Month: April 2012

Slap of the Week — April 27

Posted by dobrien – April 27, 2012

They’re not on the level of Steve Bartman, but in some corners today the duo of Sean Leonard and Shannon Moore are just as bad — if not worse. Ok, the Texas couple couldn’t be seen as being worse than Bartman, who supposedly cost the Cubs a trip to the World Series in 2003, but they’re hated by some people for what they did on Wednesday night at the Rangers-Yankees game.

At the end of an inning Texas first baseman Mitch Moreland tossed the ball into the stands and Leonard and Moore picked it up. The ball landed right in front of them. The next seat over was some toddler who started screaming because he didn’t get the ball. Neither Leonard nor Moore realized that the kids was crying and didn’t give him the ball. Of course, the couple got ripped by the Yankees’ announcers and by many who saw the video.

I’m here to back up Leonard and Moore.

Let’s circle back to that infamous Bartman game. I covered that for the Herald-Whig. What a night that was. The next night, I’m typing away after doing some pregame interviews prior to Game 7 of the NLCS between the Cubs and the Marlins at Wrigley. Since I’m not with the Chicago papers, I’m in the auxilary press box, which is actually outside the main press box at the stadium. The accommodations were fine. I sat next to Quad City Times Sports Editor Don Doxie, who I knew from having covered many John Deere Classics.

Early in the game, Derrek Lee, then with the Marlins, came up and hit a foul ball in our direction. I’m oblivious as to what’s happening in front of me until Doxie said heads up. I took my hands off my keyboard and caught the ball on one hop off the rail in front of us. Probably the best play I’ve made on a ball in my life.

I stuff the ball in my pocket and go back to typing. All of the sudden I guy puts his kid in my face and he’s asking for the ball.

“My grandson would love the ball,” the guy said.

I was surprised.

“I’m sorry, I have a 4-year-old at home that would love the ball,” I told him.

I put my head back down and started typing away again. The kid cried but I didn’t care. I had a kid that would enjoy the ball, too. At least that’s what I told myself. Not sure that Derek, my son, ever played with it. I put it with my memorabilia collection. I’m sure it’s in a box somewhere now with leftovers from my round at Augusta National.

Catching it is a good memory for me. That little kid who wanted my baseball doesn’t even remember it. Now about 13 or so, I’m sure all he remembers what he sees from the ticket stub hanging on his wall that he was at the game when the Cubs were close to getting to the World Series.

Every whiny little kid shouldn’t get it’s way just because it wants something. If that kid in Texas wanted the ball so bad, his Dad should have made a better play on it. Don’t demonize someone else because they got something and some little kid didn’t. The Rangers, of course, gave the kid a ball to appease him.

I remember being a 12-year-old and going to a Cubs game. We were down the first-base line and Ron Cey hit a pop foul right to my dad. Of course, he muffed the play and someone else wound up with the ball. Was I ticked? You bet. But no one handed me any baseball to soothe my pain. That’s the way it should have been.

We’ve become a bunch of enablers.

Neither Leonard nor Moore has anything to apologize about.

Mid-Week Grades for April 25

Posted by dobrien – April 25, 2012

It’s the last batch of grades for April. Final exams will be here before you know it. As always, we’ll break these down around 8:20 on the award-winning WGEM SportsCenter program on ESPN 1440. Please text in your grades to 217-617-9437.

A — Phil Humber. One game does not a career make, but you have to appreciate where Humber has come from to throw the 21st perfect game in MLB history. A high pick by the Mets – No. 3 overall in 2004 – Humber had Tommy John surgery when he was in the minors. He was shipped to Minnesota as part of the Johan Santana deal. Then no one wanted him. He was a non-roster invitee to Royals spring training in 2010, but bounced between Triple-A Omaha and K.C. for most of the year. Oakland picked him up off waivers in the offseason, but dropped him soon after. That’s when the White Sox stepped in and took him off the scrap heap. You have to like how Humber, 29, has stuck with it.

