Starting Up Slowly

Although this weekend is the first weekend of the home sports season, most of the teams are not playing. As a matter of fact, only one team is playing, and that is the football team, which will be meeting UMass at the stadium Saturday at 1:50 p.m. The strange time is a result of ABC televising the game.

The gridders are boasting a big passing game and the number to watch will be 89, Jim Curry, who will be playing his first game in more than a year, after taking last year off. Curry's team mates have been boasting that it takes at least two defenders to cover him and that even then the coverage may not be adequate. Curry's speed and assortment of head and body fakes make him very difficult to cover.

Curry will also be anchoring the kicking game, performing the punting, place-kicking, and kick-offs. Curry isn't marked for any defensive duty, so he won't be on the field all the time.

Tuesday will be the first day for some of Harvard's teams home seasons. The cross country team will battle UMass and Providence (not the entire city, just the university) at 3:30 p.m. at Franklin Field in Dorchester. The field hockey team, coming off a very successful season last year, will open against Wheaton at 3:45 p.m. at Soldiers Field, and will be followed by a junior varsity game between Harvard and Wheaton.

If you want to catch some Red Sox Baseball, you'll have to do it in front of the television. They'll be in Detroit Friday night, Saturday, and Sunday trying to make up ground against the first-place Yankees.

Until next week. Be there. Aloha.