February 9: 1,000 with Dad

On a day highlighted by one super-cool Godson’s loss of yet another bottom tooth (Way to go, Petey!), Dad and I celebrated the Tooth Fairy’s pending visit with an hour and a half at the gym and 1,000 made foul shots.

Mr. Seth Tatman Cummings (a.k.a. Dad), he of 1,000 points of his own while manning the hardwood at Bates College in the early- to mid-1960s, was feeling about as lousy as he’s felt, physically, but he insisted he was good enough to go anyway … and stayed upright by taking a bunch of breaks.  The way that usually works is that he’ll step off the court at some multiple of 100, get a drink of water, and sit on the gymnasium stage until my first miss after the next 10 made.  In other words, he gets at least 10 shots off, and if I’m shooting particularly well he stands to sit for a bunch more.

That said … I’d call tonight an average shooting night generally, but for whatever reason I got into kind of a groove when he sat at 900.  At 925, I hadn’t missed, so he sat.  At 950, I hadn’t missed, so he sat.  At 975, I hadn’t missed, so he sat.  At 996, I still hadn’t missed, so he sat.

Just four more, Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaavey!

And that, my friends, is when I … guh! … choked.

So here’s to Petey, here’s to ninety-something in a row, here’s to 128,307 down and 871,693 to go to 1 million made foul shots.

And here’s to our soldiers and Veterans, with our deepest admiration.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

February 8: The Raider boys for 2,000

The three Granite State Raiders from Epsom are becoming regulars, and that’s fine with me, because every time they show up big numbers seem to happen.

The three of them have a system worked out, rotating after every 200 made foul shots.  For the first 200, Pat rebounds and passes to Brad, who hands it to me.  The next, Jordan rebounds and passes to Pat, who hands it to me.  And then, Brad rebounds and passes it to Jordan, who hands it to me.  Two balls are going at once, and it doesn’t take long for the makes to pile up — tonight, it was 2,000 made in about an hour and 36 minutes, which averages out to about one made shot every 2.9 seconds.  It’s fast enough that my right wrist is sore right now, but it’s well worth it, because the average just just jumped up to 1,414 made shots per day in the 90 days so far.

All together, that’s 127,307 down, 872,693 to go to 1 million made foul shots.

And the boys are coming back on Thursday.  Assuming the wrist has recovered, I can’t wait.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

February 7: 1,800 with Barrel Girl

It was August of last year, and The Beautiful Heth and I were watching a Red Sox-Blue Jays game on NESN (a 6-1 win, by the way).  Truth be told, Heth was probably reading and I was watching the game — details — but the point is that suddenly I’m looking at one of those “Greatest Moments” commercials, and it happens to be dedicated to the single greatest Red Sox moment of all time … the 2004 World Series victory.

Pause.  I’m reflecting.

Just another moment please.

Carry on.

The commercial is rolling along, and folks are talking about the championship.  There’s Johnny Pesky.  There’s Ben Affleck.  There’s some blonde on her front steps.  There’s Carlton Fisk.

Whoa-whoa-whoa.  Hold up.  The blonde.  Was that …

“Honey, was that … Tara?”

Heth looks up.  We rewind.  Sure enough, there’s our pal Tara Sasseville, recalling the one-hopper back to Keith Foulke, the flip to Doug Mientkiewicz, and Joe Buck’s “Red Sox fans have longed to hear it …”

Tara smiles into the camera and says, “I get chills just thinking about it.”

Amen, sister.

Funny thing is, it surprised neither of us that Tara found her way into the middle of this celebrity-studded commercial.  This is the woman, after all, who became “Barrel Girl,” counterpart to the legendary “Barrel Man” at Denver Broncos games.  She’s a handstand-on-the-mountaintop kind of woman (I think there’s a fact-based reference there, but I’m being poetic just in case), one whom you would absolutely expect to show up on a commercial among those kind of people on that kind of tribute to that kind of moment.

And now, she’s exactly the kind of stay-at-home mother-of-three whom you would expect to romp into the Colby-Sawyer College gym on a frigid February afternoon and fire back pass after pass after pass, faster and faster and faster, and walk away having helped drain a whopping 1,800 foul shots in a hair under two hours.  The very-pregnant Laura Lorio was across the lane for much of the time, but she was encouraged to rebound only those which didn’t require much movement.  Quadrupling the fun was the fact that a good chunk of the Bates Group — Gary Watson, Brian and Marie Langdon, Mom and Paul — came for a few hundred shots to help further bolster morale.