B — Area softball pitchers. There was the thought that when the National Federation of High Schools moved the pitching rubber back three feet, that the days of the dominant pitcher would be gone and offenses would thrive. Someone forgot to tell the pitchers around here. First, we had Palmyra’s Kindra Henze mowing people down in the fall on the way to a state title. This spring, Quincy Notre Dame’s Aubrey Wilson and Payson Seymour’s Cheyanne Bowman have been baffling opposing hitters. Wilson became QND’s all-time leader in wins over the weekend, while Bowman throws no-hitters with regularity, tossing in a perfect game here and there. And for good measure, here’s a link to a story about a girl from Connecticut who threw a perfect game and struck out all 21 batters in the process.

C — Janoris Jenkins. He’ll be an interesting watch during the NFL Draft. Some have said Jenkins, who started his career at Florida but had to finish at North Alabama, is the most talented corner back in the draft. Jenkins, however, has a few character issues. Seems like he likes to smoke dope and produce children (four with three different women and could have a fifth with a fourth different woman.) How badly will his character issues hurt him in the draft?

D — May just have my D each week for the “Dumb Youth Sports Move of the Week.” This week, we come to you from Pennsylvania where Babe Ruth baseball coach John Zahradnik was charged with reckless endangerment and harassment after he nearly ran over someone in his pickup truck and then pulled a gun during a recent game. Zahradnik was set off by an umpire’s call.

F — Genoa soccer. In case you missed it, I’m watching more international soccer lately. (I won’t watch the retreads in the MLS and I’m sticking to the Barclays Premier League.) On Sunday, Italian team Genoa had its match against Siena stopped by some mega fans who demanded the players give up their jerseys after they first threw fireworks on to the field as the team was losing 4-0. The players eventually kept their jerseys and the fans calmed down. Genoa fired its coach after the match and the officials of the Italian league that they play in said Genoa couldn’t play its final two home matches. Some fans were identified and given five-year bans, but they’re still trying to ID all of the hooligans.

Two For Tuesday — April 24

Posted by dobrien – April 24, 2012

Here’s what’s on my mind today:

1. The WB6 doesn’t need the MS6

A little bit of news came out of the latest meeting of Western Big Six athletic directors on Monday. The league said it’s ready to explore some kind of expansion with the Mid-State Six, which is made up of four Peoria-area schools. Football seems to be the sports that is driving the talks, but according to the Moline Dispatch the leagues are talking more than just football. Should the leagues form some type of merger for football, WB6 ADs wouldn’t have to worry about regular season schedules. The league would have 10 teams, meaning all nine regular-season games would be set. I like a little variety in my schedule. A WB6-MS6 merger would kill off the new series that QHS has set up with Hannibal in football. The MS6 needs someone to dance with or else its conference dies. The WB6 needs to think long and hard before it decides to become that dance partner.

2. Come on, people

It’s no secret that Albert Pujols is off to a rough start in his life as a member of the Los Angeles Angels. Going into Tuesday’s game against the Rays, Pujols is hitting .246 with no home runs and just four runs batted in. He’s only walked four times and has an on-base percentage of .300. This has led to cat calls from Cardinals fans, who are having fun at Pujols’ expense. Note the photoshop that I’ve posted here. For Cardinals fans to wish ill will on Pujols and laugh at his failings so far in L.A. is just silly. First, the guy helped your team win two World Series titles in his 11 years with the team. Second, he’s only 16 games into his 1,620 game contract with the Angels. He hasn’t even played 1 percent of his new contract. I’m pretty sure that Pujols will be OK. Cardinals fans need to quit being the ex-girlfriend hoping bad things for her old beau.

