Good morning!
Unless there’s a hole in the fence I’ll be covering the Belmont Stakes from Union Avenue. The days of slipping ushers a five spot with a wink and a nod are gone. Ticketmaster wants $164 to simply walk through the gate and $1,000 for a grandstand seat near the eighth pole.

“The regulars are going to feel out of place,” said Pat MacWilliams. “It’s going to be a different vibe.”

MacWilliams owns Five College Movers and lives in Saratoga. “The Adelphi Hotel on Broadway wants $4,000 a night for a three-night minimum, and they’re getting it.”

MacWilliams founded The Massachusetts Collective and takes the high road after good players like Matt Cross and Josh Cohen leave for, ahem, greener pastures. “They’re not leaving because they didn’t like UMass, they’re leaving because there’s a better opportunity elsewhere.”

Of losing the 24-year-old Cross to SMU he said, “It’s tough. He visited Wisconsin, Iowa, and TCU and I’d guess he was being offered between $200 and $500,000 pretty consistently.”

By the time his college career ends, Cross will have played for Louisville, Miami, UMass and SMU. As for the USC-bound Cohen, MacWilliams wasn’t quite so forgiving. “Josh took some days off. He came here from St. Francis and said he wanted to be coached hard. I’m not sure that was the case. He was out of here the second the portal opened.”

As everyone knows, this will be the last season the Minutemen play in the A-10. “Being in the top four never happened consistently, so it’s on to the MAC. There’s no getting around it’s not the same quality but the budget’s increased, we’re going to charter everywhere and we want to dominate this league.”

MacWilliams is an Empire State kind of guy and has only one misgiving about leaving for the MAC: “I don’t know if I’ll be pleased going to Cleveland and not Brooklyn for the championships.”

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Kudos to coach Jana Drummond and her UMass women’s lacrosse team for overcoming a 1-4 start and winning 12 straight games to reach the A-10 championship, and to women’s tennis coach Juancarlos Nunez for winning the A-10 and making the NCAA tourney.

The real surprise has been the UMass baseball team coached by Matt Reynolds and assistants Mark Royer and Brandon Shileikis. The Minutemen were 22-23 entering this weekend’s slate of games at George Washington.

Local players have made an impact. Outfielder Kevin Skagerlind of Wachusett Regional is batting .294 with 16 stolen bases in 18 attempts. Catcher Michael Toth of Granby High School has thrown out more than half of all attempted base stealers and Justin Masteralexis of Amherst and Cushing Academy is 4-1 with a 4.81 ERA. True to his native roots, Masteralexis is lefthanded.

Meanwhile righthanded reliever Leif Bigelow of Brattleboro was named the 2018 Vermont Player of the Year by USA Today. A true journeyman, Bigelow has pitched at East Tennessee State, Maine and UConn. At this writing he was 4-2 (one save) with 32 strikeouts and 14 walks and a 2.80 ERA in 35.1 IP.

UMass fans can see them next weekend at Earl Lorden Field when they host Saint Louis in a three-game series (May 16-18) that could decide second place in the A-10.

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Anyone who had the Kentucky Derby winner, raise your hand. Of the $75.5 million bet into the win pool only $3 million was wagered on Mystik Dan and a $2 win ticket paid $39.22. 

I should’ve heeded my horoscope: “It will become necessary to admit that you have bitten off more than you can chew.”

Our resident handicapper John Dobrydnio put win bets on Track Phantom and Catching Freedom, and played both in exactas with the Japanese colt Forever Young.

Track Phantom led for three-quarters and finished 11th. Catching Freedom closed from 15th and finished fourth, and Forever Young was mugged in the stretch and finished third.

The only Derby entrant expected to be in next week’s Preakness is Just Steel, D. Wayne Lukas’s colt that finished 17th. Handicapping touts are predicting the winner will be the Arkansas Derby winner Muth, trained by Bob Baffert.

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Every horse bettor has a what-could’ve-been story. Playwright David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) shared his in his book about Hollywood titled “Everywhere an Oink Oink.”

“We were in Seattle [and] I’d had a dream about a horse running at the local track, Longacres. I woke, and found, in the morning paper, Scriptgirl, running in the fifth, going off at 17-1. I gave my assistant, Scott Zigler, a thousand dollars and told him to put it on the nose, on Scriptgirl.

“End of the day, and I heard on the radio that Scriptgirl had won and, from Scott, that he forgot to go to the track.”

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Ads meant to be clever usually aren’t, but an NHL promo for the Stanley Cup playoffs shows a lovey-dovey couple snuggling and watching their favorite team. “Throughout their 10 year relationship,” the narrator explained, “Sam and Erica watched every playoff game together. Except one. The one they won.”

“They finally won,” says Sam.

“The one time we’re apart,” giggles Erica.

“So yeah,” said the narrator. “They broke up.”

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SQUIBBERS: Indiana coach Rick Carlisle to Dan Patrick on Luca Doncic: “I can’t tell you the amount of money I lost to Luca betting against him making half-court shots in practice.” … Greenfield native Steve Kramer, on watching SF’s Mike Yastrzemski homer into the Red Sox bullpen last week: “First time I ever gave a standing O to an opponent. Yaz was back, and made us Boomers feel like kids again.” … Ron Goldman’s reaction to hearing OJ was dead: “No great loss.” … How cool would it be if it was Rangers-Bruins and Knicks-Celtics in the conference finals? … Baltimore was one strike away from its 103rd straight series without being swept when Craig Kimbrel gave up a home run, walked two batters and blew the save against Washington on Wednesday, but the never-say-die O’s won in 12 innings in three hours, 35 minutes. … Despite this year’s Rays swoon, manager Kevin Cash passed Joe Maddon in all-time wins last week. … Once in a great while a Paul Bunyan will come along and beat the machine. Congrats to Blake Gilmore for winning the Deerfield selectboard race by 41 votes, 51.16 to 48.84 percent. .… Writing is research and rewrites, and for the next few weeks it will be wise for me to remember this pithy advice from author and philosophy professor Douglas Steere: “No one ever did anything worth doing unless they were prepared to go on with it long after it became something of a bore.”

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet715@icloud.com