It Gets To My Heart

I have been calling ball games on the radio since 1971 and in the last ten years or so have added TV games. I do it because I enjoy it but at times you wonder who might be listening and watching if any.

There are special times when you run into a grandmother in a store and they ask if you are the man on the radio or TV and how much they enjoy and thank you for doing the games because it is hard for them to go to games to see their children or grand children play. Because I was there they could be there also. Those are the times that generate your heart and motivate to go to the next game regardless of it's importance because there is someone out there that needs you to be there.

Modern times have brought on the use of computers for blogs which have added to my media exposure. Like talking on the radio or TV I like doing this blog almost on a daily schedule passing along what information I might know that sometimes you cannot get any where else.

There is a core following to this blog and I thank those of you who are with me every step of the way. But like radio you wonder sometimes whether you are wasting your time until you receive a note from someone thanking you for kind words you have said about someone.

That happened back in May when high school baseball season was over. If you go back in my archives around May 20th or so I did a story on Dillon Cockrell who I said in the article was my favorite baseball player from Rocky Mount. A few days later I received a thank you note from Dillon's family thanking me for my kind word about him.

Just like hearing from those on radio it gets next to my heart to think that I have said something on this blog that is important to someone.

A few days later I got a call from a friend Gene Taylor who is a family friend of the Cockrell's. Gene expressed to me his appreciation for what I had said and told me of how much it had effected the Cockrell family. He told me of a plan he had that he wanted to take that article on my blog and have it printed up and put it on a plaque and give it to the Cockrell's.

Last night I had dinner with Gene and Wes Bradshaw. Gene had the finished product with him and he wanted me to sign it on the bottom.

Knowing that what you have done will hang on a wall in someone's home kind of gets me right here in my heart.

I may have made a family's life a little brighter for a day or two but I can tell you what Gene Taylor has done not only affect the Cockrell's but me too.

Thank You Gene,

The World Of Twenty Four Hour News

Texas Tech has fire their football coach for basically locking a player up in the storage room. There seems to be a rift between coach and player and when the player was injured in practice with a concussion this was the coaches punishment to him.

Since I am from the old school I came up during the time of "Bull in the ring". If you were put in a circle with five or six players surrounding you with each having a number. When your number was called you tackled the player in the middle. You would move back to your position and another number was called until the player in the middle was exhausted. If you failed to tackle him once the player basically went down to his knees and couldn't get up, you were put in the ring.

My Junior year the first week of summer practice our second string quarterback's family went on vacation and he missed the first week. His first day to practice we went through a normal practice and after we had done our conditioning sprints and suicides we were told to go down on one knee at the back of the end zone. Our coach called for vacation boy to come forward and proceeded to make him continue to do sprints in front of the team until he quit the team.

As the years have passed coaches have become more humane in their treatment so locking a player in a storage room is mild to what I grew up being exposed to.

Now days if the player can't follow your rules kick him off the team and don't worry with him any more or make him follow the rules to come back.

I know they are out there on the other coast but the people who pull for UCLA must be pulling their hair out at this season. The leading NCAA basketball championship school is only 7-7 so far this year. Carolina has lost three games this year and Carolina fans are pulling their hair out over that.

Kentucky in the middle of December became the first major college to win 2,000 game. That is impressive but I have to give Carolina some love here. Kentucky has been playing basketball for seven more years and it will not take Carolina seven years to hit 2,000. Maybe next year?

The ACC loses another bowl game. Miami was man handled by Wisconsin but the game was not as close as the score.

Two Titles For Gryphons

The Lady Gryphons of Rocky Mount High school had little trouble in dumping the home standing Lady Knights of Northern Nash in the Nash County Holiday tournament finals by a score of 40-21. The Lady Gryphons are now 7-2 on the season.

The Rocky Mount boys found themselves having to face off against the home standing Knights of Northern Nash and blitzes the Knights in the first half to lead 45-27. Northern tried to make a game of it in the second half but lose to the Gryphons 58-44. Darius Mcknight was named MVP of the tournament. The victory is number eight in nine games for the Gryphons.

The Gryphons will not hit the hardwood again until next Wednesday when they travel to Hertford County to meet the Bears in Non-conference action.