Slap of the Week — April 20

Posted by dobrien – April 20, 2012

I’ve never doubted the hatred that exists between University of Missouri and Kansas University fans. All I need to know is that my co-hort, Matt Schuckman, a Mizzou grad, won’t even say the word “Kansas.” On vacation this week, he spit out his window each time he got to the Kansas state line while driving through the state.

I have no problem with what Schuck does. Some of his fellow Mizzou Nation folks are just crazy though. Take the case of Trailridge Elementary in Lee’s Summit, Mo. The school has a habit of playing songs for its students in the morning during announcements.

When Kansas played for the national title earlier this month, the Jayhawks’ fight song was played during announcements. According to the Kansas City Star, that didn’t go over well with some parents at the school.

Parents complained to school administrators for playing the song. From the Star:

“As a parent of two and a taxpaying resident of the Lee’s Summit R-7 School District, I am shocked and disappointed that there was an apparent attempt to indoctrinate Lee’s Summit school children to be KU fans at Trailridge Elementary this week,” said Brian Yates, a former state representative and graduate of the University of Missouri. “Playing the KU fight song or any college fight song over the intercom in a publicly funded elementary school is unacceptable.”

A.J. Quigley, another Missouri taxpayer, sent Trailridge Principal Matt Miller an April 2 email decrying the “awful decision to play the fight song today at school.”

Simply amazing that parents would get so worked up about this. You’d think they’d have better things to worry about.

Mid-Week Grades for April 18

Posted by dobrien – April 18, 2012

Here’s this week’s batch of grades. If you’d like to chime in, feel free to text WGEM SportsCenter at 217-617-9437, operators are always standing by. We’ll gnash these over on Wednesday’s program on ESPN 1440 around 8:20 or so.

A — Los Angeles Dodgers. Two weeks ago, the talk around the Dodgers centered on how much Magic Johnson and Co. overpaid for the team. The players have made everyone turn their attention to what’s happening on the field instead of the board rooms. They won 9 of their first 10 games before Tuesday’s loss at Milwaukee. Matt Kemp (6 HR/16 RBI/.465 average) and Andre Either (4/17/.310) are mashing the ball right now. The starting pitchers are giving the team quality start after quality start and the defense hasn’t been too shabby, including Sunday’s rare 2-5-6-3 triple play. When a traditional power like the Dodgers are doing well, it makes it better for all baseball fans.

B — Jamie Moyer. Here’s one for the aged. On Tuesday night, Moyer became the oldest pitcher in Major League history to win a game when he beat the Padres 5-3 at Coors Field. Moyer, who’s been pitching longer than I’ve had a drivers’ license, was 49 years, 150 days old at the time of his win. He trumped Brooklyn’s Jack Quinn, who was a mere 49 years and 70 days old when he beat the Cardinals back on Sept. 13, 1932. The win was Moyer’s 268th, tying him with Hall of Famer Jim Palmer on the all-time wins list.

C — Quincy University women’s basketball team. It was a news-filled day for the program on Tuesday. First, we learned that coach Jeni Garber had added some players to her 2012 recruiting class. A little bit later, we found out that she’ll have to do even more recruiting after Karlee Gengenbacher told her that she’s going to leave the program. The hill that Garber and her staff have to climb now is pretty considerable. They’ll have to replace nearly 74 percent of the team’s scoring and 64 percent of the team’s rebounding from last season. The Lady Hawks will be young, too, with no senior on their roster.

D — St. Louis Cardinals. The team had quite a celebration over the weekend for its 2011 World Series championship. The team wore special uniforms with gold letters and gold numbers. They also had a ring ceremony on Saturday, getting their new jewelry in front of their rivals from Chicago who haven’t celebrated a World Series winner since 1908. A great time was had by all, but I hated the uniforms. They were hard to read while watching the games on TV. Also hate — and I mean HATE — the fact that the “rally squirrel” made its way on to the team’s rings. What a dumb idea. I hated the “rally squirrel” last fall and the fact that it will live forever on the team’s rings really disappoints me.

