I'm Back

If you have never been on a cruise I have to tell you save up your pennies and go once. From the time we boarded the ship Carnival Fantasy Wednesday at Noon until 7.15 am Monday morning we were in a dream world. Friday I had no idea what day it was and really didn't care.

Highlight of the trip was snorkeling off Nassau right where Bond, James Bond had nearly fifty years ago made the movie Thunder Ball. A taxi driver told us Sean Connery still lives in Nassau. Morgan, Samantha Morgan's friend and I brought home three of the largest Star Fish that I have ever seen. Each one was bigger than my two hands put together and then some.

Let's get back to reality:

I see in his Pro debut Terrell Hudgins had two catches for Dallas in their opening preseason game for 17 yards.

Tiger Woods shot his worse four round golf score in his career. His putting has gone to pot. He no longer has the mental edge on the other golfer that he once had.

Kernersville the State Champs of North Carolina American Legion are in the SouthEast regional finals.

URGENT: Kernersville has won the Southeast American Legion Regional in Tennessee. They beat the host team Columbia Tennessee 10-2. Kernersville will now head to Spokane Washington August 13th to open the American Legion World Series against Las Vegas Nevada.

It is nice having friends in high places and sometimes low places. Like to thank Don Johnson for passing along the Legion score.


This is great news I saw on the Rocky Mount High Web site that Andrew Morales a rising senior at Rocky Mount has committed to Duke to play soccer in 2011.

Any body notice that Rocky Mount has has had a slew on players that have signed D-1 in several sports the last couple of years.

Cousin Lauren missed the cut by one shot again this weekend and only has two tournaments left to make the Futures Tour Top 90. She now stands at 116. She need a top five in one of those two.

Now that I am back from Fantasy Land need to go hard on Gryphon football by the end of week. Still don't have enough sponsors to get Gryphon football on the air yet this year.

Wes or I will see U this week!

Time Flies

Sunday marked the second anniversary of this blog. Charles Alston created the Rocky Mount High website I think it was in 2004. I talked him into letting me do a weekly comment on the RMHS site which got me stirred into doing a blog of my own. It finally occurred on August one 2008.

It didn't start out to be a daily blog but within a month or two I could not save up for several days, I just had to report items when they happened. The best time for me is just before bedtime, I have just gotten home from a game. The biggest reason is I can get the computer then when others in the household have gone to bed with the chickens. There is so much going on in the world whether it is right here in Nash County in ACC country I have never had a time when I sat down in front of the computer and had nothing to write.

Last year during the Christmas Holidays my Wife won the grand prize of the door prizes that her company gave away to each employee at their Christmas party. We won a trip to the Bahamas. Unfortunately for me second prize was a 37 inch flat screen TV. Never can win anything good.

We debated all during January trying to line up a time when it worked for both our schedules. August 4th was the winning date leaving from Charleston SC.

I just told Pat Sunday night that it looked like we were going to miss any Tropical storms which happen to occur this time of year. Lo and behold last night I see a depression is out in the Atlantic and guess where it is heading. The five day forecast has it about 200 miles east of the Bahamas Saturday. We are suppose to be in Nassau Saturday.

After work today we are heading to Charleston tonight to get on the ship at noon Wednesday. I have cleaned out everything I would love to throw away in closets and utility rooms and will be leaving them in our carport hoping someone will steal them while we are gone. (Only kidding)

We leave our house in the hands of our neighbors and we have these killer deer that love the figs in our back yard and they do not like to be messed with during eating time.

Since I have been doing this blog I have only missed a couple of days. I understand there is a room on the shipped with Internet but I plan to avoid that room at all cost. I don't want to see a cell phone, computer,ESPN or anything that I normally see on a daily basis.

I will volunteer to be a storm chaser and will see whether we can get the Captain of the Carnival Fantasy to head into the eye of this depression.

Wouldn't that make a trip to talk about.

One Of Those Special Moments

I hope last night you had an opportunity to watch the "Stetchlon Sports Show" as we honored the Midget 9/10 year old State Tarheel Baseball champions.

Just about every player it was there first experience being in a TV studio. If you have ever been to WHIG-TV before there is not a lot to it. Just a little room which has two cameras in it and a wall backdrop that can be change to give you different colored walls. Yes there are bright lights there to make the room bright enough to give a good picture when you are live.

