Quirkie Schedule

I have spent the last 48 hours dreaming of how I was going to spend the 640 million dollars which I did not win, so it is back to reality.

It's kind of bad for baseball today but if the weather allows Gryphon baseball plays Clayton at 2pm today in Four Oaks in the South Johnston Baseball tournament.  If this tournament is like most I am sure they want to be finished by Wednesday so if they are rained out today might find a day where they play two.  That would be more likely if they were to lose the first game when ever it is played.

Whenever the tournament is over they Gryphons don't play again until Thursday April 12th and it is at Northern Nash.  Talk about messing up a schedule.  Didn't they just play Thursday night?  My only thought is all this Nash County schools out the week before Easter and Wilson County out the week after, you do the best you can to get all the games in by April 26th trying to mix and match each county school and their Easter schedule.

Today is semi final day in New Orleans.  My pick Kentucky is still alive but I tell you this is a powerhouse of big name college basketball programs.

If all of the pre draft talk shows that they will all be first round draft picks Carolina is going to lose not only the graduating  Zeller but Henson, Barnes and Marshall.  That sounds awful but the corral at Carolina is still full of race horses waiting their turn. This week has been quiet in Raleigh as they wait on C J Leslie's decision. 

Just two years ago Harrison Barnes was heralded as the greatest player since sliced cheese.  He was named preseason All American.  C J Leslie came to Raleigh vowing in his news conference that State was back with him on the team.  Last weekend Barnes was biggest weakness was exposed as he can't dribble and Leslie can't score face to face against  seven foot big men.

I believe in the NBA that one on one basketball the style of the NBA requires dribbling and the NBA is loaded with seven foot 300 pound inside players.  They both need to come back and improve.

It is hard to believe with or without Leslie the Pack may be the preseason favorite next year in the ACC now that the first shift at Carolina is gone.  They just might be a preseason top ten and if they happens they have not been rated that high in the preseason since David Thompson's senior season 1974-75.

Big Day For Gryphon Sports

North Carolina saw this past weekend what an injury can to  a team that expect greatness but an injury pops up and all the expectation go down the drain.  That is what happened to Lady Gryphon soccer last year after an outstanding 2010 year and just about the entire team returning in 11.  Injuries not to just one but several  made Lady Gryphon soccer a year to forget.

Tonight the Lady Gryphons battled Fike at home with the winner in sole occupation of first place  in the Big East as the conference has reached the back stretch in the season's  the halfway point. Tonight Rocky Mount defends the home turf and comes away with a 4-2 victory  over Fike and now stand at 5-0 in the conference while Fike falls to 3-1-1.  More importantly Rocky Mount is on a hot streak and have now run off 12 straight wins  and this years team looks more like what coach Drew Nick thought last year would look like.

A couple of blocks down the street North Nash  made what possibly could be their last visit ever to Gryphon Stadium.  The Gryphons in losing their first four conference games had scored but 7 runs but tonight the Gryphons double that out put and add one more to it as the Gryphons win their first conference game 8-4 over Northern.

You know  there must be something in the air when the leadoff batter in the bottom of the first for the Gryphons Jeremy Johnson  hits a home run to left field to give the Gryphons a 1-0 lead.  Northern responded by getting two hits  and a run in the second.

The Gryphons scored in the third on a walk to Johnson a line drive single by Will Edwards that get underneath the diving center fielder and rolls all the way to the wall to score Johnson.  Edwards scored on a sac fly by Andy Morris.  The Gryphons never trailed from there.

The Gryphons got eight hits on the night but got credit for only five rbi as five Knight errors help a appreciative Gryphons.  Rocky Mount did their part as only two of Northern's four runs were by rbi as  the Gryphons had three errors.

Will Edwards picked up the win going five innings  and he also had three hits and a rbi.  Andy Morris had two rbi on two sacs.  The fourth rbi was the Jeremy Johnson Home Run.  Northern collect six hits but David Williams had an rbi single and a rbi on a force play was credited to Jordan Braswell..

Northern drops to 2-3 and the Gryphons are 1-4 in the Big East

Rocky Mount opens play Saturday 2pm  in the South Johnston tournament against Clayton

Pirates/Pack Settle Nothing

Last night in Raleigh the twice annual meeting between two grads from Northern Nash took place at Doak Field in Raleigh as the Pack beat ECU 4-3 in 11 innings.  Last Tuesday in Greenville the Pirates won 6-5 .  Elliot Avent and Billy Godwin have met for 20 innings this year and have played to a 9-9 tie.  I guess the only way to decide who has the best team  is to meet in a Super Regional in June as both teams seem as if they are capable of advancing in the NCAA playoffs this season.

Tonight ends the first round of Big East baseball as Rocky Mount will host Northern Nash at Gryphon Stadium for the last time. Northern is 2-2 in conference while the Gryphons look for their first of the season.

Wednesday was the first day of Major League baseball and the first game was played in Tokoyo as Seattle beat Oakland 3-1.  I guess Seattle is the official major league baseball team in Japan.

I guess you all understand there will be a day when and NFL team will be in London and baseball will be played in Japan.   You don't think the NFL has been playing all these games for the last four or five years in London are doing it just to make two teams travel there do you?

I can see the day when the Atlanta Braves road trip could be three games in LA, three in San Fransico, three in Tokyo, three in Yokohoma  and they finish it up with three in Seattle.

All the west coast football teams complain now that traveling east is a hardship.  Can you imagine being on the road two weeks in a row with a game in Cleveland and next week in London.  Oh yea they already do that now.  

Baseball Remains In Cellar

Tuesday night in eight innings the Rocky Mount Gryphons continue to leave runners on base and until they get a big hit will remain at the bottom of the Big East standings.  Southern Nash wins 2-1.  Rocky Mount had a chance in the top of the 7th with the bases loaded and only one out with the game tied at 1-1 but failed to score.  Jeremy Johnson went  the entire game on the mound for the Gryphons and comes up the loser.  The Gryphons drop to 0-4 in the Big East.

It looks like his decision to give up basketball to solely devote his senior year to tennis is paying off for Northern Knight's Michael Brackett.  Monday the Knights beat Rocky Mount 8-1 and so far this tennis season they have lost only one match.  That was to a top three team in the State and they only lost to then 5-4.  Looks like a good spring  for tennis at Northern Nash.

Monday  night just might have been the final basketball game for legendary Women's basketball coach Pat Summitt of the University of Tennessee who has coached this entire season in first stages of Dementia.  Summitt who has won more than 1,084 games since she became a graduate assistant at the University of Tennessee in 1974.  The head coach suddenly resigned and the Grad assistant has been the  Tennessee coach  ever since. When asked about her health Pat Summitt's response,  We are not going to hold a pity party for me.


Former Gryphon and Barton College baseball player Collins Cuthrell is knocking the cover off of the  baseball this spring.   Cuthrell is batting 372 with five home runs.  Collins might better be remembered for one of the most controversial plays in Rocky Mount - Northern Nash Football history.  Did he score or didn't he.


The Final play of the final regular season game in 2009.  Rocky Mount has driven the ball to the Northern Nash four yard line down by less than a touchdown. Cuthrell as the Gryphon quarterback rolls right trying to throw on fourth down but finally keeps the ball and is hit at the two yard line and falls forward.  There is not a Knight's fan that was within two miles of the stadium that says he scored but the refs hands signal TOUCHDOWN.