F — Dwyer (Fla.) High School baseball team. Anyone who knows me, knows that my mantra in live is “Win if you can, lose if you must, but always cheat.” One of the players on the Dwyer team decided to give his team a leg up on rival Palm Beach Gardens during a recent game. How did he do it? He doused the Palm Beach Gardens dugout with urine. There was so much urine used that it left a stench in the dugout. Although the kid got a two-game suspension, he rouse worked. Dwyer won the game 7-4, giving it a better seeding in the upcoming district tournament.

Two for Tuesday — April 17

Posted by dobrien – April 17, 2012

Here’s what I’m thinking about today.

1. Blues making NHL playoffs must-see TV

I wish the Blues-Sharks game didn’t start so late last night. I would have loved to have watched the whole thing. After watching the Blues and Sharks drop bombs on each other at the end of Game 2 in St. Louis, I had to watch as much of Game 3 as I could. I knew they wouldn’t fight from the start, but when T.J. Oshie got lit up by San Jose’s Doug Murray about six seconds into the game, I knew it would be a good game. Seemed like it was, too, as the Blues earned a 4-3 win to take a 2-1 lead in the series. I don’t care for regular season hockey, but I’ll watch the playoffs. Maybe that makes me a bandwagon fan. Just being honest.

2.  Spring practice for the preps?

If you picked up the Sunday edition of the Herald-Whig, you saw that we had coverage of the University of Illinois and University of Missouri spring football games. Western Illinois will hold its annual spring game this Saturday and Quincy University will follow suit a week from Saturday. It got me to thinking. What if high schools were allowed spring practice periods? Some states like Florida allow spring football practice. New Ohio State coach Urban Meyer is pushing for spring drills in his new home state, one that is flush with recruitable talent for his program. I don’t know that spring ball could ever catch on around here. Too many kids at smaller schools play baseball or run track. Unless the Missouri and Illinois wanted to do what Iowa does and have its baseball played in the summer, there’s no room for spring football on the docket.

 

Slap of the Week — April 13

Posted by dobrien – April 13, 2012

Sometimes you have to wonder what people are thinking.

Take the case of Gyrune Linwood of Peoria. Linwood was sentenced Thursday to two years in prison for aggravated unlawful use of a weapon. According to the Peoria Journal-Star, Linwood unloaded from an assault rifle to scare the neighbors in his apartment complex on July 31.

Linwood decided that going to jail wasn’t for him and decided to make a break for it. Why would anyone try to make a break for it in a courthouse crawling with police officers? Just plain stupid.

Linwood didn’t get far and was actually tackled by in the hallway by prosecutor Seth Uphoff, a former football player at Eureka College. It may not have been the biggest tackle of the former defensive back’s career, but it was a pretty timely one.

You’d have to think that Linwood one day will appear on one of those “World’s Dumbest Criminals” episodes for this stunt.

Mid-Week Grades — April 11

Posted by dobrien – April 11, 2012

After fighting off the allergy bug last week, I’m back and ready to dish out some grades. If you have thoughts about the sports world or life in general that you would like to grade — we get people giving Fs to their boss all the time — feel free to text it in to WGEM SportsCenter at 217-617-9437 or email us at sportscenter@wgem.com. We’ll break these down arond 8:20 on Wednesday’s program.

A — Bubba Watson. How can the A go to anyone else but Watson this week? His shot from the trees on No. 10 will go down in Masters lore. A University of Georgia grad, Watson was already popular among the patrons there. He’ll be a favorite of the people at Augusta for years to come. I don’t know that his game is cut out to win a ton of majors since grip-it-and-rip-it guys like Watson historically haven’t fared well on a consistent basis.

B — St. Louis Blues. The Blues are back in the playoffs as the No 2 seed in the Western Conference. Ken Hitchcock will probably win the Jack Adams Award, which goes to the NHL’s top coach, after taking over the team early in the season. However, the team lost four of its last five regular season games. The Blues dominated the San Jose Sharks, their first-round foe, during the regular season. They’re having some goalie issues going into the playoffs. Some Blues fans are nervous. We’ll see if the Blues can survive the first round.

