Forfeit Bug Bites Again

The girls softball team has had to give a victory back after it was discovered that a JV player had played in too many games last week.

I have not been a fan of the new rules where JV players can go back and forth each week. In basketball for several years JV players have been used to fill in while basketball players who were still playing football finished the playoffs. But once the football players arrived the JV players went back to the JVs.

I like the old rule where you were either a JV player this week or Varsity player but not both in the same week.

Jim Valvano use to say" the more you win the more important the next game was". For baseball the next game is here. Fike is in the house Tuesday night and in order to either tie or win the conference regular season a win is vital against Fike. There is no conference baseball tournament this year so the only championship is the regular season.

I watch the Hurricanes and the Bruins on Versus network last night. John Forslund the Canes TV announcer did the play by play. I don't know if you understand how hard it is to cheer for one team all year and then be thrown into a game where you have to be neutral.

John is one of the best TV hockey announcers and did a great job being as neutral as possible. I would suspect John is not far from becoming a network guy whenever there is a national game. Mike Emrick does all the NBC games on the weekends is during the week the play by play voice of the New York Rangers.

The John Wall saga continues. Wall who has the potential to be a great college guard has had a entourage of people hanging with him for a couple of years now. Some in his entourage have made demands to colleges which have cool many teams from recruiting him.

Last week Wall was arrested for breaking and entering. I predict Wall will join Chris Washburn within five years in jail. His entourage are nothing but leaches telling him how good he is instead of trying to lead him down a good path. Which ever school gets him if any go after him now are only asking for trouble. Please Sidney Lowe let Old Roy Williams have him.

LeBron wins the NBA MVP. I think Bron is a player in the Michael Jordan mold that doesn't need great players with him in order to win the title. OH yes his helpers need to be good. In fact LaBron makes his teammates better.

Kobe Bryant has had a hard time winning a title without a good big man in the middle because Kobe doesn't make other players around him better. If Kobe meets Labron I'll take Labron to win the title.

Canes Strike Back

In dominating fashion the Carolina Hurricanes win game two of their second round series with the Boston Bruins 3-0.

Carolina scored twice in the second period once on a short handed goal to seal the deal. The Canes tried their best to score with less than a second to play in the second period but after an eight minute delay the ruling was no goal. TV had several angles on the shot by Chad Larose and depending which replay each told a story that the play could have gone either way. Live action the refs had ruled no goal while on the ice and there was not enough evidence to over rule it.

Carolina got an empty netter late in the game to square the series at 1-1. Game three is Wednesday in Raleigh.

High school tennis is confusing once the playoffs roll around because there is a team event and then on another day there is an individual event. The eastern regionals are Friday at Barton.

Big week of high school baseball this week for the co-leaders Northern Nash and Rocky Mount. Both are home on Tuesday and finish on the road Thursday. If each wins both games there will be a playoff game but that is still a long iffy chance.

Tiger Woods has been back on tour now for about two months. He like all golfers as they hit the mid-30's and have children at home seem other priorities take over their life. In no way am I saying Tiger is done because he was all over the course and still finished three back today.

Tiger has always been a long driver but you never knew where it was going. He could always count on his putter to same him on anything twelve feet or less. Tiger is showing signs that the holes are getting smaller for him because he didn't make anything today. In fact after shooting a 65 on Thursday he managed only two under for the final three days.

I am sure he will win a Major or two but Jack Nicklaus's 18 majors is still a long ways away.

This weekend our church Sunset Avenue Baptist is hosting a children's rally at our church on Saturday featuring Jeff Slaughter. You may never have heard the name but Slaughter writes all the music for Vacation bible schools for Lifeway.

My wife Pat is our children's leader at Sunset so she is spearheading the Jeff Slaughter visit. We are picking him up at RDU Friday Morning and will be his driver for the weekend. We may carry him to the State-Carolina Baseball game or to the American Jubilee in Selma Saturday. His choice.

Life Moves With Or Without Us

I hear this all the time: "the paper can't even come cover the biggest game of the year."

Let me start off by saying this is not a "bash the paper" column. Being a radio guy, you will find there is not one station in Rocky Mount willing to try to put local sports on the air anymore unless you drop the money in their lap.

Today's corporate America is the by word. There was a time when local people owned the radio and newspapers. Not anymore. There was a time when you could hear the tobacco market opening on the radio or see on the front page a picture of the Rotary Club meeting.

There was a time when Planters Bank was the hometown bank, but that is even gone. I was talking with one of our local magistrates just recently and he was telling me of a group of police officers were in a room where they were having a meeting a someone said something about that's across the street from where Tarrytown Mall was and more than half the officers there didn't know where Tarrytown use to be.

