So far this end of the high school year we have seen one coaching change. B W Holt's resignation as football at RMA and Terrell Hudgins being named at his replacement. Since the Holt announcement the rumor mill has been working overtime with this coach going here and this one switching to this school. If any of the rumors are true July one will be the day we find out whether it was gossip or where there was smoke there is fire.
The three players from Nash County playing Legion ball in Wilson has been reduced to two. Derrick Carter pitcher from Northern Nash who was 1-0 for Post 13 who going in to last night's game was 14-1 and winners of Eleven straight games which is the all time Post 13 record. The Legion playoffs start next Tuesday and even without Carter Post 13 seems primed for a deep playoff run. RMA's MJ Jones on the mound is 1-0 and Rocky Mount's Blake Helms leads all Post 13 pitchers at 4-0.
Collins Cuthrell now 14 games into his professional career is is still hitting at a rate of 370. He has 20 hits in 54 at bats. He has one homer. After hitting 25 in college this spring it would really help if Collins could put a few more over the fence. Batting average only will not get him picked up by major league team.
Benton Moss pitching in New York for Hudson Valley in the New York Penn Rookie League has now been to the mound twice. He has pitched 3.1 innings and struck out 4 batters. He has yet to give up a hit or run in in his two appearances .
Hobbs Johnson in AA baseball pitching in Biloxi MS for the Milwaukee Brewers is now 5-4 on the Season having started. 14 games and pitched 67 innings. His ERA is 3.36 with 55 strikeouts and he has allowed 55 hits.
Brian Goodwin is batting 234 at Harrisburg PA in AA ball for the Washington Nationals. Brian is showing signs of getting his bat going. So far he has hit two dingers, three triples, and ten doubles. He has 22 RBI.
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
Monday, June 29, 2015
It Takes Three To Win A Championship
LeBron James put together just maybe the best six games ever played in the NBA finals. When all is said and done he lost another NBA finals. Don't see how anybody can blame him or even suggest he is a loser for being 2-4 in the finals. Just how does any one know when a player has carried his team as far as one player can?
If Cleveland can go six games in the NBA finals with only one star player what could they have done if the two starters they lost to injury had of been healthy? Seems as if LeBron making his move to Miami found the answer to how to win championships in the modern NBA. It takes three to win a title. Cleveland since their trades around Christmas had one of the best records since then.
Golden State fell into a gold mine in this year's playoffs. Not many teams win 60 games in a season so Golden State earned their chance to get the seeding they got to start the playoffs. The one constant for them all year was that they were healthy. Seems everyone they played had somebody on the injured list and that's their good fortune. It also lends credence to the theory it is better to be lucky and good.
It also shows a trend in the NBA that right at this moment long range shooting and defense win games over big men. It begs the question is the NBA a better game without big men dominating? I think it is only a trend because the college game is not producing an abundance of great shooters. They have plenty shooting but I tell you a secret it only counts when you make it.
Steph Curry put Davidson College on the map and he is an exception to the rule. He was a long range bomber in college and his skills have gotten better every year in the NBA. Will Golden State be as lucky next year with their own injuries? Can they stay healthy all year or be healthy when playoffs get rolling? Will they make the big shots when they needed to make them next year?
The Odds say no that somebody else will win it next year. If you look at the past winners just like last year, San Antone when the playoffs this year started they were everyone's pick again this year. Even with three players who can make a difference there is no guarantee that any team will win.
If Cleveland can go six games in the NBA finals with only one star player what could they have done if the two starters they lost to injury had of been healthy? Seems as if LeBron making his move to Miami found the answer to how to win championships in the modern NBA. It takes three to win a title. Cleveland since their trades around Christmas had one of the best records since then.
Golden State fell into a gold mine in this year's playoffs. Not many teams win 60 games in a season so Golden State earned their chance to get the seeding they got to start the playoffs. The one constant for them all year was that they were healthy. Seems everyone they played had somebody on the injured list and that's their good fortune. It also lends credence to the theory it is better to be lucky and good.
It also shows a trend in the NBA that right at this moment long range shooting and defense win games over big men. It begs the question is the NBA a better game without big men dominating? I think it is only a trend because the college game is not producing an abundance of great shooters. They have plenty shooting but I tell you a secret it only counts when you make it.
Steph Curry put Davidson College on the map and he is an exception to the rule. He was a long range bomber in college and his skills have gotten better every year in the NBA. Will Golden State be as lucky next year with their own injuries? Can they stay healthy all year or be healthy when playoffs get rolling? Will they make the big shots when they needed to make them next year?
The Odds say no that somebody else will win it next year. If you look at the past winners just like last year, San Antone when the playoffs this year started they were everyone's pick again this year. Even with three players who can make a difference there is no guarantee that any team will win.
Sunday, June 28, 2015
NBA Draft A Gamble For Most
The NBA has a two round draft where 60 players names are called out. If you are one of the first 30 names you are guaranteed at least a three year million a year contract. The top picks get much more. Thursday night Montrezl Harrell missed the big big money by two names.
Houston called his name as the 32nd pick. A trip to Houston on Friday to be introduced to the Houston media what Harrell gets for all this is a 13,000 dollar contract to play in the summer league. When preseason practices starts if he plays well he will be invited to training camp to try to make the Rockets.
Since April 60 players declared for the draft. If there are only 60 spots that declared got drafted right? Sorry but no foreign player had to declare. 10 that declared never heard their name including Trevor Lacy from NC State. Saturday Lacy signed as a free agent with the Cleveland Cavaliers which will send him to that 13,000 dollar contract just like Montrezl Harrell in the summer league.
Every player that is a second rounder or free agent basically will be interviewing for every team just in case for Harrell the Rockets say no thanks don't come to preseason camp or Lacy Cleveland says no we don't think you fit our system. Other teams that have watched them play could call or basketball in a foreign country is next.
So picked 32nd Harrell will start with $13,000 for the summer with $40 meal money. A far cry of Almost all NBA players. There are 55 NBA players who make at least ten million a year led by Kobe Bryant who had to have extra pockets to haul around his 23.5 million for less than ten games played. A total of 335 players make a million and the lowest paid player who sat on the bench for at least 80 per cent of the games made $379 thousand.
Having watched Montrezl play games at North Edgecombe I think the reason he didn't go in the top 30 was his height. He is listed at 6 feet 8 inches. If he is a power forward in the NBA he will need more weight to push some of those 275 pounds big men around. If he going to make it as a swing forward he needs to improve his jump shot from at least 15-20 feet. It is almost as if he is a tweener not big enough to be a power player and not a jump shooter enough to play outside.
There was only one players named called out during the draft and that was the number one pick. Everyone says there is no doubt he will be a great pro. Everybody else had a part of their game that they had to do better. So there is not much difference in ability from number 2 player to 32.
The difference is the money. If Montrezl wants some of it then his road is Much harder to make it. He is not costing Houston any money so if they drop him they lose only pocket change. Between now and the opening of the NBA season he has to play better than he ever has in his life just to Make it to Houston's preseason camp. If he survives the camp and signs a NBA contact he could sit the bench all year and make 507 thousand a year.
Having watched Montrezl play games at North Edgecombe I think the reason he didn't go in the top 30 was his height. He is listed at 6 feet 8 inches. If he is a power forward in the NBA he will need more weight to push some of those 275 pounds big men around. If he going to make it as a swing forward he needs to improve his jump shot from at least 15-20 feet. It is almost as if he is a tweener not big enough to be a power player and not a jump shooter enough to play outside.
There was only one players named called out during the draft and that was the number one pick. Everyone says there is no doubt he will be a great pro. Everybody else had a part of their game that they had to do better. So there is not much difference in ability from number 2 player to 32.
The difference is the money. If Montrezl wants some of it then his road is Much harder to make it. He is not costing Houston any money so if they drop him they lose only pocket change. Between now and the opening of the NBA season he has to play better than he ever has in his life just to Make it to Houston's preseason camp. If he survives the camp and signs a NBA contact he could sit the bench all year and make 507 thousand a year.
Saturday, June 27, 2015
The Controversy Continues
Now that a couple of 4-A leagues have ban their schools from playing the Private schools there is plenty of talk for an against schools like Cardinal Gibbons. Let's see when and how all of this got to this point.
Way back in the 70's Cardinal Gibbons joined the NCHSAA but after about 20 years they went back to the private school league only to ask to rejoin the NCHSAA again in 2005. The question to beg would be, why would any member that plays only public schools want to let a private school in. I think the answer way back in the 70's and again in 2005 is little bitty old Cardinal Gibbons will be easy pickings for every member of our conference to get a win and it would count as part of your eligible playoff record to qualify.
What has happened Cardinal Gibbons has grown into a huge private school that can beat any other school in North Carolina. Back 30 years ago Ravenscroft was the juggernaut of private schools you didn't see them get invited to join anybody's conference.
I have no problem what so ever as long as their pool of available athletes is no bigger than other teams they play. What is the radius of Green Hope where their pool of students come from. Three miles? It just happens that certain schools are in upper class neighbor hoods and most of their students come from there How many students that go to Gibbons live within a mile of the school?
Cardinal Gibbons says that no athlete outside of a 25 mile radius of Cardinal Gibbons is allowed to play sports. Get out a map and look and see how far 25 miles is as the crow flies and you will see any athlete as far west as Hillsbourgh, east to Knightdale, north almost half way to Hederson and south to almost Lillington. Don't you think they might find enough players from that area to beat up on everybody. Northern Nash who gets students from Battleboro what is it at most seven miles from the school.
Let's put this thing into some perspective. The four public schools in Nash County are pretty much all equal in size as it relates to number of students. Southern Nash is bigger area wise in order to have the same number of students as the rest. Let's say that we are going to allow Southern Nash to have athletes within that 25 mile radius of Stanhope and you will see that Southern Nash could pull in students from all most all of Nash, parts of Edgecombe, Wilson, Johnston and almost all of Wake County. Do you think Northern Nash, Nash Central and Rocky Mount would want to be in the same league with them?
Many years Pitt County had open enrollment go to the school of your choice. North Pitt and D H Conley suffered. Once South Central was created Pitt County went back to the district system But Rose supporters have ever since wanted to go back to open enrollment. Just this week Rose was changed to a Magnet School in order they can have open enrollment while the others must observe their districts.
This thing right now is based on the three parochial schools but this is sooner or later going to include Charter and Prep schools who also have no athletic boundaries. Here is another factor effecting public schools. If you are a football school and we will Say Hunt High in Wilson. I would bet if you looked at the money spent on all sports for every sport at Hunt over the last five years 50 percent comes from three and four football playoff games every year. How would you like to have to face Cardinal Gibbons in the opening round and lose, there goes your athletic budget for this year.
Why has the NCHSAA gone with Eight football playoffs champions for several years? MONEY! Why does it take as many as ten baseball playoff games to win the baseball title? MONEY! What money has done has caused many teams to qualify for playoffs that are not deserving. If they thought they could make money off it they would take the worse 16 teams in each division and play a loser advances bracket and play to see who is the worse team. Right now there is no money in that. What the Cardinal Gibbons of the world are doing to the public schools strapped for athletic funds is taking away their money when in the public school eye Cardinal Gibbons is rolling in it.
Way back in the 70's Cardinal Gibbons joined the NCHSAA but after about 20 years they went back to the private school league only to ask to rejoin the NCHSAA again in 2005. The question to beg would be, why would any member that plays only public schools want to let a private school in. I think the answer way back in the 70's and again in 2005 is little bitty old Cardinal Gibbons will be easy pickings for every member of our conference to get a win and it would count as part of your eligible playoff record to qualify.
What has happened Cardinal Gibbons has grown into a huge private school that can beat any other school in North Carolina. Back 30 years ago Ravenscroft was the juggernaut of private schools you didn't see them get invited to join anybody's conference.
I have no problem what so ever as long as their pool of available athletes is no bigger than other teams they play. What is the radius of Green Hope where their pool of students come from. Three miles? It just happens that certain schools are in upper class neighbor hoods and most of their students come from there How many students that go to Gibbons live within a mile of the school?
Cardinal Gibbons says that no athlete outside of a 25 mile radius of Cardinal Gibbons is allowed to play sports. Get out a map and look and see how far 25 miles is as the crow flies and you will see any athlete as far west as Hillsbourgh, east to Knightdale, north almost half way to Hederson and south to almost Lillington. Don't you think they might find enough players from that area to beat up on everybody. Northern Nash who gets students from Battleboro what is it at most seven miles from the school.
Let's put this thing into some perspective. The four public schools in Nash County are pretty much all equal in size as it relates to number of students. Southern Nash is bigger area wise in order to have the same number of students as the rest. Let's say that we are going to allow Southern Nash to have athletes within that 25 mile radius of Stanhope and you will see that Southern Nash could pull in students from all most all of Nash, parts of Edgecombe, Wilson, Johnston and almost all of Wake County. Do you think Northern Nash, Nash Central and Rocky Mount would want to be in the same league with them?
Many years Pitt County had open enrollment go to the school of your choice. North Pitt and D H Conley suffered. Once South Central was created Pitt County went back to the district system But Rose supporters have ever since wanted to go back to open enrollment. Just this week Rose was changed to a Magnet School in order they can have open enrollment while the others must observe their districts.
This thing right now is based on the three parochial schools but this is sooner or later going to include Charter and Prep schools who also have no athletic boundaries. Here is another factor effecting public schools. If you are a football school and we will Say Hunt High in Wilson. I would bet if you looked at the money spent on all sports for every sport at Hunt over the last five years 50 percent comes from three and four football playoff games every year. How would you like to have to face Cardinal Gibbons in the opening round and lose, there goes your athletic budget for this year.
Why has the NCHSAA gone with Eight football playoffs champions for several years? MONEY! Why does it take as many as ten baseball playoff games to win the baseball title? MONEY! What money has done has caused many teams to qualify for playoffs that are not deserving. If they thought they could make money off it they would take the worse 16 teams in each division and play a loser advances bracket and play to see who is the worse team. Right now there is no money in that. What the Cardinal Gibbons of the world are doing to the public schools strapped for athletic funds is taking away their money when in the public school eye Cardinal Gibbons is rolling in it.
Thursday, June 25, 2015
Disappointing Night For Montrezl Harrell
Scuttle Butt had Montrezl Harrell going in the first round of the NBA somewhere between the 22nd and 28th pick. If you are a first rounder you are guaranteed a contract and big time money. Eleven PM came and Harrell never got on stage. If you do make the first round say in that 25th pick area that means you are heading to a playoff quality team.