If you have ever been to say WRAL or been on a Tour of CNN or any of the network studios there is not much too them either. They are bigger rooms where the cameras can be rolled from one show to the next depending on what is live or being taped. Watching on TV glorifies the picture but you never see any thing other than what the camera is looking at.

Last night felt like we were doing Jay Leno as we have a live studio audience. Mothers and fathers most sitting on the floor watching their kids being talked about on TV. Everyone there last night from the coaches, players and parents that was a very prideful moment as today they will run into somebody that will tell them I saw you on TV last night or will tell their parents "I saw Johnny on TV last night".

As for me as a broadcaster or blogger it is seeing their eyes when you can tell something special is going on in their lives. Whether it is being part of game telling everyone of a championship like for Gryphon basketball this past spring or watching kids be on TV for the first time. Those are the moments that I keep showing up doing ball games.

Then, when someone will look at you and thank you for reporting on the little league tournament when no one esle in Rocky Mount did, those are the times when you can say. Someone is listening or watching or reading. It just makes me want to find a game and try that find another special moment.

The Economy Still

This weekend the best two teams in baseball are playing a three game series in Tampa. The Rays sold out a three game series in advance of the series starting for the first time in their history. That is the good news in major league baseball. Attendance is off 15% and sports announcers swear attendance is down because of the lack of home runs. There have been five no hitter or perfect games pitched this season. Those announcers will tell you people want to see a home run not a strike out.

I think most of those experts are the people who drive into the stadium and never dole out $20.00 to park. When they enter the gate they have a pass which they dont' pay another $20 or more to get one seat much less the rest of the family. These experts are also the people who have buffett in the press area and don't shell out $7 one one hot dog.

I understand that people want to see winners over teams that lose. During the heyday of Braves baseball on WTBS the crowds in Atlanta would wait to see Dale Murphy bat for what they thought was the last time in the game in the bottom of the eighth and then go home.

The real reason people aren't going to the games is they can't afford to go. Yes those that go one time of year still go. The guy who goes ten times a year is down to twice a year.

The Yankees still have not sold all those high price luxury boxes in the new Yankee Stadium. The Jets new football stadium is a long way from selling the PSL's.

If you talk to a Carolina fan they think they just might play in their first BCS football game this Christmas holiday season and yet they are advertising right now tickets available to football games. It effects anybody that has a product to sell and seats to fill. People just don't have the money they had five years ago.

The local level will be affected also. Rocky Mount High school has but four home games this year. Why is for another day to discuss. Seven road games puts a stress on the budget which will mean those four home games need butts in the seat to watch the games. If we go see a team play more when they win or losing Rocky Mount needs to get off to a good start this football season.

There are special days in any calendar year which need to be a holiday. First day of hunting season etc. First day of football practice is the same. Monday all high school sports start preparing for competition.

Tonight on WHIG-TV at 8.00pm "The Stretchlon Sports Show " will salute the Midget League State Champs. Jeremy Stewart and his team will be live on air tonight.

Opportunity Knocks

Wally Pipp was hit in the head while batting way back in the 1920's. The next day while he still had double vision a rookie named Lou Gehrig got his chance and never came out of the lineup until near death.

If you go on the Dallas Cowboy website they will tell you that the deepest position that they have is wide receiver. There is talk of keeping six wide receivers when the season starts. Terrell Hudgins is not one of the six names being mentioned.

Friday during training camp at Dallas Dez Bryant the guy who will not carry the veterans bags sprained his ankle an is expected to miss all of the preseason. Opportunity knocks for Terrell Hudgins. The high price that Dallas paid for Dez Bryant Terrell is not trying to take his job. His goal is to beat out the #five or six receiver to make the team.

I am sure we will get to see Terrell often whenever Dallas is on a network preseason game. Once the first quarter is over the rookies get their chance to shine. He needs to catch every pass that comes his way. Once it is caught he will need to break tackles and run for extra yardage.

I have talked about Jimmy Hunter many times and even spoke of him yesterday. His rookie season was 1965. He spent 1964 rehabbing his foot which he nearly shot off during Christmas of 1963. Once he signed his contract on the top of the dugout at Memorial Stadium in Greensboro after his high school team had lost the 1964 state championship game, Charles Finley sent him to the Mayo Clinic and they removed all the buckshot they could from his foot. The remainder of 1964 he stayed in Charles Finley's home in Chicago.

