Well, I got my power back just in time to find out that Tiger Woods has emerged from an eight-month coma after charging into a burning orphanage to save six kids and their three-legged dog Mallomar to play his first round of competitive golf. Between that and spending all school vacation week in Augusta and Portland, it makes me wonder what else I’ve missed:

• Did Manny Ramirez join the Red Sox again? The Boston media is writing and talking so much about him, I figured the newest episode of Manny Being Manny was set in Fort Myers again. Kind of like the everybody going back to the island on Lost.

• Did Tony Allen get hurt or something? I thought he was the answer to all of the Celtics’ bench needs. And I thought Danny Ainge was happy with the team he had going down the stretch. So why did he scoop a malcontent who somehow made the Knicks worse and a guy who spells his name “Mikki” and pronounces it “Mikey” off the scrap heap. Maybe they’ll help, but maybe it won’t matter if Kevin Garnett’s knee continues to be a problem.

• Did someone say they were putting a minor league basketball team in Portland? The Maine Lumberjacks and Portland Mountain Cats proved that was a good way to waste money, right?

Do not underestimate the men behind this new franchise – Bill Ryan Sr., Bill Ryan Jr. and Jon Jennings. The elder Ryan is the chairman of TD Banknorth. The younger Ryan is owner of Oxford Plains Speedway, where he has made more than a few prescient business decisions. A lot of folks scoffed at the race track’s switch from featuring Pro Stock to the less expensive Late Model cars in 2007, but that change is looking more and more wise by the day.

Jennings has done it all, in and out of basketball. He worked his way up from a video/scouting coordinator to an assistant coach and player personnel director with the Celtics, worked for the Clinton White House, served in the Justice Department and ran for Congress in his home state of Indiana.

No doubt launching a professional basketball franchise in Maine in this economy is a risky proposition. But if I had to bet on whether there will be an NBDL team in Portland or some sort of junior hockey team in Lewiston five years from now, I’m putting my money on the Ryans and Jennings.

• Were there really shockwaves when Alex Rodriguez admitted using steroids? Maybe I’m just too cynical, but after some of the names linked to steroids that have come out over the years, how can anybody be surprised about any athlete taking drugs to make themselves better and stronger.

• Did Edward Little really win a regional title? Oh, wait a second, I actually saw that happen. And I predicted, too. Huh? I’m on quite a roll after picking all those No. 1 and No. 2 seeds to win.

• Did several bozos on an Internet message board call Dirigo’s Tom Knight overrated and/or arrogant? Seriously, if you think those things, let alone are miserable enough in your own existence to share them with other people, please do society a favor and never log on to a computer again. Having an opinion is one thing, but having one that is so ridiculously uninformed as those are obliterates all of your credibility.

• Lastly, it is with deep sadness that I note the passing of Chet Bulger. The former Stephens High School, Auburn University and Chicago Cardinals star appeared in this column and countless other publications on the eve of Super Bowl XLIII. He died of natural causes last week at his home in Virginia at the age of 91.

I was going to use this space to call on someone in the Maine football community to create an award in Bulger’s name honoring the state’s best high school lineman. Well, it turns out there already is just such an award, which is handed out annually by the Maine Sports Hall of Fame.

But while Chet is a legend in Chicago for his days as a player there and then later as a teacher, coach and administrator at De la Salle Institute, there remains a lack of acknowledgment for Chet in his hometown of Rumford. I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest renaming Hosmer Field in his honor, but since Chet had such a fondness for track and field, and actually got to Auburn on a track scholarship, perhaps rededicating the track around Hosmer in his honor would be in order.

Even though he spent much of his life in Chicago and Virginia, Chet loved Rumford. Whenever we talked, he always asked me to put in a good word from him for the folks back home. And he maintained an active interest in local football, contacting Mountain Valley players on a number of occasions to offer words of encouragement.

Chet said in our last chat days before the Super Bowl, “It’s amazing how many people remember you, and what they remember about you.”

Well, Chet, I’ll remember your self-depreciating sense of humor, your love of football and Rumford, and your friendship.

Rest in peace.

Randy Whitehouse is a staff writer. His e-mail address [email protected]