The early thirties normally are reserved by the bottom feeders but the Houston Rockets the 32nd picked called out Montrezl Harrell. So now Montrezl is a pro basketball player.
Harrell spent three years as big man on campus at North Edgecombe High School but chose to finish out his high school career at Hargrave Military Academy where in his senior season Hargrave lost once in 39 games.
Harrell chose to attend Virginia Tech and committed before his high school senior year ended. Shortly after the end of the college basketball season Tech fired Their coach Seth Greenberg and Harrell asked for and was granted his release of his committment to Virginia Tech. Now open to more recruitment Harrell chose Louisville and head coach Rick Pitino.
A backup big man his freshman year Harrell was part of the 2013 Louisville National Championship team. He gave up his college eligibility in April that he would declare for the NBA and his three years in Louisville brought an 11.9 scoring average, 6.9 rebounds and .9 assist per game. Once he signs his contract he will give the Twin Counties a Tri-vector of professional sports athletes.
Three play professional football Julius Peppers from Southern Nash who is a defensive end for the Chicago Bears. Shaun Draughn who has resigned with the Cleveland Browns and is a special team player. Todd Gurley Who was the top draft pick of the St Louis Rams who today declared he would be ready when the Rams begin training camp in late July. Gurley was picked first by the Rams despite having knee surgery in November while playing at Georgia. Both Draughn and Gurley graduated from Tarboro.
Baseball is covered by four Rocky Mount Gryphons who are all climbing the ladder in the minor leagues. Brian Goodwin who has been as high as AAA Syracuse but due to injuries in on the recovery trail at Harrisburg Pa the AA home for the Washington Nationals. Brian is rated as the Nationals 14th best prospect.
Hobbs Johnson moved up to AA ball for the Milwaukee Brewers just this spring. He is rated as a top 30 prospect for the Brewers.
Just this week Benton Moss pitched in his first professional game for the Hudson Valley Renegades of the New York Penn short season league. He was the sixth pick this month of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Collins Cuthrell is finishing up his second week as a professional baseball player. His summer is being spent in Florence Kentucky a suburb of Cincinnati where is is playing in an independent league hoping that his stats will impress a major league team to sign him.
Right now he is on the outside looking in but Nash Central grad Xavier Macklin cut earlier this spring by Florence Ky is checking out any other possible baseball moves. To say the least the Twin Counties with a population between the two counties of 150,000 gives you a one in 18,000 are professional athletes. I think that stacks pretty high with any place in the country.
The early thirties normally are reserved by the bottom feeders but the Houston Rockets the 32nd picked called out Montrezl Harrell. So now Montrezl is a pro basketball player.
Harrell spent three years as big man on campus at North Edgecombe High School but chose to finish out his high school career at Hargrave Military Academy where in his senior season Hargrave lost once in 39 games.
Harrell chose to attend Virginia Tech and committed before his high school senior year ended. Shortly after the end of the college basketball season Tech fired Their coach Seth Greenberg and Harrell asked for and was granted his release of his committment to Virginia Tech. Now open to more recruitment Harrell chose Louisville and head coach Rick Pitino.
A backup big man his freshman year Harrell was part of the 2013 Louisville National Championship team. He gave up his college eligibility in April that he would declare for the NBA and his three years in Louisville brought an 11.9 scoring average, 6.9 rebounds and .9 assist per game. Once he signs his contract he will give the Twin Counties a Tri-vector of professional sports athletes.
Three play professional football Julius Peppers from Southern Nash who is a defensive end for the Chicago Bears. Shaun Draughn who has resigned with the Cleveland Browns and is a special team player. Todd Gurley Who was the top draft pick of the St Louis Rams who today declared he would be ready when the Rams begin training camp in late July. Gurley was picked first by the Rams despite having knee surgery in November while playing at Georgia. Both Draughn and Gurley graduated from Tarboro.
Baseball is covered by four Rocky Mount Gryphons who are all climbing the ladder in the minor leagues. Brian Goodwin who has been as high as AAA Syracuse but due to injuries in on the recovery trail at Harrisburg Pa the AA home for the Washington Nationals. Brian is rated as the Nationals 14th best prospect.
Hobbs Johnson moved up to AA ball for the Milwaukee Brewers just this spring. He is rated as a top 30 prospect for the Brewers.
Just this week Benton Moss pitched in his first professional game for the Hudson Valley Renegades of the New York Penn short season league. He was the sixth pick this month of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Collins Cuthrell is finishing up his second week as a professional baseball player. His summer is being spent in Florence Kentucky a suburb of Cincinnati where is is playing in an independent league hoping that his stats will impress a major league team to sign him.
Right now he is on the outside looking in but Nash Central grad Xavier Macklin cut earlier this spring by Florence Ky is checking out any other possible baseball moves. To say the least the Twin Counties with a population between the two counties of 150,000 gives you a one in 18,000 are professional athletes. I think that stacks pretty high with any place in the country.
Wednesday, June 24, 2015
ACC ACC ACC
Yes Chicago Cubs fans there is hope. There is a chance that one day the Cubs will be more than the team who doesn't have a fan living that saw their last title they are all dead. Wednesday night and early Thursday morning the team with the worse record ever to win the College World Series the Virginia Cavaliers 44-24 a member of the ACC beat the defending National Champions Vanderbilt 4-2!
1955 national baseball power Wake Forest won the title. Since that time almost 30 teams wearing the ACC Moniker on their sleeve have played in Omaha and everyone of them were better than this year's Virginia team but Yahoo for the Wahoos. They removed the monkey from the ACC's back. I would suspect this is the opening of the door for the ACC much like when Duke finally won their first basketball title. They will now come in bunches for the ACC.
Both games Tuesday and Wednesday were hard to watch as both took near four hours to complete. Too many batters staring at their bats in the batters box. The Virginia catcher stared into his dugout looking for the pitch call more than he watched his pitcher. The pace was mighty slow. However there was enough spectacular defense to keep you awake by both sides. If it wasn't for the defense the Championship game may have taken five hours. Regardless of how tire I am it's worth it to see the ACC win it all. How good of a year was this for the ACC? Third in football first in basketball and first in baseball.
Virginia went 15-15 during conference play and at one time was 10-14. Won their play in game and then lost three straight games in bracket play in Durham. Went west and maybe the weakest regional in the entire tournament and played as a three seed. Saw two major top eight teams in their bracket lose and hosted the Super Regional after Maryland who was an upset winner in their bracket never made a bid during the season to host a Super Regional. Omaha saw the Whoos beat the top seed Florida twice and then knocked off the defending champs twice after being down by losing the first game of championship series.
Virginia was a patsy in baseball until coach Brian Conner arrived. Conner play his college ball in Omaha for Creighton and pitched in the World Series in 1991. His home town of Council Bluffs Iowa is just across the state line from Omaha. Some times the stars just line up right.
Virginia is a prime example of when coaches tell players never give up. They got many breaks along the way. Today They have come from the dead to be National a Champions.
1955 national baseball power Wake Forest won the title. Since that time almost 30 teams wearing the ACC Moniker on their sleeve have played in Omaha and everyone of them were better than this year's Virginia team but Yahoo for the Wahoos. They removed the monkey from the ACC's back. I would suspect this is the opening of the door for the ACC much like when Duke finally won their first basketball title. They will now come in bunches for the ACC.
Both games Tuesday and Wednesday were hard to watch as both took near four hours to complete. Too many batters staring at their bats in the batters box. The Virginia catcher stared into his dugout looking for the pitch call more than he watched his pitcher. The pace was mighty slow. However there was enough spectacular defense to keep you awake by both sides. If it wasn't for the defense the Championship game may have taken five hours. Regardless of how tire I am it's worth it to see the ACC win it all. How good of a year was this for the ACC? Third in football first in basketball and first in baseball.
Virginia went 15-15 during conference play and at one time was 10-14. Won their play in game and then lost three straight games in bracket play in Durham. Went west and maybe the weakest regional in the entire tournament and played as a three seed. Saw two major top eight teams in their bracket lose and hosted the Super Regional after Maryland who was an upset winner in their bracket never made a bid during the season to host a Super Regional. Omaha saw the Whoos beat the top seed Florida twice and then knocked off the defending champs twice after being down by losing the first game of championship series.
Virginia was a patsy in baseball until coach Brian Conner arrived. Conner play his college ball in Omaha for Creighton and pitched in the World Series in 1991. His home town of Council Bluffs Iowa is just across the state line from Omaha. Some times the stars just line up right.
Virginia is a prime example of when coaches tell players never give up. They got many breaks along the way. Today They have come from the dead to be National a Champions.
Moss Sees First Action
Benton Moss just newly signed minor league player for the Tampa Bay Rays went to the hill for the first time Monday night for his summer team the Hudson Valley Renegades. He threw his first professional pitch out of the bullpen in the sixth inning of game four on the season. One inning he walked one and struck out one batter.
Hudson Valley is a team in the New York Penn League and the season just started last Friday. Playing their home opener after starting with three wins on the road Moss took over in the sixth inning with his team ahead 1-0. The next pitchers after Benton gave up six runs in their first loss.
Collins Cuthrell now more than a week into his professional baseball career playing for the Florence Ky Freedom is hitting 387 in his first eight games. He has 12 hits in 31 at bats and a 387 average would be leading the league in hitting if he had enough at bats to qualify. A player in the Frontier League needs to bat 2.7 times per game to have enough bats. They have already played 32 games this season so Collins would need to have batted almost 80 times. He has hit a homer and driven in five RBI so far in his young professional career.
Brian Goodwin is on the upswing playing for the Harrisburg Pa Senators. His low point this season his batting average had dipped to 206 but a hot streak his average is up to 240. He has hit two home runs and with his speed now has three triples and nine doubles.
Brian started the season in AA coming off shoulder surgery which derailed his season in AAA Syracuse in July last year. He is listed as the 13th top prospect in theWashington National organization. If this hot streak continues Brian just might be heading back to Syracuse shortly.
Brian has a new teammate in Harrisburg in the name of Trea Turner former number one draft pick of the San Diego Padres who was acquired by Washington June 15th. Sine he has been in Harrisburg he has played short stop and is hitting 313.
Finally Hobbs Johnson is now 4-4 pitching in Buloxi Ms. His era is up to 3.68 and his sixty innings pitched he has walked 25 which is a high number for Hobbs. All during his high school days at Rocky Mount and college at Carolina his walks per nine inning were under three. Right now he is near five per nine innings and those extra men on base is keeping him at a five hundred pitcher.
Former Carolina pitcher Matt Harvey us making a nice comeback after having missed all of the 2014 season for the New York Mets after Tommy John surgery. Harvey is 8-5 with an ERA of 3.18. Harvey who has been known to toss the ball to the plate some times at 100 miles and hour has hit 100 since his co back.
Hudson Valley is a team in the New York Penn League and the season just started last Friday. Playing their home opener after starting with three wins on the road Moss took over in the sixth inning with his team ahead 1-0. The next pitchers after Benton gave up six runs in their first loss.
Collins Cuthrell now more than a week into his professional baseball career playing for the Florence Ky Freedom is hitting 387 in his first eight games. He has 12 hits in 31 at bats and a 387 average would be leading the league in hitting if he had enough at bats to qualify. A player in the Frontier League needs to bat 2.7 times per game to have enough bats. They have already played 32 games this season so Collins would need to have batted almost 80 times. He has hit a homer and driven in five RBI so far in his young professional career.
Brian Goodwin is on the upswing playing for the Harrisburg Pa Senators. His low point this season his batting average had dipped to 206 but a hot streak his average is up to 240. He has hit two home runs and with his speed now has three triples and nine doubles.
Brian started the season in AA coming off shoulder surgery which derailed his season in AAA Syracuse in July last year. He is listed as the 13th top prospect in theWashington National organization. If this hot streak continues Brian just might be heading back to Syracuse shortly.
Brian has a new teammate in Harrisburg in the name of Trea Turner former number one draft pick of the San Diego Padres who was acquired by Washington June 15th. Sine he has been in Harrisburg he has played short stop and is hitting 313.
Finally Hobbs Johnson is now 4-4 pitching in Buloxi Ms. His era is up to 3.68 and his sixty innings pitched he has walked 25 which is a high number for Hobbs. All during his high school days at Rocky Mount and college at Carolina his walks per nine inning were under three. Right now he is near five per nine innings and those extra men on base is keeping him at a five hundred pitcher.
Former Carolina pitcher Matt Harvey us making a nice comeback after having missed all of the 2014 season for the New York Mets after Tommy John surgery. Harvey is 8-5 with an ERA of 3.18. Harvey who has been known to toss the ball to the plate some times at 100 miles and hour has hit 100 since his co back.
Tuesday, June 23, 2015
Post 13 Best Start Ever
Wilson Post 13 (11-1) is off to the best start ever in the history of Wilson Legion baseball. Much of the success so far can be laid on the hands of three players who might not be there if Rocky Mount Post 58 was fielding a team.
Rocky Mount Gryphon Blake Helms so far is 3-0 pitching while Rocky Mount Academy's MJ Jones is 1-0 as well Northern Nash pitcher Derrick Carter. These three have won five of the 11 games that Post 13 has won so far this season.
Twenty four hours after the U.S. Open In which maybe the last fifteen minutes had more leader changes than ever had 11.5 million watching which was 40 per cent more than last year's open so I think Golf has moved on from Tiger being the only reason to watch golf. Sunday night was the second most watched Fox sporting event ever only behind Super Bowl coverage.
All of the innovations Fox promised very few made and impact on the coverage. They loved using that animation of the greens so you could see all the undulation but when ever they used it it covered up the trek of the ball. They had bragged that they were going to used more cameras get more angles than ever before yet did not have a camera to see the face of Jordan Speith when Dustin Johnson missed the putt to tie. When they finally got a camera over to him he was obviously stunned having won instead of a playoff on Monday.
Can the ACC break their sixty year drought since they last won the College World Series? Virginia for the second year in a row is playing Vanderbilt for the title. Virginia just two weeks before the ACC regular season ended had not even qualified for the ACC tournament. Virginia in the World Series so far has beaten the top seeded team in the whole tournament Florida twice and now must beat Vandy twice in order to break the ACC drought. Vandy won the first of the two out of three 5-1 last night. Virginia will need to win tonight and Wednesday to give the ACC it's second title.