College basketball tonight Duke and North Carolina State both won. John Scheyer of Duke and Dennis Horner of State both lead their teams in victory. Coaches all the time pride themselves in being able to say that a player improved during their stay at their schools. Both Scheyer and Horner have gotten better every year and if the ACC player of the year was given out today Scheyer would probably win it.

Nash County's Julius Peppers has made the Pro Bowl for the Carolina Panthers. Peppers who has 10.5 sacks so far this season will pick up a 1.5 million dollars bonus for making the team. Not bad for a player who said during the off season he wanted to play for someone else. The bonus means Peppers who is making a million dollars per regular season game will make a little more in the all star game.

By the way my man Philip Rivers has made the team but I hope he doesn't play in the game, for the first time ever the pro bowl is being played the Sunday before the Super Bowl in the same city as the Super Bowl which this year is Miami. The reason I hope he doesn't play is, if the Chargers are in the Super Bowl he will be replace in the Pro Bowl.

Sunday will be the final game of the year for the Carolina Panthers. Who would have ever thought say a month ago that the Panthers might win this game with New Orleans. A month ago both the Saints and Minnesota looked like automatics for the NFC championship game. Today Green Bay,Arizona, Philadelphia and even Dallas may be better than both.

Gryphons Sail into Finals

Monday afternoon the Gryphon girls basketball team won by nearly twenty points over Nash Central and tonight the Gryphon boys beat Nash central 56-42.

This sets up for the girls to play Northern Nash's girls at 6.00pm Tuesday night and the boys wait on the Northern Nash-Southern Nash winner at 8.00pm Tuesday.

Victory's today run the girls record to 6-2 and now the boys are 7-1.

If only the moved had been made sooner. The Carolina Panthers seem to be adjusted to Matt Moore being their quarterback and after the start that Jake Delhomme had throwing nine interceptions the first two games, suppose the Panthers had made of the change then over waiting until game twelve. They just might have made the playoffs.

Thinking like that Suppose Chicago had of replace Jay Cutler, who leads the league in interceptions and by far and away the worse player in the NFL this year. Sometimes changes work and sometimes they are duds.

So far in Bowl action the ACC is 1-2. Clemson gave the ACC their first win last night beating Kentucky after Carolina and Boston college lost on Saturday.

Dallas victory last night over the deadskins knocked the New York Giants out. Philadelphia and Dallas plays Sunday for the Eastern Division champs over a road game in the first round.

Lets look at the NFC Right now New Orleans has the best record but it seems they peaked too early. Minnesota seems as if they are not as good as they once were. Philadelphia/ Dallas, I don't trust either in crunch time. Arizona seems like everyone has forgotten them.

The AFC The Chargers look unbeatable but there is still five weeks to the Super Bowl.Did Indy mess up by pulling their starter Sunday and killing their momentum? I don't take Cincy seriously. Somebody is going to have to knock New England out. Any body else is just filling out the bracket. With all that said who knows who is going to win!

To Be Undefeated Or Not Undefeated

The wacky world of the NFL. There are teams scrambling in the middle still trying to get in the playoffs.

The top two Teams in the AFC took different roads this weekend.. San Diego no longer needing to win to be in the playoffs but needed to win to earn the #2 seed and a home playoff game in round two. The Chargers went all out for three quarters and secured victory before they pulled Philip Rivers and other valuable players.

Today with an undefeated season still a possibility Indianapolis chose to pull Peyton Manning and their valuable players early into the third quarter with only a 15-10 lead. The second team could do nothing and the New York Jets are back in the playoff picture and the Colts are no longer undefeated.

The NFC is more muddled tonight after New Orleans laid a egg against the Tampa Bay Bucs. The Saints no longer seem to be on a straight road to the Super Bowl. Minnesota right now #2 in the NFC has lost two of three games and the playoffs in the NFC may be falling to the best team in the NFC last year in the Cardinals.

The AFC has New England who can wins big at home and gets killed on the road. Cincinnati has a really good defense but can't score.

The NFC Philadelphia just doesn't thrill me and Dallas keeps hanging around.

Let's turn our attention to high school basketball. Nash County basketball tournament starts Monday at 2.00pm. The Lady Gryphons open up play at 2.00pm against Nash Central. The Gryphon boys don't hit the court until 6.00pm.

As of right now Rocky Mount does not have another home game until in basketball until January 21st. However there is a makeup game with Rose that will be a home game when ever the date is set up. That seems like a long time but there is a week of exams in there in which there will be no basketball.

