John Rooke's 'Thinking Out Loud' column coming to The Providence Journal

Hey, there. What did we miss? To friends and followers of this space, thanks for looking me up and finding me here under The Providence Journal banner. I appreciate you more than you know. For anyone else, if you’ll allow me a moment to reintroduce myself as, “Oh yeah, the guy that was once on Channel 12, Channel 10, Channel 56, Cox, NESN, with the PawSox, the Score, WEEI, ESPN …”

Well, hello again. Missed you. It’s been 35 years — as many know, all that time spent as the radio voice of the Providence Friars and at various intermediate stops along the way.

I'm thrilled to let you all know that my column will continue right here on the pages of The Journal, and online at providencejournal.com. It's officially summer, so we won't go at full speed quite yet, but look for "Thinking Out Loud" to begin its weekly run in just a few weeks, as the Patriots preseason gets rolling and our local colleges start focusing on the coming campaign. I can't wait, and I hope you'll drop by each week.

Here's a little more about me, in case you're wondering, and a few other thoughts:

∎ Happy to say the Providence basketball journey will also continue on WPRO, with “Sonar” Joe Hassett.

∎ And 32 years as the stadium voice of the Patriots, too. Who remembers the cold concrete and aluminum seats at Schaefer/Sullivan/Foxboro Stadium? I do. The ultimate reward for those often-painful seasons gone by are six Super Bowl trophies in the past 22 years.

∎ I’ve been privileged to cover the NFL and college football, plus college and pro basketball for 46 years. Another 20 seasons with the Revolution. Spent nine seasons in minor league baseball, got my cup o’ coffee with the Red Sox in the mid-90s. Worked for the Los Angeles Olympic Organizing Committee while calling games for the San Antonio Spurs in 1984.

∎ Hockey? My oldest son played from Pee Wee into high school, and I know all about dark, coldrinks on Sunday mornings. My youngest son followed me into broadcasting and currently servesas the voice of the Providence Bruins.

∎ Coached baseball for both of my boys for 20-plus years — that was my time to spend with themamid the traveling and the hectic work schedule. I’m lucky now that I get to watch mygrandson take his turn swinging a bat.

∎ Does that make me old? Only if you say so. Age is nothing but a number.

∎ I’m thrilled to share perspective and opinion with you, because perspective and opinion m-a-t-t-e-r. To me, certainly, and to you — to Rhode Island, to New England, to everyone everywhere.

∎ Perspective and opinion on fierce, meaningful, passionate competition is as old as New Englanditself. I mean, odds couldn’t have been too good for a bunch of ragtag Revolutionaries against theRed Coats 300 years ago, am I right?

∎ Even as a youngster growing up in football-mad Texas, I knew someday I’d want to live, workand play in an area where all sports mattered. Not that they don’t in Texas, where it’s beeninfamously said there are only two sports — football and spring football.

∎ But here, and in a few other pockets of passion like New York, Philly, and Chicago, sports canoccasionally overwhelm us. All sports, not just football — and still our fervor remains constant.

∎ Our sports go in and out with the tides, they change with the weather and the seasons, but thepassion remains the same.

∎ I wanted that, I sought that. And I got that, here — for the past 35 years and counting.

∎ Sports have changed, sure. They’re never going back to what they once were when we wereyounger. Too much money in the current marketplace. Today, we have generations of fans whohave little to no clue about what many of us call the "good ol’ days."

∎ But didn’t Carly Simon once sing “These are the good ol’ days?” So did Kesha and Macklemore,too, but I digress. For the post-boomer era, these are those days. Just sayin’.

∎ And they’re still changing; some would argue they aren’t changing for the better.

∎ Not for nuthin’, but we should still enjoy all we can, whatever we can, whenever we can.Truthfully, change is inevitable. But change can be enjoyable, even embraceable.

∎ I mean, who thought they’d really LIKE the pitch clock in baseball?

∎ My buddy, “Big E,” says he’s with me, change is inevitable — unless you’re trying to get it from avending machine.

∎ The Red Sox don’t seem half-bad. Then, they don’t seem half-good. Which puts them right in themiddle — meh.

∎ You good with that? Fifty bucks to park, 16 bucks for a beer and a dog, “Sweet Caroline” inyour head until your ears bleed. Pitching staff that can’t throw strikes when they need to. Hittersthat can’t hit a bull in the *** with a bass fiddle.

∎ But they’re under the luxury tax threshold this year, so there’s that.

∎ Speaking of meh, Michael Jordan is selling the Charlotte Hornets, who managed a meager .407winning percentage during his 13-year reign as team Grand Poobah.