C — Stephon Marbury. And you thought Linsanity was a big deal in New York City? Starbury is the man in China right now. He recently led the Beijing Ducks to its first Chinese Basketball Association title. He dominated in the finals, averaging 33 points and six assists per game in the five-game series. The CBA doesn’t allow foreign players like Marbury to win league honors, so the fans there have rallied around him and demanded a bronze statue be made of Marbury. Not too bad for a guy who was written off by the NBA.

D — Bobby Petrino. The University of Arkansas football coach was fired Tuesday, a week after he was found to have been driving around a staff member half his age on his motorcycle when he crashed it earlier this month. Instead of fessing up from the start, Petrino tried to cover it up. Had he come clean from the start, he probably wouldn’t have been fired by the school. Petrino doesn’t believe the law applies to him. With football in the SEC being the king over everything, I’m surprised he lost his job over this. Some other school will eventually come calling though.

F — Charlotte Bobcats. Unless the Bobcats catch fire — fat chance — they’ve all but wrapped up having the most ping pong balls for the NBA Draft lottery. Through 55 games, the Bobcats have won all of 7 games. They’re five games worse than everyone else in the league with just 11 games left to play. The Bobcats’ ineptitude usually wouldn’t bother me at all, but Michael Jordan is the team’s owner. As great a player as he was, Jordan’s been a way below average executive in the NBA.

Two For Tuesday — April 10

Posted by dobrien – April 10, 2012

Here’s what is on my mind today.

1. Ozzie being Ozzie

If only Ozzie Guillen had been issued a DUI. Had he done what happened to former St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa back in 2007 then there wouldn’t be such an uproar. Instead, Guillen’s being suspended by his new team, the Miami Marlins, for something he said. No, saying that he “loves Fidel Castro” isn’t the smartest thing in the world, but Guillen still has the right to say it. Some in South Florida want him fired, a punishment that doesn’t fit the crime here. What did the Marlins expect from Guillen when they hired him? He’s always been a lightning rod for things he’s said and even tweeted in the past. If they thought he was going to change, that’s pretty silly.

 2. Without Rose, Bulls won’t blossom

It’s looking like Derrick rose is going to miss another game tonight against the Knicks. An ankle injury he suffered in the team’s 100-99 overtime loss to the Knicks at Madison Square Garden is the culprit this time. Should he miss the game, it will be the 24th game he’s missed this season. Chicago is 15-7 without him and has the best record in the NBA. Still if Chicago wants to be seen as a title contender, Rose needs to be healthy. I’m afraid that’s not happening this season. Right now, I wonder if Rose will even be healthy enough to play for the U.S. in the Olympics. As a Bulls fan, I’d be fine with him skipping London to make sure he’s healthy for a title run next season.

Slap of the Week — April 6

Posted by dobrien – April 6, 2012

Maybe I shouldn’t be so upset, but the fact the Miami Marlins carted out Muhammad Ali to deliver a baseball during Wednesday’s opening game really bothers me.

I know Ali trained for many fights in Miami, but don’t really get his connection to the Marlins, other than the fact this was a PR stunt by the team. Ali, one of the greatest boxers and showmen ever, is being ravaged by Parkinson’s disease. That was apparent when he couldn’t control his hand as he was carted on to the field.

My heart ached for Ali. Did he really want to be there? Why didn’t someone in his family put a stop to this?

I’m not saying that he should be hidden away because of his condition. I just don’t know that the time and place were right for him to make a public appearance.

I wanted my last memory of Ali being when he lit the Olympic torch in Atlanta. Now, I’ve got the scene from Wednesday night in Miami burned into my memory banks and don’t know that I can shake it.

Thanks a lot, Marlins.