Good morning!
Back in the day when kids stood on street corners hawking newspapers, Boston sports fans regularly turned to an erudite columnist named George Frazier. Educated at Boston Latin and Harvard, Frazier wrote for the Herald Traveler and the Boston Globe, and later for Esquire and Life magazine.

In Boston he coined the term “duende” for a level of class attained by few people or places. Ted Williams had it, but Stan Musial did not. Celtics center Bill Russell had it, Wilt Chamberlain did not. Nantucket had duende; Martha’s Vineyard did not.

Others picked up on the “duende” theme and used it for their own columns, albeit with attribution. “I come not to steal from George Frazier, but to praise him,” wrote the Baltimore Sun’s Dan Rodricks in 1970.

Frazier died in 1974, but duende lives on. Tiger Woods has it, Bryson Dechambeau does not. Mookie Betts has it, David Price does not. Tom Brady has it, Peyton Manning and brother Eli did not.

Cam Newton has duende, but for fashion not football.

Frazier wrote during the golden age of the newspaper business. Halfway across the Commonwealth, novelist Tom Wolfe got his start at the Springfield Union. When it was time to go to New York, he chose not the New York Times but the New York Herald Tribune where he pounded the keyboard alongside Roger Kahn and Red Smith.

In his bestseller “The Boys of Summer,” Kahn quoted colleague Bob White regarding the difference between the two newspapers: “Here, we write. Up at the Times, they copyread.”

The Springfield newspapers had a morning and afternoon edition, and before there was George Springer the home run hitter there was George Springer the sports scribe. “George Springer’s column was where you wanted your name in the paper,” said the late Artie Burke, who pitched for the Turners Falls High School baseball team that won the 1942 state championship. Burke told me this at a Red Lobster in Winter Haven, Fla., where we were watching the Red Sox in spring training.

“George Springer is a Springfield legend,” confirmed Garry Brown, who started with the Springfield papers in the 1950s and continues to pump out two columns a week. “He used to write such a long column of ‘schoolboy jottings’ in the Sunday paper that they would set it in agate.

“He left in 1946 during a newspaper strike and went to West Virginia and became the sports editor of the Beckley Post-Herald. George’s sister Emma was married to sportswriter J. Earl Chevalier and their son was a columnist for the Philadelphia Inquirer and wrote the book, ‘Broad Street Bullies.’”

If he was alive today George Frazier would likely conclude that George Springer the writer had duende, but George Springer the sign stealer did not.

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UMASS FOOTBALL: There’s a little bit of good and a lot of bad news regarding the UMass football team. The good news courtesy of tarheeltimes.com is that 6-foot, 204-pound defensive back Bryson Richardson is transferring to UMass. Richardson played 11 games his freshman year at UNC and redshirted last year with an injury.

Defensive end Devin Baldwin is also transferring to UMass. The 6-4, 277-pound Baldwin is a Michigan native who, according to 247sports, originally committed to Western Michigan but then chose Rutgers over Virginia. He played against Ohio State and Michigan State last year but didn’t record any stats and thus preserved his redshirt status.

The bad news is that 14 players from this season’s roster have entered the transfer portal, including defensive lineman Jake Byczko, who had 15 tackles including four for a loss this season. The 6-3, 265-pound Byczko has transferred to Boston College where he’ll be reunited with former UMass defensive coordinator Aazaar Abhul-Rahim.

Although most of those in the transfer portal aren’t going anywhere because no one wants them, three-star recruit Dariyan Wiley has transferred to the University of Louisiana-Monroe (pending approval). Others who want to change colors include quarterback Andrew Brito and 6-3, 280-pound center Parker Ogle of Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., whose father played at Clemson.

UMASS WOMEN’S HOOPS: Coach Tori Verdi told broadcaster Jay Burnham that “people in Belchertown could hear me cheering” when Penn State transfer Sam Breen became eligible to play for UMass on Dec. 21, 2019.

The 21-year-old senior would be worth the price of admission if fans were allowed into the Mullins Center. On Sunday, her layup off a missed free throw beat St. John’s at the buzzer, 63-61, and her 31 points in an overtime loss at Boston College on Nov. 29 nearly gave Verdi his first win against a Top 50 team.

The former Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year is averaging 19.7 points a game for the 5-1 Minutewomen, which are off until January when they play four games in 10 days starting New Year’s Day at Saint Joseph’s.

NOTES: Junior guard Destiny Philoxy is second in the nation in assists per game (8.3). … On its “getting to know” segment, junior guard Madison Lowery revealed she’s watched “Breaking Bad” four times, and sophmore forward Angelique Ngalakulondi says she knows how to knit, but not while riding the pine.

