Schuck's Clipboard

Quincy native Luke Guthrie didn’t make the cut in his first appearance at The Players Championship, but he did make the highlights on PGATOUR.com.

Here is Guthrie rolling in an 18-foot birdie putt on the 12th hole during Friday’s second round.

A former Quincy Gems is at the heart of a baseball debate about replay.

Oakland Athletics shortstop Adam Rosales, who played for the Gems in 2003 and ’04, hit an apparent home run in the ninth inning of Wednesday’s game against the Cleveland Indians that would have tied the game at 4. The ball appeared to clear the 19-foot-high wall in left field and hit a railing. However, second base umpire Angel Hernandez called it a double, leading to a video replay.

Three umpires left the field to review the replays. When they returned, they upheld Hernandez’s call and told Rosales to stay at second base.

An ensuing argument led to the ejection of A’s manager Bob Melvin, and Major League Baseball weighed in on the controversy Thursday. MLB executive vice president Joe Torre said an “improper call” was made. However, the call and the play will stand. There is no recourse once the game is finalized.

Here is what Torre said in a press release:

“By rule, the decision to reverse a call by use of instant replay is at the sole discretion of the crew chief. In the opinion of Angel Hernandez, who was last night’s crew chief, there was not clear and convincing evidence to overturn the decision on the field. It was a judgment call, and as such, it stands as final.

“Home and away broadcast feeds are available for all uses of instant replay, and they were available to the crew last night. Given what we saw, we recognize that an improper call was made. Perfection is an impossible standard in any endeavor, but our goal is always to get the calls right. Earlier this morning, we began the process of speaking with the crew to thoroughly review all the circumstances surrounding last night’s decision.”

Rosales, who went 1 for 3 in Wednesday’s game, was in the lineup again Thursday, playing shortstop and left field. He went 2 for 3 with a run scored in a 9-2 loss.

During his two summers with the Gems, Rosales played third base and shortstop and struggled offensively. In 2003, he hit .209 and followed that up with a .216 average the next year.

However, he was named the top hitter in the Cincinnati Reds minor leagues in 2007 and made his major league debut in 2008. After seasons in the big leagues with Cincinnati, Rosales was traded to the A’s in February 2010 and has bounced between the major league club and the minors each of the last three seasons.

This season, he is hitting .293 in 12 games.

Quincy native Carissa Frame wound up front and center Wednesday in the Chicago Sun-Times. One of the captains for the Luvabulls — the Chicago Bulls dance team — Frame, pictured below on the right, was featured in a segment about getting Bulls fans to wear red to the home playoff games. A graduate of Quincy High School and Illinois State University, Frame is one of 24 members of the Luvabulls.

Mark May 2 on your calendar.

That day, in Hamilton, the Quincy Notre Dame baseball team takes on West Hancock in a matchup of two of the area’s best teams. Better yet, two of the most complete players could go head-to-head.

Much of that depends on how the Titans’ rotation works and how many rainouts there are between now and then, but the possibility of one of the area’s most pure hitters and one of the most dominant pitchers facing each other exists. If that happens, you hope to see them square off more than once.

QND catcher Dominic Miles, the reigning Herald-Whig Player of the Year and a Quincy University signee, going up against West Hancock right-hander Austin Hardy, who just struck out 18 while tossing a no-hitter, is a dream matchup.

So who would have the edge?

Whoever gets ahead in the count.

As the dominoes keep falling, the more intriguing the job openings become.

So which would you want?

Some of the most high-profile coaching jobs in our area are vacant, and the process to fill those doesn’t appear to be quick. That’s understandable. No school administrator wants to make a hasty move when filling a job that means so much to a community. There’s pressure to uphold tradition at places like Quincy Notre Dame, Monroe City and Clark County.

Winning builds expectations. It also builds desire. That’s why one job is the most desirable of all the ones currently open.

That’s the Illini West football job.

For three decades, the program hasn’t missed a beat. It’s undergone growth and rise from Class 1A to Class 3A. It’s undergone a name change, a consolidation of high schools and a couple coaching changes.

Yet, the Chargers still win. They still make the playoffs. They still contend for conference titles and state championships. Football still matters above all else within that community.

As long as that’s the case, as long as the fourth-, fifth- and sixth-graders remain determined to be the next group to find glory, as long as the community fills the stands on Friday night, none of that will change.

That’s a place I’d want to coach.

Congress has had its say. Now, I want mine.

