Former Gryphon ACC Pitcher Of The Week

2010 Rocky Mount High School grad Hobbs Johnson was named the ACC Pitcher of the Week after two appearances last week for the Tar Heels.  The Tar Heels did not play the last weekend of April because of exams but they did return to action last Tuesday and Johnson got four innings of relief work where he struck out 6 and helped be a part of the Carolina 2-0 shutout win.

Yesterday Hobbs started for the Heels and pitched 5.1 innings  struck out seven and allowed only two hits.  When he left the game he was ahead 4-1 which was the final score.  Johnson for the week pitched 9.1 innings  giving up three hits struck out 13 and posted both wins in the games he pitched.   The sophomore is now 4-1 on the season and his ERA for the season has dipped  to 1.60 in over 39 innings pitched.

The last game ever for Rocky Mount High School at old Gryphon Stadium is coming together with 35 or so  Gryphons committed to play and Wes Bradshaw is still looking for any old Rocky Mount player who may or may not want to play but be a part of the last game contact him.This Wednesday is the deadline for those who would like to participate in some form.

Gryphon girls soccer starts the playoff at 5PM Tuesday when they host Eastern Wayne.  The Lady Gryphons missed out on winning both the regular season and Tournament last Thursday to Fike so they should be motivated to get a new streak going.

The second round of the Tennis team competition is Tuesday with both Northern and Southern Nash on the road.

Saturday the Eastern Regional in track and field will be held in Swansboro.  I don't know the reason but certainly Swansboro would not be geographically any where near the center of the Eastern Region area.  Many athletes from this area will have to crawl out of bed early in order to be there for the start and it will be near dark before the last event.

All Out Playoffs

Baseball begins the playoffs on Friday and once again the NCHSAA is going with one game the first week, two the second, the fourth round early in week three and the Regional Finals two out of three by the end of the third weekend.  It is possible that the four teams that make the Regional will have to play four games that week.

Why can't we have the first two rounds this upcoming week. Rounds three and four the second week and only have the four teams left play a two out of three the third week and another two out of three for the State Championship.  Four games in a week and nobody can possibly put a decent pitcher on the mound for the fourth game unless he has already pitched during the week.  There is no safety factor there over using pitcher.

Hunt will represent  the Big East as the first seed.  Nash Central will get a home game as the number two. Northern Nash and Southern Nash will have to play every game on the road starting with the first through the fourth game.  If either makes it to the regional then they would get one game at home.

Softball will send four to the playoffs with Nash Central as the first seed and Southern Nash as the number two getting at least one home game.  Northern Nash and Hunt as three and four seeds will be on the road.

Soccer begins this week on Tuesday and Rocky Mount and Fike will be home as the top teams in the Big East.  Hunt and Northern Nash are gassing up the buses for road trips on Tuesday.

Tonight on the All New Sports Show on WHIG TV you can see the replay of the Hunt-Nash central baseball game played for the Big East crown at 8PM.  Edward Green will be doing the play by play in tonight's game.  We are planning right now to cover next Friday's home game for Faith Christian as they open play in their playoffs in baseball.

Injuries

Just maybe the greatest relief pitcher in the history of Major League Baseball Mariano Rivera was injured this week while the Yankees were taking batting practice just like every team every where does before any game.  I have heard so many comments about how silly that is that he would be shagging fly balls in the outfield during batting practice.

Major League teams play practically everyday.  The only time they get to practice is before a game starts.  Most of the time that happens before the gates open and in some parks the home team has finished batting practice before the paying public is allowed into a stadium.

The home team gets forty minutes that starts by who ever is the starting line up with the lead off batter first  gets their cuts. He gets about ten swings before the second batter gets his cuts. Then those on the bench take a few swings.  While there is someone in the cage  coaches are hitting ground balls to the infielders and they either throw the ball over to first or back to a designated area.

  There is always a screen setup for whoever is pitching batting practice in most cases it is a coach.  The screen is there to protect him on line drives hit directly back at him because just as fast as he can let one pitch goes he is winding up to throw another.  There are other screens set up for first  base, second and any where a player may be catching a ball thrown from  a different direction from where the hitters are.  Once the home teams forty minutes is up the visitors get their forty minutes

I once went to see the Braves play way back  in the 80's in Atlanta and as we walking on to the stadium grounds several pitchers were actually running around the stadium.  I remember two of them were Rick Camp and Tommy Green so that dates how far back that was.  Pitchers run wind sprints in the outfield while batting practice goes on while other pitchers who may have finished their running are shagging fly balls like Rivera was doing.