So there was Tara — daughter to Pat and Rick, sister to Diana, wife to Aaron — keeping it light and super-fast.  Every miss was followed by a mini pep talk (“Let’s Go!”), every 100th followed by a cheer (“Seven hundred! Wooooo-hooooo!”), every ball-get followed by a rifled-back pass.

We walked off the court at 3:06 p.m., having grown the overall number to 125,307 down, 874,693 to go to 1 million — a little more than one-eighth of the way there.

Thanks, Tara.  See you again soon.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

December 6: Noah, Dad and 1,000 outside

We bundled up and made 1,000 outside today, something like this:

1-200 with Noah, 201-400 with Dad, 401-600 with Noah, 601-800 with Dad, and 801-1,000 with Noah.

That’s 123,507 down, 876, 493 to go to 1 million made free throws.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

February 5: Rick Saylor and 1,500

Here’s a story from 45-ish years ago that has been filtered through two of the worst memory banks I know — mine and my dad’s.  Between his first-hand recollection and my second-hand retelling, this may not be anywhere near what actually happened, but I’m going to tell it with conviction anyway, and I’m pretty sure that automatically makes it true.

My dad and Rick Saylor were roommates at Bates College in Lewiston, Maine in the early- to mid-60s.  Lived in Roger-Williams Hall, better known as “The Bill.”  Incidentally, I’m somewhat familiar with The Bill in a very hazy sort of way, having stumbled through a few of its hallways, rooms and bathrooms on my way to being asked to leave Bates, and never return, roughly 20 years after my mom and dad both earned their diplomas there.  Oh, how proud I made them.  But I digress.

So it’s 1964 or 1965, and Rick’s senior thesis is due, well, tomorrow, and he’s not quite done.  Actually, he’s got quite a bit left to do.  Actually, he hasn’t started yet.

And then midnight rolls around, so Rick figures it’s about time to get moving.  He coolly puts a blanket over a table so it’s pitch black underneath, crawls under with a typewriter and a lit candle, and gets to work typing.  All night long, he types.  Morning comes.  He’s still typing.  Morning rolls on.  He finishes.  He turns in his senior thesis.  And …

… Well, like I said, I’m a little unclear about the details.  I have no idea whether or not Rick got an A or a D or something in between, but it must have been OK, because he graduated on time.  But you know what?  Rick’s grade really isn’t the relevant point here.  The point is that Rick was, is, and I would imagine forever will be, as the kids today would say, chill.  He’s happy.  He’s relaxed.  He’s got the perfect attitude in a world that can feel like it’s closing in sometimes.  He’s just not the kind of guy whose going to let some silly little senior thesis cause him a whole lot of stress.

(By the way, he’s also got an amazing, some have said perfect, wife, and two beautiful, wonderful daughters.  And a sweet golden retriever named Sam.)

At the end of the day, he’s just plain chill.

And tonight on the way from Connecticut to New London, he stopped off in Epsom, where he rebounded and oversaw the making of 1,500 foul shots in just a hair under two hours.  It happened just as efficiently as I might have expected it would.  One bounce out of the hoop to Rick, and one casual bounce pass back to me.  No wasted movement, no wasted energy.

It was cool.

Rick is cool.

That’s 122,507 down, 877,493 to go to 1 million made foul shots.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

Feb. 4: Lots of help, and 1,800

Three of Frank Alosa’s Granite State Raiders, a tireless trio of Epsom boys, had the ball flying all over the place tonight, and when the dust settled there were 1,800 more made free throws on the board.

Actually, Brad Rhoades, Pat Welch and Jordan Williams don’t get all the credit.  Pat’s dad Bill Welch jumped in for the first 100, and my own Dad, who we know around here as Grampa Seth, snagged 500 or so after that, but it was the teenagers who set the gym on fire.  Not literally.  That would be arson.  I mean … well, you know what I mean.  These dudes can snatch and pass with anyone.

So we had two balls going, during one stretch we knocked down 650 in a half-hour, and I swear there was one string where we may have hit 100 in less than four minutes.  I might just have to check the tape on that one.

The great thing about these guys is not just that they’re going to be helping keep the Pembroke varsity near the top of Class I for the next four years or so — although that’s pretty cool, too — but that they’re just plain nice young men.  Polite.  Hard-working.  Respectful (although Jordan did actually refer to me as a “crazy old man” at one point … kind of a stinger).  Noah is in awe of them, and they’ve been good enough to spend some time working with him … which is another reason I’m a fan.

