There are some great traditions with sports teams and their fans. One of the best is the Teddy Bear Toss for Charity of the Hershey Bears Hockey Team. Here is a story from the Hershey Camber of Commerce about this year’s “Toss”.
Thanks to the generosity of the best fans in the American Hockey League (AHL), the Hershey Bears have once again established a new record in one of the most iconic sports events! The Hershey Bears, the oldest and most decorated team in the AHL, collected 74,599 teddy bears and stuffed animals during the GIANT Teddy Bear Toss on Sunday, January 7, 2024, to surpass the club’s previous record of 67,309 collected in 2023.
The world-famous event, held during Sunday’s game versus the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, traditionally sees fans throw stuffed animals onto the ice following Hershey’s first goal of the game, which came in the second period. The goal, scored by Bogdan Trineyev, ignited the GIANT Teddy Bear Toss, in which fans sent a cascade of cute, cuddly critters onto the ice.
As the teddy bears descended to the ice, forming massive piles, several Bears players were more than happy to dive into those plush piles, much to the delight of the standing-room-only crowd of 10,765.
Quote of the Day “You see our arena tonight, you see every seat in the stands absolutely full, you see the teddy bears waiting to be thrown – so there’s a lot of excitement to score that goal. And for us, it’s a well-talked-about event; you don’t really know what to expect until you’re in that moment. And then when you’re in it, it’s one of the cooler moments in pro hockey that I’ve been a part of.” Bears defenseman Chase Priskie
The Heshey Bears’ Teddy Bear Toss gets my Orchid and Video of the Day
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It didn’t take long for the University of Alabama football team to fill their head coaching vacancy as they stole Kalen DeBoer from the University of Washington. DeBoer leaves Washington after taking them to the CFP finals, where they lost to Michigan 34-13. DeBoer had a 23-3 record in his two years at Washington. DeBoer calls this a chance of a lifetime.
DeBoer is following in the footsteps of one of the winningest coaches in college football history. He is taking over a program where anything less than a national championship is considered failure. It is not easy to follow a legend. DeBoer has his work cut out for him as he competes in the football rich SEC where every game is a potential loss.
DeBoer has come a long way from his days as the offensive coordinator at Eastern Michigan University.
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Speaker Mike Johnson is pushing back on the Freedom Caucus and is holding firm on the funding agreement he helped negotiate with the Senate leadership and the Biden administration.
Per the NY Times today, Speaker Mike Johnson said on Friday that he stood by the spending deal he negotiated with Democrats to avert a government shutdown, spurning demands from ultraconservatives who have pressured him to jettison the agreement.
The announcement, after days of public silence about what he would do, all but guaranteed that Mr. Johnson will have to work with Democrats in the coming days to pass a short-term bill to keep the government funded past a pair of deadlines on Jan. 19 and Feb. 2, going back on his promise to never bring up another temporary spending measure.
Mr. Johnson had been facing mounting pressure from the hard-right Republicans, who are furious at the spending levels in the bipartisan plan, to find an alternative. They have begun dangling the threat of forcing a vote to oust the Louisiana Republican, subjecting him to the same fate as his predecessor.
But after a flurry of meetings with both ultraconservative critics and politically vulnerable Republicans in swing districts who urged him to adhere to the compromise, Mr. Johnson emerged to declare: “Our top-line agreement remains.”
Kudos to Johnson for standing up to the Freedom Caucus.
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Quote of the Day: See above about the Teddy Bear Toss
Orchid of the Day: See above about the Teddy Bear Toss
Onion of the Day: No onion today
Question of the Day: Will the Lions prevail on Sunday night against the Rams?
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