Pete (Sirianni) asked me recently if I wanted to write a column now and then.

I write columns when I really feel something requires additional discussion and often my opinion. In the past I’ve been told they’re pretty good when I write them, but then again, flattery will get you mentioned in my next one.

However, there are people who you could hand a stone to and they would turn out 30 inches of copy.

I’m more of a no frills kinda guy.

As an example, Pete recently wrote that Jay-Z wants to put a hyphen or dash back in his name. He can use a dot, a period, a comma …. whatever he wants. I don’t care.

Enough on that subject.

FREE TIME: Being retired, or, semi-retired, I’m really not sure which one it is. I’ve spent time this spring fishing in Red House Lake in Allegany State Park. The non-resident adult fishing license in New York costs 50 bucks. Guess what? They don’t charge tax on it. Gov. Cuomo missed the boat there.

My wife Molly likes to fish, too, so that’s $100 the good governor isn’t getting tax revenue on. We usually go over in the evening and have a little fishing contest for First Fish, Longest Fish and Most Fish. Of course, I have to bait her hook. She doesn’t like worms, but will put on salted minnows and salmon eggs, which we don’t use.

I don’t even like to eat fish for the most part and would never spend good money on a fish fry, but I’m getting my license money’s worth. There have been banner days of hauling in sunfish, pumpkinseeds (which may be the same thing), a crappie and an occasional bass –– both largemouth and smallmouth. The bass are measured just to see if they’re legal, but in the end all of them get tossed back into the lake.

By the way, if you haven’t already heard, the lake (Red House) is being lowered right after the Fourth of July so that work can commence on the spillway and bridge area.

The trees and bushes were cleared from the dam over a year ago, making the drive around the lake an eery adventure. It seems like any moment one could veer off into the lake or over the dam.

I’ve heard that some, or, probably as many as possible, of the fish will be caught and taken over to Quaker Lake. I don’t have any idea how they’re going to catch the fish –– maybe by netting them –– but I’d like to be there when that takes place (hint ASAP!).

SOFTBALL CWS: When I wasn’t fishing I was watching the women’s softball College World Series, including the game that went 17 innings.

I was impressed with a couple of the elite women pitchers who were winging the softball across the plate at up to 75 miles per hour. The distance is shorter than baseball, and at that speed it only takes less than half-a-second from the time the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand until it reaches the plate. That’s equivalent to a 100-plus mile-per-hour fastball in baseball.

Now that’s throwin’ some heat!

BASEBALL CWS: Speaking of baseball, now I’ve started watching the men’s College World Series and really got into the Oregon State game with LSU in a winners’ bracket matchup earlier this week.

The Beavers only lost four games during the season and came into the contest ranked No. 1 in the country. They put a hurtin’ on the Tigers, 13-1

What I found interesting was the fact that OSU’s KJ Harrison hit the first grand slam in the history of the tournament and that’s what really blew the game open.

I kind of got the impression that the announcers weren’t convinced that the Beavers are as good as their ranking, but the grand slam and 13 runs changed their minds –– a little bit!

NEXT UP:  No pun intended because this has nothing to do with playing on the diamond.

I recently read the book “Coaching Crisis” written by Jim Pransky. The nonfiction offering was given to Era Sports Writer Nick Richardson when he did a feature on Pransky back in February.

It deals with an outstanding high school athlete, focusing on him, his future and his baseball team, that was nearly destroyed by a poor coaching choice.

That got me thinking about some of the coaches that I’ve covered over half-a-century of writing sports in this area.

I’ve got some research to do so don’t expect it right away. With football coming up, I’ll probably start there.

REMINDER: If you missed it, Wednesday was the official first day of summer –– the Summer Solstice. Now that it is summer you may be looking for activities on the weekends and a number of them can be found in the Outdoor Activities listing on the Outdoors/recreation page that appears in The Era every Thursday.