TERRY MOSHER
Dayton’s shocking push into the Sweet Sixteen brings back memories for me. I grew up with St. Bonaventure basketball and the Flyers were a regular, and tough, foe of the Bonnies (then Brown Indians).
Then in 1984 while I was in Spring Training with the Seattle Mariners I got a call one day from Chuck Stark, my sports editor. The Washington Huskies, spurred on by Detlef Schrempf, had made the West Regionals at Pauley Pavilion on the UCLA campus and Chuck asked me to fly over to Los Angeles and cover the game.
The opponent?
Dayton.
The Flyers were led by six-foot-four Roosevelt Chapman, who was from Brooklyn. Chapman could not be stopped that night. He scored, it seemed, every big bucket the Flyers needed, and finished with a game-high 22 points in a 64-58 win over the Huskies.
Dayton would lose the next night to Georgetown, 61-49, in the West finals and Georgetown would go on to win the NCAA championship.
Chapman is the Flyers’ all-time leading scorer (2,233 points), and was drafted in the third round of the 1984 draft by Kansas City. He was inducted into Dayton’s Hall of Fame in 1994.
What is remarkable about Dayton’s run in his year’s NCAA Tournament is that it’s the first time the Flyers have been back to the big dance since that 1984 season and the game against the Huskies.
I was not in a hurry to leave sunny California for the Northwest and when I discovered the next day I could not get a flight out of LA I spent a relaxing and beautiful day at VeniceBeach.
Good for Randy Wolf. If you haven’t heart, Wolf was told that he had made the Seattle Mariners’ pitching rotation. There was one catch: the Mariners wanted him to sign a 45-day advance-consent relief form. Wolf refused and was given his release.
Wolf had signed in good conscious a one-year contract for $1 million that would be guaranteed if he was still with the club after March 25. What the 45-day extender would have meant is that the club could release Wolf at any time during those 45 days and not be liable for the full $1 million contract.
Why would the club ask him to sign such a thing? Well, that is obvious to anybody who follows the club. Wolf was to be just a fill-in until young pitching sensation Taijuan Walker is ready to come off the DL, and then he would be released.
Wolf saw through the pretense and refused to go along, although it cost him a likely $250,000 for the 45 days. We can debate this whole thing all night, but I say good for Wolf.
Let’s be honest, Wolf was not pitching real well. He’d given up six home runs in 19 innings and had a 4.26 ERA. It’s obvious, though, the Mariners wanted him to stick around for a few more days – no more than 45 regular season days, to be sure – and Wolf said thanks but no thanks.
Be well pal.
Be careful out there.
Have a great day.
You are loved.