The spring training of 1965 Kansas City was going to assign him to their minor league team when two days before camp broke Lew Krause who was a starting pitcher got hurt and had to be put on the disabled list. Hunter took his spot and never went to the minors.

Sports you hear all the time about players who take advantage of a break. Most of the time those breaks are injuries to other players. Terrell Hudgins has four preseason games in which to impress and turn heads of Jerry Jones and the Dallas coaches.

Joyner Makes Summer league All Star Team

Former Northern Nash Pitcher and now ECU Freshman Tyler Joyner recently made the New England College Baseball Summer League all star team playing for Laconia Muskrats.

Only pitching just over an inning for ECU in the spring Joyner needed work this summer and he has gotten it. He leads the Muskrats in innings pitched 45. He has struck out 53 in those innings. He has a 2-2 record and a great 1.97 era.

How silly is it for any news media put out a preseason all conference team. I was looking at the list the media voted on for the ACC preseason all conference team and there are two players on the list that might not even play.

There is the Carolina player whose eligibility is in question by the NCAA whether he has been receiving gifts and money from an agent. State has a player on the preseason picks that has a pending trial.

Seems to me there are a lot of people who don’t have anything to do but make stuff up. A preseason anything team is one of those made up deals.

I would like to pass only my congrats to Benton Moss and Hobbs Johnson who were named to the all state baseball team last week.

I’m stills scratching my head after Matthew Berry failing to make all conference in baseball this past high school season. He hit right at 450 on the season. Just to prove it wasn’t a fluke Matthew hit around 425 for Post 58 legion team. He’s a hitting machine.

Monday is August first and high school sports are officially practicing. The first games of the fall are around August 15th depending on what sport it is.

The oil well is finally capped in the Gulf and hopefully we can finally say the worse is over. It may still happen but it seems that what we all envisioned as oil washing ashore in North Carolina will not happen.

There are reports that BP and the Coast Guard are saying that their skimming operation has taken all the oil on top of the water and it is gone. We know some of it has come ashore along the Gulf Coast. Just how much has sunk to the bottom and we might not know about for fifty years is a big question to me.

Will there ever be fishing again in the Gulf? Just five years ago New Orleans was flooded and people were moving from the area in droves. We deal with life every day. The next problem is just around the corner.

TOO Many Agents

Heard on ESPN a couple of days ago that there are 3,000 agents which are approved by the NFL to negotiate on behalf of any NFL players or perspective players. That to me is the problem with agents.

The are 32 teams who have approximately 60 players on each roster which comes out to 1920 players in the NFL. 3,000 agents, 1,920 players, seems that the ratio is backwards. There should be 1920 agents and 3,000 players. There are just plain too many agents who don’t have a client out there drumming up business by trying to be the first to contact a player.

We have all heard the old saying "Too many chiefs and not enough Indians". This case is clearly "too many agents and not enough players".

I had a close up experience in my life way back in the day when an agent made contact with a player. Back then there was no such thing as an agent. I was in a car heading to an American Legion game and riding in that car with me was Jimmy Hunter the top high school pitcher in North Carolina back in 1962 and 1963.

The driver of the car was Carlton Cherry who was a tobacco chewing country lawyer from Ahoskie who was a Legion member driving the car heading to a game. Since I was the batboy I was in the front seat and Jimmy Hunter sat beside me as we traveled down the highway.

Like any time you get in a car with a group of people there had been many conversations during our trip. There was one about all the scouts that were flocking to Hertford to watch Jimmy pitch and at that time he was only a junior in high school. Cherry said to Hunter that at some point in time you will be in need of someone to look after your affairs and I want you to know I will help you if you would like me too.

Twelve years later that country lawyer who had a spit cup in his car for his tobacco chewing made Jimmy Hunter the first millionaire baseball player in major league history.

There was never any money passed only a conversation of interest by one party to another. Those were the simply days.

Last night Kernersville won the State American Legion State championship in Asheboro beating Whiteville. Earlier Cherryville had knocked Kernersville from the unbeaten ranks but then lost to Whiteville to play in last night’s final game. Kernersville will now advance to the Legion Southeast Regional in Columbia Tennessee.

Sunday Post 58 was knocked from the tournament by Kernersville by ten runs. It is never easy to lose but it is comforting to know when you get waxed by somebody that they are the best. The Southeast regional begins August 5th and Kernersville will be representing us as well as all of the State of North carolina .