The U S women advanced in the World Cup beating Columbia 2-0. Last night watched maybe twenty minutes of the soccer. I have noticed from high school age on up no fat people play soccer which might be a good thing if we all got more exercise. I looked up just to see the price for a ticket and the highest price was 80 dollars. I looked up to see how many fans could sit in Edmonton Stadium and it holds about Sixty thousand. I don't think there was more than 25,000 in the stadium. The U.S. Plays China in the quarter finals next.
Rocky Mount Gryphon Blake Helms so far is 3-0 pitching while Rocky Mount Academy's MJ Jones is 1-0 as well Northern Nash pitcher Derrick Carter. These three have won five of the 11 games that Post 13 has won so far this season.
Twenty four hours after the U.S. Open In which maybe the last fifteen minutes had more leader changes than ever had 11.5 million watching which was 40 per cent more than last year's open so I think Golf has moved on from Tiger being the only reason to watch golf. Sunday night was the second most watched Fox sporting event ever only behind Super Bowl coverage.
All of the innovations Fox promised very few made and impact on the coverage. They loved using that animation of the greens so you could see all the undulation but when ever they used it it covered up the trek of the ball. They had bragged that they were going to used more cameras get more angles than ever before yet did not have a camera to see the face of Jordan Speith when Dustin Johnson missed the putt to tie. When they finally got a camera over to him he was obviously stunned having won instead of a playoff on Monday.
Can the ACC break their sixty year drought since they last won the College World Series? Virginia for the second year in a row is playing Vanderbilt for the title. Virginia just two weeks before the ACC regular season ended had not even qualified for the ACC tournament. Virginia in the World Series so far has beaten the top seeded team in the whole tournament Florida twice and now must beat Vandy twice in order to break the ACC drought. Vandy won the first of the two out of three 5-1 last night. Virginia will need to win tonight and Wednesday to give the ACC it's second title.
The U S women advanced in the World Cup beating Columbia 2-0. Last night watched maybe twenty minutes of the soccer. I have noticed from high school age on up no fat people play soccer which might be a good thing if we all got more exercise. I looked up just to see the price for a ticket and the highest price was 80 dollars. I looked up to see how many fans could sit in Edmonton Stadium and it holds about Sixty thousand. I don't think there was more than 25,000 in the stadium. The U.S. Plays China in the quarter finals next.
Sunday, June 21, 2015
Chambers Bay Hard On Rookie TV Network
There was plenty of complaining about the condition of the golf course and especially the greens. If the course was that bad why did the winner beat under par? Anybody realize three of the last five
U.S. Opens the winner had matched par or one over to win. Rory shot 16 under and last year 9 under at Pinehurst were the only under par scores. More than half of the scores in the history of the tournament have been over par. Since 1970 when golf courses have become manicured the scores have been under par more.
So the golf was good I wish I had of been able to have seen the results of many of the shots or putts. Fox loved to show long range shots of drives where they used a tracer so you could follow the ball. What they needed to do was use the tracer on putts. The greens were so brown the ball was lost many times blending into the greens or should I say browns. Once Fox would zoom the camera in to follow the ball we could see it other wise missed most putts.
I have HD TV but that wasn't much good either. The blonde interviewer who stood in front of a monitor and tried to interview certain players. Where did they get her from. Friday after Jason Day had collapsed her interview question to Jordan Speith was where is your head now after Day's spell. What kind of question is that to ask the leader of the tournament?
The blimp shots made the course look like a sand pit that was no longer used and had grass growing is spots. I thought the course was really unfair when you drive the ball almost in the left rough but before it gets through rolling it has plunked in the right rough.
If we had a hard time following the ball how do you think the cameramen felt? There were way too many shots where the camera had no idea where the ball was and several times announcers were describing shots and the camera shot on TV was of something else. Despite all the bad things getting to watch the U.S. Open four nights in a row til after 10:30 is hard to beat.
He didn't win but Jason Day just might have won a million fans for his effort. I had major knee surgery in 1974. It took me ten years before I had enough confidence not to watch every step I took because one little pebble if I stepped on it wrong would flip my knee out and I would be flat on my face. I know Day's every movement he had to be thinking am I going down again? All think in the middle of the U.S. Open.
What more could any golf fan ask for? The winner Jordan Speith made a birdie on the last hole to take the lead and had to watch Dustin Johnson missed a ten footer to win. Then missed again. We will always remember Johnson's three putt for bogey but he made par and lost. This tournament truly is the sign there is a new king of golf. Tiger has his worse tournament ever and Speith becomes only the sixth player ever to win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year. The only problem I see is there will be no golf Monday night.
U.S. Opens the winner had matched par or one over to win. Rory shot 16 under and last year 9 under at Pinehurst were the only under par scores. More than half of the scores in the history of the tournament have been over par. Since 1970 when golf courses have become manicured the scores have been under par more.
So the golf was good I wish I had of been able to have seen the results of many of the shots or putts. Fox loved to show long range shots of drives where they used a tracer so you could follow the ball. What they needed to do was use the tracer on putts. The greens were so brown the ball was lost many times blending into the greens or should I say browns. Once Fox would zoom the camera in to follow the ball we could see it other wise missed most putts.
I have HD TV but that wasn't much good either. The blonde interviewer who stood in front of a monitor and tried to interview certain players. Where did they get her from. Friday after Jason Day had collapsed her interview question to Jordan Speith was where is your head now after Day's spell. What kind of question is that to ask the leader of the tournament?
The blimp shots made the course look like a sand pit that was no longer used and had grass growing is spots. I thought the course was really unfair when you drive the ball almost in the left rough but before it gets through rolling it has plunked in the right rough.
If we had a hard time following the ball how do you think the cameramen felt? There were way too many shots where the camera had no idea where the ball was and several times announcers were describing shots and the camera shot on TV was of something else. Despite all the bad things getting to watch the U.S. Open four nights in a row til after 10:30 is hard to beat.
He didn't win but Jason Day just might have won a million fans for his effort. I had major knee surgery in 1974. It took me ten years before I had enough confidence not to watch every step I took because one little pebble if I stepped on it wrong would flip my knee out and I would be flat on my face. I know Day's every movement he had to be thinking am I going down again? All think in the middle of the U.S. Open.
What more could any golf fan ask for? The winner Jordan Speith made a birdie on the last hole to take the lead and had to watch Dustin Johnson missed a ten footer to win. Then missed again. We will always remember Johnson's three putt for bogey but he made par and lost. This tournament truly is the sign there is a new king of golf. Tiger has his worse tournament ever and Speith becomes only the sixth player ever to win the Masters and U.S. Open in the same year. The only problem I see is there will be no golf Monday night.
Wilson County Schools Strong In Wells Fargo Cup
It case you didn't notice it this year the two Big East schools from Wilson County dominated this year's Big East standings in the Wells Fargo Cup. Each sport played by every team is listed with six points for the team winning first right down to one point for finishing last in the league. When you add all the points up Fike wins the Big East conference Wells Fargo Cup accumulating 181 points. Baseball was one first place finish for Fike. Hunt finished second with 176.5 points. Rocky Mount won both boys and girls track and with that effort finished third with 171. Northern Nash finishes fourth with 161.5 while Southern Nash has 148.5. Nash Central who started the year not winning a football game never got out of last with 125.5.
I find it rather funny that coaches have been going to football clinics learning how to teach heads up tackling. Back in my playing days they had a penalty called spearing if you led with your helmet. We were taught that the only safe way to tackle was with your head straight up. We were told you could not get a neck injury if you tackled that way.
The formula was make contact with the ball carrier with your head up into his number. Grasp your arms around him and then drive with your feet. It makes sense that if you lower your head you could have your neck driven back down your spine causing neck and spine injuries. Never heard of neck and spinal injuries during the days I was growing up wanting to play ball. Finally When it was my time never saw one either. I was run over a few times but never had to worry about the spinal cord area.
If you think football drives the bus in college athletics. There are more than 400 members of the North Carolina Athletic Association and 67 of it's member will have a new football coach by the time August football practices start. Yes, some coaches retired others move to a different school and some lost their job from lack of wins or pressure from not being successful. If that figure occurs every year every school would have a new coach every seven years.
Since this is a one man operation it is very hard to be in the right place at the right time on any scoop that may occur. I get Many text, calls, e-mails, and people walking up to me and say have you heard this. I want to thank any of you who steer me into directions to find information that appears on this blog. Sometimes that info needs further investigation and there are times I know the lead is dead on accurate.
If you watch any of the so called major networks sports reporters have their sources in which they rely on when they either go on the air with a report or write it down. I guess in my small way I have a system of informants just like them. We have in this area many athletes who do well in sports that nobody hears about until a source passes information on. Why would they do that? They want to see people get credit when credit is due. I know lots of information about things that will be happening but I have swore to keep secret until the proper time. Thank you all the people who pass on to me your trust to give me what you know. We have lots of things in this area worth everyone knowing about.
I find it rather funny that coaches have been going to football clinics learning how to teach heads up tackling. Back in my playing days they had a penalty called spearing if you led with your helmet. We were taught that the only safe way to tackle was with your head straight up. We were told you could not get a neck injury if you tackled that way.
The formula was make contact with the ball carrier with your head up into his number. Grasp your arms around him and then drive with your feet. It makes sense that if you lower your head you could have your neck driven back down your spine causing neck and spine injuries. Never heard of neck and spinal injuries during the days I was growing up wanting to play ball. Finally When it was my time never saw one either. I was run over a few times but never had to worry about the spinal cord area.
If you think football drives the bus in college athletics. There are more than 400 members of the North Carolina Athletic Association and 67 of it's member will have a new football coach by the time August football practices start. Yes, some coaches retired others move to a different school and some lost their job from lack of wins or pressure from not being successful. If that figure occurs every year every school would have a new coach every seven years.
Since this is a one man operation it is very hard to be in the right place at the right time on any scoop that may occur. I get Many text, calls, e-mails, and people walking up to me and say have you heard this. I want to thank any of you who steer me into directions to find information that appears on this blog. Sometimes that info needs further investigation and there are times I know the lead is dead on accurate.
If you watch any of the so called major networks sports reporters have their sources in which they rely on when they either go on the air with a report or write it down. I guess in my small way I have a system of informants just like them. We have in this area many athletes who do well in sports that nobody hears about until a source passes information on. Why would they do that? They want to see people get credit when credit is due. I know lots of information about things that will be happening but I have swore to keep secret until the proper time. Thank you all the people who pass on to me your trust to give me what you know. We have lots of things in this area worth everyone knowing about.
Saturday, June 20, 2015
Tarboro Starts Hall Of Fame
Tarboro High school has started a Hall Of Fame to recognize outstanding sports accomplishments. It has coaches players and even a team made the Hall Of Fame.
The 1970 football team which was the first team under the combined school of Tarboro and Patillo High Schools. Playing on the Ahoskie High team in 1970 I remember Tarboro won their conference championship as the first team in the new consolidated high school.
Two coaching legends Doug Alexander and Jim Brett in football along with football players Kelvin Bryant who excelled at Carolina and for the Washington Redskins. Donald Franks who played at Winston Salem St. and six years as a cornerback for Oakland and San Diego mostly.
Mike Caldwell baseball pitcher who excelled in Legion baseball, at N C State and pitch for 18 years in the American League.
This century Marquetta Dickins took Tarboro high deep into the state basketball playoffs then spent four years playing for Kay Yow and only needed 11 more points to score a 1,000 in her Wolfpack career. She spent a few season playing basketball in Europe but now is assistant basketball coach at Monmouth College in New Jersey.
Volley Ball has a representative in Casey Collins. Carter Ray Suggs and Wanda Phillips who were outstanding in track. Gus Andrews who starred in three sports. Wrestler Michael Stokes, Artis Bryant who excelled in football at Patillo High. Jontae Sherrod from men's basketball this century made the Tarboro Hall of Fame.
You know Tarboro is one of the last of the old towns where on Friday night it is all about Tarboro football. Even a Tarboro High supporter made the Hall. Milton Steele "Coca Cola" Brown for his support of Tarboro High athletics.
Tarboro has been able to stay a small town where everyone knows everyone. Those places are few and far between these days. It is those small towns that have held on to local traditions because in Tarboro everything revolves around Tarboro High. Don't care how big any town is Tarboro's Hall Of Fame is as good as anybody else who has one.
The 1970 football team which was the first team under the combined school of Tarboro and Patillo High Schools. Playing on the Ahoskie High team in 1970 I remember Tarboro won their conference championship as the first team in the new consolidated high school.
Two coaching legends Doug Alexander and Jim Brett in football along with football players Kelvin Bryant who excelled at Carolina and for the Washington Redskins. Donald Franks who played at Winston Salem St. and six years as a cornerback for Oakland and San Diego mostly.
Mike Caldwell baseball pitcher who excelled in Legion baseball, at N C State and pitch for 18 years in the American League.
This century Marquetta Dickins took Tarboro high deep into the state basketball playoffs then spent four years playing for Kay Yow and only needed 11 more points to score a 1,000 in her Wolfpack career. She spent a few season playing basketball in Europe but now is assistant basketball coach at Monmouth College in New Jersey.
Volley Ball has a representative in Casey Collins. Carter Ray Suggs and Wanda Phillips who were outstanding in track. Gus Andrews who starred in three sports. Wrestler Michael Stokes, Artis Bryant who excelled in football at Patillo High. Jontae Sherrod from men's basketball this century made the Tarboro Hall of Fame.
You know Tarboro is one of the last of the old towns where on Friday night it is all about Tarboro football. Even a Tarboro High supporter made the Hall. Milton Steele "Coca Cola" Brown for his support of Tarboro High athletics.
Tarboro has been able to stay a small town where everyone knows everyone. Those places are few and far between these days. It is those small towns that have held on to local traditions because in Tarboro everything revolves around Tarboro High. Don't care how big any town is Tarboro's Hall Of Fame is as good as anybody else who has one.
Friday, June 19, 2015
Fox Promises A New Era In TV Golf Coverage
Got home from work last night ready to sit back in my recliner and watch this new network Fox Sports do big time golf for the first time. Getting off track on this story you know if you are any league college, pro or as low as it goes in amateur sports and in some cases pro sports any time there is a new sports network lookout here comes high dollar money to get something on the screen for their viewers to watch. So in order to get a quality event Fox gave the USGA gobs of money to steal the major U.S. Championships away from NBC.
All of the leadup promo's told us that their coverage was going to be golf as you have never seen it. If you remember way back when USFL football came out and I don't even remember what network even did it but they brought out the camera on the wire running all the way across the field. Every network now uses that camera so even though the league folded some of the TV coverage stuck around.
