Idle Thoughts, while waiting for pitchers and catchers, UConn to annihilate St. John’s at the Garden and for the NFL to decide the Super Bowl should be on pay-per-view:

• Dr. Idle, Dr. I to his close friends, shakes his head today.

Nick Saban decides to retire at 72. Pete Carroll and Bill Belichick, both approximately the same age, are looking for work.

And yet we have two mammals who are older — one dottering and the other a criminal — in line for the presidency.

Makes you want to belt out a few choruses of the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” doesn’t it?

• Trivia: Who was the first non-quarterback to throw more than 10 touchdown passes in his NFL career? (Answer below)

• Such angst from Patriot Nation over the hiring of Jerod Mayo.

The man already has an entire clinic named after him.

• Kudos to New London High’s Becky Rodriguez, a longtime secretary at the school, who earned a straight “A” Friday night keeping the path clear for the GameDay broadcast table.

• So now the Yankees have Carlos Rodon, Marcus Stroman and Alex Verdugo, none of whom would ever get accused of being Stable Mabel.

Are the days of the Bronx Zoo returning?

• If you can get to Waterford High on Tuesday night for the “Go Gold” basketball game, please do so.

The idea was established by Marissa Walker, a 2018 Waterford graduate, National Spirit of Sport Award winner and cancer survivor. All proceeds, donations and bake sale purchases go to Camp Rising Sun, a hamlet for kids who have been diagnosed with cancer.

The “gold” symbol honors the resiliency of all the kids stricken with the disease. The Waterford girls held their “Go Gold” game recently and raised more than $700.

• Full disclosure: Nothing irritates Dr. I more than the way the national college basketball media covers the sport.

Much bigger on demagoguery than objectivity. (There’s even someone at CBS who makes T-shirts trumpeting his own insipid sayings about individual coaches.)

But it appears even their normal boot-lickery was compounded last week on the subject of Rick Pitino.

Seems the most sacred of cows explained that the UConn-St. John’s game to be played on campus next year isn’t because of the feared deluge of UConn fans to the Garden, but in honor of Lou Carnesecca’s 100th birthday.

And they regurgitated the info with nary a question asked.

Dr. I takes gullible for $600, Alex.

• Are the Red Sox going to, you know, try?

• Not that it matters, but Georgia would have defeated Cheating Michigan by two touchdowns.

• Dr. I’s query last week: If we could set a boat adrift for an indefinite period of time, would we choose Pat McAfee or Aaron Rodgers as its captain?

The readers checked in via email last week overwhelmingly with Rodgers.

No arguments from this corner, provided we could have McAfee as the cruise director.

• Much respect to the Eastern Connecticut Eagles, the region’s high school hockey team, to which several schools contribute players.

Their road trips are brutal. Already this year, they’ve been to Northford, Bolton, Enfield and Watertown. Dr. I wishes he loved something (anything) as much as those kids love hockey.

• Why do UConn women’s basketball players get hurt so much?

• This week’s sign the apocalypse is upon is: Artificially intelligent garbage trucks in East Lyme.

Can we stop?

Dr. I wants garbage trucks to be artificially faster, not smarter. If they’re faster, they wouldn’t clog the roads, joining all school buses, joggers, skateboarders, cyclists and other nuisances.

(Yes, Dr. I is in a bad mood today.)

• Get out to see some local basketball. Amyre Gray (St. Bernard) and JJ Robinson (Fitch) are worth the price of admission.

• What are the state weather forecasters going to do with themselves now that we don’t need the rain?

• No. 1 basketball scorers’ table in the ECC: Waterford. (Walker, Connors, Strecker, Sutera).

• Trivia answer: Frank Gifford. In his career with the New York Football Giants from 1952-64, Gifford ran for 34 touchdowns, caught 43 and threw for 14.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro