BLAME VCU?

 THOUGHTS WHILE THINKING:

Boy, is that a fine (if predictable) mess going on between your 

Richmond Flying Squirrels and Thalhimer’s Realty Partners? 

It says here the real culprit in the whole thing is VCU, which 

agreed to conditions about using CarMax Park then reneged.

Any how, nobody should be surprised. When was the last time 

anything of importance sailed smoothly through the city? (I go 

back as far as the 60s … when they built the downtown 

Coliseum with all those ugly brown seats, no major scoreboard, 

locker rooms too small, and run (for the most part) by people 

who wanted no part of hockey even though it was the only 

major tenant.)

The Flying Squirrels have been here long enough to know 

better.

LET’S HEAR IT for futbol’s Team USA, which dominated 

Paraguay to open the FIFA World Cup.

“This is the way you start a tournament,” ALEXI LALAS said. 

“It was fun, fun … fun.”

It was such an overwhelming performance that there was lots of 

time to celebrate GIO REYNA’s last-minute accuracy of a

 well-placed goal.

The son of former UVA (and USMNT) standout CLAUDIO 

REYNA, G. Reyna has had a troubled time making his way on 

the international scene. You might recall his father and mother 

went to US officials over their son’s handling by former team 

coach GREG BERHALTER … that did nothing to help Gio, 

a talented offensive player with a reputation for not getting 

along with teammates (among other things).

All apparently is old news. The reaction to his brilliant bullet of 

a goal, although meaningless to the overall 4-1 outcome, clearly 

was popular. Reyna was instantly surrounded by the entire team 

… and, oh by the way, he had some news to report later. C. 

Reyna is about to become a grandpa.

Geez, it didn’t seem that long ago we were writing about 

Claudio at Virginia. Ha! Ha! Very funny.

JOHN TORTORELLA is a hoot. I know, I know … easy for 

you to say … you’ve never had to deal with him. Probably 

never will.

Nevertheless, he doesn’t mind saying something even if it’s 

downright silly … like … following his Las Vegas Golden 

Knights dropping a 4-2 decision at Carolina to go down 3-2 in 

the best-of-seven Stanley Cup finals (Game 6 is Sunday), 

Tortorella all but guaranteed his team would snap a two-game 

losing streak.

“We’ll be back here [for game 7],” he said. “I’m going to leave 

my clothes, that’s for sure. They’ll be at the hotel.” 

Always lovable, “Torts” also responded to a reasonable inquiry 

about possibly changing goalies. “That is the dumbest question 

I have ever heard,” he said.

In other words ... what do you think? Yeah but I’m not saying 

… right now, anyway.

Your New York Knickerbockers finally lose a game by FOUR 

POINTS!… and you would have thought the sky was really 

falling, CHICKEN LITTLE. Suddenly, JALEN BRUNSON

 is accused of caring more about scoring (29 points on 29 shots)

 than winning his first NBA championship. Even STEPHEN A. 

SMITH should have known better.

Of course, he knew better … like when he tried to blame

 PRESIDENT TRUMP’s appearance for the Knicks’ first loss 

… with a straight face.

Until next time ...