Quite frankly I didn't see any camera coverage not already in other TV coverage. I heard they were going to use drones with cameras. I thought we would see a tee shot and the drone would follow along with the ball until it landed. Just viewing of a round of golf Fox didn't give me anything new. In fact maybe less. All you saw on the screen as players were proceeding in their rounds were the scores of the top five. This is the first round of a major and 70 other golfers were on the course and unless they made triple or almost knocked one in you never saw what everyone's score was. Please I want to know what my favorite player's score is as they travel the course if you are not going to show any of them.
I think their lineup of announcers for the most part was excellent. Joe Buck could do Poker coverage from a telephone booth. The Shark and Tom Weiskopf are old time color announcers and you wonder where they have been. When you put eleven hours on the air the second wave of announcers were unknowns and it is hard to trust somebody you never heard before.
I thought the course looked like the British Open. Brown fairways and even sometime greens. This is of course the U.S. Open and if they put down holes in a cow pasture and these guys are suppose to be good let's play golf. It was hard to even think this was a golf course without trees. The course resembled any home development where strips are homes are built in a row all looking alike just painted different colors without trees. Please give me some shade.
All the hype Fox gave in the buildup of the coverage they were going to give us I have to give them a D. Nothing much to Bragg about. I know Tiger has been a great ratings in his heyday. Watching every shot that Tiger made was like watching an injured animal not yet dead struggling for life. I kind of felt sorry for Tiger every bunker, every missed putt. The fall of Tiger Woods is official. We all saw it on prime time TV. Fox gave us every bad shot he hit as if they thought the ratings would sky rocket. It's time to forget Tiger. His greatness is over. The good news for Tiger he plays early today maybe by the time The TV lights come on Tiger will be on a jet heading to Florida. Then we will see whether Fox can cover golf. They didn't show me much Thursday.
All of the leadup promo's told us that their coverage was going to be golf as you have never seen it. If you remember way back when USFL football came out and I don't even remember what network even did it but they brought out the camera on the wire running all the way across the field. Every network now uses that camera so even though the league folded some of the TV coverage stuck around.
Quite frankly I didn't see any camera coverage not already in other TV coverage. I heard they were going to use drones with cameras. I thought we would see a tee shot and the drone would follow along with the ball until it landed. Just viewing of a round of golf Fox didn't give me anything new. In fact maybe less. All you saw on the screen as players were proceeding in their rounds were the scores of the top five. This is the first round of a major and 70 other golfers were on the course and unless they made triple or almost knocked one in you never saw what everyone's score was. Please I want to know what my favorite player's score is as they travel the course if you are not going to show any of them.
I think their lineup of announcers for the most part was excellent. Joe Buck could do Poker coverage from a telephone booth. The Shark and Tom Weiskopf are old time color announcers and you wonder where they have been. When you put eleven hours on the air the second wave of announcers were unknowns and it is hard to trust somebody you never heard before.
I thought the course looked like the British Open. Brown fairways and even sometime greens. This is of course the U.S. Open and if they put down holes in a cow pasture and these guys are suppose to be good let's play golf. It was hard to even think this was a golf course without trees. The course resembled any home development where strips are homes are built in a row all looking alike just painted different colors without trees. Please give me some shade.
All the hype Fox gave in the buildup of the coverage they were going to give us I have to give them a D. Nothing much to Bragg about. I know Tiger has been a great ratings in his heyday. Watching every shot that Tiger made was like watching an injured animal not yet dead struggling for life. I kind of felt sorry for Tiger every bunker, every missed putt. The fall of Tiger Woods is official. We all saw it on prime time TV. Fox gave us every bad shot he hit as if they thought the ratings would sky rocket. It's time to forget Tiger. His greatness is over. The good news for Tiger he plays early today maybe by the time The TV lights come on Tiger will be on a jet heading to Florida. Then we will see whether Fox can cover golf. They didn't show me much Thursday.
Thursday, June 18, 2015
It's Finally Hit The Fan
Several years back there was a vote to ban all private schools from playing in the North Carolina High School Athletic Association. The number of those that voted overwhelmingly were in favor of kicking those out but just enough schools abstained from voting to not get the require percentage to make the vote legal.
Just before Christmas Cardinal Gibbons asked and was granted permission to join the Pac 6-4A Conference. Gibbons citing enrollment increases and that may have had some consideration in the matter but we all know that Cardinal Gibbons has dominated in what would be considered in the non-revenue sports in 3-A ever since they have been allowed into the NCHSAA. They offered to jump to 4-A hoping to head off expulsion from the NCHSAA.
The 2015-2016 school year they will be joining the Pac 6 4A conference. Just last week other Wake County area schools athletic conferences changed their by-laws and in doing so require their members to not play any Non-Boarding Parochial school. The shots have been fired. High school conferences have found a way to keep Cardinal Gibbons and the likes from taking part in any athletic events with them. If other conferences follow suit like all the area 3-A conferences who then can Cardinal Gibbons play?
If this is the tidal wave to shun Cardinal Gibbons then Charlotte Catholic and Bishop McGuinness in Winston Salem had better look out they are next. I would suspect that Charter schools will eventually make the list too. These by-laws changes will require no member to play non conferences games with Cardinal Gibbons. They will abide by any playoffs or tournament action where you might be seeded against Cardinal Gibbons.
This will limit who Cardinal Gibbons can fill out a complete schedule in any sport with. They just might find that conference games may be the only games they can play without heavy travel involved. Can the Pac-6 Conference withstand the pressure from other NCHSAA members and eventually say no to Cardinal Gibbons
This is the first shot across the bow of Cardinal Gibbons to get them to start playing in the private school playoffs and not in public NCHSAA. The NCHSAA is right in the center of the cross hairs as Cardinal Gibbons was voted in just like the other private schools were in joining the public school sector. I see no way around it now that there has to be another vote by the members of the NCHSAA to include or exclude Private schools and who knows Charter Schools too that have their athletic boarders outside their school district.
I think this is only right that private schools should be excluded. They have no set boundaries where their students come from while the public schools can only have players from their school districts. The public schools are at a major disadvantage in there own system. If this doesn't get the changes this go round it is only a matter of time. The public schools especially the 4-A sector didn't mind Cardinal Gibbons dominating the 3-A cause they were not effected. The shoe is now on the other foot.
Just before Christmas Cardinal Gibbons asked and was granted permission to join the Pac 6-4A Conference. Gibbons citing enrollment increases and that may have had some consideration in the matter but we all know that Cardinal Gibbons has dominated in what would be considered in the non-revenue sports in 3-A ever since they have been allowed into the NCHSAA. They offered to jump to 4-A hoping to head off expulsion from the NCHSAA.
The 2015-2016 school year they will be joining the Pac 6 4A conference. Just last week other Wake County area schools athletic conferences changed their by-laws and in doing so require their members to not play any Non-Boarding Parochial school. The shots have been fired. High school conferences have found a way to keep Cardinal Gibbons and the likes from taking part in any athletic events with them. If other conferences follow suit like all the area 3-A conferences who then can Cardinal Gibbons play?
If this is the tidal wave to shun Cardinal Gibbons then Charlotte Catholic and Bishop McGuinness in Winston Salem had better look out they are next. I would suspect that Charter schools will eventually make the list too. These by-laws changes will require no member to play non conferences games with Cardinal Gibbons. They will abide by any playoffs or tournament action where you might be seeded against Cardinal Gibbons.
This will limit who Cardinal Gibbons can fill out a complete schedule in any sport with. They just might find that conference games may be the only games they can play without heavy travel involved. Can the Pac-6 Conference withstand the pressure from other NCHSAA members and eventually say no to Cardinal Gibbons
This is the first shot across the bow of Cardinal Gibbons to get them to start playing in the private school playoffs and not in public NCHSAA. The NCHSAA is right in the center of the cross hairs as Cardinal Gibbons was voted in just like the other private schools were in joining the public school sector. I see no way around it now that there has to be another vote by the members of the NCHSAA to include or exclude Private schools and who knows Charter Schools too that have their athletic boarders outside their school district.
I think this is only right that private schools should be excluded. They have no set boundaries where their students come from while the public schools can only have players from their school districts. The public schools are at a major disadvantage in there own system. If this doesn't get the changes this go round it is only a matter of time. The public schools especially the 4-A sector didn't mind Cardinal Gibbons dominating the 3-A cause they were not effected. The shoe is now on the other foot.
Wednesday, June 17, 2015
A Banging Good Start
Collins Cuthrell is off to the start that every player playing baseball and getting paid wants to have. You show up get inserted into the lineup to DH and after Saturday and Sunday action Collins is 5-10 hitting a cool 500. We all know that it only takes an 0-4 this early in a season and you average drops 150 points. As great as 500 is that is only 57 points higher than his season average playing for UNC Pembroke this season.
Brian Goodwin has pushed his average up to 222 since last week which is a welcome site. He does have a new teammate that has joined him in Harrisburg Pa. Trea Turner the former NC State shortstop who was traded last December by San Diego to Washington and named as the player to be named later finally got traded on the 15th and has reported to Harrisburg with the AA team.
Hobbs Johnson is now 4-3 in Buloxi Ms. His ERA is at 3.12. He has struck out 54 batters in 56 innings pitched.
Wilson Post 13 is now 8-1 on the season and Rocky Mount's Blake Helms 2-0. Derrick Carter of Northern Nash is still 1-0 and RMA's M J Jones are all making contributions to make Wilson the top team in the the east at this point at 8-1.
Spent the last four days at the Outer Banks. Watched a very interesting race on the beach at Jennette's Pier. Teams of runners ran a 3.1 mile obstacle course down the beach. They had to crawl through a pipe, run a rope course, crawl on the sand and all of this was in the heat that we have had the last several days. I had a hard enough time watching it from the comfort of leaning on the pier and watching from afar. I don't know how people from five years old to 80 had enough to do what they did. Three cheers for every one that even tried and about 99 percent finished the race.
Brian Goodwin has pushed his average up to 222 since last week which is a welcome site. He does have a new teammate that has joined him in Harrisburg Pa. Trea Turner the former NC State shortstop who was traded last December by San Diego to Washington and named as the player to be named later finally got traded on the 15th and has reported to Harrisburg with the AA team.
Hobbs Johnson is now 4-3 in Buloxi Ms. His ERA is at 3.12. He has struck out 54 batters in 56 innings pitched.
Wilson Post 13 is now 8-1 on the season and Rocky Mount's Blake Helms 2-0. Derrick Carter of Northern Nash is still 1-0 and RMA's M J Jones are all making contributions to make Wilson the top team in the the east at this point at 8-1.
Spent the last four days at the Outer Banks. Watched a very interesting race on the beach at Jennette's Pier. Teams of runners ran a 3.1 mile obstacle course down the beach. They had to crawl through a pipe, run a rope course, crawl on the sand and all of this was in the heat that we have had the last several days. I had a hard enough time watching it from the comfort of leaning on the pier and watching from afar. I don't know how people from five years old to 80 had enough to do what they did. Three cheers for every one that even tried and about 99 percent finished the race.
Tuesday, June 16, 2015
Where Did This Pat Venditte Come From???????
Have you heard about this Guy? Pat Venditte has been in pro baseball since 2005. He played his college ball at Creighton University in Omaha Nebraska the home of the college world series. If you haven't heard you sure have missed something. Venditte is a switch pitcher! What in the world is a switch pitcher? He can throw the baseball with either hand. How good is he at it? He can chunk it to the plate at between 92-94 miles and hour with either arm. Venditte pitches for the Oakland A's.
So why if he can do all of this how come now we are hearing about him for the first time???? He is 0-0 on the season with a 2.37 ERA.
We know all about switch hitters where if you are a left handed batter and a right handed pitcher is on the mound you have the ball breaking at you instead of away. That would make sense that if I am a right handed batter then I have the same going for me when a left handed pitcher is throwing. There are time when teams change pitchers in the middle of an inning or even during a turn at bat. They change from a right handed pitcher to a left hander then any switch hitter can change sides of the plate and hit the other way.
How ever as a switch pitcher the pitcher must announce before each batter which way he is going to pitch. Doesn't seem fair does it that a batter can switch at any old time but the pitcher can't. Venditte has a seven finger glove made to fit right on the mound every time he switches from right hander to a lefty.
I just don't understand as news hungry that this world is why we didn't hear about him when he was in high school. He should have been news worthy every step up the ladder all the way to the majors. I have not actually seen him pitch but just the high lights he is amazing how well he throws from
either side with no side better than the other.
There was a period in my life that I bowled in leagues and of course you go as teams to tournaments. I remember years ago the bowling ally in Wilson had a tournament on a Sunday afternoon. You shot one game getting your high score. The next game was the third, sixth and ninth frame were strikes and you tried to add to a strike given to you. Then had to bowl a left handed game. In those days I averaged about 182 and in this tournament I had a 139 as a lefty. There are not many people opposite hand can break 100. Then the final game was low score where the least pins were subtracted from all of your other games. If you got nothing but gutter that counted for a strike on you first ball or spare on the second. I shot a 39 which is a great low ball score. I won the tournament mostly because of the low score and my lefty game.
I know you have to practice twice as much when you are trying to pitch from both sides or bowling either way. It is kind of funny the few times I ever bowled from the left side your approach speed and release are the main elements. Left handed I had a natural curve but from my natural right side I have to really force myself to get it to curve like bowling balls do. Right handed I am a natural straight ball thrower but you can never get any score without the ball breaking into the pocket.
Years ago the there was a major league pitcher who had only one arm and had to hold his glove under his arm pit and grab his glove after he released the ball. He got all kinds of attention going up the ladder of baseball but not Pat Venvitte. I guess the news media has become so entrenched in the bad news they have forgotten how good, good news can be.
So why if he can do all of this how come now we are hearing about him for the first time???? He is 0-0 on the season with a 2.37 ERA.
We know all about switch hitters where if you are a left handed batter and a right handed pitcher is on the mound you have the ball breaking at you instead of away. That would make sense that if I am a right handed batter then I have the same going for me when a left handed pitcher is throwing. There are time when teams change pitchers in the middle of an inning or even during a turn at bat. They change from a right handed pitcher to a left hander then any switch hitter can change sides of the plate and hit the other way.
How ever as a switch pitcher the pitcher must announce before each batter which way he is going to pitch. Doesn't seem fair does it that a batter can switch at any old time but the pitcher can't. Venditte has a seven finger glove made to fit right on the mound every time he switches from right hander to a lefty.
