Tuesday, August 24, 2021

Watch Notre Dame's "Back to School Mass"

 

Because of the extreme heat conditions here on campus today -- the University of Notre Dame's Opening of the Academic Year Mass has been moved indoors to the Basilica of the Sacred Heart.

Mass will begin at 5:30 PM ET and can be watched LIVE at the video player above.

Will Conference Alliance Impact Notre Dame?


Here's a Yahoo! sports story about the alliance between the ACC, Big Ten and Pac 12 -- before today's announcement -- and how it might impact future scheduling for Notre Dame Football...

LINK:  STORY

Marcus Freeman & Defensive Players...

Sunday, August 22, 2021

OT: Ty Cobb Giving My Dad Hitting Tips...

(click on image to enlarge)

There was a photo on Twitter today of Ty Cobb giving hitting tips to Mickey Mantle -- see below...

Well, my Dad (Jim Small, Detroit Tigers center fielder) had the same experience with Ty Cobb -- just before my Dad headed to Lakeland, FL for Spring Training in 1957.  Here's the newspaper story from the San Francisco Examiner in February of 1957.

The folks at the San Francisco Examiner set up this interview / feature between Ty Cobb and my Dad, after his second season with the Detroit Tigers in 1956.  My Dad is one of the very few players in Major League Baseball history to jump straight from high school to the big leagues -- which he did in June of 1955 after his high school graduation from Bellarmine Prep (San Jose, CA).  He is 19 years-old in this photo with Cobb.

The photo on bottom left shows Ty splitting my Dad's hands apart on the bat -- which is how Cobb held the bat during his Hall of Fame career...

The coolest moment happened at the end of the day at Cobb's home -- when he went into a closet and pulled out a photo of his first day in a Tiger's uniform in 1905 -- and signed it and gave it to my Dad.

Here is Joe Theismann interviewing my Dad about his baseball career:

Notre Dame's Tommy Rees' Media Session

Notre Dame's Kyren Williams "Mic'd Up!"

Saturday, August 21, 2021

Working On "Finishing Touches" to Golf Car...


I'm told we're getting closer to the arrival of the Notre Dame themed golf car...

The hold up has been "Tropical Storm Fred" which delayed the construction of the seats for the golf car (Lazy Life Seats + Covers -- Grovetown, GA) and the challenges in matching the color GOLD.  

Finding the right gold paint color -- is DIFFICULT!

I did take on the task of creating a few medallions (photo above) that could be used on the front grille and the steering wheel of the golf car.  Matt Leevy and Anthony Van Avermaete at Notre Dame's Idea Center were kind enough to knock out some Notre Dame Monograms out of acrylic for me -- then I took it from there.

Here's hoping we'll have wheels on the ground in South Bend before the Toledo game!

Friday, August 20, 2021

My First Trader Joe's Experience -- EVER!



Just traveled a couple of hundred yards from our home, to the grand opening of the Trader Joe's on the southern end of Eddy Street Commons...

I've been hearing about this store for years -- from my wife -- but, I had never stepped foot inside one, until today. IMPRESSED.

Prediction -- they are going to do very well here at Notre Dame!