The promos this week tipped me off that tonight’s Treehouse of Horror is the 600th episode of The Simpsons. It’s the 588th home game for the Bridgeport Sound Tigers today, and considering the 12-year head start for that TV show that used to really pervade this blog, that’s not bad. I figured I’d depress myself, and if you’re of a similar age, it might depress you, too. There are 28 guys on the Bridgeport roster right now, and 20 of them were born after the show debuted on Dec. 17, 1989. If you extend it back to the Tracey Ullman Show shorts, which began on April 19, 1987, the only ones older than animated Maggie are Stephen Gionta, Bracken Kearns, Jon Landry, Patrick Cullity and, by 10 days, Ben Holmstrom.
Whippersnappers. Get off my lawn. Etc.
Another thing that predates all the infants on the ice is hockey in Springfield, though this is a different franchise from the olden ones. The Thunderbirds make their New England debut after playing in Lehigh Valley last night.
Bridgeport’s roster, despite the Islanders’ placing Shane Prince on injured reserve this afternoon, is unchanged, and its 20 men dressed are the same though with a tweak. One to scratch each way, apparently Josh Holmstrom and MacAuley.
BRIDGEPORT
F: Rowe – St. Denis – Ho-Sang
Dal Colle-Kearns (A)-Fritz
Winquist-C.Jones-Markison
Johnston-Schempp-B.Holmstrom (C)
(J.Holmstrom-scratch)
D: Pelech-Mayfield (A)
Toews-Pulock
Lafranchise-Burroughs
G: Williams
Gibson
SPRINGFIELD
F: Rau-Black-Thompson (A)
Bozon-Sutter-Shaw
Hunt-Balisy-Bukarts
Horvat (A)-Lammikko-Greco
(MacAuley-scratch)
D: Kindl-Regner (C)
Downing-Brown
McCoshen-Weegar
G: Berra
McKenna
R: Voss, Mullen. L: N.Briganti, Galvin.
Bridgeport scratches (believed healthy unless noted): Cullity, Finn, Landry, Leduc, Gionta (lower body), apparently J.Holmstrom, K.Jones, Verhaeghe.
*-7F22.