Thanks, boys.  I hope to see you again soon.

Don’t look now, but we just crossed the 12 percent mark.  That’s 121,007 down, 878,993 to go to 1 million made foul shots.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

Feb. 3: Uncle Ray and 1,600

The numbers game we’re playing here is that in order to complete this task in two years, we need to average 1,370 made shots per day.  The plan was originally to aim for 1,000 per day in 1,000 days, but sometime in late December it became apparent that we could do a whole lot better than that, so here we are, 85 days in and averaging a little over 1,400 per day (1,402.43529, to be more precise).

The reason I bring that up is because it’s nice to have a little cushion above and beyond that 1,370, in the event of a sick day or some sort of emergency, and for a while not too long ago we were hovering right around the 1,410 mark.  This morning when I broke out the calculator, I realized we were at just a hair over 1,400, and that’s a line I’d like to not fall beneath, if at all possible.

Which brings us to tonight, and despite Mr. Ray Duckler getting hung up for a bit at work, which caused a little self-rebounding for a half-hour or so, we really fired it up when he got there … roaring to 1,600 with a whole lot of perfect passing and some pretty darned good shooting, if I may be so bold.  I think we may have even had a 500 in one of those half-hours, which is just a ridiculously fast pace.

You know what?  I’ve suddenly lost interest in my own premise.

So let’s just end it with this:  We’re now at 119,207 down, 880,793 to go to 1 million made foul shots.

Thanks, Raynman!

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

February 2, 2010: A grand Groundhog Day

Hear Ye, Hear Ye, Hear Ye.  On Gobbler’s Knob on this glorious Groundhog Day, February 2nd, 2010, Punxsutawney Phil, Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of all Prognosticators, awoke to the call of President Bill Deeley and greeted his handlers, John Griffiths and Ben Hughes.  After casting a joyful eye towards thousands of his faithful followers, Phil proclaimed, “If you want to know next, you must read my text. As the sky shines bright above me, my shadow I see beside me. So six more weeks of winter it will be.”

And that evening, far away from Gobbler’s Knob, in a little town called Epsom, best known for its traffic circle and House of Pizza …

It was a late one.  The school board meeting got out at about 6:45.  The school district deliberative session ran until about 9.  Got home at about 9:15.  Sat with Rosie until she fell asleep at about 9:30.  Got Dad at about 9:45.  Started shooting by about 9:55.

And almost exactly an hour and a half later, we had 1,000 foul shots in the books, for a total of 117,607 down, 882,393 to go to 1 million.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

Feb. 1: Another 1,600 with Nana

I figured out the one way to slow Nana down: Wizardry.

Yes, it’s true.  For the first time in the 82 days and 125,000-plus shots that I’ve taken since Hoops For Heroes began, tonight we watched a ball mystically bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce, and finally settle motionless on the back iron.  Just … plain … stopped.  I guess we could have knocked it down quickly, but so fascinated was I that I felt compelled to take the accompanying photo.  Noah eventually  joined us and knocked the ball off the rim and in (no, we didn’t count it), but we probably lost a minute or so, just for fascination’s sake.

I guess I shouldn’t have been that stupefied, really.  Twice, after all, I’ve lodged the ball between the rim and the backboard.  But still, there’s something that just gets me about the balancing act that we witnessed tonight.

Hey, call me simple.

So anyway, Nana and I didn’t break her two-hour best, coming up a little short of the 1,560 she posted a week or so ago … but we did stick around a few extra minutes to put a nice round 1,600 for the evening.

All totaled up, that’s 116,607 down, 883,393 to go to 1 million made foul shots.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.

Jan. 31: 1,450 with Jack, Dad and a new pair of boots

Tom Cantara, a cousin of Heather’s who recently saw active duty with the US Army Reserve, paid us the honor of offering the combat boots that pounded the Iraqi desert in 2008 and 2009.  Going forward, they’ll sit under the hoop next to the empty red, white and blue Converse that we’ve used since the beginning as a reminder of those we’re honoring.  Thank you, Tom, for your service and for this memento.

And tonight, thanks to Jack and Dad, who combined to rebound 1,450 in two hours (35 seconds to spare, in fact) … a nice, tidy number that put us just over the 115,000 mark, at 115,007 down, 884,993 to go to 1 million made foul shots.

For more on Hoops For Heroes, visit www.hoopsforheroes.com or contact Dave Cummings at 603-554-7855.