Tom King

Here are a few tids and bits as we’re on the fast track toward April:

To spend or not to spend? In professional sports, of course, that is always the great debate.

Well, a week ago, we had a Boston radio station on in which the hosts, as has been the case these last couple weeks, were moaning and groaning about the Patriots lack of spending in free agency, a year after they set a spending record.

At the same time, through the magic of technology on a cell phone,we had a New York station on with the host lambasting the Yankees for losing out to the Red Sox for shortstop Trevor Story, even though New York had already traded for, arguably, a better defensive shortstop, and had two banging on the door in the minor leagues.

It’s called Shiny New Toy Syndrome. We live in the age of immediacy; fans want teams to spend regardless of whether the free agent is a good fit via position or otherwise. In the Patriots case, there was no way they were going to spend like they did a year ago, not even close.

They made a conscious decision to bring back players they wanted to police the locker room (Matt Slater, Devin McCourty, James White), fill a need (Trent Brown, Ja’Whaun Bentley) and went from there bringing in the bargain basement guys we said they would. Right or wrong, that’s the Patriot Way.

– Here’s hoping Chad Zibolis gets the Nashua North football head coaching nod from the Board of Education on Monday, if, as we believe, he is indeed the athletic department’s nominee. Zibolis has been former coach Dante Laurendi’s right-hand man on offense for several years, dating back to Laurendi’s Merrimack days.

He’s enthusiastic, personable, and all one needs to see is the work he’s done in reviving North wrestling. Football doesn’t need that revival, but Zibolis will provide continuity and a voice the players know.

– Still on coaching, here’s a special mention for Mike Beliveau, who is beginning his 30th and final season as an assistant coach with the Souhegan High School baseball program.

He’s been living the good life, retired and out of the area mostly, but is back for one final go-around, this time under new coach Chris Metz. Good stuff.

– Wonder where former Boston Bruin with Merrimack roots Tim Schaller is these days? After getting traded from Vancouver to Los Angeles two years ago, he spent last year with the Penguins AHL team in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, and is now with the AHL’s Bakersfield (Cal.) Condors, an affiliate of the Edmonton Oilers.

It seems year to year for the 31-year-old, who got a good payday when he left the B’s to sign a two-year deal with Vancouver nearly four years ago. But here’s saying Schaller was undervalued as a Bruin fourth-liner; it seemed he made something happen every shift. He has 10 goals and 10 assists in 52 games at last look.

– Still on hockey, the date has been set after a couple of changes for Sunday, July 17 for the third annual New Hampshire High School Girls Hockey Invitational, the brainchild of former Lowell Spinners/Silver Knights VP Jon Goode. It will be at Tri-Town Arena, with a freshmen-sophomore game at 5 p.m. and the junior-senior game at 7:30 p.m.

It’s the area’s annual summer cooler, if you will and some top high school in-state girls hockey talent will be on display, well worth it.

– Congrats to Rivier University’s Louie Bernardini for his first career win as the Raiders head coach. Now he has 999 more to get to catch up to Raider men’s and women’s volleyball coach Craig Kolek, who notched his 1,000th career Raider win this past fall and was honored for the feat on Tuesday night when the Riv men took on Nichols at the Muldoon the other night.

– In case missed this note on nashuatelegraph.com earlier in the week, scouts may be flocking to Holman Stadium this spring to watch Nashua South shortstop Albert De La Rosa.

He played for the Panthers three years ago as a freshman, penciled in pretty much every day at short. Then came the pandemic and his family left the area, before returning just a few months ago. Panthers coach James Gaj found out just how much interest there might be when he phone rang recently and there was an MLB scout on the other end.

– Booooo to Major League Baseball for bringing back the automatic runner on second base to start extra innings.

It’s just a gimmick, not real baseball, and in these eyes it doesn’t necessarily often speed things up because both teams usually end up scoring that run in the inning.

But of course, we’d love it more if we were in the Fenway Park press box night in, night out.

Tom King can be reached at tking@nashuatelegraph.com, or on twitter @Telegraph _TomK.