Tar Heels Lose In Charlotte.

This entire football season the Tar heels lived by their defense. Tonight once again needing the defense to win the Heel's defense gave up a fourth quarter drive and eventual field goal and Pittsburgh beat North Carolina 19-17. This one game was a snap shot of Carolinas season.

Carolina seemed very lucky to be even in this game at the half as Pittsburgh dominated most of the first quarter but only had a field goal.

Stephan Virgil's career at Virginia Tech is over. Virgil has been ruled ineligible for the Orange Bowl games because of academics. The 2005 Rocky Mount graduate was just voted on this web site the top Gryphon football player of the decade.

The Nash County basketball tournament starts Monday at Northern Nash. The 5-2 Lady Gryphons begin play at 2.00pm Monday against Nash Central while the 6-1 Gryphon boys play Nash central at 6.00pm.

Shocking news tonight out of Gainesville Florida that Urban Myer will resign after the Sugar Bowl because of health reasons. This is about as shocking when I heard Lou Holtz had signed on with the New York Jets way back in 1975. I remember to this day what I was doing when I heard Holtz was leaving the Wolfpack. I was at a stop light waiting on traffic at Military Circle Mall in Norfolk Virginia when the news came across the radio that Holtz was gone.

The NFL is down to 2 games for most teams and the playoffs will be on. There is a push on in the NFL to make sure players and concussions are looked after more than ever.

Brian Westbrook has been out of action for the Eagles for nearly a month now. There is talk that because of the concussions the Eagles are going to retire him at the end of the season. I find this curious that he has been activated for the Eagles game Sunday. If he is having such problems with his concussions why would they activate him to play tomorrow.

This just seems to me to be looking out for the next game over the health of a player.

Friday Night's NFL game on the NFL Network the Chargers walloped the Titans. Growing up I was always a Washington Redskin Fan. I have been to RFK many times and bounced up and down when "Hail to the Redskins" was playing. When the Panthers were born I switched to our home state team. The moment Philip Rivers became a Charger I have split my allegiance between the Panthers and Rivers.

I know this is a homer talking about his player but right now is there a better player in the NFL than Philip Rivers. If I had to guess that Peyton Manning will win the MVP award with Drew Brees second. Neither of those two players have had the two year run that Rivers has going. He was the top rated passer in then league last year and after Friday Night's game he move to second this year behind Brees.

Rivers four years as a starting quarterback he is second on the all time list of quarterback ratings only Steve Young is Better. Rivers has lead the Chargers to the highest scoring average in the first 60 games starting of any quarterback in history 29.8. Of course the 18-0 record in December which is the best of all time in NFL History. If the Chargers win the Super Bowl all those records will mean a lot more.

Christmas Eve

I have just finished watching the N C State basketball game against Arizona in Tucson. State tied the game with 7.9 seconds to go only to give up a layup with .9 seconds to go. The inbound pass State heaved a 75 foot shot which hit the back iron between the rim and backboard and scared everyone in the Gym until the ball fell off.

If only State had a point guard who knew how to pass the ball somewhere besides outside the three point line to his teammates they would be dangerous, but no team that can't get the ball to the open shooters can beat anybody in close games.

Glad to see that Carolina had another home game and Roy Williams stuck to coaching in this one instead of being a rabbit eared usher. I guess all tickets were checked if you sit on the same side Roy sits on.

There seems to be a power struggle in Minnesota between Brett Favre and his head coach. This struggle seems to be affecting the team as they have now lost two out of three games.

The NFL returns for a Friday night game between the San Diego Chargers and the Tennessee Titans. Hope you have a dish to watch this game on the NFL Network.

Carolina Football will be in Charlotte Saturday to take on Pittsburgh. I think game time is 4.30. This should be a really good game if both teams show up to play.

I see that the Liberty bowl game for ECU is sold out. This could be the biggest game ECU has played in since beating Miami in Raleigh in 1999.

The Big Ten which actually has 11 teams is hinting around that they may want to add a team. Everyone thinks it will be Notre Dame but what if it were Pittsburgh or Syracuse. There just might be an opening in the Big East for ECU.

I want to wish every one a Merry Christmas. I probably will not blog again until after the Carolina Football game Saturday night.