Congress has determined there are 11 federal holidays, although only 10 are celebrated each year. The 11th is inauguration day, which occurs once every four years when a new President is sworn into office. As for the other 10, government agencies shut down, banks close, schools aren’t in session, no mail is delivered and people take the day off.

Since five of those holidays fall on a Monday, the working looks forward to a three-day weekend.

But what about sports fans? Don’t they deserve a holiday or two where the thrill of victory can be celebrated and the agony of defeat can be washed away on a day without work. If it means taking a Monday off to regroup, relax or recover, it needs to be earned. There are several days where it would be.

I doubt Congress would ever take this matter under advisement, but I’m offering my list of the sports days that deserve to be national holidays. We recently celebrated two of them, and a third hits us at the end of this week.

So in no particular order, here we go with sports fans’ national holidays:

• The first Thursday of the NCAA Tournament

It’s the perfect day to call in sick, and since the productivity rate at most businesses typically drops this day, why not just call everything off. From 11 a.m. until Midnight, college basketball consumes us. Hardly a minute passes where a game isn’t being played. Bunker down in your mancave and do nothing but flip channels, check your bracket and bask in the glory that is March Madness.

• Opening Day

I’m an admitted seamhead. I love baseball. It’s my favorite sport. Always has been, always will be. There is no better day in the entire baseball season than Opening Day. It should start with the traditional lidlifter at noon in Cincinnati and carry on the rest of the day. It’s the one day every team, every player, every fan has hope.

• Sunday at the Masters

The azaleas are in bloom. Amen Corner is bringing golfers to their knees. And the green jacket hangs awaiting a new champion. As important as all the majors are in golf, this is the one with a tradition like no other. You don’t make plans on Sunday of the Masters. You watch golf. You hope to see something dramatic, and you usually do.

• Super Bowl Sunday

You don’t have to be a football fan to enjoy the Super Bowl. The commercials. The parties. The halftime show. There is something for everyone. For football fans, though, this is the pinnacle. The best teams in the best game on a day devoted to a season of hard knocks and harder hits.

• The Daytona 500

Often referred to as the Super Bowl of NASCAR, stock-car racing kicks off its season with its biggest race. I’m not a diehard gearhead, but I appreciate the energy, emotion and passion racing fans put into the sport. That alone is reason enough to turn racing’s biggest day into a holiday.

There are so many other great days, but these are the days that matter the most.

Whether Congress agrees or not, these are the days we need to celebrate.

Although I’ve made the playoffs in my fantasy baseball league in the past, I’ve never had a team that was really a threat to win it all. My teams have always been pitching rich and hitting poor. Even when I’ve tried to rectify that through the draft or in-season trades, I wind up with guys on the DL or players who simply don’t pan out.

So I took a different approach this season when constructing my team. I targeted a couple of key free agents and was willing to pay whatever it would cost me to get them. We use an auction-style draft, so you can bid as high as you want or as high as your budget will allow. This is also a keeper league, where you can keep anywhere from 5 to 15 players. Some of the owners in our league stockpile prospects and plan on keepers. I never have. I keep the minimum of five and rebuild. I think it keeps it lively.

So here’s my team. With my strategy to target a couple of high-priced players — I got Joey Votto and Justin Verlander this way — pay off in the long run? Or will lack of depth at certain positions, as well as injuries, curtail my season?

You decide.

Here is my team …

C — Yadier Molina, Cardinals

C — Tyler Flowers, White Sox

1B — Joey Votto, Reds

2B— Howie Kendrick, Angels

SS — Alcides Escobar, Royals

3B — Pablo Sandoval, Giants

MI — Chase Utley, Phillies

CI — David Freese, Cardinals

OF — Carlos Beltran, Cardinals

OF — Desmond Jennings, Rays

OF — Hunter Pence, Giants

OF — B.J. Upton, Braves

OF — Jayson Werth, Nationals

DH — Mark Teixeira, Yankees

Bench — Chris Carter, 1B, Astros; Andrelton Simmons, SS, Braves; Jackie Bradley, OF, Red Sox; Evan Gattis, C, Braves; Yasiel Puig, OF, Dodgers.