I just don't understand as news hungry that this world is why we didn't hear about him when he was in high school. He should have been news worthy every step up the ladder all the way to the majors. I have not actually seen him pitch but just the high lights he is amazing how well he throws from
either side with no side better than the other.
There was a period in my life that I bowled in leagues and of course you go as teams to tournaments. I remember years ago the bowling ally in Wilson had a tournament on a Sunday afternoon. You shot one game getting your high score. The next game was the third, sixth and ninth frame were strikes and you tried to add to a strike given to you. Then had to bowl a left handed game. In those days I averaged about 182 and in this tournament I had a 139 as a lefty. There are not many people opposite hand can break 100. Then the final game was low score where the least pins were subtracted from all of your other games. If you got nothing but gutter that counted for a strike on you first ball or spare on the second. I shot a 39 which is a great low ball score. I won the tournament mostly because of the low score and my lefty game.
I know you have to practice twice as much when you are trying to pitch from both sides or bowling either way. It is kind of funny the few times I ever bowled from the left side your approach speed and release are the main elements. Left handed I had a natural curve but from my natural right side I have to really force myself to get it to curve like bowling balls do. Right handed I am a natural straight ball thrower but you can never get any score without the ball breaking into the pocket.
Years ago the there was a major league pitcher who had only one arm and had to hold his glove under his arm pit and grab his glove after he released the ball. He got all kinds of attention going up the ladder of baseball but not Pat Venvitte. I guess the news media has become so entrenched in the bad news they have forgotten how good, good news can be.
Monday, June 15, 2015
MLB Draft Hard To Watch
The NFL draft is held in cities that have NFL teams and are at sites where the public can attend. They can get rowdy at times when ever a local team gets a pick and the fans either hate the pick or love it. That is one of the reasons the NFL is so popular. They try to cater to the people. We all know why the NFL is in the position it is in is gambling. Sixteen games it is easy to pull up your local paper and see that the Redskins are a three and a half point favorite over the Falcons this week . Fantasy football once again is flourishing because it is easy to keep up with your team one day a week.
Baseball on the other hand is the so called leave the game alone we like it how it is and has always been. If you are purist you love the game for what it is not how much more it could be with changes. Because games are every day unless you are a gamble-holic it is hard to keep up with every game every day and lay money down. Even fantasy is harder to keep up.
Baseball cherishes it's history. Any baseball fanatic can tell you the all time hits leader and how many he hits he has. Does anyone even know the all time NFL rusher and how many yards he has without google or NFL.com? Baseball hate changes. They have fought tooth and nail on any replay while the NFL is making the extra point harder this year. They try anything to make the game interesting while MLB thinks the history of the game is what makes it so enduring.
Major league baseball's draft is held in the studio of MLB. It is set up to cater to TV or in baseball's case MLB.COM. The NFL has ESPN and NFL.com all showing the same draft with the crowd hollering and hooping in the back ground. Great players from the past like John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves are introduced to the camera to make the next pick with three people off camera clapping.
It is hard to watch that baseball draft unless you are waiting for a name you know to pop up. It is so ho-hum it will put you to sleep waiting for the next pick. There is so much excitement at the NFL draft that all the noise makes you forget that every thing you just heard about the player drafted you already heard 10 million times before.
I guess I am a purist in a way. I would still like for MLB to have a fifth ump in a booth on all the cameras and any time there is an argument about a call let a team go to the replay booth. Give them two red flags like the NFL coaches have and if they are wrong lose the next one or even lose one for the next game.
I think everyone would like to see a computer call balls and strikes and have the ump there to make call on plays at home. If there is one place they truly need replay is second base. I bet half the close plays at second at missed by the umps.
There are so many players picked in baseball it takes three days to do the draft. They surely could go into a live setting at some convention center the first night and let all the fans hoop and holler and for the rest of the draft just flash it on the round by round draft tracker. That's how I watched it. I couldn't take watching all day the second and third days.
Baseball on the other hand is the so called leave the game alone we like it how it is and has always been. If you are purist you love the game for what it is not how much more it could be with changes. Because games are every day unless you are a gamble-holic it is hard to keep up with every game every day and lay money down. Even fantasy is harder to keep up.
Baseball cherishes it's history. Any baseball fanatic can tell you the all time hits leader and how many he hits he has. Does anyone even know the all time NFL rusher and how many yards he has without google or NFL.com? Baseball hate changes. They have fought tooth and nail on any replay while the NFL is making the extra point harder this year. They try anything to make the game interesting while MLB thinks the history of the game is what makes it so enduring.
Major league baseball's draft is held in the studio of MLB. It is set up to cater to TV or in baseball's case MLB.COM. The NFL has ESPN and NFL.com all showing the same draft with the crowd hollering and hooping in the back ground. Great players from the past like John Smoltz of the Atlanta Braves are introduced to the camera to make the next pick with three people off camera clapping.
It is hard to watch that baseball draft unless you are waiting for a name you know to pop up. It is so ho-hum it will put you to sleep waiting for the next pick. There is so much excitement at the NFL draft that all the noise makes you forget that every thing you just heard about the player drafted you already heard 10 million times before.
I guess I am a purist in a way. I would still like for MLB to have a fifth ump in a booth on all the cameras and any time there is an argument about a call let a team go to the replay booth. Give them two red flags like the NFL coaches have and if they are wrong lose the next one or even lose one for the next game.
I think everyone would like to see a computer call balls and strikes and have the ump there to make call on plays at home. If there is one place they truly need replay is second base. I bet half the close plays at second at missed by the umps.
There are so many players picked in baseball it takes three days to do the draft. They surely could go into a live setting at some convention center the first night and let all the fans hoop and holler and for the rest of the draft just flash it on the round by round draft tracker. That's how I watched it. I couldn't take watching all day the second and third days.
Saturday, June 13, 2015
Somebody Wants Cuthrell
Collins Cuthrell has found a place to place baseball this Summer as he is headed to Florence Kentucky to play for the Freedom. This is the same team that just a couple of weeks ago released Xavier Macklin. Florence is in the Frontier League which is made up of players who don't belong to any MLB team but are hoping to impress clubs with their play to hook up with a major league team.
While on the way to Florence Cuthrell did stop off in Burlington NC and worked out for the Kansas City Royals at the field of their minor league affiliate. Just this week I questioned why no team would not draft Cuthrell after the season he had at UNC Pembroke. If he does half as well in Florence as he did this spring they will be numbers somebody will want.
There is no doubt that the play of LeBron James during the four NBA finals games played so far proves that he is the best player on the planet earth. His play has willed Cleveland to two wins in this series. Yet, for a player or a team to play at a pace greater than they are use too it is tiring and hard to continue at that pace.
I think what you saw Thursday night was a Cleveland team dead tire an unable to keep pace with a team that for maybe the first time in the series played as if they were the underdogs and put out a supreme effort.
If you think about it that is exactly what a NBA season is. One team plays in New Jersey one night and Cleveland the next while Cleveland hasn't played in several days. So what kind of effort does your team give but goes through the motions. They are trying but the energy level is not there if they were fresh.
Why do you think that a team wins ten games in a row and all of a sudden they lose by 25 to an also ran team. You had better look at the schedule and see how many games any team has played lately compared to the other.
Cleveland has two all star players out for the series and in order for them to win everyone must pick up the pace and give more than normal. LeBron certainly has done that. All of the experts say that the rest of Cleveland is a bunch of rag tag who wants them type players but if they were that why are their salaries on average 5 million dollar except for LeBron? That's a lot of money for people who can't play.
I did a story last week about the outside shooting and to this point when Golden state has been cold they lost because they played as if Cleveland was going to lay down and give them the title. Thursday Golden State played more like the 67 win Golden State team.
One thing concerns me for LeBron's future. I see that by the time he is 35 he is going to have the health issues like Kobe has had and I hope when it is time he doesn't become a hanger on'er like Kobe. I see LeBron being the next owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Playing every night since 18 years old your body has only so many bends it can give till it won't bend any more.
Win or lose these next three games LeBron can be talked about in the same breath as Michael. LeBron Passed Kobe long time ago. I hope when his time is up he gets out. Don't do like Michael and go played two years with somebody else just to be playing. Kobe is drawing 28 million a year and hasn't play a total of 50 games in three or four years. He's drawing a check for his past greatness not his present. Look at what he has done to the Laker franchise with all the money they are paying him and can't buy other players. When it is time LeBron just buy the Cleveland franchise and save your body.
While on the way to Florence Cuthrell did stop off in Burlington NC and worked out for the Kansas City Royals at the field of their minor league affiliate. Just this week I questioned why no team would not draft Cuthrell after the season he had at UNC Pembroke. If he does half as well in Florence as he did this spring they will be numbers somebody will want.
There is no doubt that the play of LeBron James during the four NBA finals games played so far proves that he is the best player on the planet earth. His play has willed Cleveland to two wins in this series. Yet, for a player or a team to play at a pace greater than they are use too it is tiring and hard to continue at that pace.
I think what you saw Thursday night was a Cleveland team dead tire an unable to keep pace with a team that for maybe the first time in the series played as if they were the underdogs and put out a supreme effort.
If you think about it that is exactly what a NBA season is. One team plays in New Jersey one night and Cleveland the next while Cleveland hasn't played in several days. So what kind of effort does your team give but goes through the motions. They are trying but the energy level is not there if they were fresh.
Why do you think that a team wins ten games in a row and all of a sudden they lose by 25 to an also ran team. You had better look at the schedule and see how many games any team has played lately compared to the other.
Cleveland has two all star players out for the series and in order for them to win everyone must pick up the pace and give more than normal. LeBron certainly has done that. All of the experts say that the rest of Cleveland is a bunch of rag tag who wants them type players but if they were that why are their salaries on average 5 million dollar except for LeBron? That's a lot of money for people who can't play.
I did a story last week about the outside shooting and to this point when Golden state has been cold they lost because they played as if Cleveland was going to lay down and give them the title. Thursday Golden State played more like the 67 win Golden State team.
One thing concerns me for LeBron's future. I see that by the time he is 35 he is going to have the health issues like Kobe has had and I hope when it is time he doesn't become a hanger on'er like Kobe. I see LeBron being the next owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers. Playing every night since 18 years old your body has only so many bends it can give till it won't bend any more.
Win or lose these next three games LeBron can be talked about in the same breath as Michael. LeBron Passed Kobe long time ago. I hope when his time is up he gets out. Don't do like Michael and go played two years with somebody else just to be playing. Kobe is drawing 28 million a year and hasn't play a total of 50 games in three or four years. He's drawing a check for his past greatness not his present. Look at what he has done to the Laker franchise with all the money they are paying him and can't buy other players. When it is time LeBron just buy the Cleveland franchise and save your body.
Friday, June 12, 2015
Gurley Gets Paid
Tarboro High and University of Georgia running back Todd Gurley on Friday became a professional football player when his signed his contract with the St Louis Rams. Gurley the 10th pick during the NFL draft is still recovering from knee surgery that he had after a knee injury Last football season. The Rams announced that they would in no way push Gurley until he is fully recovered from his surgery. They do however believe that Gurley will be 100 per cent by training camp.
Major League Baseball with approval of the players association has allotted each major league team certain amounts of money to sign their draft picks. 2015 Tampa Bay's figure is near six and a half million dollars. In most cases the top draft picks Will get the bulk of the money. It is very obvious going back to Carolina for one more year might bring a nice bonus Benton Moss' way as he signs a baseball contract with Tampa.
If you figure the top pick gets at least a million of that 6.5 million that Tampa has to spend on all their rookies then you would assume the sixth pick Benton Moss will be able to get a nice sum of money for saying yes and where do you want me to sign?
SouthWest Edgecombe two time state champion golfer Cole Jefferys was featured on the last of the year features on WRAL sports with Tom Suitor "Extra Effort Award". Cole was third in his class of the graduating seniors at SouthWest.
I find it very hard to watch soccer on TV. Had a very hard time getting into a 0-0 game as the USA played Sweden . Daughter Morgan who will be a rising senior at Campbell University is majoring in Sports Marketing. Home for the summer she has worked for the City of Rocky Mount for the last three summers in the Parks and Rec Department down town. She has moonlighted on Home Saturday nights for the Carolina RailHawks in the ticket offices. Trying to get all the Resume' name droppers possible when those job resume's go out next year at this time.
Major League Baseball with approval of the players association has allotted each major league team certain amounts of money to sign their draft picks. 2015 Tampa Bay's figure is near six and a half million dollars. In most cases the top draft picks Will get the bulk of the money. It is very obvious going back to Carolina for one more year might bring a nice bonus Benton Moss' way as he signs a baseball contract with Tampa.
If you figure the top pick gets at least a million of that 6.5 million that Tampa has to spend on all their rookies then you would assume the sixth pick Benton Moss will be able to get a nice sum of money for saying yes and where do you want me to sign?
SouthWest Edgecombe two time state champion golfer Cole Jefferys was featured on the last of the year features on WRAL sports with Tom Suitor "Extra Effort Award". Cole was third in his class of the graduating seniors at SouthWest.
I find it very hard to watch soccer on TV. Had a very hard time getting into a 0-0 game as the USA played Sweden . Daughter Morgan who will be a rising senior at Campbell University is majoring in Sports Marketing. Home for the summer she has worked for the City of Rocky Mount for the last three summers in the Parks and Rec Department down town. She has moonlighted on Home Saturday nights for the Carolina RailHawks in the ticket offices. Trying to get all the Resume' name droppers possible when those job resume's go out next year at this time.
Pork Chop Day at Northern
The Northern Nash football team will be selling pork chop plates today at the school from 10:30 until 2:pm. Pork chops green beans and potatoes will be the food of the day and the cost will be $7per plate. You can pick up your orders in front of the school
Latest update on players of interest. Former Gryphon Sonny Wooten's son John who played at Eastern Wayne and ECU is playing in Potomac Md for the Nationals A team. Just this week they were playing the Mudcats and John hit his third homer of the season in front of family and friends. He's batting 251 playing 1st base.
Another former Gryphons son Whit Merrifield is playing for AAA Omaha for the Kansas City Royals is batting 289 and playing left field. Merrifield's dad is Bill who went to Wake Forest after Rocky Mount High and played baseball for the Demon Deacs. Whit was a member of the South Carolina Gamecocks National baseball champions just a few years back.
Brian Goodwin is struggling in Harrisburg Pa for the AA Nationals. His average has dipped to 206. Those kind of numbers can't last long if he wants to make it back to AAA Syracuse or even to the big club in DC.