MEN’S HOOPS: The 2020-21 UMass men’s season tipped off on Dec. 11 with a 94-79 win over Northeastern that was keyed by a combined 54 points from Tre Mitchell and Javohn Garcia. Two days later, the Huskies held the Mitchell/Garcia tandem to just 28 points and the Minutemen lost, 78-75, in the rematch in Boston.

UMass won on talent, and Northeastern won on coaching as Bill Coen (243-165) is closing in on Jim Calhoun (245-138) for career wins.

On Wednesday, Northeastern lost by only six points (62-56) as an 18-point underdog at Syracuse, while UMass hammered LaSalle, 85-66, as Mitchell drained another 37 points.

WAITING GAME: SI’s Pat Forde reports that Kansas, Arizona, Louisville, Auburn, N.C. State, Creighton, USC, South Carolina, Alabama and TCU will likely be barred from postseason play in 2021-22 after the NCAA concludes its investigation into the pay-for-play scandal that began at Louisville three years ago. The absence of these top programs will create a path for UMass to get into its first NCAA tourney since 2013-14.

EASY COME, EASY GO: Whither Preston Santos, full-fledged member of the Woodstock Seven who played in every game last season? Santos left for personal reasons in mid-November and as of yet has neither returned nor entered the transfer portal.

Those who’ve officially jumped ship from last year’s team include Keon Clergeot to Southeastern Louisiana where he leads the team in minutes, points and steals; Sean East to Bradley where he leads in assists per game (4.8), Samba Diallo to Manhattan (2 GP; 4.5 ppg) and Sy Chatman to Illinois State (4 GP; 5.8 ppg).

John Buggs III has had no takers since he entered the transfer portal in August. The 6-2, 170-pound point guard appeared in four games last season, was 0-for-8 from the floor and scored two points, both free throws. He wore Number 0, which turned out to be apt.

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SQUIBBERS: Welcome aboard, sports staffer Thomas Johnston, whose “Seeing Maroon” column debuted last week. As the name implies, Johnston’s weekly Tuesday column will focus on UMass athletics. … The Sporting News on Oct 29 took up the cause for UMass women’s tennis. “Stripping women’s tennis of the 2017 Atlantic 10 championship could be the worst miscarriage of NCAA justice, ever,” said TSN, which characterized the terrible misdeed as little more than a $252 “accounting error.” … Field goal kicking was wide right in Week 14, notably Minnesota’s Dan Bailey, New Orleans’ Wil Lutz and the New York Jets’ Sergio Castillo who were a combined 1-for-9. “You miss this one you might want to stay in Seattle,” said Jets analyst Marty Lyons before Castillo’s third miss. The Jets let him on the plane so they could cut him on Tuesday. … Watching Cam Newton lumber about the gridiron reminds me of Anthony Quinn as the washed up boxer in Rod Serling’s 1962 film “Requiem for a Heavyweight.” … The Red Sox have acquired 24-year-old Garrett Whitlock from the Yankees in the Rule 5 draft, meaning the Red Sox must keep him on the 40-man roster all season or he’ll be returned to the Yankees. Whitlock is rehabbed from Tommy John surgery. He’ll get a good long look in spring training. … NFL analyst Peter King predicts Drew Brees will be in the broadcast booth next season. … Author Dennis Lehane writes in “The Given Day” that the “white ball rule” took effect in 1919, when new baseballs replaced grass-and-dirt stained baseballs that were hard to for batters to see. Nowadays, according to baseballboom.com, teams go through 120 baseballs a game. … Season passes to Saratoga Race Track are on sale for $50 ($75 for the clubhouse). Contact NYRA.com. … Saints quarterback Taysom Hill had 256 combined yards rushing and passing in BYU’s 51-9 win against UMass in 2016. … Tom Brady’s presumed favorite target Antonio Brown has only 25 catches for 217 yards and no touchdowns in five games with the Bucs. … The Wall Street Journal reports that online chess cheating has risen in the wake of “The Queen’s Gambit” on Netflix. Violations of fair play have caused chess.com to cancel 18,511 accounts this year. … Hanukkah ended Friday and Christmas is within a week. “There are three stages of man,” says Sirius-XM’s Bob Phillips. “He believes in Santa Claus; he does not believe in Santa Claus; he is Santa Claus.” Ho, ho, ho and merry Christmas.

Chip Ainsworth is an award-winning columnist who has penned his observations about sports for four decades in the Pioneer Valley. He can be reached at chipjet95@yahoo.com