Life goes forward. Everyday something changes from the way it use to be. The Internet has about killed newspapers. In fact, in 20 years newspapers will probably only be on the Internet ,of course, unless something has replaced the Internet by then.

I wish I could tell you I knew of a way to have a channel devoted to anything local that happens of interest that you could have live access to it when it happens. But, unfortunately, I don't have the ability to make it happen. I bet some corporation someday will.

I went to the Relay for Life in Tarboro last night so I missed the 'Canes loss to Boston. Being the lower seeded means that at some point you have to win one game on the higher seeds' iIce. In fact, because New Jersey won once in Raleigh, the Canes had to win twice in Jersey.

The loss last night is not the end of the world. In fact, the Devils beat the 'Canes by the same score in the first game of that series of 4-1. I do think the Bruins are a lot better than the Devils, so Sunday's game is vital for the Hurricanes.

Game time Sunday is at 7.30 on the Versus Network.

Down The Stretch We Go

Here we are with one week to go and the Rocky Mount Gryphon baseball team is in the middle of a battle for first place again.

In the four-year history of the NEW 6, Rocky Mount has one outright championship and two ties in which they lost playoff games for the No. 1 seeding in the high school playoffs.

Two games are left in the season an the Gryphons are tied with Northern Nash with the opportunity to share another title if they take care of business next week.

I remember interviewing Pat Smith his first year here as the team was going 8-13 that year. He told me and anyone listening that that team had a lot of seniors, but it didn't have a lot of baseball experience.

Has that changed or what! Brian Goodwin and Dillon Cockrell have been four-year starters. That right there tells you the condition of the program at the time having to rely on freshmen.

Ben Fish took over at catcher his sophomore year replacing Jonathan Tyndall, who had been a three-year starter.

Followed by records of 19-6, 20-5, 27-6, we are in the middle of a 16-2 campaign. Rocky Mount baseball has to be in one of its best stretches ever.

Smith loves old timey baseball. Do those little fundamental plays. Bunt, steal, play good defense. It is a winning combination.

Sometimes the best coaching is the coach who has the talent but doesn't mess it up. Smith has the talent and he has helped them improve. That's a good coach.

There is good news for Lady Gryphon softball as it beat SouthWest Edgecombe last night 4-1. Laura Alford struck out 11.

The Ladies are about where the baseball team was when Smith arrived. Alan Hess has the girls showing inprovement each game. They are not ready to play for the championship, but are now in every game for the most part. They might be a spoiler when the conference softball tournament starts.

Tonight the Carolina Hurricanes try out a new team in the playoffs as they play the Boston Bruins in the second round of the playoffs. The magic seems to be in the air for the 'Canes but the Stanley Cup is still 12 wins away. In professional hockey, 12 wins would take another month and a half. That's a lot of puck off shins, checks into the boards.

The Canes right now are injury free. If they stay that way ,Raleigh might be the home of a new Stanley Cup.

RM Girls sprint to conference track title

Rocky Mount's Latoya Applewhite led the way for the Lady Gryphons finishing second in her three events. Those three second place finishes were good enough to earn Applewhite the MVP award in girls track after the Lady Gryphons track team dusted the competition Wednesday in winning the conference crown

Rocky Mount was the only team to score more than 100 points and they doubled that with 204 points. The Lady Bulldogs finished second with 99 points.

Ericka Wesonga finished first in the 800 meter run. Rocky Mount's team won the 4x800 featuring Micheala Thorne, Marquita Hines, Nancy Thai and Ericka Wesonga. The 4x400 event was taken by the Gryphon team of Thorne, Hines, Wesonga and Applewhite.

Fifteen Lady Gryphons garnered points dividing out the 204 team points. Congratulations to coach Keith Barnes and the Lady Gryphons - the last NEW 6 girls track champion.

I hope everyone saw that Sandra Langley won the Pat Gainey Award which is given out by the NCHSAA. Over the years, I have worked many games at SouthWest and it was my pleasure to be part of the radio team that covered the SouthWest girls when they won the 2-A basketball title in 2005.

In every instance, Sandra as coach or athletic director has met any needs I might have had in order to get a on the air. I will miss them being in the conference with us, but I know we will keep right on going and doing games there.

It seems that "11" is the magic number this week as the Rocky Mount Gryphons downed SouthWest Edgecombe 11-0 tonight in five innings.

Senior Nick Hahula got the call as the starting pitcher and like every starter has done all year, he went four inning and pitched shutout baseball. Hahula allowed four hits and picked up the win. Junior lefty Hobbs Johnson, who undoubtedly will pitch Tuesday against Fike, got an inning of work in the fifth so he will be fresh if he gets the call next Tuesday.