Hobbs Johnson has lost two straight games in Buloxi Ms. His record is now 3-3 and Era is still a respectable 3.36. Hobbs is pitching in AA for the Milwaukee Brewers.
There are just some players that draw attention and the Chicago White Sox sure look as if they have a gem of a pitcher in Holly Springs pitcher Carlos Rodon. His last four starts he has pitched 24 innings and allowed just three runs. He is 2-0 and his ERA has dropped to 2.66. He has pitch a total of 40 innings striking out 40.
Two players from Nash County High schools without a Legion team in Rocky Mount have joined Wilson Post 13. Northern Nash Pitcher Derrick Carter who last season played Travel Ball is 1-0 so far for this year's Wilson club who has started 6-1 on the season. Rocky Mount grad Blake Helms who was outstanding last season for Post 58 in Rocky Mount is also 1-0 pitching in Wilson. RMA 2014 graduate MJ Jones who also played in Rocky Mount last summer and has one year under his belt at Catawba College is also on the Roster this season in Wilson.
Latest update on players of interest. Former Gryphon Sonny Wooten's son John who played at Eastern Wayne and ECU is playing in Potomac Md for the Nationals A team. Just this week they were playing the Mudcats and John hit his third homer of the season in front of family and friends. He's batting 251 playing 1st base.
Another former Gryphons son Whit Merrifield is playing for AAA Omaha for the Kansas City Royals is batting 289 and playing left field. Merrifield's dad is Bill who went to Wake Forest after Rocky Mount High and played baseball for the Demon Deacs. Whit was a member of the South Carolina Gamecocks National baseball champions just a few years back.
Brian Goodwin is struggling in Harrisburg Pa for the AA Nationals. His average has dipped to 206. Those kind of numbers can't last long if he wants to make it back to AAA Syracuse or even to the big club in DC.
Hobbs Johnson has lost two straight games in Buloxi Ms. His record is now 3-3 and Era is still a respectable 3.36. Hobbs is pitching in AA for the Milwaukee Brewers.
There are just some players that draw attention and the Chicago White Sox sure look as if they have a gem of a pitcher in Holly Springs pitcher Carlos Rodon. His last four starts he has pitched 24 innings and allowed just three runs. He is 2-0 and his ERA has dropped to 2.66. He has pitch a total of 40 innings striking out 40.
Two players from Nash County High schools without a Legion team in Rocky Mount have joined Wilson Post 13. Northern Nash Pitcher Derrick Carter who last season played Travel Ball is 1-0 so far for this year's Wilson club who has started 6-1 on the season. Rocky Mount grad Blake Helms who was outstanding last season for Post 58 in Rocky Mount is also 1-0 pitching in Wilson. RMA 2014 graduate MJ Jones who also played in Rocky Mount last summer and has one year under his belt at Catawba College is also on the Roster this season in Wilson.
Thursday, June 11, 2015
Baseball Draft Over
I knew if he was going to get drafted Collins Cuthrell would have to wait until the third day or Tuesday when rounds 11-40 were completed. The draft is over and Cuthrell never heard his name. The 2015 season saw Collins play at UNC Pembroke while in graduate school. His fourth year of college baseball turned out to be in the eyes of those who call themselves experts picked Cuthrell to be a finalist for the D2 player if the year. That puts him as in the top eight players in all of D 2 ball.
I have to assume Collins expressed to scouts no desire to want to play baseball beyond college. I find it hard to believe that a player who hit 443 batting average with 25 home runs and 74 RBI would not draw any attention from scouts.
Benton Moss will spend this summer playing for the Tampa Bay Rays team in the New York Penn League. That is the same league that Brian Goodwin a teammate of Moss at Rocky Mount played in but he played for the Vermont team for the Nationals. Xavier Macklin of Nash Central was a teammate of Brian Goodwin while in Vermont but he had been drafted by the A's.
Moss will play for Hudson Valley Renegades of the village of Fishkill New York. That sounds like a town that ought to be in Alaska but it is 70 miles north of New York City and 35 miles south of Albany. The New York Penn League season opens June 15th and runs until September 7th
There is of course no legion baseball going on in Rocky Mount this summer but a very interesting name was drafted. Jack Conley who played for the Raleigh legion team last year. Those who remember Raleigh had no home field last season and played many games at Legion Field in Rocky Mount. Conley was the Catcher and played at Leesville Road High. He was drafted in the 30th round. He chose Legion over travel ball.
The highest draft pick from this area was Isaiah White who played at Greenfield Academy in Wilson. White a center fielder was picked in the third round. He played for a private school. Just goes to show playing Legion over Showcase or going to Private school over public if you can play the scouts will find you.
I have to assume Collins expressed to scouts no desire to want to play baseball beyond college. I find it hard to believe that a player who hit 443 batting average with 25 home runs and 74 RBI would not draw any attention from scouts.
Benton Moss will spend this summer playing for the Tampa Bay Rays team in the New York Penn League. That is the same league that Brian Goodwin a teammate of Moss at Rocky Mount played in but he played for the Vermont team for the Nationals. Xavier Macklin of Nash Central was a teammate of Brian Goodwin while in Vermont but he had been drafted by the A's.
Moss will play for Hudson Valley Renegades of the village of Fishkill New York. That sounds like a town that ought to be in Alaska but it is 70 miles north of New York City and 35 miles south of Albany. The New York Penn League season opens June 15th and runs until September 7th
There is of course no legion baseball going on in Rocky Mount this summer but a very interesting name was drafted. Jack Conley who played for the Raleigh legion team last year. Those who remember Raleigh had no home field last season and played many games at Legion Field in Rocky Mount. Conley was the Catcher and played at Leesville Road High. He was drafted in the 30th round. He chose Legion over travel ball.
The highest draft pick from this area was Isaiah White who played at Greenfield Academy in Wilson. White a center fielder was picked in the third round. He played for a private school. Just goes to show playing Legion over Showcase or going to Private school over public if you can play the scouts will find you.
Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Moss Drafted By Tampa Bay
Benton Moss returned to UNC for his senior year to pitch for the Tar Heels turning down being a fifteenth round selection as a junior. He returned to Carolina for many more reasons other than not liking his draft status but coming back to play one more year paid off today for Moss.
The 174th player today announced in the sixth round was Benton Moss and he was grabbed up by the Tampa Bay Rays. A sixth rounder has very little negotiating power especially a player who is a senior with no further college baseball eligibility left. Once the Rays can concentrate on signing players once the draft is over I suspect Moss will sign quickly in order to report to where ever they will send him once he signs.
As I write this they are in the middle of the eighth round of ten that will be held today and we all await to see if a spectacular senior season for Collins Cuthrell will pay off getting a call. We will monitor the remaining draft today and all of tomorrow's looking for Collin's name.
The ACC has been sixty years since they won the College World Series. If they are to win it this year they must beat four teams from the Southeastern Conference. LSU, Florida, Vanderbilt and Arkansas all won their Super Regional to quality for the World Series. The ACC will have their chance however as two teams survived the Super Regional Virginia and Miami.
There can only be one ACC team to play for the title if either gets that far as both Miami and Virginia are in the same bracket. Saturday's first day will match Arkansas against Virginia and Florida the number one overall seed when the tournament began playing Miami. These four teams will play a double elimination tournament and the other bracket will do the same with the two winners playing a two out of three late next weekend.
The other bracket will feature LSU against TCU the lone team left from the Big 12. Cal State Fullerton who knocked Louisville out in extra innings Monday night will face Vanderbilt. All of this action starts Sunday. Two of the deciding games Monday night went extra innings including the 16 inning TCU -Texas A&AM 5-4 game.
The college basketball rules committee has made some rule changes of interest starting next basketball season. The big one is reducing the time clock to 30 seconds. Several more include coaches calling time outs while the game is in progress. That would eliminate coaches calling time out when the ten second mid court violation is about to happen. A player on the court can call a timeout but you will only have the few seconds on the ten second clock to still get it over mid court after the time out. They also installed a flopping rule.
The women's game is going to ten minute quarters instead of two 20 minute halls.
The 174th player today announced in the sixth round was Benton Moss and he was grabbed up by the Tampa Bay Rays. A sixth rounder has very little negotiating power especially a player who is a senior with no further college baseball eligibility left. Once the Rays can concentrate on signing players once the draft is over I suspect Moss will sign quickly in order to report to where ever they will send him once he signs.
As I write this they are in the middle of the eighth round of ten that will be held today and we all await to see if a spectacular senior season for Collins Cuthrell will pay off getting a call. We will monitor the remaining draft today and all of tomorrow's looking for Collin's name.
The ACC has been sixty years since they won the College World Series. If they are to win it this year they must beat four teams from the Southeastern Conference. LSU, Florida, Vanderbilt and Arkansas all won their Super Regional to quality for the World Series. The ACC will have their chance however as two teams survived the Super Regional Virginia and Miami.
There can only be one ACC team to play for the title if either gets that far as both Miami and Virginia are in the same bracket. Saturday's first day will match Arkansas against Virginia and Florida the number one overall seed when the tournament began playing Miami. These four teams will play a double elimination tournament and the other bracket will do the same with the two winners playing a two out of three late next weekend.
The other bracket will feature LSU against TCU the lone team left from the Big 12. Cal State Fullerton who knocked Louisville out in extra innings Monday night will face Vanderbilt. All of this action starts Sunday. Two of the deciding games Monday night went extra innings including the 16 inning TCU -Texas A&AM 5-4 game.
The college basketball rules committee has made some rule changes of interest starting next basketball season. The big one is reducing the time clock to 30 seconds. Several more include coaches calling time outs while the game is in progress. That would eliminate coaches calling time out when the ten second mid court violation is about to happen. A player on the court can call a timeout but you will only have the few seconds on the ten second clock to still get it over mid court after the time out. They also installed a flopping rule.
The women's game is going to ten minute quarters instead of two 20 minute halls.
Monday, June 8, 2015
Staying In House
The Rocky Mount Telegram is reporting that Rocky Mount Academy's new football coach is from within the B W Holt coaching Staff as Terrell Hudgins will take over the reins as football coach. If there is any person who has ever fell from the Holt coaching tree Terrell Hudgins came from the Holt's roots . He was Holt's quarterback when he arrived at Rocky Mount High in 2003. A starter his sophomore season he lead Rocky Mount to a 7-5 record and under Holt was 8-4 and 12-1.
He was involved in the biggest play this century for the Gryphons as he had helped the Gryphons tie New Bern 28-28 in regulation and New Bern scored first to lead 35-28 in the first overtime. Holt elected to finish the game at this point calling for a 2 point conversion with Hudgins running the option to the right side. Tackled at about the 1 yard line the six feet two inch Hudgins was able to fall across the goal line giving Rocky Mount a shocking upset of the Bears 36-35 and clinched the conference crown for the Gryphons and left only Northern standing in the way of a Gryphon undefeated season.
Hudgins was a multi sport star at Rocky Mount making all conference in football, basketball where he was a rebounding machine and outstanding hitter in baseball. 2005 Hudgins was named the North Carolina Male Athlete of the year. The heated rivalry between Northern Nash and Rocky Mount they played the final game of the baseball season in 2005 the same day Hudgins received the athlete of the year award. The game was played at Northern Nash and the Knights in a true act of sportsmanship delayed the game for an hour in order for Hudgins to return from Chapel Hill after winning the award.
ECU offered a full football scholarship with the promise of Hudgins getting a shot at quarterback. Hudgins was moved to wide receiver and unwilling to not get a shot at quarterback transferred to Elon where he never got a chance at quarterback either. How fate changes the course of people's lives.
Four years as a wide receiver Hudgins holds 10 college pass receiving records. He still holds six Southern Conference records. He was invited to try out for the Dallas Cowboys. Once Holt came to RMA in 2012 Hudgins joined his staff and has been there for the two state titles.
Any one who knows Terrell can see that his personality is one that players will like to play for him. He has his hands full in following Holt's footsteps after two state titles in a row. Regardless of who had of gotten the job they would all have had that problem.
He was involved in the biggest play this century for the Gryphons as he had helped the Gryphons tie New Bern 28-28 in regulation and New Bern scored first to lead 35-28 in the first overtime. Holt elected to finish the game at this point calling for a 2 point conversion with Hudgins running the option to the right side. Tackled at about the 1 yard line the six feet two inch Hudgins was able to fall across the goal line giving Rocky Mount a shocking upset of the Bears 36-35 and clinched the conference crown for the Gryphons and left only Northern standing in the way of a Gryphon undefeated season.
Hudgins was a multi sport star at Rocky Mount making all conference in football, basketball where he was a rebounding machine and outstanding hitter in baseball. 2005 Hudgins was named the North Carolina Male Athlete of the year. The heated rivalry between Northern Nash and Rocky Mount they played the final game of the baseball season in 2005 the same day Hudgins received the athlete of the year award. The game was played at Northern Nash and the Knights in a true act of sportsmanship delayed the game for an hour in order for Hudgins to return from Chapel Hill after winning the award.
ECU offered a full football scholarship with the promise of Hudgins getting a shot at quarterback. Hudgins was moved to wide receiver and unwilling to not get a shot at quarterback transferred to Elon where he never got a chance at quarterback either. How fate changes the course of people's lives.
Four years as a wide receiver Hudgins holds 10 college pass receiving records. He still holds six Southern Conference records. He was invited to try out for the Dallas Cowboys. Once Holt came to RMA in 2012 Hudgins joined his staff and has been there for the two state titles.
Any one who knows Terrell can see that his personality is one that players will like to play for him. He has his hands full in following Holt's footsteps after two state titles in a row. Regardless of who had of gotten the job they would all have had that problem.
Rock Bottom
There was a period of time in my life when I played golf as much as possible. My playing average was pretty consistent around 86. During the summer when I was fortunate enough to keep it in the fairway and got all the extra roll possible I could play between 80-82 and and other time 88-92. I broke 80 only four times. Those days when I carded a 78 once, 76 twice and 75 once I was able to keep the ball in play and made every forty foot putt.
Maybe 20 per cent of the time I beat 85 which is what Tiger Woods shot Saturday. I would be shocked if Tiger Woods doesn't retire from golf if his game stays in the state it is in right now. 85 by Tiger is like me shooting 120. Tiger has played at such a high level for so long but every golfer at some point in time loses it and it looks like it is Tiger's time.
Johnny Miller for about five years was the best player in the universe but woke up one day with the yips and next came the TV booth. It is hard for any player to maintain greatness every week. Jordan Speith this year's best golfer goes two or three weeks where it is a struggle to make the cut. Then over night he's near the top of the leader board.