It doesn't  matter how valuable you are to the team everyone has to get in the necessary work before a game in order to be in shape to play six months a baseball everyday.  Baseball is not like football where you play a game and practice five times before you play again.  I believe  the players play 20 out of 21 days so they only get one day off every three weeks. 

In the movie Bull Durham Crash  created a rain out by cutting on the sprinkler system and letting it run all night.  Don't you know players hate rain delays that make the games go five hours or more.  You also got to know they love it when a game gets rained out before they leave for the ball park.  Days off are precious.

Consequences Of Life

This week one of the Icons of the NFL of the 90's  Junior Seau who had his greatest years with the San Diego Chargers shot himself and ended his life.  The world we live in today where we are not responsible for anything we do, it is always somebody else's fault.   The blame is being laid at the hands of concussions in the NFL. It very well be part of the cause but before we get carried away and have a rally in Rocky Mount to end the NFL let's try to find reason to keep sanity afloat.

Do you think the Seau ever used enhancement drugs at anytime in his playing career?  If he did what part of the blame can we point  in that direction?  If any anytime in his life did he ever used any drugs of pleasure? If he did what part did that play.  Did he ever get a concussion while playing and never told anyone for the fear of if I don't play someone could take my place?  Who's fault is that if it happened.  Was he in any financial trouble do to the fact that 70% of NFL players are broke five years after their careers end.   Did he miss the limelight so much that he was depressed because he wasn't on sports center every night any more. 

You know most athletes that reach the professional level in any sport are patted on the back from the moment we realize that they can play any sport really well  and you know as well as I do when they do wrong most of the time they are told " Thats ok, just don't do that again".  Athletes other than practice time in their sport where they sweat  to become great  get life handed to them on a silver platter.  Just maybe his platter wasn't silver anymore.

The NFL has a major perception problem because  the game is being played where the head is a spear. Yes in recent years they have started fining player who hit with the helmet first or go after a player head high only.  Even this weeks players were suspended because they were paying bounties to other players to take players out of the game.  Is that football when you play to hurt.

The answer to head hunting is take away the helmet.  You know up until about 1950 they wore a rubber cap and only started putting nose guards on helmets because broken noses was the main injury in football.  There is one advantage to not wearing a helmet.  Everyone could see your face and there would be no need after a tackle to run five yards out in the open and tell everybody to look at me.  That has no place in sports either.

The facts are at this point we have no idea why Junior Seau took his on life.  There are many things in life we need to know what the facts are before we hang someone  or in this case an  industry.

Trouble On The Horizon

More than 83% of the schools that turned in their ballots voted  to kick the big three Christian Private schools out of the NCHSAA .  The only thing that saved  Charlotte Catholic, Bishop McGuiness and Cardinal Gibbons from extraction,  more than 100 voting members failed to turn in ballots.   If all the abstained voted had of voted to keep the schools that would still be 60% that voted against.  I doubt if this is the last word on this issue with so many voting against.   The only way to solve the problem is any student who goes to a private school on scholarship is not eligible to play sports.  Without someone else paying for it they wouldn't be there in the first place.

Hunt won the Big East Baseball Tournament 10-8 over Nash Central.  Hunt's Big inning they score eight times while Nash Centrals biggest got only five.  The second week in a row Fike has beaten Rocky Mount at Rocky Mount 2-1 to win the Big East Soccer Tournament. Glover Park hosted the Big East Softball Tournament and  Nash Central won 6-3 over Southern Nash.

Paul Lilly won four long distance event to take the MVP of the Big East Track and Field Championship Wednesday.  Do you know how hard it is to win in four events when there are times there is not much time between events to catch your breath.  Paul is a very talented long distance runner and has shown since soccer season ended in November that when he devotes his energy to running he can excel.  I don't however blame him one bit for dividing time in the fall to soccer and cross country.

