knowing him primarily as Alex's genial and sports-minded uncle. But when I started working at the Mansfield News in 1969, I made it a point to research back editions (thanks to a sparkling new microfiche reader in the office) so I'd have an idea of what came before me -- and so I wouldn't fall into the trap of writing about mundane accomplishments as if they were the greatest thing that ever happened in our sleepy little hamlet. 

Still enjoying games in his 90s.

When I saw Willie's writing and realized that he also appreciated the context of history, it indicated to me that I may have been on the right path. And knowing that he did good work as a young man fresh out of high school, he inspired me to reach for a similar level of accomplishment, if just a little bit earlier in my life. Indeed, I consider him one of the major inspirations for what became my life-long career.

Willie went from the Army to Bridgewater State College and then entered a career in education. He became a teacher and then an administrator in several neighboring communities, and served for quite some time on the Mansfield School Committee and the town's School Building Committee. He eventually retired to the coastal town of Mattapoisett, where I could always contact him if, in my later career as the 500-pound sports gorilla at The Sun Chronicle in Attleboro, I needed to dig up some factoid of local sports history that eluded my own searches.

I offer my deepest condolences to my friend Alex, for whom Willie became more than just a mentor after he lost his own father during his college years, as well as to his wife Ann Marie, daughters Julie, Beth and Maria, sons Paul and David, and the entire extended Bruno family.

** I seem to be missing the point of the change in college sports these days. The specter of "Name, Image and Likeness" (NIL) benefits certainly has changed the game, and not necessarily for the better. 

Admittedly, college athletes have been taken advantage of for many years. Their performances, fueling the rise in popularity of their sports, raked in billions of dollars for their institutions without returning anything to the so-called amateur athletes that made it all happen. Now that's no longer an issue, but probably because we don't produce too many high-level Division 1 athletes in these parts, I haven't really taken the time to measure or grasp exactly how significant those benefits are.

Recently, however, I heard that a female basketball player from a nearby community was recently recruited to a middle-of-the-pack Division 1 school, and she was given $80,000 as well as a new Jeep in addition to her scholarship. And to be honest, I'm not sure the young lady in question is that impressive of a recruit.

We're all going to hell in a handbasket.

** OK, I gave in and went to see "Fantastic Four: First Steps" at the theater even though I never really had much interest in that Marvel franchise during its heyday. I bought a few FF comic books in the 1970s and only recently benefitted from the experience by reselling them for about $100. 

Kirby and Pascal: Bor-r-r-ring.

The best thing I can say about the movie? I won't have to see it again.

Sure, it was a novel idea to make it a period piece in a parallel universe, but that wore thin quickly. The increasingly overexposed Pedro Pascal (Reed Richards/Mr. Fantastic) spent the whole movie either looking concerned, or brooding, or basically playing a wimpy second fiddle to Vanessa Kirby (Sue Richards/Invisible Woman). The Thing and Human Torch had their moments, and they turned the Silver Surfer into a hottie, but the little robot was a pain in the ass. And what did Natasha Lyonne’s character have to do with anything? Waste of a quirky talent.

To me, the movie was just one big gimmick. Both this one and DC's James Gunn-authored "Superman" have turned to the so-called Silver Age of comics for inspiration, when stories were far too exaggerated to be even remotely believable. I'll give props to MarvelStudios for creating an alternate universe in which the kitsch of the 1960s was merged with elements of science fiction that the FF's presence might have influenced, but having grown up in the '60s, I found it too unreal to be relatable.

But hot damn, that product placement! Too bad they don't serve Canada Dry in the Showcase Cinema's drink dispensers. Or maybe they do. I was too pissed off to look when my Cherry Coke Zero button malfunctioned halfway through my cup and I had to complete the choice with Pibb Xtra. Ugh.

All in all, I have yet to see any reason to believe that the FF will be any better as a lasting film franchise this time around, although the desperation move of turning Robert Downey Jr. into Dr. Doom will draw some suckers into the next movie. 

I understand John Malkovich’s scenes were cut from this, and my guess he won't be terribly upset as long as the check clears.

**OK, time to shuffle off. I've got a very important missive in the works for next week, so keep an eye out for that. In the meantime, let's get those Epstein Files out there once and for all!

MARK FARINELLA wrote for 42 years for The Sun Chronicle of Attleboro, Mass. Feel free to contact him at theownersbox2020@gmail.com.