Tiger Woods was near the number one golfer in the world for about 15 years. His bad days on the golf course was a 72. Never on the leader board for driving accuracy Tiger had the ability to get on the green and he never missed a putt under eight feet.
Still off the fairway Tiger no longer makes every putt. The one truly down fall for Tiger now is he doesn't walk out to the first tee thinking that he is the best in the world and he made every other player play for second.
The way Tiger has dominated the game can you see him having to qualify to even make the tour in the future? I don't think any of us need to feel sorry for Tiger. If he never makes another dime playing golf he will be like Arnold Palmer and when he is 80 he still be making endorsement money from all the companies that want to associate with him.
Every great one has hit the wall where they can no longer play at the level of champions. Age, injury, family obligations and the stress of the grind of tour golf. If you look at every tournament Tiger has played this year he is getting close to the end of the rope.
Maybe 20 per cent of the time I beat 85 which is what Tiger Woods shot Saturday. I would be shocked if Tiger Woods doesn't retire from golf if his game stays in the state it is in right now. 85 by Tiger is like me shooting 120. Tiger has played at such a high level for so long but every golfer at some point in time loses it and it looks like it is Tiger's time.
Johnny Miller for about five years was the best player in the universe but woke up one day with the yips and next came the TV booth. It is hard for any player to maintain greatness every week. Jordan Speith this year's best golfer goes two or three weeks where it is a struggle to make the cut. Then over night he's near the top of the leader board.
Tiger Woods was near the number one golfer in the world for about 15 years. His bad days on the golf course was a 72. Never on the leader board for driving accuracy Tiger had the ability to get on the green and he never missed a putt under eight feet.
Still off the fairway Tiger no longer makes every putt. The one truly down fall for Tiger now is he doesn't walk out to the first tee thinking that he is the best in the world and he made every other player play for second.
The way Tiger has dominated the game can you see him having to qualify to even make the tour in the future? I don't think any of us need to feel sorry for Tiger. If he never makes another dime playing golf he will be like Arnold Palmer and when he is 80 he still be making endorsement money from all the companies that want to associate with him.
Every great one has hit the wall where they can no longer play at the level of champions. Age, injury, family obligations and the stress of the grind of tour golf. If you look at every tournament Tiger has played this year he is getting close to the end of the rope.
Sunday, June 7, 2015
The Day The Music Died
There were days in the history of Rocky Mount High school during football season to be in your seat at the football game at the Municipal Stadium just to hear the Rocky Mount High school band march from the high school those three blocks to the stadium. It would send chill bumps over your body.
The man who put Rocky Mount high school band on the National scene has die. John C Sykes made it an honor to be in the band. If you were going to be in the band you were going to perform at a high level at all times and The band won honors all over the United States. The funeral will be today at 3:00pm at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Rocky Mount.
I remember living in Ahoskie when Rocky Mount Band would be in the Ahoskie parade you knew something was special when they marched by. It seemed the band had a hundred or more members in it but when your band only has thirty five seventy five is a huge size band. You could tell they were not the average high school band the way they marched and the sounds that they made playing Jingle Bells.
Syke's led Gryphon band won three National Band Championships in a four year span from 83-86. They marched in the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena California, Orange Bowl Parade in Miami twice and twice Marched in Washington D C in front of U S Presidents. Band Competitions they won Superior ratings 22 times. If you don't understand how band competitions are graded Superior is the highest honor given to a winner.
Once retired his life in music did not end as he was a major contributor in the Tar River Swing Band. He is a member of the Twin Counties Hall Of Fame and has won from East Carolina University the 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award. There is no telling how many musical instruments he has repaired in his lifetime.
It doesn't matter what part of the teaching profession you are in. Some coaches are able to get more out of players than those players ever thought they could give. Some teachers are able to get students to find school to be a place of learning and a fun place to be to learn. John Sykes was able to make his students have the desire that when they played their instrument, march down the street to give it their best at all times and while doing it have fun. There was a pride when you put on that Black Bird or Gryphon uniform that within you, you were a member of one of the best bands in America. The leader was John C Sykes.
The man who put Rocky Mount high school band on the National scene has die. John C Sykes made it an honor to be in the band. If you were going to be in the band you were going to perform at a high level at all times and The band won honors all over the United States. The funeral will be today at 3:00pm at St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Rocky Mount.
I remember living in Ahoskie when Rocky Mount Band would be in the Ahoskie parade you knew something was special when they marched by. It seemed the band had a hundred or more members in it but when your band only has thirty five seventy five is a huge size band. You could tell they were not the average high school band the way they marched and the sounds that they made playing Jingle Bells.
Syke's led Gryphon band won three National Band Championships in a four year span from 83-86. They marched in the Rose Bowl parade in Pasadena California, Orange Bowl Parade in Miami twice and twice Marched in Washington D C in front of U S Presidents. Band Competitions they won Superior ratings 22 times. If you don't understand how band competitions are graded Superior is the highest honor given to a winner.
Once retired his life in music did not end as he was a major contributor in the Tar River Swing Band. He is a member of the Twin Counties Hall Of Fame and has won from East Carolina University the 2012 Distinguished Alumnus Award. There is no telling how many musical instruments he has repaired in his lifetime.
It doesn't matter what part of the teaching profession you are in. Some coaches are able to get more out of players than those players ever thought they could give. Some teachers are able to get students to find school to be a place of learning and a fun place to be to learn. John Sykes was able to make his students have the desire that when they played their instrument, march down the street to give it their best at all times and while doing it have fun. There was a pride when you put on that Black Bird or Gryphon uniform that within you, you were a member of one of the best bands in America. The leader was John C Sykes.
Saturday, June 6, 2015
Benton Moss Academic All-American
The history of University of North Carolina baseball they have never had a first team Academic All-American until now. Thursday Rocky Mount High Grad and Enfield North Carolina native Benton Moss was named to the Capital One first team All-American All Academic Team. As much bad press as North Carolina has received recently about their academics this is a shot in the arm for the Tar Heel nation.
This is not the first time Benton has been on the All American team but it is the first team. Moss with a diploma in hand and several conversations with major league teams under his belt he only has until Monday night to wait and see where his future may lie. Monday night starting at 5pm is the 2015 MLB FirstYear Draft. Those in the know think he will be drafted between rounds four through ten.
Monday will only be the first two rounds plus the compensation picks. 1pm Tuesday starts rounds three through ten and if the experts are right everyone will hear Benton's name Tuesday afternoon. Should his name get called Monday night a rather nice bonus check will be part of the deal but the further from round two you get the bonus checks are reserved for the top picks.
Picked in the 15th round last year but deciding to return to Carolina for his senior season most of Moss' negotiating power is gone because MLB teams know you have no further options now that your college eligibility is gone. So most of the bonus money goes to players right out of high school or those top draft picks who are college juniors who could go back to college like Moss did last year. If he goes say in the fifth round he improved his draft status by ten rounds by going back to Carolina and having a 7-1 season. Good Luck Benton we'll be watching!!!!!!
N C State pitcher Carlos Rodon unless he gets injured will probably never see the minors again. Rodon has appeared in eight games since his call up with five starts now in his history is 1-0 with an ERA of 3.12. Thursday Rodon went six innings and struck out 10 which is right now his career high but his last three starts has given up only one run per game. He has no wins in those three outings because his teammates have only scored three runs in his outings. When the White Sox start scoring runs Rodon won lost record will soar.
The injury suffered by Kyree Irvin in Thursday night's NBA finals in game one was a broken knee cap. He is out of the series and with it so goes Cleveland's chances of winning the title. LaBron is great but I don't think he can win this series alone.
This is not the first time Benton has been on the All American team but it is the first team. Moss with a diploma in hand and several conversations with major league teams under his belt he only has until Monday night to wait and see where his future may lie. Monday night starting at 5pm is the 2015 MLB FirstYear Draft. Those in the know think he will be drafted between rounds four through ten.
Monday will only be the first two rounds plus the compensation picks. 1pm Tuesday starts rounds three through ten and if the experts are right everyone will hear Benton's name Tuesday afternoon. Should his name get called Monday night a rather nice bonus check will be part of the deal but the further from round two you get the bonus checks are reserved for the top picks.
Picked in the 15th round last year but deciding to return to Carolina for his senior season most of Moss' negotiating power is gone because MLB teams know you have no further options now that your college eligibility is gone. So most of the bonus money goes to players right out of high school or those top draft picks who are college juniors who could go back to college like Moss did last year. If he goes say in the fifth round he improved his draft status by ten rounds by going back to Carolina and having a 7-1 season. Good Luck Benton we'll be watching!!!!!!
N C State pitcher Carlos Rodon unless he gets injured will probably never see the minors again. Rodon has appeared in eight games since his call up with five starts now in his history is 1-0 with an ERA of 3.12. Thursday Rodon went six innings and struck out 10 which is right now his career high but his last three starts has given up only one run per game. He has no wins in those three outings because his teammates have only scored three runs in his outings. When the White Sox start scoring runs Rodon won lost record will soar.
The injury suffered by Kyree Irvin in Thursday night's NBA finals in game one was a broken knee cap. He is out of the series and with it so goes Cleveland's chances of winning the title. LaBron is great but I don't think he can win this series alone.
Friday, June 5, 2015
Rumors Becoming True
This is the time of year that high school years are ending and with that comes moves. Those moves are based on teacher contract ending and for some they get out of the business move on to better situations or just move to another school
This is also the time of years when rumors become true, found out just to be wishful thinking. We do know at this point one of the rumors are true and that BW Holt has packed his gear and departed as football coach. To say the least Rocky Mount Academy fell into a pot of gold landing Holt.
A 68 year old man who could not forget the life of coaching. A man who missed the sweaty days of August when you put together your team. Mold them into a fighting machine that will take on all comers in the football field. Stare at film of players sometimes your own team but mostly other teams and developing a plan to beat them.
Stand on the sidelines on Friday night and play a chess match with the coach on the other sideline who wants desperately to beat you. Plain and simple the man was born a football coach and he probably would have loved to have died standing on the sidelines on a Friday night coaching his team. Plans don't always go the way we plan.
Once departing Rocky Mount High and a year away from the game Holt looked high and dry to find a public school needing the services of and old ball coach who could turn a stale program around over night. None saw the need. Coach Holt told me one night after he was on a TV show with me that he wished he had of found Rocky Mount 30 years earlier. The talent level that was here plus those with the wallets willing to improve to stay at the top of the game.
Holt had the ability to change programs over night and he had enough salesman in him that when he sat down with a supporter of the program he could sell you to pull out your pocketbook for the money to make changes. Both Rocky Mount High and Rocky Mount Academy supporters bought in. The biggest thing you get back from Holt is he is your friend for life. His devotion to you is ever lasting.
Holt was never a person to sit still and rest on his laurels. Always pushing for more to make a program better than what it is today. Life throws curve balls sometimes when we are looking a fastball. Holt resigns and RMA is faced with finding a replacement. I can tell you right now finding a golden nugget will not be as easy as landing a coach who just needed to coach.
The football history at RMA has a period when they dropped football altogether. Eight man football in North Carolina has it's finger nails dug in the dirt hanging on the edge of a cliff. Several private schools don't know whether their doors will be open or if they will have enough players to even field an eight man team.
Will RMA be forced if it is to continue to field a football team be forced to go back to eleven man! Holt was only a part time coach who whenever possible went home to Bristol Tennessee. Despite winning two state championships what coach would leave a full time position at a public high school to go to coach eight man? How many retired coaches do you know like Holt just can't live without football? I suspect RMA will go back to a volunteer coach who comes after work because he likes coaching and loves RMA and wants to keep football alive. RMA just can't luck up and find another Holt can they?
This is also the time of years when rumors become true, found out just to be wishful thinking. We do know at this point one of the rumors are true and that BW Holt has packed his gear and departed as football coach. To say the least Rocky Mount Academy fell into a pot of gold landing Holt.
A 68 year old man who could not forget the life of coaching. A man who missed the sweaty days of August when you put together your team. Mold them into a fighting machine that will take on all comers in the football field. Stare at film of players sometimes your own team but mostly other teams and developing a plan to beat them.
Stand on the sidelines on Friday night and play a chess match with the coach on the other sideline who wants desperately to beat you. Plain and simple the man was born a football coach and he probably would have loved to have died standing on the sidelines on a Friday night coaching his team. Plans don't always go the way we plan.
Once departing Rocky Mount High and a year away from the game Holt looked high and dry to find a public school needing the services of and old ball coach who could turn a stale program around over night. None saw the need. Coach Holt told me one night after he was on a TV show with me that he wished he had of found Rocky Mount 30 years earlier. The talent level that was here plus those with the wallets willing to improve to stay at the top of the game.
Holt had the ability to change programs over night and he had enough salesman in him that when he sat down with a supporter of the program he could sell you to pull out your pocketbook for the money to make changes. Both Rocky Mount High and Rocky Mount Academy supporters bought in. The biggest thing you get back from Holt is he is your friend for life. His devotion to you is ever lasting.
Holt was never a person to sit still and rest on his laurels. Always pushing for more to make a program better than what it is today. Life throws curve balls sometimes when we are looking a fastball. Holt resigns and RMA is faced with finding a replacement. I can tell you right now finding a golden nugget will not be as easy as landing a coach who just needed to coach.
The football history at RMA has a period when they dropped football altogether. Eight man football in North Carolina has it's finger nails dug in the dirt hanging on the edge of a cliff. Several private schools don't know whether their doors will be open or if they will have enough players to even field an eight man team.
Will RMA be forced if it is to continue to field a football team be forced to go back to eleven man! Holt was only a part time coach who whenever possible went home to Bristol Tennessee. Despite winning two state championships what coach would leave a full time position at a public high school to go to coach eight man? How many retired coaches do you know like Holt just can't live without football? I suspect RMA will go back to a volunteer coach who comes after work because he likes coaching and loves RMA and wants to keep football alive. RMA just can't luck up and find another Holt can they?
Thursday, June 4, 2015
The Magic of Instant Communications
Saw on Instagram that Blake Helms senior Rocky Mount Gryphon baseball player has committed to play baseball for Barton. This past season Blake was 8-2 during the regular season. Do you think he was the main man on the mound or not. The Gryphons only won ten games all season.
Instagram was hot yesterday as Isaiah Alston the senior Gryphon shooting guard basketball player has committed to play for John Thompson at NC Wesleyan. Isaiah average 20.8 points per game and had his moments that he could score 15 points in a matter of seconds throwing in threes. He averaged 4.8 rebounds as a shooting guard and not quite two assists per game.
