Sixty-Eight in Tempe, and Marco's Mother Sends Another Cooler
Cleveland State68
Arizona State28
- Game
- 2032 Week 6
- Site
- Away
- Result
- Win
- Record
- 6-0
Vikings 68, Arizona State 28, in Tempe. SIX AND OH.
Forty points of daylight in the desert, our sixth straight win over the Sun Devils. The defense that worried Kenny all month held a good offense to twenty-eight, and our guys scored sixty-eight. That’s the answer, folks. Not a perfect answer. A loud one.
I didn’t go to Tempe this year. But Marco’s mother did something that made me sit down on the porch steps. She sent a cooler. To Cleveland. By overnight mail. Twenty-four tamales packed in dry ice, with a note in Spanish that Sofia translated for me: “For the coach, who still coaches my grandchildren, even the girl.” Sofia read that last part twice, out loud, with great emphasis.
Donna heated them up during the game. The Reyes family came over. Leo, Sofia, Marco, Jess, Viking the beagle, now thirteen and very slow but still a believer in tamales. We ate on the porch. Marco watched our guys score in Tempe, in the city where he was born, while eating his mother’s tamales in Cleveland, where he lives. He didn’t say anything for a long time. Then he said, “Mickey, this is a good life.” Then Viking stole a tamale.
Five pierogi. And a tamale for the beagle.
A forty-point road win in Tempe. Six and oh. The Vikings allowed twenty-eight points, the fewest since the opener at Kent. I’ll take it as a sign the defense is finding something.
The stretch ahead is the hardest of the season: home games against Arizona and USF, a trip to Ames, and then Ohio in Athens. Ohio is undefeated, the three-time defending national champion, and playing like it’s annoyed about something. I don’t know what Ohio could possibly be annoyed about. They keep winning. Maybe that’s annoying too, eventually.
The Lantern Room’s new trivia season has a rule change: married couples can’t be on the same team “for competitive balance.” The rule was written by Nadia. It applies to exactly one couple. Teresa now captains a rival team called “The Nurses’ Station.” On Tuesday they beat Regression to the Mean by forty points. I’ve never been prouder or more defeated. On the walk home she held my hand and said, “Good game, Kenny.” I said, “Was it?” She said, “For me.”
Back and forth
Marco’s mom sent tamales by overnight mail!
Twenty-four. Dry ice. I got two. The beagle got one. The beagle had seniority.
Teresa beat you at trivia?
By forty points. My wife is my rival now. It’s the healthiest thing in my life.
Sixty-eight points in the desert, a cooler of tamales overnighted to a Cleveland porch, a beagle with seniority, and Ken beaten at trivia by his own wife.
Split Decision is fiction. Mickey Bridges, Ken Hogmanes and The Lakefront Ledger are invented; the games and scores are not.