Both the Rocky Mount track teams took the conference titles.

Like to past along a congratulates to Wes Bradshaw as he became a papa earlier this week.  I know it is hard for many of you to even think of Wes as married an now a father!  It's a girl.

Big East This Year's Power In Tennis

Yes Northern Nash knocked of Eastern Wayne yesterday in the opening round of the tennis playoffs but the #2 seed from the Big East Southern Nash went to South Central and pinned the Falcons with their third loss of the season.

Both Northern and Southern advance to the second round where both will be on the road.  The second round is next Tuesday when Northern travels to South Brunswick and Southern skips over to C B Aycock.  This weekend the sectionals in individual tennis will be held in Wilson.

The Big East Soccer tournament finals will be held at 5pm Thursday afternoon at the Rocky Mount soccer field Rocky Mount the conference regular season champs take on Fike who finished third in the regular season but knocked off #2 Hunt Tuesday night to take on the Gryphons.  Next Tuesday is the first round of soccer playoffs  and Rocky Mount will be at home and it just might be the last sporting event ever played on the old campus.

Baseball Finals are Thursday night at Hunt where the regular season champs Hunt Host #2 Nash Central. Both finished 1 and 2 during the regular season and the seeding in next week's playoffs are already determined.  The state playoff don't start until next Thursday and the coaches didn't want  to finish the regular season and take two weeks off before the playoffs so that is the main reason there was a tournament this year.

One of the good things about Glover Park in Nashville is that it is a perfect place to hold the Big East softball Tournament.  Just like all other sports softball has come down to the top two teams that actually tied for the title during the regular season and they square off Thursday night at Glover Park for the tournament title.  There is one big thing the winners gets by winning the tournament.  They get the #1 seeding in next weeks playoffs so this game is more important than either the soccer finals or baseball.

It is official the the Big East will stay with the six existing team for the next four years.  The Big East is one of the few conferences in the state at any level that doesn't either lose a team or gain a new one member.  The 2013-2016 realignment was voted on today at the NCHSAA Athletic Director conference..  The vote will be announce tomorrow on how all the schools of the NCHSAA voted on keeping Private Schools as members.

Northern Tops Eastern Wayne In Tennis

 Northern Nash has lost only two tennis matches all season and today they played the opening round of the state tennis playoffs going on the road to play the team that has put the two L's on their record in Eastern Wayne.  The bad news for the Knights is their #1 player Michael Brackett lost his match in a tied breaker but even without that point Northern Nash has put the first loss  of the season on the #3 tennis team in North Carolina in Eastern Wayne.  The final was 5-3 Northern.  Eastern Wayne finishes 17-1 while Northern is now 16-2 and up next for them a journey to South Brunswick in the second round of the playoffs.

It took all of twenty seconds for the Lady Gryphons to take the lead that they would never give up on the way to a 5-1 win over the Lady Knights of Northern Nash in the semi finals of the Big East soccer tournament played this afternoon  at the soccer field on the campus at Rocky Mount.  Casey Cooke scored the opening goal added another later and Sydney Browder added two goals plus another from Evie Hunter.

The Lady Gryphons will try to win both the Regular season and tournament championship Thursday afternoon as they are the only sport left that still can play matches at Rocky Mount High.  The Tournament Championship is at 5.PM Thursday and regardless of the outcome they host a first round playoff game next Tuesday.

The Big East Baseball Tournament went as expected tonight as both of the top seeds Hunt and Nash Central won to move on to play each other Thursday in the championship finals at Hunt at 7pm.  Hunt scored five in the second and had an 9-0 lead in the seventh until Rocky Mount scored four times  to make the final 9-4.

Nash Central jumped out to an 8-0 lead on Northern Nash and I am sure the Bulldogs thought for a moment about giving up a 8-1 lead to Rocky Mount after Northern score four times to cut the lead in half.  Nash Central holds on for and 8-4 win.

I would like to say congratulations to Meridith Davis of Nash Central who this past weekend won the Rocky Mount Distinguished Young Woman  Pagent.  This was formally known as the JR Miss.  If you have ever heard her sing and play all types of instruments you known she is a very talented young woman.  I guess it is in her genes a her dad  Paul plays the piano at the American Music Jubilee in Selma.