∎ Weep not for His Airness, however… as he reaps more than $2 billion for his share, pushing hiscareer basketball earnings to northward of more than $4 billion.

∎ Which he might need since he reportedly loves to gamble. And isn’t very good at it.

∎ Ok, who did the Celtics draft again? This year’s NBA Draft was as difficult to follow and asconvoluted as it’s ever been.

∎ The NFL Draft — or at least the first round of it, anyway — is still the champ, by a KO.

∎ Thanks, Marcus, for your time and effort with the Celtics. It’s too bad you never realized you don’tshoot the three very well, which is a primary reason you are now in Memphis.

∎ Welcome to the dreaded Dead Period in the NFL, also known as purgatory for Jack Jones.

∎ But DeAndre Hopkins? Dude knows what he’s doing, as we told you here in May. He’s waiting forinterest to pick up, which will only do so when other receivers start falling in training camp.

∎ Stunned to learn about the sudden passing of ex-Patriot QB Ryan Mallett this week. Good guy.Good with his teammates, good with kids and charity. #smh

∎ Here’s a guy, Patrice Bergeron, who we think has passed his prime. He’s 37. Bruins fans largelyseem ready to move on, and maybe he is, too. But he just won the award for the NHL’s bestdefensive forward for a sixth time.

∎Kim English is hitting his home territory of B-more for his first 2024 recruit in PG Daquan Davis.Which means the Friars are hitting right at the heart of the primary source of the talent well forGeorgetown and Ed Cooley — D.C., Maryland, Virginia, the DMV.

∎ Think we’ll be good with this new rivalry?

∎ Post-draft “Still Too Early” Big East snapshot for 2023-24: 1) Marquette, 2) Creighton, 3) UConn, 4)Villanova, 5) Providence, 6) Xavier, 7) St. John’s, 8) Seton Hall, 9) Butler, 10) Georgetown, 11)DePaul.

∎ The Top 7 look to all be NCAA-worthy. Not sold on Rick Pitino’s magical conversion in Queensjust yet. Villanova muscled up but needs to prove it on the court. Numbers 1, 2 and 3 won’t beinvincible.

∎ And Providence sits in the middle and waits, with a big boulder growing on its shoulder.

∎ Check your scorecards: On July 1, 14 Division I schools switch conferences. That’s 11%of all FBS programs. In the past 12 years, there have been just 12 schools with addresschanges.

∎ Honored to be following in the footsteps of some great writers in this space through the years,many of whom have become more than just contemporaries or competitors. They’ve becomefriends, too. Thankful for the opportunity to continue in this tradition of passion with purpose.

∎ The really cool part about this? I’m doing what I dreamed about when I was a 13-year-old kidwith a newspaper route. I wanted to be the guy who wrote the stories in the paper about myteams, and my guys.

∎ Had a bunch of role models: Dan Jenkins, Blackie Sherrod, Bud Shrake, Galyn Wilkins, MickeyHerskowitz, Lou Maysel, Dave Campbell, Dan Cook. Later, it was Charlie Clines, Jim Palmer,Joe Hornaday, Jim Reeves, Randy Galloway, John McClain, Melanie Hauser, Kirk Bohls, RandyRiggs, Wally Hall, Buck Harvey, Kevin O’Keefe.

∎ Peter Gammons, Bob Ryan, Nick Cafardo, Kevin Mannix and Ron Hobson as well. And, absolutely, Bill Reynolds, too. So blame them. Swashbuckling scribes, all of them.

∎ Get on the Google machine, find that out for yourself if you don’t already know.

∎ Bohls is still opining today in Austin, Texas. Hall is still rolling it out in Arkansas. Ryan has spoken tosome of my very lucky college students. This column began 12 years ago based on what I beganto read religiously every Saturday more than 50 years ago from the pages of the Times Heraldand the Morning News, authored by the late, great William Forrest “Blackie” Sherrod in Dallas.

∎ Honored to share this space with you. Time marches on, but so do we all.

∎ Just not on my lawn.

Interested in having your questions on Rhode Island sports (and yes, that includes the Patriots, Red Sox, Bruins and Celtics) answered in a somewhat timely fashion? Think out loud and send your questions,comments and local stories to jrbroadcaster@gmail.com. We’ll share mailbag comments, Facebookposts, Tweets right here! Join me on Twitter, @JRbroadcaster; on Facebook, www.facebook.com/john.rooke; or on Instagram @JRbroadcaste.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: John Rooke opines on sports, from pros to college, in new Journal column