Ohio State, Cavs and...Chipotle?

By: Scott Miles

Posted: 2/7/08

My buddy Mike and I have had the opportunity to work as high school basketball statisticians for the Columbus Sports Network (Columbus' version of STO, for those of you from Cleveland, except better), and Friday night we were in the presence of Ohio State royalty.

For starters, Ron Stokes was doing the color commentary on the broadcast, and let me tell you, what a nice guy - he had a smile on his face all night, and he was very thankful for us helping him out all night. Clark Kellogg's son Nick played for the one high school team (Desales), so the Great One himself was in attendance and joined the broadcast booth for the entire third quarter.

When I noticed Kellogg walking our way, I elbowed Mike to point him out. Even Mike, a diehard Michigan fan, was impressed. "How are we supposed to focus on the game?" he asked, with Kellogg and Stokes sitting about three feet to our right.

Also in attendance were Archie Griffin, whose son also played on Desales, and Thad Matta, whom I have to imagine was watching Nick Kellogg. Just a sophomore, he's averaging about 23 points per night, and trust me - he's a pretty smooth ballplayer already. Wonder where he got it from...

But needless to say, it was a pretty star-studded night. Without tooting my own horn here, I've grown fairly immune to being around big-time athletes over the past few years - eat your hearts out, ladies, I interviewed Grady Sizemore twice - but this was still an impressive collection of talent. I was much more composed than the 16-year old kid filming the game for Watterson, who asked me for paper and an extra pen so he could try to get Matta's autograph. Amateur.

Since I was working, I missed the entire Cavs game. I've honestly missed more Cavs games this year than any season since AWDLBJ - After We Drafted LeBron James. Part of the reason is due to scheduling - I always just seem to have other commitments, such as work, during the games. On top of that, I think that because of the team's makeup, and the play of the Eastern Conference, I just expected them to win about 50 games again, no problem.

But I did not expect them to win last night, with their top four scorers out, LeBron nursing an injured shooting hand, and coming on the second part of a back-to-back road trip against an energetic team that we struggled with earlier this season.

Of course, the Cavs won by five, Ira Freakin' Newble scored 18 points, and the starting lineup of LeBron, Hughes, Snow, Newble and Z was enough to knock off the Hawks.

I'm a little concerned about our injuries, with Andy, Boobie (I love writing that), Sasha and Gooden all out. Well, Sasha I'm not too concerned about - let's be honest, he's not even close to carrying his weight this year - but the other three are definitely a cause for concern.

Regardless, as long as LeBron is playing, the Cavs automatically have a shot to win every night. He has been the undisputed MVP this season - note the team getting BLOWN OUT in every game he hasn't played, most notably against Seattle. And how about Larry Hughes? Sure, his numbers aren't great, but at least they're getting better...that's something, right? Right? Bueller? Bueller?

Anyway, one final story that has really nothing to do with sports, but just shows how big of an idiot I am and how I have regained some faith in mankind.

After work today, I went to Chipotle for dinner because I was starving and it had been, like, a week and a half since I'd had a burrito. Now, if you've been to the Bexley Chipotle, you understand how tiny the parking lot is - maybe 15 cars at most can park there. I pulled in around six, and there was nowhere to park - I circled around three times, looping back behind Penn Station and onto Main and back through the parking lot - to no avail. So I parked behind Penn Station, in the "employee parking only - tow away zone" section (in my defense, there were two cars there and three or four open spots) and hustled inside to get my burrito.

Of course, the line inside was moving at a snail's pace, and I kept glancing out the big windows to make sure my car wasn't getting towed. I finally got through the line - the lady in front of me ordered at least five different things - and practically sprinted back to my car. I got there just as a Penn Station employee was taking trash out to the dumpster, and he gave me an evil glare as I hopped in my car and pulled away. Crisis averted, I thought triumphantly.

I got home, walked inside and put my car keys, phone and wallet on the kitchen counter like I always do. One problem - I didn't have my wallet. I started freaking out, tearing through the Chipotle bags, going through all my pockets, dashing back to my car - no wallet anywhere. I'm usually pretty anal about keeping track of my things, especially my keys, wallet and phone, and to my recollection I'd never lost my wallet before.

My mind flashed back to my roommate Dan and his wallet problems. He lost his about three months ago, and we tore the apartment apart looking for it. Couldn't find it. He cancelled all his credit cards and everything, but he still had no idea what the heck happened to his wallet. Well, the night of OSU's debacle against LSU, our one friend - celebrating her 21st birthday - was a tad intoxicated and flipped over in our recliner, and Dan's wallet came flying out.

But I digress. The Chipotle receipt had a phone number on it, I called, and they did, in fact have my wallet at the restaurant. I dropped to my knees in joy, raising my hands skyward in conquest. Victory! Victory! I blitzed back up to Chipotle, picked up my wallet, gave the 10 bucks in cash that I still had in it as a reward to the employee who picked it up, and came home. The fact that my wallet was found absolutely made my day, and hopefully I made the day of the young, Spanish-speaking Chipotle employee as well.

And the best part of the story? My burrito was still warm when I got home again. It was truly a beautiful day.