The end of basketball season has come and gone and one former Lady Gryphon that I had not mentioned since Christmas was Carmen Richardson. Richardson freshman year at Queens College in Charlotte she played in all 27 games averaging 17.9 minutes per game. Hey 17 minutes per game is major contributions for a freshman off the bench. She shot almost 38 per cent at guard averaging 5.8 points per game. Not a bad freshman year at all for Carmen.
This week's update on Brian Goodwin playing in AA Harriburg Pa. Brian hit his second home run of the year but that batting average is a concern. Down to 218 which is where he was hitting before his shoulder injury last season in AAA Syracuse. Injuries have been the down fall of many players in any sport. Brian is listed as the 13th prospect for the Washington Nationals but last year at this time he was number one.
Hobbs Johnson lost his second game of the season at Bolixi Mississippi pitching in AA for the Milwaukee Brewers. His record now stands at 3-2 with and ERA of 3.26. If you recall earlier in the season Bolixi has not played a home game yet due to the fact their stadium has not been completed but it is close now.
The most odd first year in pro baseball must belong to Trea Turner the former Wolfpack shortstop was a first round draft pick for the San Diego Padres. Turner signed a 3.9 million dollar bonus when he signed with the Padres on June 13 2014. Christmas he was the player to be named later in a three way trade between the Padres and the Washington Nationals.
MLB rules state that no rookie can be traded until one year after his first year of his contract ends. So Turner has spent the entire spring in San Antonio the AA affiliate of the Padres playing for a team that doesn't want him. So what has Turner done. He has hit 325 and played flawless shortstop for a team that will not have him after June 13th when his year is up.
Still trying to recover from the Wolfpack baseball game that ended after midnight Monday. It is about the worse two innings I have ever seen any team play.
Instagram was hot yesterday as Isaiah Alston the senior Gryphon shooting guard basketball player has committed to play for John Thompson at NC Wesleyan. Isaiah average 20.8 points per game and had his moments that he could score 15 points in a matter of seconds throwing in threes. He averaged 4.8 rebounds as a shooting guard and not quite two assists per game.
The end of basketball season has come and gone and one former Lady Gryphon that I had not mentioned since Christmas was Carmen Richardson. Richardson freshman year at Queens College in Charlotte she played in all 27 games averaging 17.9 minutes per game. Hey 17 minutes per game is major contributions for a freshman off the bench. She shot almost 38 per cent at guard averaging 5.8 points per game. Not a bad freshman year at all for Carmen.
This week's update on Brian Goodwin playing in AA Harriburg Pa. Brian hit his second home run of the year but that batting average is a concern. Down to 218 which is where he was hitting before his shoulder injury last season in AAA Syracuse. Injuries have been the down fall of many players in any sport. Brian is listed as the 13th prospect for the Washington Nationals but last year at this time he was number one.
Hobbs Johnson lost his second game of the season at Bolixi Mississippi pitching in AA for the Milwaukee Brewers. His record now stands at 3-2 with and ERA of 3.26. If you recall earlier in the season Bolixi has not played a home game yet due to the fact their stadium has not been completed but it is close now.
The most odd first year in pro baseball must belong to Trea Turner the former Wolfpack shortstop was a first round draft pick for the San Diego Padres. Turner signed a 3.9 million dollar bonus when he signed with the Padres on June 13 2014. Christmas he was the player to be named later in a three way trade between the Padres and the Washington Nationals.
MLB rules state that no rookie can be traded until one year after his first year of his contract ends. So Turner has spent the entire spring in San Antonio the AA affiliate of the Padres playing for a team that doesn't want him. So what has Turner done. He has hit 325 and played flawless shortstop for a team that will not have him after June 13th when his year is up.
Still trying to recover from the Wolfpack baseball game that ended after midnight Monday. It is about the worse two innings I have ever seen any team play.
Wednesday, June 3, 2015
NBA Finals LaBron Versus Stephen
LaBron James at six feet eight inches tall reminds me of Wilt Chamberlain. Now why would that be? Wilt the Stilt was seven feet two inches tall and came out of Kansas in the Last fifties. During those days the average center in the NBA was six seven or eight. He was a monster compared to everyone else. There was only one player back then that could handle Wilt and that was Bill Russell of the Celtics. If it wasn't for Russell Wilt might have won ten titles.
Labron is a monster whether he is a point guard, shooting guard or small forward. He is as big as any power foward and if he had to he could hold his own at center. This is the fifth year in a row LaBron has lead a team to the NBA finals. He returned home to Cleveland to try to bring home a championship to a town that doesn't win championships in any thing.
Stephen Curry in college brought Davidson college back to the lime light a place they hadn't seen since Left Driesell roamed the sidelines and there best player was Terry Holland yes the old Virginia coach and ECU Athletic Director. Curry can shoot the lights out. The NBA has not seen a shooter like him since Pistol Pete Maravich. Curry almost shot Davidson to the Final Four. This season he has shot his team to the NBA Finals.
Curry comes from fine stock. I saw his dad one weekend blitze NC State and Carolina back to back in what use to be called the North South. That was when South Carolina and Clemson came to Charlotte one weekend and played State and Carolina back to back double header in Charlotte on a Friday and Saturday night. When South Carolina went to the SEC they dropped out and Virginia Tech took their place. Tech use to lose two games each year they were in it except when Dell played.
This NBA final comes down to can a team win the NBA title when most of their offense is base on the jump shot? There is no doubt the Warriors have had one of the best shooting seasons in NBA history. Does Cleveland have anybody who can guard Curry and Thompson so far from the Basket?Do the Warriors have anybody who can guard Labron when he drives to the basket?
I think Cleveland has too many parts injured and Labron will keep this finals interesting but the Warriors have too many other players who nobody knows about but will help the Warriors win. I like to watch Curry play. You know to me Labron is so big that he is not graceful. He's a winner so it doesn't matter what winning looks like. I'm pulling for Curry other wise I have no reason to pull for the Warriors. I think it goes six and if Irvin is healthy enough the Cavs might get it to seven games.. If not Wartiors in six.
Labron is a monster whether he is a point guard, shooting guard or small forward. He is as big as any power foward and if he had to he could hold his own at center. This is the fifth year in a row LaBron has lead a team to the NBA finals. He returned home to Cleveland to try to bring home a championship to a town that doesn't win championships in any thing.
Stephen Curry in college brought Davidson college back to the lime light a place they hadn't seen since Left Driesell roamed the sidelines and there best player was Terry Holland yes the old Virginia coach and ECU Athletic Director. Curry can shoot the lights out. The NBA has not seen a shooter like him since Pistol Pete Maravich. Curry almost shot Davidson to the Final Four. This season he has shot his team to the NBA Finals.
Curry comes from fine stock. I saw his dad one weekend blitze NC State and Carolina back to back in what use to be called the North South. That was when South Carolina and Clemson came to Charlotte one weekend and played State and Carolina back to back double header in Charlotte on a Friday and Saturday night. When South Carolina went to the SEC they dropped out and Virginia Tech took their place. Tech use to lose two games each year they were in it except when Dell played.
This NBA final comes down to can a team win the NBA title when most of their offense is base on the jump shot? There is no doubt the Warriors have had one of the best shooting seasons in NBA history. Does Cleveland have anybody who can guard Curry and Thompson so far from the Basket?Do the Warriors have anybody who can guard Labron when he drives to the basket?
I think Cleveland has too many parts injured and Labron will keep this finals interesting but the Warriors have too many other players who nobody knows about but will help the Warriors win. I like to watch Curry play. You know to me Labron is so big that he is not graceful. He's a winner so it doesn't matter what winning looks like. I'm pulling for Curry other wise I have no reason to pull for the Warriors. I think it goes six and if Irvin is healthy enough the Cavs might get it to seven games.. If not Wartiors in six.
Tuesday, June 2, 2015
Total Collapse
NC State put a four spot on the board in the top of the eighth inning to take total control of their winner take all Fort Worth Regional game with TCU at TCU. The four runs gave them an 8-1 lead but five errors, two balks and two passed balls later TCU scores six runs in the eighth, one in the ninth and one in the tenth to beat NC State 9-8 to win the regional and advance to the super regional to face Texas A&M.
Two ground balls in the eight started the down fall. All the Pack had to do was throw ground ball outs to first and they win 8-2. Once the fever caught the Pack TCU took advantage of every Wolfpack Mistake. The eight runs that TCU scored the last two and third innings only the winning run was earned one all the rest were Christmas gifts from the Pack.
The collapse over shadowed the first seven and a half innings of great ball by the Pack. The lost ends the college baseball season for all teams in North Carolina. UNCW who played LSU Monday lost again to the Tigers but the score was a very respectful 2-0. That is the second time this week the Seahawks lost 2-0 to LSU. There are not many teams any where have stood up to the Tigers any better than the Hawks did especially playing in Baton Rouge the home field of LSU.
Other wise the ACC had a great day as Miami and Florida State joined Virginia and Louisville as the four teams from the ACC playing in this weekend's two out of three Super Regional with the winner of each Super going to the College World Series.
The NCHSAA found out that if State had of won and Texas A&M had of lost then Doak Field at Dail Park would have been hosting a Super Regional between State and California this weekend instead of the state baseball Championships. As late as the Sixth inning with State ahead 4-1 and Texas A&M tied with California it really looked like the state baseball playoffs were in jeopardy at the Doak. A&M had pulled out a 3-1 win to to insure State would not be hosting by the time the Wolfpack fell a part.
Two ground balls in the eight started the down fall. All the Pack had to do was throw ground ball outs to first and they win 8-2. Once the fever caught the Pack TCU took advantage of every Wolfpack Mistake. The eight runs that TCU scored the last two and third innings only the winning run was earned one all the rest were Christmas gifts from the Pack.
The collapse over shadowed the first seven and a half innings of great ball by the Pack. The lost ends the college baseball season for all teams in North Carolina. UNCW who played LSU Monday lost again to the Tigers but the score was a very respectful 2-0. That is the second time this week the Seahawks lost 2-0 to LSU. There are not many teams any where have stood up to the Tigers any better than the Hawks did especially playing in Baton Rouge the home field of LSU.
Other wise the ACC had a great day as Miami and Florida State joined Virginia and Louisville as the four teams from the ACC playing in this weekend's two out of three Super Regional with the winner of each Super going to the College World Series.
The NCHSAA found out that if State had of won and Texas A&M had of lost then Doak Field at Dail Park would have been hosting a Super Regional between State and California this weekend instead of the state baseball Championships. As late as the Sixth inning with State ahead 4-1 and Texas A&M tied with California it really looked like the state baseball playoffs were in jeopardy at the Doak. A&M had pulled out a 3-1 win to to insure State would not be hosting by the time the Wolfpack fell a part.
Monday, June 1, 2015
Pack Can't Get It Done
There are just some games when everything you try is just wrong. Sunday night in a possible win over TCU would send the NC State Wolfpack to their third Super regional in four years the Pack made 21 outs hitting mostly at'em balls while TCU had three chalk hits. On top of that the TCU pitcher carries a perfect game into the seventh inning before the Pack gets a base runner.
Down 5-0 in the fifth Elliott Avent brought in Wilder and said finish the game. We are saving everybody else for Monday night. Take about take one for the team. Wilder did what was asked by State loses their first game of the Fort Worth regional to the host team TCU Horned Frogs and now must play them again Monday night at 8 pm after an 8-2 TCU win.
TCU had earlier in the day knocked Stony Brook out of the tournament before they faced the Pack. Talk about what if's. Should State win Monday to earn a Super Regional invite they just might get a chance to host if Texas A&M loses to Cal. Those two teams have already played a 14 inning and 12 inning games Saturday and Sunday with each winning by a run.
TCU is the number four seed and Texas A&M a five and if both are out then State as a winner over the highest seeded team would host Cal. First a major road block in TCU which seems like the sleeping giant but the Pack woke them up on Saturday night with the homer in the ninth.
UNC Wilmington is still alive after a 8-2 victory over Tulane. Due to rain in Baton Rouge their elimination game against the top seed and undefeated LSU was scheduled for an 11:30 Start after the UNCW - Tulane game ended. By rule no game can start after 11:00 pm so UNCW will play LSU at Noon Monday. You can bet LSU has their attention on the Seahawks as the Tigers only managed a 2-0 win over the Seahawks Saturday night.
Sunday was not all that great a day for the ACC. Notre Dame lost twice without scoring a run in either game. The Pack Lost. Florida State possible game to send them to the Super regional was rained out. Miami lost in their regional 3-0 to Columbia and play Columbia again Monday. Louisville went undefeated in their Regional and advances to The Super Regional. Virginia becomes the second ACC team in the Super regional beating Southern Cal 14-10. Sounds like a football score. That's happens sometimes as regional get toward the end and teams pitching starts dwindling.
Down 5-0 in the fifth Elliott Avent brought in Wilder and said finish the game. We are saving everybody else for Monday night. Take about take one for the team. Wilder did what was asked by State loses their first game of the Fort Worth regional to the host team TCU Horned Frogs and now must play them again Monday night at 8 pm after an 8-2 TCU win.
TCU had earlier in the day knocked Stony Brook out of the tournament before they faced the Pack. Talk about what if's. Should State win Monday to earn a Super Regional invite they just might get a chance to host if Texas A&M loses to Cal. Those two teams have already played a 14 inning and 12 inning games Saturday and Sunday with each winning by a run.
TCU is the number four seed and Texas A&M a five and if both are out then State as a winner over the highest seeded team would host Cal. First a major road block in TCU which seems like the sleeping giant but the Pack woke them up on Saturday night with the homer in the ninth.
UNC Wilmington is still alive after a 8-2 victory over Tulane. Due to rain in Baton Rouge their elimination game against the top seed and undefeated LSU was scheduled for an 11:30 Start after the UNCW - Tulane game ended. By rule no game can start after 11:00 pm so UNCW will play LSU at Noon Monday. You can bet LSU has their attention on the Seahawks as the Tigers only managed a 2-0 win over the Seahawks Saturday night.
Sunday was not all that great a day for the ACC. Notre Dame lost twice without scoring a run in either game. The Pack Lost. Florida State possible game to send them to the Super regional was rained out. Miami lost in their regional 3-0 to Columbia and play Columbia again Monday. Louisville went undefeated in their Regional and advances to The Super Regional. Virginia becomes the second ACC team in the Super regional beating Southern Cal 14-10. Sounds like a football score. That's happens sometimes as regional get toward the end and teams pitching starts dwindling.
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