SP — Matt Cain, Giants

SP — Justin Verlander, Tigers

SP — Johnny Cueto, Reds

SP — Matt Harrison, Rangers

SP — Jeremy Hellickson, Rays

SP — Jarrod Parker, Athletics

RP — Craig Kimbrel, Braves

RP — Fernando Rodney, Rays

RP — Jason Motte, Cardinals

Bullpen — Dan Haren, Nationals; Steve Johnson, Orioles

Well, I avoided one of my rules when it comes to filling out an NCAA Tournament bracket. I wrote Kansas on a line. Actually, I did it twice. That was as far as I could take the Jayhawks. And as much as I want to  believe Mizzou can win more than one game, that was as far as I was willing to take the Tigers. We’ll see how it plays out, but if Miami and Shane Larkin march all the way to the title game, it will make for a great story. It will make my bracket look pretty good, too.

Josh Kinney doesn’t know how the injury occurred.

The Seattle Mariners don’t know how exactly to treat it.

And no know is entirely certain when Kinney will be ready to pitch again.

So the former Quincy University standout and current right-handed reliever for the Mariners will wait. Patiently.

“It’s just a freak thing and you get through it,” Kinney told Mariners.org.

Kinney, 34, is suffering from a stress reaction to the ribs on his non-throwing side. He has been bothered by the injury since driving from his home in Springfield, Mo., to spring training in Arizona, but at first figured it was just stiffness from the lengthy drive. The problem was the stiffness and soreness never went away.

Truth be told, it got worse. An MRI revealed the stress reaction, which can lead to a stress fracture if not treated.

So Kinney has been shut down indefinitely. Right now, he won’t throw or be involved in any baseball activities for three weeks.

“I’m just baffled,” Kinney told Mariners.org. “I didn’t fall, I didn’t do anything. I don’t even know how you get one of these, but I have one. It’s odd, but these things happen. That’s what (manager Eric) Wedge said. That’s what the trainers said.”

In the meantime, Kinney is working out with hand weights and doing other exercises to keep his pitching arm strong.

“They told me a few weeks of doing nothing to see how it feels and let it recover,” Kinney said. “That’s another question mark. There’s no real set timetable on how long it takes to go away. I just have to see how it reacts.”

It likely means Kinney will start the season on the 15-day disabled list, which could mean a gaping hole in the Mariners bullpen.

Kinney posted a 3.94 ERA in 35 appearances last year for Seattle with 36 strikeouts in 32 innings. He figured to give them a veteran presence from the right side signing a one-year, $700,000 contract in the offseason.

Now, he wants to live up to that deal.

“I’ll heal up and be back better than ever,” Kinney said.

Jerry Symons walked into Blue Devil Gym ready with a handshake and a smile every time.

He would show up for the annual battle between the Quincy High School and Jacksonville boys basketball teams, set up his radio equipment and be ready to talk basketball. There might be an hour or more before he actually had to go on the air and do the play-by-play broadcast for WLDS out of Jacksonville, but he wanted to talk hoops.

He was interested in how Quincy was playing, who was emerging, who was slumping, who might be an X-factor for the night. Every nugget you gave him, he banked away in his memory for use later in the broadcast.

Symons always had the low down on the Crimsons as well. Any question you had about Jacksonville, he had an answer. He not only did his homework before each game, but he became the source. You knew the information was accurate, usable and unique. He gave you a glimpse into the program because he knew it so well.

It’s what he did for the listeners, too.

He was the trusted voice generations of Jacksonville knew and loved.

My regret, after hearing Symons passed away this week, was I didn’t get to hear him enough.

Covering the Blue Devils the last 15 seasons has meant most of my Friday and Saturday nights are spent in Blue Devil Gym or wherever the team is playing. There are not many opportunities to listen to other broadcasts. That’s a shame in many ways. Had it not been for the occasional night off or the rare instances when Quincy and Jacksonville didn’t play each other in a regional, I might not have heard Symons broadcast a game more than a time or two. As it was, I heard him about a dozen times.

I appreciated his delivery, his knowledge and his candor.

In the business of broadcasting high school basketball games, Jerry Symons was the consummate professional. He went about the job of telling the tale of high school kids playing basketball the right way.

Dave Kane of the Springfield State Journal-Register offered his own perspective on listening to Symons broadcast games and talk shows for so many years. It showed just how widespread Symons’ influence was. To read Kane’s blog post, click here.

Reading Kane’s memories and thoughts reminded me that Jacksonville lost a trusted voice and a beloved friend, but the business lost one of its biggest allies who whole-heartedly believed there was a place for high school sports on the radio. He championed the kids, their efforts and their futures.

That will never be forgotten.