If ever there was a possibility of a letdown, tonight might have been that night for Northern Nash. Having swept a doubleheader from Fike on Tuesday, the Knights moved into a tie for first place with the Gryphons.

This score is not a surprise to me, but Northern beat Southern 6-4. Yes, there may have been a let down by Northern, but for them, the most important thing is they win to stay tied for first wit hRocky Mount with a week to go.

Fike beat Nash Central 7-1 in Wilson in the other NEW 6 game tonight.

Fox Sports South is reshowing Tuesday night's Game 7 with the Hurricanes and Devils right now. It in the third period I see you later as I want to see this finish again.

Unsung Hero

The Carolina Hurricanes start the second round series Friday night in Boston against the Bruins. Last night while the Canes were making their last three minute domination of the game there was a small play made that if it doesn't happen they Canes probably never score in the last two minutes and lose 3-2.

The Canes were applying pressure with about 1.30 to go in the game when New Jersey kicked the puck which looked as if it was headed past the blue line and if it does the Canes must reorganize and time would be a wasting.

Tim Gleason who was in the right corner next to the blue line dived after the puck, was able to get to both knees swipe at the puck and in doing so made a great pass to Joni Pitkanen who in turned found Jussi Jokinen. It was Gleason who made the pass to Eric Staal who made the shot heard around the NHL. What a great 90 seconds for Tim Gleason.

Game one is on Fox Sports The Carolinas Friday night and game two is a Versus game.

Bt the way Fox is showing game seven with New Jersey Thursday night at 7:30 as an instant classic. If you gave up last night and did not see the finish you can see it then. It is worth seeing a hundred times, it's so unbelievable. Even the last twenty seconds as Jersey was applying pressure to Cam Ward was awesome.

Rocky Mount and Northern continue the baseball wars Thursday night with each having to take care of business to stay with the other. Rocky Mount is home to Southwest Edgecombe while Northern travels to Southern Nash. Nash Central who right now is in the drivers seat for 4th place plays Fike.

Once again last night the Gryphons pitch a shut out. In seven conference games they have allowed four runs. Despite that first place is up in the air.

This Swine flu thing I just don't know what to make of it. The State of Texas has suspended all high school sports until at least May the 11th.

In the NBA Houston is still playing against Portland. Dallas has a couple of days off waiting until round two. There is no talk of the NBA doing anything as drastic as public safety concerns.

BY The Way: Did you know Cam Ward set a NHL record last night? No other goalie in NHL history has ever won their first three games sevens. Ward won two game seven in the 06 run for the Stanley Cup and then last night.

Cardiac Canes

Like they have done all year the Rocky Mount Gryphon bats were alive against a lower division team of the New-6. Tonight the Bats smoked Southern Nash 11-0 in a five inning affair.

Benton Moss the Gryphon sophomore remained undefeated in his high school career notching his 13th high school win without a loss. Much like the Energizer Bunny Moss just keeps on doing what ever Pat Smith ask of him. Pitch once every three weeks or take the hill In the eastern finals Benton keeps doing what the team needs.

Gryphons have company at the top of the standing as the one thing that Gryphon fans didn't want was either Fike or Northern to sweep today's double header at Northern. Tyler Joyner two hit Fike in the opener and Joyner and Tyler Clark hit homers in a 5-0 win. In game two Northern once again won by five winning the night cap 7-2.

A week and a half left in the regular season Northern now has the bottom rung of the conference left to play while the Gryphons still have a matchup with Fike next week.

I smell a playoff game coming.

Rocky Mount and Northern are both 6-1 in the conference while Fike falls to 4-3. The real race is who will finish fourth as Southwest Edgecombe, Nash Central, and Southern Nash all are alive for the #4 spot and the playoffs.

Tonight I came home from revival at our church and saw the last two periods of the Hurricanes game with New Jersey. Around the three minute mark of the third period during a commercial I fired up my computer to write about how the Canes played well but lose a good one to New Jersey.

The headline on NHL.com says all you need to know. Cane you believe it. Jussi Jokinen scored for the Canes with 1.20 to play in the third period. Surely that will at least get us to overtime. Not so fast my friend. Eric Staal scored with 31.8 seconds to play and and the Canes had stolen an opening round series from New Jersey 4-3.

Up next the Boston Bruins the number one seed in the eastern conference but on ESPN tonight during the high lights of tonights game Barry Melrose predicted the Canes would beat the Bruins. He also picked the Canes over the Devils.